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This article is about the criminal Charles J. Whitman. For the politician, please see Charles S. Whitman.

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 - August 1, 1966) was an Eagle Scout and former Marine who, on August 1, 1966, shot and killed 10 people from the tower of the University of Texas at Austin Main Building, Karen Griffith, a High School student who attended Lanier H.S. where Kathleen Whitman worked as a teacher died a week later. He killed 3 others inside, Edna Townsley (officially pronounced dead later at Seton Hospital), Mark Gabour and his Aunt Marguerite Lamport before going outside. During the 90-93 minute shooting spree, he also wounded 33 others. The night before, Whitman had also killed his wife and mother. Whitman was an architectural engineering major at the University at the time of the shootings. The result of August 1, was 16 dead (including Whitman) and 33 wounded. Karen Griffith brought the number to 17 dead and 32 wounded a week later.

On March 29, 1966 Whitman met with doctor M.D. Heathly to discuss his state of mind. On July 31, 1966, he wrote that "I am prepared to die. After my death, I wish an autopsy on me to be preformed to see if there is any mental disorder." The same day, he stabbed his mother to death, leaving a note that read: "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 home and stabbed his wife to death in her sleep, leaving another note: "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."

A later autopsy revealed that Whitman did have a brain tumor, as he suspected, above the brain stem, in the hypothalamus region of the brain. These are believed to have an effect on inducing violent or irrational behaviour.

In his final notes, Whitman explained that his intent for the spree was to put his abusive father to shame. His amphetamine abuse is also thought to be a major contributor.. Whitman's final notes reflected his resentment towards his father and other disappointments in his life, especially that he felt his mother had been mistreated by his father.

Tower shootings

Dressed in overalls for the appearance of a worker and pushing his Marine locker on a rented dolly packed with his weapons and supplies, Whitman entered the Main Building of the University of Texas (UT) slightly after 11:30 a.m. Claiming to be delivering supplies, he had obtained a permit at a UT Police checkstand on West 24th Street northwest of the tower to enter the inner campus drive. Whitman parked at the foot of the university's Main Building, a 307-foot tower with an encircling observation deck.

Upon reaching the highest floor accessible by elevator, Whitman lugged his trunk up one long and two short flights of stairs to the deck area. Upon encountering middle-aged attendant Edna Townsley at her desk in a small room guarding the passage to the four-sided deck, he bludgeoned her skull in with the butt of his rifle. He then concealed her body behind a couch, leaving her for dead. Townsley was one of three women who staffed the upstairs deck and the elevator on the ground floor. At the time, she was filling in for a co-worker on vacation that day. At noon she would have been relieved by Vera Palmer, another co-worker. Palmer had helped Whitman get on the elevator minutes before Townsley was fatally attacked.

Cheryl Botts and Don Walden, a young couple who had been sightseeing on the deck, returned to the attendant's area moments after the crime and encountered Whitman with two rifles in hand. Botts observed a long red stain on the floor, falsely recognizing it as paint. Nervous, Botts and Walden greeted Whitman and exited the room. After the encounter, Walden remarked that the look in Whitman's eyes told them that they had better move along.

Some tourists, the Gabours and Lamports, who were heading up the stairs moments later, were not so fortunate. The family noticed that there was a table and chair stacked at the top of the stairway. Michael Gabour, the older son, went up to the barricade and as he was attempting to look around it Whitman shot at him with his sawed-off shotgun. Whitman then shot at the family twice through the grates on the railing leading to the observation deck greeting room. The gunfire sent them all tumbling back down the stairs to a landing. Of the four, one boy, Mark Gabour, and a woman, his Aunt Lamport died and the two others had permanent injuries. The two men in the group, who were at the foot of the stairs when the shots rang out, were not hit.

Whitman's trunk contained a sniper rifle and numerous other weapons including the sawed-off shotgun for close-up use, and other items intended for an extended stand-off. Over approximately the next ninety-six minutes, he shot down from the tower into the surrounding area, choosing his targets at random. The first shots from the tower came at 11:48 a.m.

Sniper fire commences

A history professor who had an office in Garrison Hall, overlooking the Main Mall on the east side, saw the first victims drop to the ground just south of the tower and immediately phoned the Austin police department. His call was followed by a flurry of similar phone messages from other campus-area employees clamoring for police help and medical assistance.

In 1966, before mass killings had been experienced to any large degree, students and UT area workers dismissed the pops they heard and kept strolling to classes and appointments. In those first minutes after he started firing, Whitman had many targets and he took full advantage of the situation. Without return gunfire, he had all the time he needed to aim; as a result, most of the fatal wounds happened during that initial period.

The shootings sparked panic among residents in Austin as news spread to the local media and by word of mouth. When the magnitude of what was happening became apparent, every officer on duty was ordered to the campus area. Other off-duty officers threw on their uniforms and hurried to help.

Local Secret Service agents from the Johnson administration as well as sheriff's department officers, Department of Public Safety officers, Austin police and campus police came to assist at the scene, but Whitman was well barricaded on the deck. In fact, as later observers said, the deck was tailor-made for a stand-off. During the latter part of his rampage, he was using the drainspouts located on each side to fire through, making him virtually impossible to hit from the ground.

Whitman's choice of victims was indiscriminate and his accuracy was impressive; two hits found their mark more than 450 yards away from the tower. The worst killing zone, as far as numbers of people hit, was Guadalupe Street (known as "The Drag"), which is still the major shopping, food service, and business district across from the west side of the campus.

As word went out, many students and area residents with high-powered deer rifles loaded their weapons and ran to campus to return fire. Students, bystanders and campus area employees performed heroic acts to drag or carry wounded victims to safety where they could be picked up by ambulances. An armored car company which served Austin banks wheeled a vehicle to campus. It was of great assistance in helping pick up victims.

In 1966, Austin did not have a 911 system or city-operated ambulances. The ambulances were run by the funeral homes. Many funeral home employees risked their lives in the effort to save victims. One of them, Morris Hohmann, was working on the Drag to load up victims at the corner of West 23rd Street at the height of the siege. He had ducked and was moving along behind his firm's ambulance, which was turning the corner slowly to the west and Whitman saw him as his cover disappeared. Whitman's shot hit his leg, hitting a major artery. He then used his belt as a tourniquet. He was soon loaded into his own ambulance along with several other victims in the one vehicle and rushed to the Brackenridge ER, where he was saved.

Austin only had one full-scale emergency room at that time, in Brackenridge Hospital, a city-run facility on I-35 about ten blocks south of the UT area. It quickly became overtaxed with victims, despite resorting to triage. Doctors, nurses, and medical technicians raced there from all parts of the city to reinforce the on-duty staff. The lines at the city blood center on I-35 and at Brackenridge itself stretched for blocks as concerned citizens hurried over to donate blood.

The two switchboard operators at the Austin police station were overwhelmed with the load of calls, and they ignored as best they could all calls except for those requesting help for the victims. A policeman tried to distract Whitman by circling the tower in a small airplane flown by a local pilot. Whitman fired upon the plane. The policeman decided not to return fire because he might hit innocent bystanders in the tower's upper offices and classrooms. But the officer ordered the plane to keep circling the tower and was thus able to provide information about Whitman's movements. The possibility to bring an armed helicopter was dismissed, due to the danger of hitting bystanders.

Whitman killed

The sniping continued until the observation deck was reached by four men. The group was composed of two armed APD officers, Houston McCoy and Ramiro Martinez, along with a temporarily deputized private citizen and retired military officer, Allan Crum and another officer Jerry Day. Police officers, Martinez and McCoy made their way to the northeast corner of the deck and spotted Whitman west of them. Martinez emptied his .38 revolver, pinning Whitman down. McCoy fired with his shotgun, hitting Whitman in the head twice and killing him. Martinez then grabbed McCoy's shotgun, ran west, and shot point-blank at Whitman's corpse, hitting it in the left arm. Waving a towel that he found nearby, Officer Jerry Day signaled to the ground that the crisis was over. Word spread rapidly that the shootings were over, and hundreds of people who had been holed up in classrooms and stores emerged and headed towards the Main Mall.

List of deaths

• Margaret Whitman
• Kathy Whitman
• Edna Townsley
• Marguerite Lamport
• Mark Gabour - nephew of Marguerite Lamport
• Thomas Frederick Eckman - shot in the left shoulder, just below the neck, he bent down when Claire Wilson was shot
• Robert Hamilton Boyer - off-campus physics professor shot in lower back
• Thomas Ashton - Peace Corps trainee, shot in chest, died in hospital
• Karen Griffin - 17-year old, died in hospital a week after the shootings
• Thomas Karr - shot in the back, walking with Karen Griffin
• Billy Paul Speed - shot through a gap between two ballisters
• Harry Walchuk - doctoral student, father of six children
• Paul Bolton Sonntag - high school student hiding behind a parked car, shot in mouth as he peered out to see what was happening
• Claudia Rutt - high school student hiding behind a parked car, shot after she tried to help Sonntag, died in hospital
• Roy Dell Schmidt - city electrician, shot on the street, near his truck
• Claire Wilson's Unborn Child!!!
• Charles Whitman

After effects

The Watts Riot in the early '60s prompted the LA Police Department to consider forming a task force to deal with situations that were beyond normal police procedures. The necessity to contain violent situations that were not routine set up a think tank with tactical specialty units equipped to bring any situation under control that required more than a few officers. During the planning, Whitman showed what a determined individual could do to basically render a city helpless. Austin was not prepared for what happened, LA took note. The Whitman shooting spree contributed to the impetus to establish SWAT teams in cities across the United States.

After the tragedy, the university bell tower's observation deck was closed to the public for two years. It was re-opened in 1968, but after a small number of suicides, it was closed again in 1975. The tower remained closed until 1998, when a metal detector was installed at the main entrance. Although guided tours do not mention the shootings, guides will answer the questions that arise. While the seats that originally lined the railing were removed, there are still visible plastered-over bullet holes in the wall.

On November 12, 2001, David Gunby died from long-term kidney complications stemming from the sniper shot he was hit by on August 1, 1966. He was one of the first people hit by the sniper, being felled on the sidewalk of the Main Mall when the shot penetrated his midsection. Gunby was born with one functioning kidney, which was punctured by the round Whitman fired into him. Besides his deteriorating kidney situation, he was also facing the loss of his eyesight, though he refused further treatment. The coroner's report listed the cause of death as "homicide" referencing the earlier wound.

References in popular culture

References to Whitman's tower-spree have abounded in the decades since it initially happened, remaining at the forefront of public consciousness though many are unaware of the exact details surrounding the event.

1960s

A photograph of Whitman appeared on the August 12, 1966 cover of Time, highlighting an article titled The Psychotic & Society. The article credits Martinez with being the only officer to confront Whitman and as the killer of Whitman.

He also appeared the same day on the cover of Life, for an article titled The Texas Sniper.

1970s

In 1972, Harry Chapin recorded an album entitled Sniper and Other Love Songs. Sniper, the album's title song, recorded from both first and third-person narratives, referenced Whitman's issues with his mother and highlighted his isolation.

In 1975 the incident was depicted in the movie The Deadly Tower which starred Kurt Russell as Whitman. After the movie came out, Ramiro Martinez sued the film company for its portrayal of him and his wife. Houston McCoy, the officer who fired the shotgun rounds that actually killed Whitman (but whose role is often discounted or even ignored in some stories about the event) also sued. Martinez settled out of court for an unknown amount, but McCoy received no known settlement.

The 1976 movie God Told Me To opened with a sequence of a sniper climbing a New York City watertower, before throwing himself over the edge.

1980s

The 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket contains a scene in which a Marine Corps drill instructor, played by R. Lee Ermey tells his recruits that Whitman's phenomenal accuracy was a result of his training as a rifleman in the Marines.

The 1989 movie Parenthood showed a student on the roof of a belltower with a rifle, blaming his father's making him play second base in baseball.

1990s

The 1991 movie Slacker, filmed on location in Austin, where the anarchist Professor proclaims, "Now Charles Whitman, now there was a man!......"

The 1993 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..."

The 1994 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 one of the bullets fatally wounded his mother.

The 1994 movie Higher Learning portrays a Whitman-like clock tower shooting commited by a white supremacist member. After convincing his "brothers" that he is going to prove himself to the Aryans, he climbs the clock tower at Columbia University and shoots at bystanders.

The 1996 movie Don't Be a Menace satires a scene from Higher Learning with a comical outlook on the Whitman clock tower shootings.

Macabre made a song about Charles Whitman on the album Sinister Slaughter called "Sniper in the Sky".

Texas singer Kinky Friedman recorded "The Ballad of Charles Whitman."

An episode of The X-Files (2x03 - "Blood") ends with Mulder apprehending a sniper in a college clock tower.

An episode of The Simpsons contains a scene in which Ned Flanders fantasises about shooting at Homer Simpson repeatedly from a clock tower.

The Japanese doom metal band Church of Misery performs a song about Whitman entitled "Road to Ruin."

2000s

In an episode of the Comedy Central cartoon Drawn Together, Wooldoor Sockbat pulls out a rifle, cocks it, and says "if anyone needs me I'll be in the clock tower."

See also

• Suicide note found lying next to Kathy Whitman's body

External links

• The University of Texas is partly to blame for Whitman's actions!
• Forrest Preece's personal recounts of the day

• Mass murderers
• Spree shootings
• Snipers
• Austin, Texas
• 1941 births
• 1966 deaths
• University of Texas at Austin