On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, a former Marine sharpshooter, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, then opened fire on persons indiscriminately on the surrounding campus and streets. Over the next 96 minutes he shot and killed thirteen people (including one unborn child) and injured thirty-one others; an additional victim died in the hospital, while a final victim died in 2001 from the lingering effects of his wounds. The incident ended when police reached Whitman and shot him dead. As of November 2017, the attack is ranked as the eighth-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Whitman had killed his mother and wife in their home the night before. It has been suggested that his violent impulses, with which he had been struggling for years, were due to a tumor found in his brain on autopsy.
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Charles Whitman
Charles Whitman, 25, was studying architectural engineering. Whitman was intelligent; at the age of six, he scored 139 on an IQ test.[L]:6 At twelve years old he became the youngest person to become an Eagle Scout.[L]:6 He joined the Marines after high school, and earned a Sharpshooter's Badge, Good Conduct medal, and Marine Corps Expedition medal.[L]:19
In 1961 Whitman was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin on a scholarship from the Naval Enlisted Science Education Program.[L]:19 While at UT, Whitman met and married his wife, Kathleen. Whitman struggled with gambling and bad grades, and he lost his scholarship in 1963. Before the attack, Whitman had sought professional help for "overwhelming violent impulses", including fantasies about shooting people from the tower. An autopsy after his death revealed a brain tumor. It may have contributed to his violent impulses, but researchers have not come to consensus about this.
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Timeline of events
Murders of Margaret and Kathy Whitman
Whitman killed his mother, Margaret Whitman, and his wife, Kathleen Leissner Whitman,:53 between midnight and 3:00 a.m. on August 1. In a note he professed his love for both women, saying he had killed them to spare them future humiliation.
Later that morning, Whitman rented a hand truck and cashed $250 (equivalent to $1,800 in 2016) worth of bad checks at a bank. He drove to a hardware store, where he purchased a Universal M1 carbine, two additional ammunition magazines, and eight boxes of ammunition, telling the cashier he planned to hunt wild hogs.:32 At a gun shop he purchased four more carbine magazines, six additional boxes of ammunition, and a can of gun cleaning solvent. At Sears he purchased a Sears Model 60 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun before returning home.
Whitman sawed off the barrel and butt stock of the shotgun, then packed it into his footlocker, along with a Remington 700 6-mm bolt-action hunting rifle, a .35-caliber pump rifle, a .30-caliber carbine (M1), a 9-mm Luger pistol, a Galesi-Brescia .25-caliber pistol, a Smith & Wesson M19 .357 Magnum revolver, and more than 700 rounds of ammunition. He also packed food, coffee, vitamins, Dexedrine, Excedrin, earplugs, jugs of water, matches, lighter fluid, rope, binoculars, a machete, three knives, a transistor radio, toilet paper, a razor, and a bottle of deodorant.:31 He put khaki coveralls on over his shirt and jeans.:28
Whitman arrives on campus
At approximately 11:25 a.m.,:31 Whitman reached the University of Texas at Austin, where he showed false research assistant identification to obtain a parking permit.:31 Whitman wheeled his equipment toward the Main Building of the University.:29 Entering the Main Building, Whitman found the elevator didn't work. An employee activated it for him; Whitman thanked her, saying: "You don't know how happy that makes me.":32
Exiting the elevator on the 27th floor, he hauled the dolly and equipment up a flight of stairs to a hallway, from which another flight led to the rooms skirted by the observation deck.[L]:126 There he encountered receptionist Edna Townsley.
- Persons killed or injured on the University campus
Police actions
Some mistook the sound of shots for the noise from a nearby construction site, or that persons falling to the ground were part of a theater group or an anti-war protest. One victim recalled that as she lay bleeding a passerby reprimanded her and told her to "Get up." Among those who grasped the situation, many risked their lives to take the wounded to safety. An armored car and ambulances from local funeral homes were used to reach the wounded.
Four minutes after Whitman began shooting from the tower, a history professor was the first to telephone the Austin Police Department, at 11:52 a.m.:38 Patrolman Billy Speed, one of the first officers to arrive, took refuge with a colleague behind a columned stone wall. Whitman shot through the six-inch space between the columns of the wall and killed Speed.
Officer Houston McCoy, 26, heard of the shooting on his radio. As he looked for a way into the tower, a student offered to help, saying he had a rifle at home. McCoy drove the student to his home to retrieve the rifle.
Allen Crum, a 40-year-old retired Air Force tail gunner, was a manager at the University Book Store Co-Op. Across the street he saw a 17-year-old newspaper boy being dragged and went to break up what he thought was a fight. Learning the boy had been shot, and hearing more shots, Crum rerouted street traffic out of harm's way. Unable to make his way back to the store safely, he then made his way to the tower, where he offered to help the police. Inside the tower, he accompanied Department of Public Safety Agent Dub Cowan and Austin Police Officer Jerry Day up the elevator; Cowan provided Crum with a rifle.[L]:176
Around noon, Officer Ramiro "Ray" Martinez was off duty at home when he heard about the attack on the news. Having called the police station, he was instructed to go to the campus and direct traffic. Once there he found other officers already doing that, so he went to the tower. He assumed he would find a team of officers there, but when he reached the 27th floor he found only Cowan, Crum, and Day.
Officers attempting to reach the tower were forced to move slowly and take cover often, but a small group of officers including Houston McCoy began making their way to the tower via underground maintenance tunnels. Officers and several civilians provided suppressive fire from the ground with small weapons and hunting rifles, forcing Whitman to stay low and fire through storm drains at the foot of the observation deck's wall. A police sharpshooter in a small plane was driven back by Whitman's return fire but continued to circle at a distance, seeking to distract Whitman and further limit his freedom to choose targets.:38
Martinez, Crum, and Day searched the 27th floor, where they found M. J. Gabour; Day removed him. Martinez started up the stairs to the observation deck, and Crum insisted on covering him, asking Martinez to deputize him first.:39
Beneath the stairwell leading to the reception area, Martinez found Marguerite Lamport, Mark Gabour, Mike Gabour, and Mary Gabour. Mike Gabour gestured to the observation deck, saying: "He's out there.":39
Martinez reached the observation deck first. He told Crum to remain at the door. McCoy and Day reached the observation deck a few minutes later. Day, after helping M. J. Gabour, had returned to the 27th floor. He realized Martinez had gone up to the observation deck and told McCoy. At some point Crum accidentally fired his rifle.
Around 1:24 p.m., while Whitman was looking south for the source of the rifle shot, Martinez and McCoy rounded the northeastern corner of the observation deck. Martinez fired on Whitman with his revolver, missing, and McCoy hit Whitman twice with his shotgun. Martinez then took McCoy's shotgun from him, having emptied his own weapon, and fired a final shot into Whitman at point-blank range. In the immediate aftermath, Martinez was nearly shot himself by those on the ground, who did not yet realize that Whitman was dead.[L]:124, 214-5
Legacy and memorials
Martinez and McCoy were awarded Medals of Valor by the city of Austin.
Following the shootings the tower observation deck was closed. The various bullet holes were repaired and the tower was reopened in 1968. It was closed again in 1975 following four suicides.[L]:289 After a stainless steel lattice and other security features were installed, it was again reopened in 1999, but only to by-appointment guided tours, and all visitors are screened by metal detectors.
In 2006 a Memorial Garden was dedicated to those who died or were otherwise affected. A monument listing the names of the victims was added in 2016 on the shootings' fiftieth anniversary; the tower's clock was stopped for 24 hours beginning at 11:48 a.m. The day was declared by the City of Austin as "Ramiro Martinez Day".
In 2008 the following names of persons who helped stop Whitman were added to a plaque on an Austin police precinct building.
In 2014, Claire Wilson's stillborn son received a tombstone in Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, after his grave was rediscovered by Gary Lavergne. Adorned with a single crucifix, it reads "Baby Boy Wilson / August 1, 1966".
In popular culture
Film
- Peter Bogdanovich's 1968 film Targets features a character based on Charles Whitman and the UT Tower Shooting.
- In the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, the character of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman praises Whitman's marksmanship, along with that of Lee Harvey Oswald, emphasizing that they were both former Marines.
- Charles Whitman is mentioned in the 1994 film Natural Born Killers.
- In the 1991 film Slacker, the character of the "Old Anarchist", played by Louis Mackey, retired professor from the University of Texas at Austin, laments that he missed the shooting because his wife had sent him on an errand that day to the opposite side of the town.
- Referenced in the 2011 film God Bless America.
- The 2016 film Tower is a partially animated documentary about the event.
Television
- The 1975 television film The Deadly Tower featured Kurt Russell as Whitman. McCoy filed a lawsuit over the movie, alleging it portrayed him as a coward. The suit was eventually thrown out of court and McCoy was ordered to pay the fees of the opposing attorney.
- The Mad Men episode "Signal 30" references the UT tower shooting.
- The case was revisited by Investigation Discovery's series A Crime to Remember in 2014 (Season 2 Episode 4, "The 28th Floor").
Music
- Harry Chapin's song "Sniper" was inspired by the UT tower shooting.
- Singer, humorist, and politician Kinky Friedman wrote a song about the shooting called "The Ballad of Charles Whitman."
- Insane Clown Posse's song "The Tower", from their 2007 album The Tempest, was inspired by the events.
See also
References
Further reading
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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