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Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 - August 1, 1966) is known for ascending The University of Texas at Austin's 27-story tower on August 1, 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and on the campus below. Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police. Some accounts allege 16 or 17 victims, citing a later suicide stemming from the attacks, and a pregnant woman who subsequently miscarried.
Background
The oldest of three brothers raised on South L Street in Lake Worth, Florida, Whitman attended St. Ann's High School in Palm Beach, where he was a pitcher on the school's baseball team.Cawthorne, Nigel. Spree Killerstext Charles and his brothers all served as altar boys at the local Sacred Heart Parish*, and he chose the Confirmation name "Joseph" for himself.
At the age of 6, he had scored 138 on an IQ test.* Six years later, he was among the youngest to ever achieve Eagle Scout, to his father's delight. He took five years of piano lessons*.
When Whitman was 14, and still serving as an altar boy, his scouting leader Joseph Leduc completed seminary and served as the priest of Sacred Heart for a month. Leduc was a family friend, who had accompanied Whitman and his father on several hunting trips. This was also the year that he finally overcame his habit of nervously biting his nails.At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine appendectomy. The same year, he was hospitalised following a motorcycle accident.[http://alt.cimedia.com/statesman/specialreports/whitman/findings.pdf
Whitman joined the Marines, against his father's wishes, on July 6, 1959. He explained to Fr. Leduc that he had come home drunk several weeks before and his father had hit him repeatedly and pushed him into the family's swimming pool. While Whitman was aboard a train headed towards Parris Island Recruit Depot, his father telephoned "some branch of Federal Government" to have his son's enlistment cancelled, but was rebuked.*
After enlisting, Whitman was accepted into the University of Texas' mechanical engineering program on September 15, 1961 through a USMC scholarship. At the University, Whitman was involved in a "teenage prank" that saw him shooting a deer, dragging it to his dormitory and skinning it in his shower.*
In August 1962, Whitman married Kathleen Frances Leissner, another UT student. Their marriage was held in Kathy's hometown of Needville, Texas but was presided over by Fr. Leduc.
His scholarship was withdrawn in 1963 due to the deer prank, and sub-standard grades.*
In 1963, Whitman returned to active duty at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, where he was promoted to Lance Corporal. There, he was involved in a accident where his jeep rolled over an embankment. After rescuing his pinned comrade, Whitman was hospitalised for four days.*
In November Whitman was court-martialed for gambling, possessing a personal firearm on-base and threatening another Marine over a $30 loan for which Whitman demanded $15 interest. He was sentenced to 30 days confinement and 90 days hard labour, and was demoted to the rank of Private.
In December 1964, Whitman was honorably discharged from the Marines, and returned to The University of Texas, this time enrolling in its architecture program. Now without his scholarship, Whitman worked first as a bill collector for Standard Finance Company and later as a bank teller at Austin National Bank. By 1965, he had taken temporary job with Central Freight Lines and working as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department, and was working for NASA.
He also volunteered as a scoutmaster for the 5th Austin Boy Scout troop, while Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.
After purchasing a new 1966 Chevrolet Impala, Whitman received two speeding tickets, on February 24, 1966 and March 20, 1966.*
Family issues
By 1966, Whitman's family was beginning to fall apart. His mother Margaret had finally announced she was divorcing CA. Whitman drove to Florida to help his mother move to Austin, Texas where she found work in a cafeteria. The move prompted his youngest brother John to move out as well - meanwhile his brother Patrick decided to continue living with their father, whose plumbing business employed him.
CA began to telephone Whitman several times a week, pleading with him to convince his mother to give the marriage another try, but he refused.
Shortly afterwards, John was arrested for throwing a rock through a window, and released after paying a $25 fine.
Declining health
In 1966, Whitman admitted depression to the University's doctor, Jan Cochrun, who prescribed Valium and recommended he visit campus psychiatrist Maurice Dean Heatly. On March 29, 1966, Whitman met with Heatly and spent an hour explaining his frustration with his parents' separation and his increasing strains at work and school. During the interview, he made a remark about feeling the urge to "start shooting people with a deer rifle" from the University tower. Heatly noted that Whitman was "oozing with hostility", but never returned. Whitman mentioned the visit with Heatly in his final suicide notes, saying that the visit was to "no avail". By the summer, Whitman was prescribed Dexedrine.
Although Whitman had abused the drugs that he had been prescribed in the past, the autopsy could not establish if he had consumed any prior to the attacks.
Fr. Leduc met with Whitman for the last time two months prior to the shootings, and said that he had confided that he had lost his faith, and no longer considered himself a practising Catholic.
It was revealed during the autopsy that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some theorised that it may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala, which can affect emotive passion. This has led some neurologists to speculate that his medical condition was in some way responsible for the attacks. *.
After the attacks, a study of Whitman's journal showed him lamenting that he had acted violently towards Kathy, and that he was resolved not to follow his father's abusive example, but to be a good husband. John and Fran Morgan, close friends of Whitman, later told the DPS that he had confided in them that he had struck Kathleen on three occasions.
Leadup to the shootings
The day before the shootings Whitman purchased binoculars and a knife from Davis' Hardware, and Spam from a 7-Eleven store. He then picked up Kathy from her summer job as a Bell operator, and they went to a matinee before meeting his mother for lunch at her work.
Around 4pm, they went to visit friends John and Fran Morgan, who lived in the same apartment block. They left at approximately 5:30 so that Kathy could leave for her 6-10pm shift that night. At 6:45, Whitman began typing Charles Whitman suicide note, a portion of which read.
- I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I can't recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.
The note explained that he had decided to murder both his mother and wife, but made no mention of the coming attacks at the University. He also requested that an autopsy be done after his death, to determine if there were anything to explain his actions and increasing headaches. He willed any money from his estate to be donated to mental health research, saying he hoped it would prevent others from following his route.
Just after midnight, he killed his mother. The exact method is disputed, but it seemed he had rendered her unconscious before stabbing her in the heart. He returned to his suicide note, now writing by hand:
- To Whom It May Concern: I have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset over having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven she is definitely there now...I am truly sorry...Let there be no doubt in your mind that I loved this woman with all my heart.
Whitman returned to his home at 906 Jewell Street and stabbed Kathy five times as she slept naked*, leaving another note that read:
- I imagine it appears that I brutally killed both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick thorough job...If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts...donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.
He wrote notes to each of his brothers, his father, and left instructions in the apartment that the two canisters of film he left on the table should be developed, and the puppy Schocie should be given to Kathy's parents.
Tower shootings
Whitman arrives at the Tower
| Weapons |
| 12 gauge shotgun |
| Remington 700 with 4x Leupold Scope |
| .35 Caliber Remington rifle |
| M1 Carbine |
| .357 Magnum |
| Galesi-Brescia pistol |
| Luger pistol |
| Nesco machete, scabbard |
| hatchet |
| Ammunition box with gun-cleaning kit |
| Camillus hunting knife, scabbard |
| Randall knife inscribed with name |
| Locking pocketknife |
| 1' steel rebar |
| Hunter's body bag |
| Whitman's gear |
| Channel Master 14 transistor radio |
| Blank Robinson notebook |
| Black Papermate pen |
| light green towel |
| White 3.5 gallon jug full of water |
| Red 3.5 gallon jug of gasoline |
| Nylon and cotton ropes, and clothesline |
| 1954 Nabisco premium toy compass |
| Davis Hardware receipt |
| Hammer |
| Canteen |
| Binoculars |
| Lighter fluid, lighter and box of matches |
| Alarm clock manufactured by Gene |
| Pipe wrench |
| Green and white flashlight, 4 C batteries |
| Two rolls of tape |
| Green duffel bag from the Army |
| Extension cord |
| Grey gloves |
| Eyeglasses |
| Earplugs |
| Mennen spray deodorant |
| Toilet paper |
| Food |
| Twelve cans of food |
| Two cans of Sego condensed milk |
| Bread, honey and SPAM (incl. sandwiches) |
| Planters Peanuts and raisins |
| Sweet rolls |
He rented a dolly from Austin Rental Company, and cashed $250 worth of checks at the bank before returning to Davis' Hardware and purchasing an M1 carbine, explaining that he wanted to go hunting for wild hogs. He also went to Sears and purchased a shotgun, and a green rifle case.
After sawing off the shotgun barrel while chatting with postman Chester Arrington, Whitman packed it together with a Remington 700 with 4x Leupold Scope, an M1 Carbine and another rifle, as well as 3 handguns, and other equipment spread between a wooden crate and his Marine footlocker.
He dressed in khaki coveralls over his white shirt and denim jeans, and beneath a green jacket. Once he was on the tower, he also donned a white sweatband.
Pushing the rented dolly carrying his equipment, Whitman met security guard Jack Rodman, and obtained a parking pass claiming he had a delivery to make, showing Rodman his card identifying himself as a research assistant for the school. He entered the Main Building of The University of Texas shortly after 11:30am, and struggled with the second elevator, until employee Vera Palmer informed him that it hadn't been powered, and turned it on for him. He thanked her, and took the elevator to the top floor of the Tower, just beneath the clock face.*
Whitman then lugged his trunk up three flights of stairs to the observation deck area, where he encountered a receptionist named Edna Townsley. Using the butt of his rifle, he knocked her unconscious and concealed her body behind a couch. She later died from sustained injuries.
Cheryl Botts and Don Walden, a young couple who had been sightseeing on the deck, returned to the attendant's area moments later and encountered Whitman, who was holding a rifle in each hand. Botts later claimed she believed the large red stain on the floor was paint. Whitman and the young couple spoke briefly, and the couple left the room. After they left, Whitman barricaded the stairway.
Shortly afterwards, some tourists, the Gabour and Lamport families, were on their way up the stairs when they encountered the barricade. Michael Gabour was attempting to look around when Whitman fired the shotgun at him. Whitman continued to shoot as the families ran back down the stairs. Mark Gabour and his aunt Marguerite Lamport died instantly; Michael and his mother, Mary, were permanently disabled.
The first shots from the tower's outer deck came at approximately 11:48 a.m.
Sniper fire commences
A history professor was the first to phone the Austin Police Department, after seeing several students shot in the South Mall gathering centre. Many others had dismissed the rifle reports, not realizing they were gunfire.The shootings eventually caused panic as news spread, and after the situation was understood, all active police officers in Austin were ordered to the campus. Other off-duty officers, sheriff's deputies, and Department of Public Safety officers also converged on the area to assist.
Once Whitman began facing return gunfire from the authorities, he used the waterspouts on each side of the tower as turrets, which allowed him to continue shooting while largely protected from the gunfire below, which had grown to include civilians who had brought out their personal firearms to assist police.
Whitman's choice of victims was indiscriminate, and most of the victims were shot on Guadalupe Street, a major commercial and business district across from the west side of the campus. Efforts to reach the wounded included an armored car, and ambulances run by local funeral homes. Ambulance driver Morris Hohmann was responding to victims on West 23rd Street when he was shot in a leg artery. Another ambulance driver quickly attended to Hohmann, who was then taken to Brackenridge Hospital about ten blocks south of UT, and the only local emergency room.
The Brackenridge hospital administrator declared an emergency, and medical staff raced there to reinforce the on-duty shifts. After the shootings, the lines at the Travis County Blood Bank and at Brackenridge stretched for blocks as citizens hurried to donate blood.
From a small airplane, a policeman reported that there was only one sniper firing from the parapet. The plane circled the tower until Whitman shot it twice, and it retreated from its position.
Whitman killed
Police officers Conner and Shoquist remained inside the University to cover the windows on the southeast and northeast sides of the reception area. Meanwhile three other officers, Ramiro Martinez, Houston McCoy, and Jerry Day took hastily deputized citizen Allen Crum up towards the observation deck.Martinez and McCoy went out on the observation deck, with a .38 revolver and a shotgun respectively, and proceeded to the north-east corner of the deck and spotted Whitman seated on the floor of the north-west corner watching the south-west corner for any signs of police. Which of the officers actually killed Whitman has been hotly disputed as both later claimed that they had been the one to kill him, but by any measure McCoy fired his shotgun twice, and Martinez fired six rounds from his revolver before taking the shotgun and approaching the limp Whitman and firing again point-blank. Martinez meanwhile had taken the green towel Whitman had brought with him, and was waving it to those below, indicating that the sniper had been killed.
While Whitman's final request in his suicide note had been to be cremated, he was not. Whitman and his mother shared a funeral service officiated by Fr. Tom Anglim at his home parish of Sacred Heart in Lake Worth. As a former Marine, Whitman's casket was draped with an American flag for the burial in Section 16 of the Hillcrest Memorial Park in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Casualties
Killed
- Margaret Whitman, killed in her apartment
- Kathy Whitman, killed while she slept
- Edna Townsley, receptionist
- Marguerite Lamport, killed by shotgun on stairs
- Mark Gabour, killed by shotgun on stairs
- Thomas Eckman, shoulder, kneeling over Claire Wilson
- Robert Boyer, back, visiting physics professor
- Thomas Ashton, chest, Peace Corps trainee°
- Thomas Karr, spine
- Billy Speed, Police officer
- Harry Walchuk, doctoral student and father of six
- Paul Sonntag, mouth, 18, hiding behind construction
- Claudia Rutt, teenager killed helping fiancé Sonntag°
- Roy Schmidt, electrician shot outside his truck
- Karen Griffith, lung, 17, died after week in hospital°
° Survived the initial shooting and later died in hospital
Wounded
Aftermath
Together with the Watts riots of the early 1960s, Charles Whitman's shootings were considered the impetus for establishing SWAT teams and other task forces to deal with situations beyond normal police procedures. It also led President Lyndon B. Johnson to call for stricter gun control policies.
After the tragedy, the Tower's observation deck was closed for two years. It was reopened in 1968, but, after several suicides, it was closed again in 1975 and remained closed until 1998. Access to the tower is now tightly controlled through guided tours that are scheduled by appointment only. Metal detectors and other security measures are in place during guided tours. Repaired scars from bullets are visible on the limestone walls.
Houston McCoy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 1998 by Dr. Mink of the Veterans Administration in Waco, Texas, who related the diagnosis to the tower tragedy three decades earlier. As of 2006, he is living in western Texas. Ramiro Martinez became a narcotics investigator, a Texas Ranger and a Justice of the Peace in New Braunfels, Texas. In 2003, Martinez published his memoirs entitled, They Call Me Ranger Ray: From the UT Tower Sniper to Corruption in South Texas.
On November 12, 2001, David Gunby died of long-term kidney complications from a wound he received while on the South Mall. He had been born with only one functioning kidney, which was nearly destroyed by Whitman's shot. After the prospect of losing his eyesight, he refused further treatment and died shortly thereafter. The Tarrant County Coroner's report listed the cause of death as "homicide."
References in popular culture
References to Whitman's tower-spree have abounded in the decades since it initially happened. It has remained at the forefront of public consciousness, though many are unaware of the exact details surrounding the event.
- 1966 — A photograph of Whitman appeared on the August 12th Time, highlighting an article entitled "The Psychotic & Society."
- 1966 — He also appeared on the cover of Life for an article entitled "The Texas Sniper."
- 1968 — The poem "Dream Song 135" in John Berryman's His Toy, His Dream, His Rest references Whitman, the murder of his wife and mother and the clock tower shootings.
- 1968 — Peter Bogdanovich's film Targets was largely inspired by the Whitman case. The film describes a man murdering his mother and wife, sniping a freeway, and finally sniping through the screen at a drive-in movie theatre.
- 1972 — Harry Chapin recorded an album entitled Sniper and Other Love Songs. "Sniper," the album's title song, was recorded from both first and third-person narratives, referencing Whitman's issues with his mother and highlighting his isolation.
- 1973 — Texas singer Kinky Friedman recorded "The Ballad of Charles Whitman," a satirical tune, on the album Sold American. Friedman attended the University of Texas and graduated in 1966, a few months prior to the shooting.
- 1975 — The film The Deadly Tower starred Kurt Russell as Whitman. Officer Ramiro Martinez later sued the producers for its portrayal of him and his wife. Officer Houston McCoy also sued. Martinez settled out of court, but McCoy received no settlement.
- 1987 — The movie Full Metal Jacket contained a scene in which a USMC drill instructor tells his recruits that Whitman's phenomenal accuracy was a result of his training as a rifleman in the Marines.
- 1989 — The movie Parenthood contains a brief fantasy sequence strongly reminiscent of the Whitman incident.
- 1991 — In the movie Slacker, filmed on location in Austin, the anarchist Professor proclaims, "Now Charles Whitman, there was a man!..."
- 1993 — The movie True Romance references Whitman in the hotel scene with the drug collector and Alabama Worley (maiden name Whitman) by way of the line, "You know that guy in Texas..."
- 1993 — Macabre wrote a song about Charles Whitman on the album Sinister Slaughter, called "Sniper in the Sky."
- 1994 — In the movie Natural Born Killers, Detective Scagnetti tells Warden McClusky that he hunts serial killers because, as a boy in Texas, he was holding his mother's hand when "some wacko climbed up a clock tower and started shooting," and that one of the bullets had fatally wounded his mother.
- 1994 — In The Simpsons episode "Homer Loves Flanders," Ned Flanders climbed up a clock tower in a dream sequence and began shooting random bystanders with a sniper rifle.
- 1996 — Charles Whitman was featured prominently in an episode of American Justice entitled "Mass Murderer: An American Tragedy."
- 1996 — The movie The Delicate Art of the Rifle features a character based on Charles Whitman and tells of a clock tower shooting from the shooter's point-of-view.
- 1997 — In the narrative television program Murder One, bookish attorney Arnold Spivak (J.C. MacKenzie) notes the difference between a serial killer and a mass murderer by invoking the Whitman massacre in some level of detail. The reference is prompted by his firm's defense of Clifford Banks, a serial killer played by Pruitt Taylor Vince.
- 1999 — In the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Earshot," a socially awkward loner (Jonathan Levinson) is shown in the tower on top of the high school with a high powered rifle.
- 2001 — Dateline NBC broadcast a special on the Tower tragedy in a special called "Catastrophe."
- 2002 — Rock band Tomahawk implores the crowd to chant Whitman's name instead of booing during a show with Tool in Austin on July 26, 2002.
- 2004 — In an episode of the Comedy Central series Drawn Together, after he is left out of a trip to the zoo, Wooldoor Sockbat says, "If anybody needs me, I'll be in the clock tower", then cocks a rifle and heads off.
- In an episode of King of the Hill, a TV series, Dale Gribble goes up to a tower to spray for poison but is mistaken for a sniper, resulting in mass police involvement.
- The director's commentary for Texas Chainsaw Massacre mentions that during filming, the crew were approached by a sheriff who objected to their blocking off a road. He insisted that he had been the officer shooting at Whitman from the plane.
Further reading
References
External links
- Eyewitness accounts of the UT Tower shootings from MemoryWiki
- Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper from the Court TV Crime Library.
- Forrest Preece's personal recount of events
- Coverage of the 30th Anniversary of the UT Tower Sniper Attack from The Daily Texan, 1996
- The Whitman Archives of the Austin Chronicle
- Hero Talks About U.T. Shooting Spree
1941 births | 1966 deaths | American mass murderers | Austin, Texas | Eagle Scouts | People shot dead by police | Spree shootings | Snipers | United States Marines | University of Texas at Austin alumni
Charles Whitman | צ'רלס ויטמן | チャールズ・ホイットマン | Charles Whitman
"Charles Whitman"