The University of Texas shooting in 1966 was symbolic of an era of exploding violence across the United States. Charles Joseph Whitman was born in Lake Worth, Florida on June 24, 1941 to Charles Sr. and Margaret Hodges Whitman and he had two younger brothers. The elder Charles was a strict, controlling husband and father who ran his household like an army barracks and he regularly beat his wife and sons if they displeased him. Charlie was a polite, well-behaved, and highly intelligent child--in grade school he was estimated to have a 139 IQ. His parents encouraged him to excel academically and he was punished for getting less than excellent grades. Margaret raised her sons as Catholics and all attended regular services at the Sacred Heart Church in Lake Worth.Charles Sr. was also a gun enthusiast who taught his sons how to use weapons and how to hunt. Charlie was a skilled marksman by the time he was in high school. He joined the Boy Scouts at age 11 and then the Eagle Scouts a year later, and he also played the piano. Charles admired actor James Dean like many '50s teens and bought himself a motorcycle in imitation of his hero. At 17 he joined the Marines without telling his father first; reportedly he did so because of an incident a month earlier where he obtained alcohol at a friend's house and came home drunk, so Charles Sr. became infuriated with him, beat him, and threw him into a swimming pool.
Whitman was assigned to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay and left home for the Marine drill camp on Parris Island on July 6, 1959. Charles Sr. was not happy with this as he had missed his high school graduation and he unsuccessfully petitioned the Marines to cancel his son's enlistment. In the service, Charles was given a badge for marksmanship and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. After completing his assignment, Whitman applied for a scholarship to the Naval Enlisted Science and Education Program (NESEP), an initiative designed to send enlisted personnel to college to train as engineers, and after graduation, be commissioned as officers.He did well on the exam and was approved for a preparatory school in Maryland where he studied math and physics before being transferred to the University of Texas in Austin to study mechanical engineering. Whitman entered the program as the 1961-62 school year was beginning but he was too often distracted with student pranks and extracurricular activities to concentrate on studies. Two weeks into the semester, Whitman and two buddies were spotted by the roadside poaching deer. Someone wrote down their license plate and reported them to police. The three were caught butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory. Whitman was charged with hunting out of season and fined $100.
Although Whitman was a cheerful individual and a practical joker, he also had a dark side--once he remarked to a classmate "A person could stand off an army from atop of the main building's clock tower before they got him." Whitman also found time for his romantic life when he began dating 19 year old Kathleen Leisneer, who was studying to become a teacher, in early 1962. Kathleen was the first serious girlfriend Whitman had had; he briefly dated actress Deanna Dunagan, who was then a student at UT Austin, before meeting her. After a few months of dating, Charles and Kathleen became engaged and tied the knot in a Catholic ceremony in Needville, Texas on August 17. The date was purposely chosen as the same day when Charles's parents had gotten married 22 years earlier. The wedding was blessed by both sets of parents.Whitman's academic performance in his sophomore and junior years was decent but not enough to satisfy the Marines. They terminated his scholarship in February 1963 and ordered him to return to active duty at Camp Lejeune. He was compensated with a promotion to lance corporal, although he felt insulted at his college studies being yanked. At Camp Lejeune, Whitman heroically saved a fellow Marine whose Jeep had overturned and pinned him underneath by singlehandedly lifting the 1,700 pound vehicle out of the way. He sustained a painful back and muscle sprain from this feat and spent four days in the hospital.
Overall, Whitman's service record was excellent and he performed his duties conscientiously, but he had a serious gambling addiction and in November 1963 he was court-martialed for gambling, usury, bringing a personal firearm onto base, and threatening a fellow Marine for a $30 loan which he demanded $15 in interest. Whitman was sentenced to 30 days in the brig and 90 days of hard labor in addition to being demoted back to private. While awaiting court-martial, Whitman kept a diary he titled "Daily Record of C.J. Whitman" in which he wrote about his time in the Marines and his relationship with his wife and other relatives. He also insulted the Marines and lodged numerous complaints about how the service was run. He was affectionate towards Kathleen and spoke of wanting to become financially independent of his parents.Whitman was mustered out of the Marines with an honorable discharge in December 1964. He went back to UT Austin and studied architectural engineering while paying the bills as a collection agent for Standard Finance Company. Later Whitman worked as a bank teller in Austin. During the winter of 1965 he spent some time working with Central Freight Lines as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department while Kathleen worked as a science teacher at Lanier High School. Whitman was also a volunteer Eagle Scout leader. Supposedly Whitman beat Kathleen a few times and felt terrible about it, saying he was afraid to become his father and vowed to not let that happen to him.
In May 1966, Margaret Whitman decided to divorce Charles Sr. due to his continued violent behavior towards her. Charles drove all the way to Florida to help his mother move to Texas and she was so afraid the elder Whitman would do something violent that they had a police officer stand guard outside the house as she packed her belongings. Whitman's brother John also left Florida and went to Austin with the others. The other brother, Patrick, was more loyal to his father and stayed in Florida to work for the latter's plumbing supply business. Margaret moved into an apartment in Austin and took a job in a cafeteria while Charles Sr. badgered her with long distance phone calls begging her to come back. As a result of all this stress, Charles suffered severe migraine headaches and became addicted to amphetamines.On July 31, Whitman went to a hardware store where he purchased a pair of binoculars and a hunting knife and a can of Spam from a convenience store. He picked up Kathleen from her summer job as a phone operator before meeting his mother for lunch at the Wyatt Cafeteria, near the UT Austin campus. That afternoon, the Whitmans spent an hour and a half visiting some friends before Kathleen had to go back to work for the evening shift at the phone company.
Whitman then penned a suicide note reading "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 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." He added that he would like an autopsy done on his body after his death to figure out if there was a biological cause for his issues and serious headaches.He then added that both his mother and wife were to die. The former had never had the life she was entitled to, as he put it, and the latter didn't deserve to be embarrassed by his actions. Whitman made no mention of planning any mass shooting attack. Just after midnight, Whitman went to his mother's apartment, killed her, and covered the body with bedsheets. The exact way that Margaret died is disputed, but the evidence suggested that he rendered her unconscious somehow before stabbing her in the chest.Whitman went back to his apartment and stabbed Kathleen five times as she slept, then covered her with sheets and penned a note reading "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 [...] Give our dog to my in-laws. Tell them Kathy loved 'Schocie' very much [...] If you can find in yourselves to grant my last wish, cremate me after the autopsy."
After making a few other last will and testament actions, Whitman called Kathleen's supervisor at the phone company to report that she was sick and wouldn't be coming to work that day. He also told his mother's employer the same.At 9:00 AM on August 1, Whitman bought a .30 Universal M1 carbine at a hardware store, several boxes of ammo, and remarked to the store clerk that was going hunting in Florida. He went to a different gun shop and bought more carbine ammo and a can of gun cleaning solvent before purchasing a .12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun at a department store. Whitman took the shotgun home and sawed off the barrel. He put the weapons in his Marine issue footlocker. He also took a Remington M700 6mm hunting rifle with a scope, a .35 Remington pump action rifle, a Luger 9mm pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, and 700 rounds of ammo in addition to cans of food, coffee, vitamins, Dexedrine, Excedrin, earplugs, three and a half gallons of water, matches, rope, lighter fluid, binoculars, a machete, three knives, a portable transistor radio, a razor, deodorant, and a roll of toilet paper.Whitman arrived at the UT Austin campus just before 11:30 and claimed he was a research assistant delivering equipment. A security guard let him in and he took his equipment in a hand cart towards the main building of the university. He tried to use the elevator but found it wasn't operating. A campus employee apologized for that and said the elevator was turned off at the moment. She activated a switch to power it on. Whitman said "Thank you ma'am, you have no idea how happy that makes me, that makes me, that makes me" several times. He rode the elevator to the 27th floor and took the hand cart and equipment up a flight of stairs to a hallway and down a corridor towards the observation deck.
In the reception area, Whitman ran into 51 year old receptionist Edna Townsley. He beat her over the heard with the butt of his rifle, inflicting a skull fracture, before shoving the body behind a sofa. Just as he was finished doing this, a young couple named Don Walden and Cheryl Botts came into the reception area and startled him. They thought nothing of Whitman holding two guns as they assumed he was there to shoot pigeons. He smiled and said casually "Hi, how are you?" Botts noticed a dark stain on the carpet but thought it was paint varnish.Shortly after they left the reception area, Whitman used Townsley's desk, some chairs, and a wastebasket to make a barricade. As he was about to enter the observation deck, a visiting Texarkana family startled him. As 16 year old Mark Gabour tried to open the entrance to the staircase, Whitman spun around and fired his shotgun, fatally wounding Mark and his aunt Marguerite Lamport, and badly injuring 19 year old Michael Gabour and his mother Mary, before re-sealing his barricade. Mike Gabour Sr. and William Lamport were not harmed and they ran from the stairwell before attending to their injured family members, then running to get help. A woman named Vera Palmer, who was coming to take over from Edna Townsley's shift at the reception desk, was warned by Mike to run and get help; she went to the ground floor.
Edna Townsley was still alive at this point; Whitman fired a single gunshot into her head before wheeling his footlocker to the observation deck, where he wedged the dolly against the sole entrance door before donning a white headband and unpacking his weapons. At 11:48 AM, Whitman began shooting from the observation deck at a height of 231 feet above the ground. Targets were selected randomly although most were students, including a pregnant freshman named Claire Wilson whose unborn child was killed; the first person Whitman shot from the deck. At first the gunshots were mistaken by people on campus as sounds coming from a nearby construction site or that people dropping to the ground were playing a prank or protesting the Vietnam War. One student within the tower at the time of the shootings, Norma Barger, later recollected looking from her fourth floor window and observing six individuals sprawled close to the tower. Initially, Barger "expected the six to get up and walk away laughing" before she noticed the blood by their bodies and saw another individual fall to the ground.One woman who was shot recalled that as she pleaded with a bystander for a doctor, he tersely replied "Get up! What do you think you're doing?" But as everyone began to realize what was happening, several individuals risked their own lives to rescue the wounded. Ambulances from local funeral homes and an armored car were also used to reach the casualties. As the shooting continued, police and civilians on the ground returned fire with whatever firearms they had on hand, forcing Whitman to lay low and shoot through the three large storn drains located at the foot of each of the 4' tall observation deck walls. He picked off electrical repairman Roy Schmidt, who was shot dead 500 yards from the tower, and funeral director Morris Hohmann, who was badly wounded near the ambulance he'd been traveling in.
Police obtained a small two seater Champion Citabria airplane. Sharpshooter Marion Lee flew over the tower trying to spot the gunman but convective air currents rising from the ground made it hard to keep the plane steady. Whitman shot twice at the plane before the pilot decided to pull away to a safer distance while continuing to circle overhead and distract Whitman's attention.The Austin PD received reports of a shooting in progress within minutes and all police in the area were dispatched to the campus. A rookie patrol officer named Billy Speed ducked behind a columned stone wall for cover but Whitman struck him in the chest and killed him. Allen Crum, a 40 year old Air Force veteran, helped police into the tower and was given a rifle to assist. Five police officers found Mike Gabour on the 26th floor in a hysterical panic, clutching his wife's bloodied shoes and yelling that the gunman had murdered his family. He tried to grab a rifle from one of the cops; the rest restrained him. The officers told Vera Palmer to disable all elevators in the building before they searched the perimeter entrances.Allen Crum asked one of the cops "Are we playing for keeps?" "You're damn right we are," he was told. "Well, you better deputize me." "Consider yourself deputized." They found the bodies of Marguerite Lamport and Mark Gabour and the badly injured Mary Gabour and her son Mike, who regained consciousness and pointed to the observation deck as he said "He's out there." In the reception area they found the dead Edna Townsley.
Crum and Officer Ramiro Martinez were the first to reach the observation deck. Martinez dislodged the dolly which Whitman used to block up the door. At 1:24 PM, Martinez lept from cover and shot at Whitman but failed to land any hits. Officer Houston McCoy fired a shotgun blast into Whitman's forehead, dropping him. Just to make sure he was dead, he then fired into his left side. Martinez then grabbed the shotgun and fired into his left arm. People on the ground, not knowing that Whitman had been felled, continued firing at the tower and Martinez was almost hit before police were able to get word out that the sniper was dead. Allen Crum waved a white handkerchief to signal that it was over.Within about an hour, the gunman's identity was determined from ID cards he was carrying. Charles Whitman Sr. heard the shooting on the news and contacted Austin police to provide his son's and his ex-wife's home addresses. Police arrived at their apartments to find their dead bodies and the suicide notes Whitman left. A total of 17 people had been killed and 31 wounded. One of the wounded, 17 year old Karen Griffith, died a week later and 23 year old David Gunby, an engineering student, was left with lifelong permanent disability. He died in 2001 at age 58 of complications from his injuries. Marguerite Lamport was the oldest person killed by Whitman at age 56 while Karen Griffith was the youngest, unless one counts Claire Wilson's unborn son.Charles Whitman's body was autopsied as he requested in his suicide note. A small tumor was found in the white matter of his brain but whether this had any effect on his behavior is unclear. He was laid to rest in Florida alongside his mother while Kathleen Whitman was buried in Davis-Greenlawn Cemetery in Rosenberg, Texas. Her father Ray Leissner was not angry at his son-in-law and believed the tumor doctors found was the cause of his actions.
The University of Texas was closed on August 2 and all flags were flown at half-mast for a week afterwards. The observation deck was re-opened to the public in 1968 but closed again six years later after several students committed suicide by leaping from it. It remained closed until 1999 when it was opened only by guided tours and with metal detectors set up.Charles Whitman Sr. agreed to an interview in 1986 for the 20th anniversary of the shooting. A reporter asked if he felt his son's actions were triggered by his harsh military-style parenting and abuse of his wife and sons. He said "Yes. He's not punishing me [like] you'd say with a stick or anything like that; he's punishing me in the fact that I had to let the world know that if I did wrong, I'm sorry for it ... Yes, it hurt deeply. It always has and there will always be a hurt there, but I don't feel in any way that I was responsible for any of it."
I used to live in Austin right around the corner from his mom’s old place and he was always a part of local folklore, with byproducts like Kinky Freedman’s “Ballad of Charles Whitman” and a great scene in the film Slacker. I grew up in Baton Rouge where they made a film called The Deadly Tower using the Louisiana state capitol as a stand-in building. In long shots you can see the Mississippi River in the background.
>>16545896>Two weeks into the semester, Whitman and two buddies were spotted by the roadside poaching deer. Someone wrote down their license plate and reported them to police. The three were caught butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory. Whitman was charged with hunting out of season and fined $100.Fucking busybody 1960s Karen, I swear.
>>16545911>>16545907fucking dye job. you're not a real blonde, Kathy. accept it.
>>16545896>He did well on the exam and was approved for a preparatory school in Maryland where he studied math and physics before being transferred to the University of Texas in Austin to study mechanical engineering.If this was today he wouldn't get admitted to college for being too white and too male and instead they'd give a scholarship to an obese illegal immigrant woman from Honduras and then Whitman would become an incel who has an online blog and go berserk and shoot up the college.
>>16545965I mean his other two sons were raised the same way and didn't shoot over 30 people so I don't think that excuses what he did.
>>16545896>>16546376the system back then did a lot better job of preparing young men for leadership roles. no wonder nobody past the boomers can fucking run anything and only 70-80 year olds can run for president.
>>16545911I looked at her findagrave page. Some boomers that knew her posted comments on there. They said she was a nice lady who was just getting started in her teaching career and didn't deserve to die like this.
>>16545893Now all of you dumbasses know who Charles Whitman was.
>be American>get shot
>>16546626Okay, but why does he have a bridge in Philadelphia?
HOOK 'EM, HORNS
>>16545911>>16545907I'm surprised they were married for 4 years apparently with no kids in spite of being C*thlic.
>>16546864Charles was in the Marines for part of that time and both were pretty busy people with work and school so maybe they just didn't have a lot of time to fuck.
>>16545932Abolish the fucking 2nd Amendment already, Americans. It's not worth having this happen.
>>16545893I blame the "greatest generation" for being the shittiest generation of parents in American history and raising boomers to be completely deranged narcissists. It's no surprise to me that the generation raised by the "greatest generation" was a generation of mass shooters, rapists, and serial killers.
>>16546864>C*thlicCatholics in the US are by and large some of the more sane religious people.
>>16547278you mean because his dad raised him like Marine boot camp? well I guess he was already prepared for that since he was out of diapers.
>>16547302Yeah. That was a generation shaped by war so they believed in running everything like the army and eventually the boomers rebelled.
>>16545893>The University of Texas shooting in 1966 was symbolic of an era of exploding violence across the United States.So was the Richard Speck mass murder of nurses in Chicago, which happened like a week before this one
>>16547302>raise kids in an environment similar to one that psychologically conditions men to become killers>beats wife in front of kids, beat kids as well>normalize violence at home until kids see it as a normal response to conflict>how could this person become a killer??
>>16547278>and raising boomers to be completely deranged narcissists. It's no surprise to me that the generation raised by the "greatest generation" was a generation of mass shooters, rapists, and serial killersalso the boomers were so in love with themselves that they never taught their kids how to lead or run a country so Gen X and Millenials became worthless slackers and only 70-80 year old boomers get to run for president and whatnot.
>>16545911she was cute, she didn't deserve this
What I want to know is, why was his father such an asshole? What fucked him up?
>>16547452apparently his father was abandoned as a baby and raised in an orphanage so it must have made him something of a mean SOB
>>16545940Wow ok just understood this for the first time.
>>16545995Can you explain the scene in Slacker? I don't know why I always thought the old guy WAS the shooter.
Why does /pol/ think wife beating is based and tradpilled?
>>16547530That explains a lot, thanks
>>16547562i mean OnlyFans is what happens once beating women is no longer socially acceptable
>>16547571/thread
>>16545893America was not violent enough. They should have invaded Canada and burned down Chateau St. Louis, which the confederate secret service was using as their headquarters, for example (after taking all evidence and records out of there, of course)
>>16547562There is large gradient to the word "beating". Are we talking "open palmed vibe check on a screeching bitch who is throwing shit" beating?Or are we talking "nigger/irish drawing blood/eyes swollen shut" beating?
>>16545896>>16546110White women have been ruining the country since 1890>SIR. SIR! UM, SIR. YOU CANT DO THAT SIR. THATS ILLEGAL. THATS OUT OF SEASON, SIR. NO. UM, DOR. EXCUSE ME SIRR. STOP THAT SIR. STOP THAT RIGHT NOW, SIR. IM GOING TO HAVE TO REPORT YOU, SIR.AAACK!!!>>16545893I still think this was a glowop
>>16547262Kill yourself
>>16546110don't poach, you stupid libertarian
>became addicted to amphetamines found the problem guy was dealt a shit hand by society, in addition that his father was almost definitely an alcoholic. his murder suicide could probably be called stimulant psychosis
>>16545952>"Consider yourself deputized."that's pretty badass
>>16550371Amphetamines were a really popular drug in that time; the military handed them out to servicemen like candy so they could stay up all night on sentry duty. In fact Elvis first got addicted to pills in the Army.
>>16545893why does he look 25 and 65 at the same time?
>>16550388that doesnt change anything i said, also youve never tried them, also his wish about further research into mental health elucidating his condition came true, and society avoids euphoria inducing drugs like the plague now
