Charles Whitman
- This article is about the tower sniper. For the politician, see Charles S. Whitman.
Born June 24, 1941, Charles Joseph Whitman is known for ascending the University of Texas' 27-storey tower on August 1st 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and campus below.
In the end, Whitman killed 15 people, and wounded 31 others, before he was shot dead by Austin police.
Background
Born and raised in Lake Worth, Florida, Whitman was an Eagle Scout. He joined the Marines on July 6, 1959, and was stationed at Guantanamo Naval Base, where he earned a Good Conduct Medal, the Expeditionary Medal, and a Sharpshooter's Badge.
Whitman was accepted into UT's mechanical engineering faculty on September 15, 1961 on a USMC scholarship. He married Kathy Leissner, who also attended UT, in August 1962. His scholarship was withdrawn after an arrest the previous year for hunting deer out of season with friends.
In 1963, Whitman returned to active duty at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, where he was made a Lance Corporal. 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, as well as returning to the rank of Private.[1]
In December 1964, Whitman was honourably 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 and later as a bank teller at Austin National Bank. He also volunteered as a scoutmaster for the 5th Austin Boy Scout troop, while wife Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.
Declining health
His mother Margaret took her youngest son Patrick, and moved to Austin where she found work in a cafeteria, filing divorce papers against his father in May. Around the same time, 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 to discuss his mental state, and reportedly told him that he felt urges to "start shooting people with a deer rifle" from the University tower. Heatly noted that Whitman was "oozing with hostility", but never returned.[1] 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.
Whitman had abused the drugs that he had been prescribed in the past, although the port-mortem showed he had not consumed any prior to 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.
A later autopsy revealed that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain.
Leadup to the shootings
The day before the shootings Whitman spent the morning purchasing binoculars and a knife from Davis' Hardware, and SPAM from a 7/11. He then picked up Kathy from her summer job with as a Bell operator, and they went to a matinee before meeting his mother for lunch at her work.
Less than an hour after Kathy returned to work at 6pm, Whitman began typing his 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 handwriting:
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 Jewel Street and stabbed Kathy five times in her sleep, 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 should be given to Kathy's parents.
Tower shootings
Whitman arrives at the Tower
| Weapons |
| 12 gauge shotgun |
| Remington 700 with 4x Leupold Scope |
| 35mm 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 |
| 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 |
At 5:45am morning of the attacks, Whitman phoned Kathy's supervisor at Bell to explain that she was sick and couldn't make her shift that day. He made a similar phonecall to his mother's work about five hours later.
He rented a dolly from Austin Rental Company, and cashed $250 worth of cheques 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, 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.[2]
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 UT Building shortly after 11:30am, and took the elevator to the 27th floor of the tower.
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 her 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
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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 realising 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 began using 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.[citation needed]
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.
Whitman and his mother shared a funeral service. 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.[3]
Casualties
- See biographical details about each of Whitman's victims at List of Charles Whitman's victims.
Killed
|
|
° Survived the initial shooting and later died in hospital
* Claire Wilson's unborn child was originally listed
Wounded
|
|
|
Aftermath
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.
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."[citation needed]
Officer Houston McCoy experienced mental anguish for years after the events of August 1, 1966. In 1998, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and moved to the western part of Texas.[4] Officer Ramiro Martinez later became a narcotics investigator for the Texas Department of Public Safety, 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".[citation needed]
Charles Whitman's younger brother John was killed in 1973 outside a Lake Worth bar named Big Daddy's, after he drunkenly taunted a black patron.[citation needed]
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.
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" on the album Sold American. Friedman attended The University of Texas and had 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 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 Carl Banks, a serial killer played by Pruitt Taylor Vince.
- 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.
Notes
- ^ Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A Sniper in the Tower. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1574410296.
- ^ MacLeod, Marlee. "Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper". Court TV Crime Library. Retrieved 2005-12-07.
- ^ "Spree Killers: Charles Whitman". Rotten. Retrieved 2005-12-07.
- ^ "Charles Joseph Whitman". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2005-12-19.
- ^ Carlisle, Kristin (April 11, 2004). "City appeals against compensation for Tower hero". The Daily Texan. Retrieved 2005-12-10.
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References
- Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A Sniper in the Tower. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1574410296.
- Douglas, John; Olshaker, Mark. (1999). The Anatomy of Motive. Scribner. ISBN 0756752922.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Levin, Jack; Fox, James Alan (1985). Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 0306419432.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - O'Brien, Bill (2000). Agents of Mayhem. Auckland: Bateman, Ltd. ISBN 1869534239.
- Martinez, Ramiro (2005). They Call Me Ranger Ray: From the UT Tower Sniper to Corruption in South Texas. New Braunfels: Rio Bravo Publishing. ISBN 0976916206.
- Rich, Frank (September 29, 1999). "The Long Shadow of the Texas Sniper". New York Times.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Hahn, Chris (January 27, 2006). "Doctors debating the effects of brain tumors". The Daily Texan.
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External links
- Eyewitness accounts of the UT Tower shootings - From MemoryWiki
- Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper Court TV Crime Library.
- Forrest Preece's personal recount of events
- Charles Whitman from the Handbook of Texas Online