who was the shooter in the tower of that university?

Answer 1

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 - August 1, 1966) is known for ascending The University of Texas at Austin's 27-story tower on August 1, 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and campus below. Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police. Some accounts allege 16 or 17 victims, citing a later suicide stemming from the attacks, and a pregnant woman who subsequently miscarried.

Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Declining health
3 Leadup to the shootings
4 Tower shootings
4.1 Whitman arrives at the Tower
4.2 Sniper fire commences
4.3 Whitman killed
5 Casualties
5.1 Killed
5.2 Wounded
6 Aftermath
7 Brain tumor controversy
8 References in popular culture
9 Further reading
10 References
11 External links



[edit]
Background

A widely released image, of Charles Whitman on a family vacation holding two rifles.Born and raised in Lake Worth, Florida he lived on South L Street and Whitman attended St. Ann's High School in Palm Beach. He was an altar boy who chose the Confirmation name "Joseph"[1] and at age 12 was among the youngest to ever achieve Eagle Scout[2], and had taken five years of piano lessons[1]. At the age of 6, he had scored 138 on an IQ test.[2]

At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine appendectomy. The same year, he was hospitalised following a motorcycle accident.[3]


Charles and Kathy's wedding.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 University of Texas mechanical engineering school on September 15, 1961 on a USMC scholarship. He married Kathleen Frances Leissner Whitman, who also attended UT, in August 1962. His scholarship was withdrawn due to sub-standard grades required by the NESEP program of the Marine Corps in 1963.[4]

In 1963, Whitman returned to active duty at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, where he was promoted to Lance Corporal. There, he was involved in a accident where his jeep rolled over an embankment. After rescuing his pinned comrade, Whitman was hospitalised for four days.[5]

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, and was demoted to the rank of Private.[3]

In December 1964, Whitman was honorably 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 Company and later as a bank teller at Austin National Bank. By 1965, he had taken temporary job with Central Freight Lines and working as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department, and was working for NASA.

He also volunteered as a scoutmaster for the 5th Austin Boy Scout troop, while Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.

He received two speeding tickets, on February 24, 1966 and March 20, 1966.[6]

[edit]
Declining health

Whitman's daily journal.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.[3] 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, and although the autopsy could not establish if he had consumed any prior to the attacks, he had Dexedrine and Excedrin on his person.

It was revealed during the autopsy that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some theorised that it may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala, which can affect emotive passion.[7].

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. John and Fran Morgan, close friends of Whitman, later told the DPS that he had confided in them that he had struck Kathleen on three occasions.

[edit]
Leadup to the shootings
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Charles Whitman suicide noteThe day before the shootings Whitman purchased binoculars and a knife from Davis' Hardware, and Spam from a 7-Eleven store. He then picked up Kathy from her summer job as a Bell operator, and they went to a matinee before meeting his mother for lunch at her work.

Around 4pm, they went to visit friends John and Fran Morgan, who lived in the same apartment block. They left at approximately 5:30 so that Kathy could leave for her 6-10pm shift that night. At 6:45, 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.


Six images from the two rolls of film Whitman asked to be developed. They highlight a trip to Barton Springs and a trip with Kathy and his brother John to the Alamo.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 writing by hand:

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 as she slept naked[8], 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 Schocie should be given to Kathy's parents.

[edit]
Tower shootings
[edit]
Whitman arrives at the Tower
Weapons
12 gauge shotgun
Remington 700 with 4x Leupold Scope
.35 Caliber 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
light green towel
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 on the 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.[4]

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 Building of The University of Texas shortly after 11:30am, and struggled with the second elevator, until employee Vera Palmer informed him that it hadn't been powered, and turned it on for him. He thanked her, and took the elevator to the top floor of the Tower, just beneath the clock face.[9]

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 sustained 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.

[edit]
Sniper fire commences

Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin. Guadalupe Street is out of frame to the right. (Dobie Center, in the background, was not constructed until 1972.)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 realizing 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 used 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.

[edit]
Whitman killed

Whitman's body after the shootings.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.


Whitman's grave marker.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 officiated by Fr. Tom Anglim of Sacred Heart Church in Lake Worth. 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.[5]

[edit]
Casualties
Main article: List of Charles Whitman's victims
[edit]
Killed
Margaret Whitman, killed in her apartment
Kathy Whitman, killed while she slept
Edna Townsley, receptionist
Marguerite Lamport, killed by shotgun on stairs
Mark Gabour, killed by shotgun on stairs
Thomas Eckman, shoulder, kneeling over Claire Wilson
Robert Boyer, back, visiting physics professor
Thomas Ashton, chest, Peace Corps trainee°
Thomas Karr, spine
Billy Speed, Police officer
Harry Walchuk, doctoral student and father of six
Paul Sonntag, mouth, 18, hiding behind construction
Claudia Rutt, teenager killed helping fiancé Sonntag°
Roy Schmidt, electrician shot outside his truck
Karen Griffith, lung, 17, died after week in hospital°
° Survived the initial shooting and later died in hospital
* Claire Wilson's unborn child was originally listed

[edit]
Wounded
Allen, John Scott
Bedford, Billy
Elke, Roland
Evgenides, Ellen
Esparza, Avelino
Foster, F. L.
Frede, Robert
Gabour, Mary Frances
Garcia, Irma
David Gunby°
Harvey, Nancy
Heard, Robert
Hernandez, Alex
Hohmann, Morris
Huffman, Devereau
Kelley, Homar J.
Khashab, Abdul
Littlefield, Brenda Gail
Littlefield, Adrian
Martinez, Della
Martinez, Marina
Mattson, David
Ortega, Delores
Paulos, Janet
Phillips, Lana
Rovela, Oscar
Snowden, Billy
Stewart, C. A.
Wilson, Claire
Wilson, Sandra
Wheeler, Carla Sue


° Gunby survived the initial shooting but required life-long dialysis as a result of his injuries. More than 30 years after the shooting, he announced he was quitting dialysis and died within a week as a result. The coroner ruled his death a homicide.

[edit]
Aftermath

Extra Houston Chronicle, released within two hours of the shooting.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. It also led President Lyndon B. Johnson to call for stricter gun control policies.[1]

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.

Houston McCoy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 1998 by Dr. Mink of the Veterans Administration in Waco, Texas, who related the diagnosis to the tower tragedy three decades earlier. As of 2006, he is living in western Texas.[6] Ramiro Martinez became a narcotics investigator, 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.[7]

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."[8]

[edit]
Brain tumor controversy
Whitman's tumor was located in the hypothalamus where it could impinge the amygdala, an emotional processing center of the brain closely connected with anxiety and aggression. This fact, together with Whitman's record of good scholarship and conduct prior to 1962, and his own perception of something unusual and uncontrollable happening to him, and request for an autopsy, have led some neurologists to speculate that his medical condition was in whole or in part responsible for his criminal behavior [10]. A number of cases of unusual agression in humans and animals with tumors or damage to the amygdala or hypothalamus have been reported PMID 11291020 PMID 6669327 PMID 6199700 PMID 10553433. The question remains unsettled.

[edit]
References in popular culture

Time magazine.
Life magazine.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," a satirical tune, 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 in a dream sequence 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 Clifford Banks, a serial killer played by Pruitt Taylor Vince.
1999 — In the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Earshot", a socially awkward loner (Jonathan Levinson) is shown in the tower on top of the high school with a high powered rifle.
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, 2002.[9]
2004 — In an episode of the Comedy Central series Drawn Together, after he is left out of a trip to the zoo, Wooldoor Sockbat says, "If anybody needs me, I'll be in the clock tower", then cocks a rifle and heads off.
In an episode of King of the Hill, a TV series, Dale Gribble goes up to a tower to spray for poison but is mistaken for a sniper, resulting in mass police involvement.
In the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", during the directors commentary (on the DVD), one of the dirrectors tells a story about how they were approached by the sheriff of the county they were in. When they told him they were authorized by the state patrol to block off a road, he said "This is my county, not theirs." They later comment that his claim to fame was taking pot-shots at Whitman from a plane buzzing around the tower.
[edit]
Further reading
Douglas, John; Olshaker, Mark (1999). The Anatomy of Motive. Scribner. ISBN 0756752922.
Hahn, Chris, "Doctors debating the effects of brain tumors", The Daily Texan, January 27, 2006.
Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A Sniper in the Tower. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1574410296.
Levin, Jack; Fox, James Alan (1985). Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 0306419432.
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.
O'Brien, Bill (2000). Agents of Mayhem. Auckland: Bateman, Ltd.. ISBN 1869534239.
Rich, Frank, "The Long Shadow of the Texas Sniper", New York Times, September 29, 1999.
Tobias, Ronald (1981). They Shoot to Kill: A Psycho-History of Criminal Sniping. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press. ISBN 0873642074.
[edit]
References
^ a b "Deranged tower sniper rained death on UT campus", Houston Chronicle. Retrieved on 2006-04-13.
^ Aiken, Tom, "Boom Boom... Out Go the Lights", Austin Chronicle. Retrieved on 2006-04-30.
^ a b MacLeod, Marlee, "Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper", Court TV Crime Library. Retrieved on 2005-12-07.
^ "UT tower gunman put an end to honeymoon", The Paris News. Retrieved on 2006-04-15.
^ "Charles Joseph Whitman", Find A Grave. Retrieved on 2005-12-19.
^ Carlisle, Kristin, "City appeals against compensation for Tower hero", The Daily Texan, April 11, 2004. Retrieved on 2005-12-10.
^ Ray Martinez: The Call Me Ranger Ray. Morgan Printing. Retrieved on 2006-04-15.
^ Licheron, Mark, "A killer's conscience", The Austin-American Statesman, December 9, 2001. Retrieved on 2006-04-15.
^ "The Tool Page: Tour Reviews", July 27, 2002. Retrieved on 2006-03-31.
[edit]
External links
Eyewitness accounts of the UT Tower shootings from MemoryWiki
Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper from the Court TV Crime Library.
Forrest Preece's personal recount of events
Entry for Charles Whitman from the Handbook of Texas Online
Coverage of the 30th Anniversary of the UT Tower Sniper Attack from The Daily Texan, 1996



Persondata
NAME Whitman, Charles Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION University of Texas tower sniper; mass murderer
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Lake Worth, Florida
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1966
PLACE OF DEATH Austin, Texas

Answer 2

Charles Whitman

Answer 3

Charles Whitman

Answer 4

Charles Whitman- Killed 14 and wounded more from the Clock tower at Texas University. Killed his mother and wife as well. He is thought to have done it to make his father go throught the torment he had experienced as a child.

Answer 5

His name was Charles Whitman.

Answer 6

1

Answer 7

We won't know until the autopsy is complete. It would be interesting to know though. I think it would be easier to accept if something else cause him to go crazy than to think that evil like this lives amongst us.

Answer 8

I wish to ask the same question as the op.

Answer 9

why are all the answers so dull and short these days?

Answer 10

could you be more specific?
but i think it was that guy.