A comment of mine at SubStack:

 

Here's some info about the guy in the cowboy hat, from an American resident of Costa Rica, as emailed to me:

The guy with the cowboy hat in the Boston marathon photo is a real guy, a Costa Rican whose son was in the U.S.military and was killed in Iraq. When the Marines came to his door to tell him, he flipped out, got a gallon can of gas and poured it on their vehicle and set it on fire.

I have seen him at at least two anti-war demonstrations. He came with a pickup with a memorial display to his son in the bed of the truck. A large photo, his son'ś boots, other stuff. He is a member of the Gold Star Families. At a demo in DC once he was threatened and maybe hit by members of A gathering of Eagles, a pro-war group (that hassled a demo I was at when Cheney spoke at west Point). The Costa Rican guy was at the marathon to cheer on a fellow member of Veterans Against the War, or some such anti war group. He is also famous in Costa Rica for his participation in the annual bullfight where anyone can go into thering with the bulls. I have watched it on Costa Rican TV at a neighborś.

Bauman's account:

I saw a man in a yellow cowboy hat lift the barrier off Michele, then turn toward me, and the next thing I knew he was grabbing my shirt and twisting it around his fist. He lifted me off the ground with one hand, spun around, and threw me into a wheelchair that had been intended for runners too tired to walk after finishing the race.

When I hit the chair, it was an electric shock. It was like that scene in Pulp Fiction, when John Travolta plunged the adrenaline into Uma Thurman’s heart. My body came alive, and I thought, No way, Jeff. No way that fucker is taking you down.

'I’m going to make it,' I said.

'Yeah, buddy,' the man in the cowboy hat said, running beside me. 'That’s right. You’re going to make it.'

We passed through a medical tent. People were yelling for us to stop.

'No!' the man yelled without slowing down. 'We’re going to the hospital.'

The tourniquet on my right leg pulled loose. It got stuck in the wheel and tore off, and suddenly there was a second man there, and the two of them were holding my right leg and squeezing to stop the bleeding. I reached down and grabbed my left leg, trying to do the same. A photographer appeared out of the chaos, kneeling in the road as we rushed past, snapping pictures.

I thought, What is he doing here?

We crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I saw the banner as I was lifted out of the wheelchair and into an ambulance."

So vividly remembered and Hollywood. Bauman crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon!

Bauman was moulaged in the only barricaded section of the marathon, then, dripping not even fake blood, he was seated upright for the cool photos. Bauman is Boston strong!