1963 yearbook photo of Charles Whitman.
'Charles Joseph Whitman' (
June 24,
1941 –
August 1,
1966) was a student at the
University of Texas at Austin who shot and killed 14 people (including those who survived the initial shooting but later died as a result of their injuries) and wounded 31 others from the observation deck of the University's
Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin on
August 1,
1966, after murdering his wife and mother, and before being shot by Austin police.
The autopsy requested in the suicide note left by Whitman revealed that he had a brain tumor. This has led to speculation that the tumor was responsible for his rampage.
[1]
Background
A widely released image, of Charles Whitman on a family vacation holding two rifles.
The eldest of three brothers raised on South L Street in
Lake Worth, Florida, Whitman, who had scored 138 on an
IQ test at the age of 6,
[2] attended St. Ann's High School in
Palm Beach, where he was a pitcher on the school's baseball team.
[3] He also took five years of piano lessons.
[4]
All three brothers served as
altar boys at
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church,
[5] and Whitman chose the
Confirmation name Joseph for himself.
[6] As a 12-year-old, he was among the youngest ever to achieve
Eagle Scout and one of the first in Lake Worth to do so, to his father's delight.
[7][8] When Whitman was 14 and still serving as an altar boy, his
Scout leader Joseph Leduc completed
seminary and served as the priest of Sacred Heart for a month. Leduc, later a confidant of Whitman, was a family friend who had accompanied Whitman and his father on several hunting trips. At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine
appendectomy and was hospitalized following a
motorcycle accident.
[9]
The wedding of Kathy Leissner and Charles Whitman
Against his father's wishes, Whitman joined the Marines on
July 6,
1959. He explained to Fr. Leduc that he had come home drunk several weeks earlier and his father had hit him repeatedly and pushed him into the family's swimming pool. While Whitman was aboard a train headed towards
Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, his father telephoned "some branch of Federal Government" to have his son's enlistment cancelled, but was rebuffed.
Following his enlistment, Whitman was accepted into the University of Texas'
mechanical engineering program on
September 15,
1961 through a
USMC scholarship. His hobbies at this point included
karate,
scuba diving, and hunting.
[10] This last hobby got him into trouble at the University, when he was involved in a "teenage prank" in which he shot a deer, dragged it to his dormitory, and skinned it in his shower.
As a result of both this incident and sub-standard grades, Whitman's scholarship was withdrawn in 1963.
[11]
In August 1962, Whitman married Kathleen Frances Leissner, another University of Texas student, in a wedding that was held in Kathy's hometown of
Needville, Texas, but presided over by Fr. Leduc. The following year, he returned to active duty at
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune,
North Carolina, where he was both promoted to
Lance Corporal and involved in an accident in which his
Jeep rolled over an embankment. After rescuing his pinned comrade, Whitman was hospitalized for four days.
That 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 of confinement and 90 days of hard labor and was demoted to the rank of Private.
[12]
In December 1964, Whitman was
honorably discharged from the Marines and returned to the University of Texas, this time enrolling in its architectural engineering program. Now lacking 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 a temporary job with Central Freight Lines and worked as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department. He also volunteered as a
Scoutmaster for
Austin Scout Troop 5, while Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.
Family issues
The Whitman family had a long history of dysfunctionality. By 1966, Whitman's mother Margaret had announced she was divorcing his father. 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 supply business employed him.
Whitman's father began to telephone Whitman several times a week, pleading with him to convince his mother to give the marriage another try, but Whitman refused.
Shortly afterwards, John was arrested for throwing a rock through a window and released after paying a $25 fine.
Declining health
Whitman's daily journal.
In 1966, Whitman discussed his depression with 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", yet never returned.12 Whitman mentioned the visit with Heatly in his final suicide notes, saying that it was to "no avail". By the summer, Whitman was prescribed Dexedrine.
Although Whitman had been prescribed drugs, the autopsy could not establish if he had consumed any prior to the attacks. However, it ''was'' revealed during the autopsy that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some have theorized 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.[13][14]
Fr. Leduc met with Whitman for the last time two months prior to the shootings and said that Whitman had confided that he had lost his faith, and no longer considered himself a practicing Catholic.
After the attacks, a study of Whitman's journal showed him lamenting that he had acted violently towards Kathy, and that he was resolved both not to follow his father's abusive example and to be a good husband. However, John and Fran Morgan, close friends of Whitman's, later told the Department of Public Safety that he had confided in them that he had struck Kathy on three occasions.
Leadup to the shootings
Six images from the two rolls of film Whitman asked to be developed. They highlight a trip to
Barton Springs and a trip with Kathy and his brother John to the
Alamo.
Around 4:00 PM, they went to visit friends John and Fran Morgan, who lived in the same neighborhood. They left at approximately 5:30 so that Kathy could leave for her 6:00-10:00 PM shift that night. At 6:45, Whitman began typing his suicide note, a portion of which read:
:''I do not 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 do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot 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 had been anything to explain his actions and increasing headaches. He willed any money from his estate to mental health research, saying that he hoped it would prevent others from following his route.
Margaret Whitman, as found by police
:''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 and 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
At 5:45 A.m. on August 1, 1966, Whitman phoned Kathy's supervisor at Bell to explain that she was sick and could not make her shift that day. He made a similar phone call to Margaret's workplace about five hours later.
Whitman 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 bolt-action hunting rifle with a 4x Leupold Scope, the M1 Carbine, a 0.35 caliber Remington rifle, three pistols, and various other equipment stowed between a wooden crate and his Marine footlocker. Before heading to the tower, he put khaki coveralls on over his shirt and jeans and under a green jacket. Once in the tower, he also donned a white sweatband.[15]
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 and showing Rodman a card identifying him as a research assistant for the school. He entered the Main Building shortly after 11:30 AM, where he struggled with the elevator until employee Vera Palmer informed him that it had not 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 found a receptionist named Edna Townsley. He knocked her unconscious with the butt of his rifle and concealed her body behind a couch; she later died from her injuries. Moments later, Cheryl Botts and Don Walden, a young couple who had been sightseeing on the deck, returned to the attendant's area, encountering Whitman, who was holding a rifle in each hand. Botts later claimed that she believed that the large red stain on the floor was varnish, and that Whitman was there to shoot pigeons. Whitman and the young couple spoke briefly and the couple left the room. When they were gone, Whitman barricaded the stairway.
Shortly afterwards, two families of tourists were on their way up the stairs when they encountered the barricade. Michael Gabour was attempting to look beyond the barricade 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 almost instantly; Michael and his mother Mary were permanently disabled.
Sniper fire commences
The first shots from the tower's outer deck came at approximately 11:48 AM. A history professor was the first to phone the Austin Police Department, after seeing several students shot in the South Mall gathering center; many others had dismissed the rifle reports, not realizing there actually was gunfire. Eventually, the shootings 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 Texas 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 loop holes, which allowed him to continue shooting largely protected from the gunfire below, which had grown to include civilians who had brought out their personal firearms to assist police. Ramiro Martinez, an officer credited with neutralizing Whitman's threat, later stated in his book that the civilian shooters should be credited, as they made it difficult for Whitman to take careful aim without being hit. Police lieutenant and sharpshooter Marion Lee reported from a small airplane that there was only one sniper firing from the parapet. The plane circled the tower trying to get a shot at Whitman, but the turbulence shook the plane too badly for him to get Whitman in his sights. As the airplane took fire, Lee asked the pilot, Jim Boutwell, to back away, but "stay close enough to offer him a target and keep him worried. The airplane, which was hit no less than thirteen times, remained on station until the end of the incident.
Whitman's choice of victims was apparently indiscriminate, and most of them 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 about ten blocks south of UT to Brackenridge Hospital and the only local emergency room. The Brackenridge administrator declared an emergency, and medical staff raced there to reinforce the on-duty shifts. Following the shootings, queues at both Brackenridge and the Travis County Blood Bank stretched for blocks as people hurried to donate blood.[16]
Whitman's death
Whitman's body
Martinez and McCoy, armed respectively with a .38 revolver and a shotgun, went out on the observation deck, 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 disputed; both claimed responsibility. 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. They then took the green towel that Whitman had brought with him, and waved it to those below, indicating that the sniper had been killed.
Although Whitman had requested cremation in his suicide note, this was not carried out: Whitman and his mother shared a funeral service officiated by Fr. Tom Anglim at his home parish of Sacred Heart in Lake Worth. Due to his status as a former Marine, Whitman had a casket draped with an American flag for his burial in Section 16 of the Hillcrest Memorial Park in West Palm Beach, Florida.[17]
Casualties
Main articles: List of Charles Whitman's victims
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 wound, kneeling over Claire Wilson
★ Robert Boyer, back wound, visiting physics professor
★ Thomas Ashton, chest wound, Peace Corps trainee°
★ Thomas Karr, spine wound
★ Billy Speed, police officer, shoulder/chest wound
★ Harry Walchuk, doctoral student and father of six
★ Paul Sonntag, shot through the mouth, age 18, hiding behind construction
★ Claudia Rutt, age 18, killed helping fiancé Sonntag°
★ Roy Schmidt, electrician shot outside his truck
★ Karen Griffith, chest wound, age 17, died after week in hospital°
★ Unborn Child
★ David Gunby, survived the initial shooting but required life-long dialysis as a result of his injuries. More than 30 years after the shooting, he announced he was quitting dialysis and died within a week as a result.
° Survived the initial shooting and later died in hospital
Wounded
★ Allen, John Scott
★ Bedford, Billy
★ Ehlke, Roland
★ Evgenides, Ellen
★ Esparza, Avelino
★ Foster, F. L.
★ Frede, Robert
★ Gabour, Mary Frances
★ Gabour, Michael
★ Garcia, Irma
★ Harvey, Nancy |
★ Heard, Robert
★ Hernandez, Alex
★ Hohmann, Morris
★ Huffman, Devereau
★ Kelley, Homar J.
★ Khashab, Abdul
★ Littlefield, Brenda Gail
★ Littlefield, Adrian
★ Martinez, Dello
★ Martinez, Marina |
★ Mattson, David
★ Ortega, Delores
★ Paulos, Janet
★ Phillips, Lana
★ Rovela, Oscar
★ Snowden, Billy
★ Stewart, C. A.
★ Wilson, Claire
★ Wilson, Sandra
★ Wheeler, Carla Sue |
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.6
After the tragedy, the Tower's observation deck was closed for two years, reopening in 1968. However, after several suicides, it was closed again in 1974 and remained closed until September 15, 1999. Access to the tower is now tightly controlled through guided tours that are scheduled by appointment only, during which, metal detectors and other security measures are in place. Repaired scars from bullets are still visible on the limestone walls.
Houston McCoy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 1998 by Dr. Mink of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Waco, Texas, who related the diagnosis to the tower tragedy three decades earlier. As of 2007, he is living in western Texas.[18] 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''.[19]
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."[20]
References in popular culture
''Time'' magazine.
''Life'' magazine.
Though many are unaware of the exact details surrounding the event, Whitman's tower spree has remained at the forefront of public consciousness, as evidenced by many references in popular music, literature, film, and TV.
★ 1966 — A photograph of Whitman appears on the August 12 cover of ''Time'', highlighting an article entitled, "The Psychotic & Society."
★ 1966 — He also appears 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'', largely inspired by the Whitman case, is released; it describes a man murdering his mother and wife, then embarking on a sniper spree.
★ 1972 — Harry Chapin records an album entitled, ''Sniper and Other Love Songs''. "Sniper," the album's title song, was recorded from both first and third-person points of view, referencing Whitman's issues with his mother and highlighting his isolation.
★ 1973 — Texas singer Kinky Friedman records "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.
★ 1974 -- The movie ''The Groove Tube'' contained a sketch called the Charles Whitman Invitational
★ 1975 — The made-for-TV film ''The Deadly Tower'' stars 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'' contains 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.
★ 1991 — In the movie ''Slacker'', filmed on location in Austin, the Old Anarchist (Louis Mackey) proclaims, "Now Charles Whitman, there was a man...!"
★ 1992 - Social critic Bill Hicks would talk of employing Charles Whitman methods in response to Pro-Life protesters in a scathing chant; "''Where's the tower? Where's the gun? Where's the tower? Where's the gun?''".
★ 1993 — The movie ''True Romance'' references Whitman in the hotel scene with the drug collector and Alabama Worley by way of the line, "You know that guy in Texas...."
★ 1993 — Macabre includes a song about Whitman called "Sniper in the Sky" on the album ''Sinister Slaughter''.
★ 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 one of the bullets had fatally wounded her.
★ 1994 — The same year, a scene on an episode of ''The Simpsons'' entitled, "Homer Loves Flanders" features a scene inspired by the massacre.
★ 1996 — Whitman features 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 — On the television program ''Murder One'', 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.
★ 1998 — The book ''Cat & Mouse'' by James Patterson, contains numerous references to (fictional) killer Gary Soneji, including his fantasies of being with Whitman in the bell tower.
★ 2000 - In his book ''Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly'', Anthony Bourdain makes several joking references to people under severe stress being considered likely to snap and become Whitmanesque clock tower snipers.
★ 2001 — ''Dateline NBC'' broadcasts a special on the tower tragedy in a special called "Catastrophe." The same year, Fox's ''World's Wildest Police Videos'' shows a brief clip of the tragedy in a segment about the history of SWAT teams.
★ 2002 — In the CSI: Miami episode "Kill Zone" Calleigh Duquesne mentions Whitman's 14 kills in reference to the skill of snipers.
★ 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.[21]
★ 2006 — On Tom Waits' '', Whitman is mentioned in the song "Down There by the Train."
★ 2006 — In the manga ''Black Lagoon'', Dutch likens Revy's homicidal tendencies to those of "Charles fucking Whitman".
★ 2007 — On their album ''The Tempest'', rap duo Insane Clown Posse tell their take of Whitman on the track "The Tower".
★ 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, and informed them he had been the officer shooting at Whitman from the plane.
References
1. Charles Whitman
2. "Charles Whitman", ''rotten.com''
3. Cawthorne, Nigel. ''Spree Killers''text
4. What Charlie Saw
5. Chaplain Leduc
6. Deranged tower sniper rained death on UT campus
7. Early Charlie
8. Boom Boom... Out Go the Lights Tom Aiken
9. www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/first100/962149.html
10. TIME Magazine, Friday, Aug. 12, 1966 ''The Madman in the Tower''
11. Handbook of Texas Online
12. Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper Marlee MacLeod
13. The Role of the Amygdala in Aggression
14. Amygdala
15. UT tower gunman put an end to honeymoon
16. 96 Minutes
17. Charles Joseph Whitman
18. City appeals against compensation for Tower hero Kristin Carlisle
19. Ray Martinez: The Call Me Ranger Ray
20. A killer's conscience Mark Licheron
21. The Tool Page: Tour Reviews
Further reading
★ The Anatomy of Motive, Douglas, John; Olshaker, Mark, , , Scribner, 1999, ISBN 0-7567-5292-2
★ A Sniper in the Tower, Lavergne, Gary M., , , University of North Texas Press, 1997, ISBN 1-57441-029-6
★ Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace, Levin, Jack; Fox, James Alan, , , Plenum Press, 1985, ISBN 0-306-41943-2
★ They Call Me Ranger Ray: From the UT Tower Sniper to Corruption in South Texas, Martinez, Ramiro, , , Rio Bravo Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0976016206
★ Agents of Mayhem, O'Brien, Bill, , , Bateman, Ltd., 2000, ISBN 1-86953-423-9
★ The Long Shadow of the Texas Sniper Frank Rich
★ They Shoot to Kill: A Psycho-History of Criminal Sniping, Tobias, Ronald, , , Paladin Press, 1981, ISBN 0-87364-207-4
External links
★ [1]Voices From The Tower Tragedy
★ 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
★ Essay on Charlie Whitman, and the cultural ramifications of The Tower Sniper Attack from ''Deek Magazine'', 2006
★ Eyewitness accounts on the 40th Anniversary of the UT Tower Sniper Attack from ''Texas Monthly'', 2006
★ The Whitman Archives of the Austin Chronicle
★ Charles Whitman Research Guide from the Austin History Center
★ Whitman-The Texas Tower Massacre - August 1st, 1966: A Day Texas Will Never Forget
★ Chet Huntley reporting the news
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