Charles Whitman

This article is about the tower sniper. For the politician, see Charles S. Whitman. For the professor of English, see Charles Huntington Whitman. For the American zoologist, see Charles Otis Whitman.

Charles Whitman
Charles Whitman in 1963
Born	Charles Joseph Whitman (1941-06-24)June 24, 1941 Lake Worth, Florida, U.S.
Died	August 1, 1966(1966-08-01) (aged 25) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Cause of death	Multiple shotgun wounds (ruled as justifiable homicide)
Other names	The Texas Tower Sniper
Spouse	Kathy Leissner ​ (m. 1962⁠–⁠1966)​
Parent(s)	Charles Adolphus "C. A." Whitman, Jr. Margaret Whitman
Details
Date	August 1, 1966 Family: c. 12:15 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. Random: 11:48 a.m. – 1:24 p.m.
Location(s)	University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Target(s)	Family, students, teachers, and police
Killed	14 (including Whitman, Gunby, and the unborn child)
Injured	32 (including 1 later fatality)
Weapons	Remington 700 ADL (6mm) Universal M1 carbine Remington Model 141 (.35-caliber) Sears model 60 Semi-automatic shotgun (12 gauge) S&W Model 19 (.357 Magnum) Luger P08 (9mm) Galesi-Brescia (.25 ACP) Knife

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became infamous as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, he murdered his mother and wife in their homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin where he shot and killed three people inside the university's tower. He then went to the tower's 28th-floor observation deck, where he fired at random for some 95 minutes, killing fourteen people and wounding thirty-one before being shot and killed by police.

Early life and education

Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida, the eldest of three sons born to Margaret E. (Hodges) and Charles Adolphus "C. A." Whitman, Jr. Whitman's father had been raised in an orphanage in Savannah, Georgia, and described himself as a self-made man. In 1940, he married Margaret, then 17 years old. The marriage of Whitman's parents was marred by domestic violence; Whitman's father was an admitted authoritarian who provided for his family but demanded near perfection from all of them. He was known to physically and emotionally abuse his wife and children.

As a boy, Whitman was described as a polite, well-mannered child who seldom lost his temper. He was extremely intelligent—an examination at the age of six revealed his IQ to be 139. Whitman's academic achievements were encouraged by his parents, yet any indication of failure or a lethargic attitude would be met with discipline—often physical—from his father.

Margaret Whitman was a devout Roman Catholic who raised her sons in the same faith. The Whitman brothers regularly attended Mass with their mother, and all three brothers served as altar boys at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church.

Whitman Sr. was a firearms collector and enthusiast, who taught each of his sons from an early age how to shoot, clean, and maintain weapons. He regularly took them on hunting trips, and Charles became an avid hunter and accomplished marksman. His father said of him: "Charlie could plug the eye out of a squirrel by the time he was sixteen."

At the age of 11, Whitman joined the Boy Scouts and earned a total of 21 merit badges in 15 months. On September 15, 1953, at the age of 12 years and three months, Whitman also earned the rank of Eagle Scout in Troop 119 in Lake Worth. Whitman was reportedly the youngest person ever to become an Eagle Scout at that time. Whitman also became an accomplished pianist at the age of 12. At around the same time, he undertook an extensive newspaper route, delivering the Miami Herald in and around his neighborhood. As he had many households to cover, his parents on occasion used their car to assist their son on his route—particularly in bad weather.

High school

Whitman around 1959 (age 18)

On September 1, 1955, Whitman entered St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach, where he was regarded as a moderately popular student whose intelligence was noted by both his teachers and peers. By the next month, he had saved enough money from his newspaper route to purchase a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he used on his route.

At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine appendectomy and was hospitalized following a motorcycle accident. He was hospitalized in February 1958 for surgery to remove a blood clot that had formed around his left testicle. Whitman missed a total of 16 school days.

Whitman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps a month after his June 1959 graduation from high school, where he had graduated seventh in a class of 72 students. He had not told his father beforehand. Whitman told a family friend that the catalyst was an incident a month before. His father had beaten him and thrown him into the family swimming pool, almost drowning him, because Whitman had come home drunk after an evening socializing with friends. Whitman left home on July 6, having been assigned an 18-month tour of duty with the Marines at Guantanamo Bay. His father still did not know he had enlisted.

As Whitman traveled toward Parris Island, his father learned of his action and telephoned a branch of the federal government, trying unsuccessfully to have his son's enlistment canceled.

U.S. Marine and college student

During Whitman's initial 18-month service in 1959 and 1960, he earned a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Sharpshooter's Badge, and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. He achieved 215 of 250 possible points on marksmanship tests, doing well when shooting rapidly over long distances as well as at moving targets. After completing his assignment, Whitman applied to a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps scholarship program, intending to complete college and become a commissioned officer.

Whitman earned high scores on the required examination, and the selection committee approved his enrollment at a preparatory school in Maryland, where he successfully completed courses in mathematics and physics before being approved to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin to study mechanical engineering.

University life

Whitman entered the mechanical engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin on September 15, 1961. He was initially a poor student with largely unimpressive grades. His hobbies included karate, scuba diving, gambling, and hunting. Shortly after his enrollment at the university, Whitman and two friends were observed poaching a deer, with a passer-by noting his license plate number and reporting them to the police. The trio were butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory when they were arrested. Whitman was fined $100 ($1,000 today) for the offense.

Whitman earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements. On one occasion in 1962, as Whitman and a fellow student named Francis Schuck, Jr. browsed the bookstore in the main building of the University of Texas, Whitman remarked, "A person could stand off an army from atop of it [the tower] before they got him."

Marriage

In February 1962, 20-year-old Whitman met Kathleen Frances Leissner, an education major two years his junior. Leissner was Whitman's first serious girlfriend. They courted for five months before announcing their engagement on July 19.

On August 17, 1962, Whitman and Leissner were married in a Catholic ceremony held in Leissner's hometown of Needville, Texas. The couple chose the 22nd wedding anniversary of Whitman's parents as the date for their wedding. Whitman's family drove from Florida to Texas to attend the event, and his younger brother Patrick served as best man. Fr. Leduc, a Whitman family friend, presided over the ceremony. Leissner's family and friends approved of her choice of husband, describing Whitman as a "handsome young man."

Although Whitman's grades improved somewhat during his second and third semesters at the University of Texas at Austin, the Marine Corps considered his academic performance unacceptable in support of his scholarship. Whitman was ordered to active duty in February 1963 and went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to serve the remainder of his five-year enlistment.

Camp Lejeune

Whitman apparently resented his college studies being ended, although he was automatically promoted to the rank of lance corporal. On one occasion at Camp Lejeune, Whitman and two other Marines were involved in an accident in which their jeep rolled over an embankment. Whitman single-handedly lifted the vehicle to free another Marine, but fell to the ground unconscious from the effort. He was hospitalized for four days.

At Camp Lejeune, Whitman had a reputation as an exemplary Marine, but he continued to gamble. In November 1963, he was court-martialed for gambling, for usury, for possession of a personal firearm on base, and for threatening another Marine over a $30 loan ($300 today), for which he had demanded $15 in interest. Sentenced to 30 days of confinement and 90 days of hard labor, he was demoted from lance corporal (E-3) to private (E-1).

Documented frustrations

Whitman's self-penned journal.

While awaiting his court martial in 1963, Whitman began to write a diary titled "Daily Record of C.J. Whitman." In it, he wrote about his daily life in the Marine Corps and his interactions with Kathy and other family members. He also wrote about his upcoming court martial and contempt for the Marine Corps, criticizing them for inefficiencies. In his writings about his wife, Whitman often praised her and expressed his longing to be with her. He also wrote about his efforts and plans to free himself from financial dependence on his father.

In December 1964, Whitman was honorably discharged from the Marines. He returned to the University of Texas at Austin, enrolling in the architectural engineering program. To support Kathy and himself, he worked as a bill collector for the Standard Finance Company. Later, he worked as a bank teller at the Austin National Bank. In January 1965, Whitman took a temporary job with Central Freight Lines as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department. He also volunteered as a scout leader for Austin Scout Troop 5, while his wife Kathy now worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.

Two close friends of Whitman, John and Fran Morgan, later told the Texas Department of Public Safety that he had told them about striking his wife on two occasions. They said that Whitman despised himself for the behavior and confessed to being "mortally afraid of being like his father." Whitman lamented his actions in his journal, and resolved to be a good husband and not abusive as his father had been.

Separation of Whitman's parents

In May 1966, Margaret Whitman announced her decision to divorce her husband because of his continued physical abuse. Charles Whitman drove to Florida to help his mother move to Austin. Whitman was reportedly so afraid that his father would resort to violence against his mother as she prepared to leave, he summoned a local policeman to remain outside the house while his mother packed her belongings. Whitman's youngest brother, John, also left Lake Worth and moved to Austin with his mother. Patrick Whitman, the middle son, remained in Florida and worked in his father's plumbing supply business.

In Austin, Whitman's mother took a job in a cafeteria and moved into her own apartment, though she remained in close contact with Charles. Whitman's father later said he had spent more than a thousand dollars ($10,000 today) on long-distance phone calls to both his wife and Charles, begging his wife to return and asking his son to convince her to come back. During this stressful time, Whitman was abusing amphetamines and began experiencing severe headaches, which he described as being "tremendous."

Main building of the University of Texas at Austin from where Whitman fired upon those below from the observation deck

Events leading up to the shooting

The day before the shootings, Whitman bought a pair of binoculars and a knife from a hardware store, and some Spam from a 7-Eleven convenience store. He picked up his wife from her summer job as a telephone operator before meeting his mother for lunch at the Wyatt Cafeteria, which was close to the university.

At approximately 4:00 p.m. on July 31, 1966, Charles and Kathy Whitman visited their close friends John and Fran Morgan. They left the Morgans' apartment at 5:50 p.m. so Kathy could get to her 6:00–10:00 p.m. shift.

At 6:45 p.m., Whitman began typing his suicide note, a portion of which read:

I do not 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 do not 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.

In his note, he went on to request an autopsy be performed on his remains after he was dead to determine if there had been a discernible biological contributory cause for his actions and for his continuing and increasingly intense headaches. He also wrote that he had decided to kill both his mother and wife. Expressing uncertainty about his reasons, he nonetheless stated he wanted to relieve his wife and mother of the suffering of this world and to save them the embarrassment of his actions. He did not mention planning the attack at the university.

Just after midnight on August 1, Whitman drove to his mother's apartment at 1212 Guadalupe Street. After killing his mother, he placed her body on her bed and covered it with sheets. Just how he murdered his mother is disputed, but officials believed he rendered her unconscious before stabbing her in the heart.

He left a handwritten note beside her body, which read in part:

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 then returned to his home at 906 Jewell Street, where he killed his wife by stabbing her three times in the heart as she slept. He covered her body with sheets, then resumed the typewritten note he had begun the previous evening. Using a ballpoint pen, he wrote at the side of the page:

Friends interrupted. 8-1-66 Mon. 3:00 A.M. BOTH DEAD.

Whitman continued the note, finishing it by pen:

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.

He also left instructions in the rented house requesting that two rolls of camera film be developed and wrote personal notes to each of his brothers.

Whitman last wrote on an envelope labeled, "Thoughts For the Day", in which he stored a collection of written admonitions. He added on the outside of the envelope:

8-1-66. I never could quite make it. These thoughts are too much for me.

At 5:45 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Whitman phoned his wife's supervisor at Bell System to explain that Kathy was ill and unable to work that day. He made a similar phone call to his mother's workplace five hours later.

Whitman’s final journal entries were written in the past tense, suggesting he may have already killed his wife and mother.

The south door to the observation deck, where Whitman began his siege.

University of Texas Tower shooting

Main article: University of Texas Tower Shooting

At approximately 11:35 a.m., Whitman arrived on the University of Texas at Austin campus. He falsely identified himself as a research assistant, and told a security guard he was there to deliver equipment. He then climbed to the 28th floor of the UT tower and opened fire from the observation deck with a sniper rifle and other weapons.

The attack lasted 96 minutes, until Whitman was shot and killed by Austin Police officers.

A total of 14 people were killed and 31 people were injured during the UT Tower shooting.

Investigations

Autopsy

Although Whitman had been prescribed drugs, and was in possession of Dexedrine at the time of his death, no toxicology test was performed at first because Whitman had been embalmed on August 1, after the body was brought to the Cook Funeral Home in Austin. However, an autopsy had been requested in the suicide notes left by Whitman, and was then approved by his father.

On August 2, an autopsy was conducted upon the body of Charles Whitman by Dr. Chenar (a neuropathologist at Austin State Hospital) at the Cook Funeral Home in Austin, Texas. Urine and blood were removed to test for traces of amphetamines or other substances. During the autopsy, Dr. Chenar discovered a brain tumor that he labeled an astrocytoma, and noted it was approximately the size of a pecan. He also observed a small amount of necrosis in the tumor, and concluded that the tumor had no effect on Whitman's actions the previous day. This result was later revised by the Connally Commission (see below).

Connally Commission

In the days following the shootings, Texas Governor John Connally commissioned a task force of professionals to examine the physical autopsy findings and material related to Whitman's actions and motives. The commission was composed of neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, pathologists, psychologists, and the University of Texas Health Center Directors, Dr. John White and Dr. Maurice Heatly. The Connally Commission did toxicology tests on various organs of Whitman a few weeks after the body of Whitman was exhumed. The toxicology tests revealed nothing significant. They examined Dr. Chenar's paraffin blocks of the tumor, stained specimens of it and Whitman's other brain tissue, in addition to the remainder of the autopsy specimens available.

Following a three-hour hearing on August 5, the Commission said that the findings of Dr. Chenar's initial autopsy conducted on August 2 had been in error; that a tumor was found that conceivably could have had an influence on Whitman's actions. Specifically, the Commission's autopsy material, including a paraffin block containing two pieces of brain tumor, were reviewed by Drs. William O. Russell (Head Pathology at MD Anderson Hospital, and Head of the Pathology Work Group of a government study panel), Kenneth M. Earle (Chief Neuropathology Branch, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology), Joseph A. Jachimczyk (Clinical Professor of Forensic Pathology at Univ Texas), and Paul I. Yakovlev (Clinical Professor of Neuropathology and Curator, Warren Museum, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School and Consultant in Neuropathology at Mass General Hospital). The report, dated September 8, 1966, found that a tumor reportedly removed from the right temporal-occipital white matter by Dr. Chenar had features of a glioblastoma multiforme, with widespread areas of necrosis and palisading of cells. The report also indicated a "remarkable vascular component", which was described as having "the nature of a small congenital vascular malformation." The psychiatric reviewers contributing to the Connally report concluded that "the relationship between the brain tumor and [...] Whitman's actions [...] cannot be established with clarity. However, the [...] tumor conceivably could have contributed to his inability to control his emotions and actions", while the neurologists and neuropathologists concluded: "The application of existing knowledge of organic brain function does not enable us to explain the actions of Whitman on August first."

Forensic investigators have theorized that the tumor may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala region of his brain. The brain contains two amygdalae, one on each side, and the amygdalae are known to affect fight-or-flight responses. Some neurologists have since speculated that Whitman's medical condition was in some way responsible for the attacks, in addition to his personal and social frames of reference.

Investigation of medical history

File:Prescription list from Jewell.jpg

Prescription vials at Whitman's home.

Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several University doctors in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him. Whitman had seen a minimum of five doctors between the fall and winter of 1965, that is, before he visited a psychiatrist from whom he received no prescription. At some other time he was prescribed Valium by Dr. Jan Cochrum, who recommended he visit the campus psychiatrist.

Whitman met with Dr. Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966. Whitman referred to his visit with Heatly in his final suicide note, writing, "I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come [sic] overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail."

Dr. Heatly's notes on the visit reflected Whitman's own comments about feeling hostility:

This massive, muscular youth seemed to be oozing with hostility [...] that something seemed to be happening to him and that he didn't seem to be himself.

Dr. Heatly also referred to a statement by Whitman:

He readily admits having overwhelming periods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation. Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to "thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people."

Funeral

A joint funeral service for Whitman and his mother Margaret was held at their family's home parish of Sacred Heart in Lake Worth, Florida, on August 5, 1966. The Catholic service was officiated by Fr. Tom Anglim. Whitman was a veteran who was entitled to burial with full military honors; his casket was draped with the American flag. He was buried in Florida's Hillcrest Memorial Park next to his mother. His youngest brother John Michael, who was fatally shot outside a Lake Worth nightclub in July 1973, was later buried next to his mother and brother.

Popular culture

Whitman is portrayed by Kurt Russell in the 1975 made-for-TV movie The Deadly Tower.

Whitman is discussed at length in the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket (1987).

Kinky Friedman's song, "The Ballad of Charles Whitman", from the 1973 album Sold American, offers a satirical look at the man and the incident.

His story was described in the song "Sniper in the Sky" on the Macabre album Sinister Slaughter in 1993.

See also

• List of school-related attacks
• List of school shootings in the United States
• Mass murder
• Massacre
• Matricide
• Patricide
• School shooting
• Spree shooting

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). Serial Killers And Mass Murderers: Profiles of the World's Most Barbaric Criminals. Ulysses Press. ISBN 1-56975-578-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Coleman, Loren (2004). The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-0554-7.
• Douglas, John; Burgess, Ann W.; Burgess, Allen G.; Ressler, Robert K. (2011). Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes (2 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 1-118-04718-4.
• Douglas, John; Olshaker, Mark (1999). The Anatomy of Motive. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-7567-5292-2.
• Franscell, Ron (2011). Delivered from Evil: True Stories of Ordinary People Who Faced Monstrous Mass Killers and Survived. Fair Winds Press. ISBN 1-61059-494-0.
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• Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A Sniper in the Tower. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1-57441-029-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Lester, David (2004). Mass Murder: The Scourge of the 21st Century. Nova Publishers. ISBN 1-59033-929-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Levin, Jack; Fox, James Alan (1985). Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 0-306-41943-2.
• Martinez, Ramiro (2005). They Call Me Ranger Ray: From the UT Tower Sniper to Corruption in South Texas. New Braunfels, Texas: Rio Bravo Publishing. ISBN 0-9760162-0-6.
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• Mayo, Mike (2008). American Murder: Criminals, Crimes and the Media. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 1-57859-256-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Morris, Ray, Jr. (2009). The Time of My Life: Remembrances of the 20th Century. Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 1-60844-142-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ramsland, Katherine M. (2005). Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers: Why They Kill. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-98475-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Thompson, James G. (2003). Complete Guide to United States Marine Corps Medals, Badges, and Insignia: World War II to Present. Medals of America Press. ISBN 1-884452-42-6.
• Time-Life Books (1993). Mass Murderers. Time-Life Books. ISBN 0-7835-0004-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Tobias, Ronald (1981). They Shoot to Kill: A Psycho-History of Criminal Sniping. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press. ISBN 0-87364-207-4.

External links

• Charles Whitman from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Memorial website dedicated to those who were killed on August 1, 1966.
• Charles Whitman Research Guide at the Austin History Center
• Charles Whitman at Find a Grave
• Kathleen Frances Whitman at Find a Grave