What is the Texas UniversityTower sniper's name?

Answer 1

Charles Whitman

Charles Joseph Whitman was born on 24th June 1941 into a wealthy, prominent family with a home that was the envy of the neighbourhood. Young Charlie was a gifted all-rounder, good at both sports and school, a talented pianist and Eagle Scout.

This idyllic lifestyle was not all that it seemed, however; Whitman’s father was a strict disciplinarian, prone to violence towards both his sons and wife. Shortly before Whitman’s 18th birthday, he came home from a party drunk, and was beaten severely by his father, and thrown into the swimming pool, where he nearly drowned. This humiliation proved the final straw for Whitman, and he enlisted in the US Marine Corps a few days later, reporting for training on 6th July 1959.
Determined to prove his worth, Whitman took well to his initial training at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, earning performance medals and excelling at rapid fire shooting, especially where moving targets were involved. He utilised every opportunity to excel, and was granted a scholarship to study engineering, to be followed by Officer’s Candidate School.

Whitman began his studies at the University of Texas in Austin on 15th September 1961 and immediately floundered, without the rigid discipline that he was accustomed to, first at home and then in the Marines. His grades plummeted, he took to gambling and, despite a minor improvement to his behaviour when he married Kathy Leissner in August 1962, the US Marine Corps withdrew his scholarship in February 1963, forcing him to return to active duty.

On 31st July 1966 his self-control snapped and after killing his wife and mother so that they would be spared the shame he climbed the white granite tower of the University of Texas administration building, and started shooting.



The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System voted this month to reopen this campus's infamous tower observation deck, which was closed 23 years ago.
U. of Texas to Reopen Infamous Tower
The tower became notorious in 1966, after a sniper, Charles Whitman, used it as a perch, killing 16 people, including students and professors, and wounding 32 others. The system closed the tower in 1975, after four people in nine years committed suicide by jumping from the deck, located beneath the clock.

Answer 2

Charles Joseph Whitman. My cousin was an EMT and drove an ambulance in Austin at the time and rescued several of the victims and other people from the line of fire. My uncle owned the funeral home where they took Whitman after he was killed by the police. He used to carry a piece of buckshot he took out of the body in his wallet for many years.

Kinky Friedman wrote a song about Whitman.

He was sitting up there for more than an hour,
Way up there on the Texas Tower
Shooting from the twenty-seventh floor. Yahoo!
He didn’t choke or slash or slit them,
Not our Charles Joseph Whitman,
He won’t be an architect no more.
Got up that morning calm and cool,
He picked up his guns and walked to school.
All the while he smiled so sweetly
And it blew their minds completely,
They’d never seen an Eagle Scout so cruel.

Now won’t you think for the shame and degradation
For the school’s administration
He put on such a bold and brassy show.
The Chancellor cried, "It’s adolescent
And of course it’s most unpleasant
But I got to admit it was a lovely way to go."

There was a rumor about a tumor
Nestled at the base of his brain.
He was sitting up there with his .36 Magnum
Laughing wildly as he bagged ’em.
Who are we to say the boy’s insane ?

Now Charlie was awful disappointed
Else he thought he was annointed
To do a deed so lowdown and so mean.
The students looked up from their classes
Had to stop and rub their glasses,
Who’d believe he’d once been a Marine.

Now Charlie made the honor roll with ease,
Most all of his grades was A’s and B’s.
A real rip snorting trigger squeezer
Charlie proved a big crowd pleaser
Though he had been known to make a couple C’s.

Some were dying, some were weeping,
Some were studying, some were sleeping,
Some were shouting “Texas # 1!?
Some were running, some were falling,
Some were screaming, some were bawling,
Some thought the revolution had begun.

The doctors tore his poor brain down,
But not a snitch of illness could be found.
Most folks couldn’t figure just-a why he did it
And them that could would not admit it,
There’s still a lot of Eagle Scouts around.

There was a rumor about a tumor
Nestled at the base of his brain.
He was sitting up there with his .36 Magnum
Laughing wildly as he bagged ’em.
Who are we to say the boy’s in
Who are we to say the boy’s in
Who are we to say the boy’s insane ?

Answer 3

my mother in law passes along all her copies of Texas Monthly, which included the August 2006 issue. This event is the cover story, and it has a very in depth article. Many interviews with survivors and witnesses.
Email me via my profile if you want this magazine.

Answer 4

Charles Whitman I believe.

Answer 5

charles whitman