Today in Texas History

August 1st, 1966 -- Gunman opens fire on students at UT

On this date in 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman began a killing rampage that left seventeen dead and thirty-one wounded in one of the worst mass murders in modern United States history. Whitman first killed his mother in her apartment and his wife in their residence. He then went to the tower on the University of Texas campus where he clubbed a receptionist, who later died, then killed two other people and wounded two more. Gaining the observation deck at an elevation of 231 feet he began firing on persons crossing the campus and others on nearby streets, killing ten and wounding thirty-one (one died a week later). Police returned his fire from the ground while police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy gained the observation deck, where they shot and killed Whitman. An autopsy revealed a tumor in Whitman's head but medical authorities disagreed over its effect on his actions.

Social workers couldn't have stopped him.

to the police.

Remember it well.

I remember.

Bill used to take Charles Whitman quail hunting

I remember visiting the campus in 69- or 70, My future , ex brotherinlaw , showed us some of the bullet marks in concrete and granite.

Part of the reason I chose to attend college elsewhere.

MO

I remember it.

I was just a tadpole....14 months old

I was 6yo, no 24hr news.

I was 5 but remember it on the news.......When it was real news.

I was 13. I came home from school and watched Walter Cronkite reporting on it on the evening news.

Remember it well

I remember it. I was 11 years old.

weird how many remember but dont remember the why.

I got to looking and found similarities with modern day shooters. Ex military, on pills-medications, note left of hearing voices and impluses.




side effects of dextroamphetamine

Whitman also had a growth in his head.
I don't remember if it was cancerous or
not. His father was also extremely abusive
and physically and emotionally abusive to
his mother. Put regular dope use and poor
sleep and stress on top of that and nothing
good can come of it

I remember it well. Seems to me that the policeman that shot him died just a few years ago.

I remember it from the news coverage.

I was 15 months old but my mom was working for MA Bell downtown and was told to work OT till the threat was silenced. I have the CD "The deadly Tower" think I'll dig it up and watch it tonight.

The world started changing.

My mom was 6!

Exerts from a Texas Monthly article:

JAMES DAMON was a graduate student in comparative literature. A retired real estate investor, he lives in Austin.
My wife was six months pregnant, and she was stuck on the fourth floor of the Tower, in the stacks. I looked around and didn’t see any police, so I went home and got my gun. It was an M1 carbine, which I’d bought for $15 when I was discharged from the Army. I went to the top of the new Academic Center and tried to keep out of sight. That was the closest I could get. I only saw him once, long enough to take aim, but from time to time I would shoot over the ledge of the observation deck and try to hit him.

CLIF DRUMMOND was a senior and the student body president. He is a high-tech executive in Austin.
Students with deer rifles were leaning up against telephone poles, using the pole, which is rather narrow, as their shield. And they were firing like crazy back at the Tower.

FORREST PREECE was a junior. A retired advertising executive, he lives in Austin.
I saw two guys in white shirts and slacks running across the lawn of the Pi Phi house, hustling up to its porch with rifles at the ready. Someone was yelling, “Keep down, man. Keep down!”

BRENDA BELL: I don’t know where these vigilantes came from, but they took over Parlin Hall and were crashing around, firing guns. There was massive testosterone.

J. M. COETZEE was a Ph.D. candidate in English literature and linguistics. A novelist who won the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature, he lives in Adelaide, Australia.
I hadn’t fully comprehended that lots of people around me in Austin not only owned guns but had them close at hand and regarded themselves as free to use them.

BILL HELMER: I remember thinking, “All we need is a bunch of idiots running around with rifles.” But what they did turned out to be brilliant. Once he could no longer lean over the edge and fire, he was much more limited in what he could do. He had to shoot through those drain spouts, or he had to pop up real fast and then dive down again. That’s why he did most of his damage in the first twenty minutes.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/96-minutes/

Remember well
Had summer job with highway department picking up trash and cleaning roadside parks