Tamerlan: An unambitious pimp

From the Washington Post:

The Tsarnaev family: A faded portrait of an immigrant’s American dream 

... A neighbor who lived next to the Tsarnaev family for five years said the older brother stood out in the early years for his flashy clothes and his devotion to fitness. 

“He used to be more dressed like a pimp, kind of Eurotrash,” said the neighbor, who declined to be named, for fear of being associated with terrorists. “Trying to be fancy, but cheap looking” in pointy-toed shoes and matched track suits. ...

Katherine Russell grew up in a sprawling house on a quiet cul-de-sac in North Kingstown, R.I., not far from the ocean. Her pedigree was New England blue blood: Her grandfather and father both attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale. Her father is an emergency room doctor. Her mother is a nurse and social worker. 

Tall and fit, with long auburn hair, Russell graduated in 2007 from high school and soon left home to attend Suffolk University in Boston. She was interested in the Peace Corps and excelled at drawing, winning a state competition. 

In Boston, Russell met Tamerlan at a nightclub, according to her attorney. 

... Russell’s family was startled when she dropped out of college, converted to Islam and began to cover her hair, legs and arms in a show of Muslim modesty. ...

Marriage changed Tamerlan, as well. He dropped the flashy clothes, a change in look so drastic that his next-door neighbor at first thought the tall, athletic son had left town. Tamerlan now came out in the street in raggedy sweatpants and ratty T-shirts, sometimes with a bathrobe over his clothes. 

“I thought a different person had moved in,” the neighbor said.

Zubeidat was arrested last year, accused of trying to steal up to nine dresses from a Lord & Taylor store in Natick, Mass. The couple’s two daughters, Bella and Ailina, moved to New Jersey, where Bella was arrested in December, along with a man named Ahmad Khalil, and charged with possession of and intent to distribute marijuana. ... 

Back in Cambridge, Tamerlan and Russell received welfare payments, just as his parents had in earlier years, the Massachusetts Health and Human Services agency confirmed. 

Finances were tight. ... And in late January, the Tsarnaevs lost the Section 8 housing voucher that had subsidized their rent, according to someone in local government familiar with the case. 

The only steady income at the Norfolk Street apartment came from Russell, who, according to her family’s attorney, worked 70 to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tamerlan stayed home with their daughter. 

“He wasn’t really willing to work,” the Russell family intimate said.  

So, basically, Tamerlan was an unambitious pimp who, after he landed one woman to support him, was too lazy to keep up appearances.

Interestingly, an ethnographic documentary featuring Tamerlan's cab-driving second cousin Chic Tsarnaev was made in 1993 by Tracey Ullman. It's quite culturally informative.

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