Charles Whitman


Whitman in 1963

Details
Date: August 1, 1966
Family: c. 12:15 a.m. – 3:00 a.m.
Random: 11:48 a.m. – 1:24 p.m.
Location(s): University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Target(s): Mother, wife, random strangers
Killed: 17 (including an unborn child, a police officer and David Gunby, who died in 2001)
Injured: 31

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became infamous as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, he used knives in the slayings of his mother and his wife in their respective homes and then went to the University of Texas in Austin with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people. He fatally shot three people inside the university tower. He then went to the tower's 28th-floor observation deck, where he fired at random people for some 96 minutes, killing an additional 11 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police officer Houston McCoy. Whitman killed a total of 17 people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.

Early life and education

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Whitman joined the Boy Scouts at age 11. He became an Eagle Scout at 12 years three months, reportedly the youngest of any Eagle Scout up to that time. Whitman also became an accomplished pianist at the age of 12. At around the same time, he began an extensive newspaper route.

High school


Whitman around 1959 (age 18)

On September 1, 1955, Whitman entered St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach, where he was regarded as a moderately popular student whose intelligence was noted by his teachers and peers. By the next month, he had saved enough money from his newspaper route to purchase a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he used on his route.

Whitman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps one month after his June 1959 graduation from high school, where he had graduated seventh in a class of 72 students. He had not told his father beforehand. Whitman told a family friend that the catalyst was an incident a month earlier, in which his father had beaten him and thrown him into the family swimming pool because Whitman had come home drunk. Whitman left home on July 6, having been assigned an 18-month tour of duty with the Marines at Guantánamo Bay. His father still did not know he had enlisted.

As Whitman traveled toward Parris Island, his father learned of his action and telephoned a branch of the federal government, trying to have his son's enlistment canceled.

U.S. Marine and college student

During Whitman's initial 18-month service in 1959 and 1960, he earned a sharpshooter's badge and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. He achieved 215 of 250 possible points on marksmanship tests, doing well when shooting rapidly over long distances as well as at moving targets. After completing his assignment, Whitman applied to a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps scholarship program, intending to complete college and become a commissioned officer.

Whitman earned high scores on the required examination, and the selection committee approved his enrollment at a preparatory school in Maryland, where he completed courses in mathematics and physics before being approved to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin to study mechanical engineering.

University life

On September 15, 1961, Whitman entered the mechanical engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin. He was initially a poor student. His hobbies included karate, scuba diving, gambling, and hunting. Shortly after his enrollment at the university, Whitman and two friends were observed poaching a deer, with a passer-by noting his license plate number and reporting them to the police. The trio were butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory when they were arrested. Whitman was fined $100 ($800 in 2018) for the offense.

Whitman earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements. On one occasion in 1962, as Whitman and a fellow student named Francis Schuck Jr. browsed in the bookstore in the main building of the University of Texas, Whitman remarked, "A person could stand off an army from atop of it [the tower] before they got him."

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Events leading to the shooting


Main building of the University of Texas at
Austin. Whitman went up to the observation
deck and fired upon people at ground level.

The day before the shootings, Whitman bought a pair of binoculars and a knife from a hardware store, and some Spam from a 7-Eleven convenience store. He picked up his wife from her summer job as a telephone operator before he met his mother for lunch at the Wyatt Cafeteria, which was close to the university.

At about 4:00 p.m. on July 31, 1966, Charles and Kathy Whitman visited their close friends John and Fran Morgan. They left the Morgans' apartment at 5:50 p.m. so Kathy could get to her 6:00–10:00 p.m. shift.

At 6:45 p.m., 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. These thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks.

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Connally Commission

Texas Governor John Connally commissioned a task force to examine the autopsy findings and material related to Whitman's actions and motives. The commission was composed of neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, pathologists, psychologists, and the University of Texas Health Center Directors, John White and Maurice Heatly. The Commission's toxicology tests revealed nothing significant. They examined Chenar's paraffin blocks of the tumor, stained specimens of it and Whitman's other brain tissue, in addition to the remainder of the autopsy specimens available.

Following a three-hour hearing on August 5, the Commission concluded that Chenar's finding had been in error. They found that the tumor had features of a glioblastoma multiforme, with widespread areas of necrosis, palisading[a] of cells, and a "remarkable vascular component" described as having "the nature of a small congenital vascular malformation". Psychiatric contributors to the report concluded that "the relationship between the brain tumor and [...] Whitman's actions [...] cannot be established with clarity. However, the [...] tumor conceivably could have contributed to his inability to control his emotions and actions", while the neurologists and neuropathologists concluded: "The application of existing knowledge of organic brain function does not enable us to explain the actions of Whitman on August first."

Forensic investigators have theorized that the tumor pressed against Whitman's amygdala, a part of the brain related to anxiety and fight-or-flight responses.

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