One loved cricket and helped out at his father's fish and chip shop. Another told his family he was going to London "with his mates". The third was married with a small child.
Bashir Ahmed, the uncle of 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer who was named as the bomber at Aldgate underground rail station
Together they carried out Western Europe's first coordinated suicide bombing, killing at least 52 and wounding hundreds in attacks on London's transport system, and left friends and relations back in West Yorkshire lost for words.
"I cannot believe it," said Bashir Ahmed, the uncle of 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer who was named as the bomber at Aldgate underground rail station.
"He hadn't changed - he'd always loved sport especially cricket. He wasn't into politics at all so what drove him to do it? It can't be him. It must be something else behind him."
Azzy Mohammed, a friend of Tanweer and two other named suspects - husband and father Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and 19-year-old former tearaway Hasib Mir Hussain - agreed the cricket fanatic who served fish and chips had been brainwashed.
"We can't understand it: someone has brainwashed them," he told reporters. "He (Tanweer) was not the type of person to do something like this. Everyone loved him, he was so popular. This will take a very long time to sink in."
Azzy Mohammed, a friend of Shehzad Tanweer
A fourth bomber has yet to be named but some media reports said he was a teenager from the same inner city area of Beeston near the northern city of Leeds.
The four, British born and of ethnic Pakistani origin, were seen together on closed circuit television at London's King's Cross rail station carrying large military-style rucksacks before they split up in different directions, newspapers said.
In Beeston, with a population of about 16,000 of whom many are from south Asia, some blamed the area for offering few opportunities to teenagers and forcing them to turn to fundamentalist teachings.
Tanweer's uncle, Ahmed, said the family were devastated.
"He didn't have a hard life, he had loving parents and they had no financial difficulties," he told reporters. "Our lives are shattered. We have had a very pleasant time here (in England). I don't think we can survive here much longer."
He said Tanweer had been to Pakistan at the end of last year and beginning of this year to study the Koran. Hussain, the 19-year-old accomplice bomber, was said to have turned to religion after being a "bit wild".
"He went off the rails and his parents were very worried," a cousin was quoted in the Timesas saying. "I don't know what happened but 18 months to two years ago he suddenly changed and became devoutly religious."
Khan, the married father of one, was initially disapproved of by his wife's family because he was not as traditional a Muslim as they would have wished, an in-law said.
"He does not believe in having a beard or wearing a hat. But he has always seemed a really nice guy and has never been in any trouble that I know of. He has been to Pakistan a few times but not for long periods," the in-law was quoted in the Daily Mailas saying.