Charles Joseph Whitman was an American engineering student at the University of Texas and mass murderer who gunned down 49 people, killing 16. In the early morning hours of August 1, 1966, Whitman murdered his wife and his mother in their homes.
Wikipedia
Died: August 1, 1966,
Austin, TX
Spouse:
Kathy Leissner (m. 1962–1966)
There were dozens of cops with rifles shooting back at him.
Say stupid, didn't Whitman use a bolt action .30-06?
Guess we better outlaw single shot rifles, right?
Inside his garage, Whitman sawed off the barrel and butt stock of the 12-gauge
shotgun, and packed into his footlocker the weapon, together with a Remington 700 6-mm bolt-action hunting rifle, a .35-caliber pump rifle, a .30-caliber
carbine M1, a 9-mm
Luger pistol, a Galesi-Brescia .25-caliber
pistol, a Smith & Wesson ...
You might want to stop talking out your ass
He used all the weapons listed.
Any more bullshit justification?
He shot people from 300 yards with a 9mm?
But of course you are a drunken fool spewing shit that has no basis in reality.
Whitman used a bolt action Remington 700. The guns in his garage were a bit far for him to reach from up in the tower.
Rifle reported to be used in Charles Whitman killing spree up for sale
As I said he used every one of the weapons.
Charles Whitman | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
A.K.A.:
"The Texas Tower Sniper"
Classification:
Mass murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide - Shooting rampage
Number of victims:
15 + 1
Date of murders:
August 1, 1966
Date of birth:
June 24, 1941
Victims profile:
His mother Margaret Whitman (43) /
His wife Kathy Whitman (23) /
Edna Townsley (47) /
Mark Gabour (16) /
Marguerite Lamport (45) /
Paul Sonntag (18) /
Claudia Rutt (18) /
Roy Dell Schmidt (29) /
Thomas Aquinas Ashton (22) /
Thomas Eckmann (18) /
Baby Boy Wilson (unborn) /
Thomas Karr (24) /
Karen Griffith (17) /
Doctor Robert Boyer (32) /
Harry Walchuk (39) /
Billy Speed (22)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location:
Austin, Texas, USA
Status:
Shot and killed by Austin Police Officer Houston McCoy the same day
photo galleries
charles whitman
the shooting
the victims
documents
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After killing his mother and wife, went to the top of the University clock tower after the lunch break and began to pick off the stragglers who remained.
3 police and one retired Air Force Tailgunner found their way into the Tower, where they shot him 6 times with a .38, and twice in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun from 5 feet away.
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin who shot and killed 14 people (including those who survived the initial shooting but later died as a result of their injuries) and wounded 31 others from the observation deck of the University's Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin on August 1, 1966, after murdering his wife and mother, and before being shot by Austin police.
The autopsy requested in the suicide note left by Whitman revealed that he had a brain tumor. This has led to speculation that the tumor was responsible for his rampage.
Background
A widely released image, of Charles Whitman on a family vacation holding two rifles.The eldest of three brothers raised on South L Street in Lake Worth, Florida, Whitman, who had scored 138 on an IQ test at the age of 6, attended St. Ann's High School in Palm Beach, where he was a pitcher on the school's baseball team. He also took five years of piano lessons.
All three brothers served as altar boys at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, and Whitman chose the Confirmation name Joseph for himself. As a 12-year-old, he was among the youngest ever to achieve Eagle Scout, to his father's delight.
When Whitman was 14 and still serving as an altar boy, his Scout leader Joseph Leduc completed seminary and served as the priest of Sacred Heart for a month. Leduc, later a confidant of Whitman, was a family friend who had accompanied Whitman and his father on several hunting trips. At the age of 16, Whitman underwent a routine appendectomy and was hospitalized following a motorcycle accident.
The wedding of Kathy Leissner and Charles WhitmanAgainst his father's wishes, Whitman joined the Marines on July 6, 1959. He explained to Fr. Leduc that he had come home drunk several weeks earlier and his father had hit him repeatedly and pushed him into the family's swimming pool.
While Whitman was aboard a train headed towards Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, his father telephoned "some branch of Federal Government" to have his son's enlistment cancelled, but was rebuffed.
Following his enlistment, Whitman was accepted into the University of Texas' mechanical engineering program on September 15, 1961 through a USMC scholarship. His hobbies at this point included karate, scuba diving, and hunting. This last hobby got him into trouble at the University, when he was involved in a "teenage prank" in which he shot a deer, dragged it to his dormitory, and skinned it in his shower. As a result of both this incident and sub-standard grades, Whitman's scholarship was withdrawn in 1963.
In August 1962, Whitman married Kathleen Frances Leissner, another University of Texas student, in a wedding that was held in Kathy's hometown of Needville, Texas, but presided over by Fr. Leduc.
The following year, he returned to active duty at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he was both promoted to Lance Corporal and involved in an accident in which his Jeep rolled over an embankment. After rescuing his pinned comrade, Whitman was hospitalized for four days.
That 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 of confinement and 90 days of hard labor and was demoted to the rank of Private.
In December 1964, Whitman was honorably discharged from the Marines and returned to the University of Texas, this time enrolling in its architectural engineering program. Now lacking 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 a temporary job with Central Freight Lines and worked as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department. He also volunteered as a Scoutmaster for Austin Scout Troop 5, while Kathy worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.
Family issues
The Whitman family had a long history of dysfunctionality. By 1966, Whitman's mother Margaret had announced she was divorcing his father. Whitman drove to Florida to help his mother move to Austin, Texas, where she found work in a cafeteria. The move prompted his youngest brother John to move out, as well. Meanwhile, his brother Patrick decided to continue living with their father, whose plumbing business employed him.
Whitman's father began to telephone Whitman several times a week, pleading with him to convince his mother to give the marriage another try, but Whitman refused.
Shortly afterwards, John was arrested for throwing a rock through a window and released after paying a $25 fine.
Declining health
Whitman's daily journal.In 1966, Whitman discussed his depression with 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 and spent an hour explaining his frustration with his parents' separation and his increasing strains at work and school.
During the interview, he made a remark about feeling the urge to "start shooting people with a deer rifle" from the University tower. Heatly noted that Whitman was "oozing with hostility", yet never returned. Whitman mentioned the visit with Heatly in his final suicide notes, saying that it was to "no avail". By the summer, Whitman was prescribed Dexedrine.
Although Whitman had been prescribed drugs, the autopsy could not establish if he had consumed any prior to the attacks. However, it was revealed during the autopsy that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some have theorized that it may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala, which can affect emotive passion. This has led some neurologists to speculate that his medical condition was in some way responsible for the attacks.
Fr. Leduc met with Whitman for the last time two months prior to the shootings and said that Whitman had confided that he had lost his faith, and no longer considered himself a practicing Catholic.
After the attacks, a study of Whitman's journal showed him lamenting that he had acted violently towards Kathy, and that he was resolved both not to follow his father's abusive example and to be a good husband. However, John and Fran Morgan, close friends of Whitman's, later told the Department of Public Safety that he had confided in them that he had struck Kathy on three occasions.
Leadup to the shootings
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.The day before the shootings, Whitman purchased binoculars and a knife from Davis' Hardware, as well as Spam from a 7-Eleven store. He then picked up Kathy from her summer job as a Bell operator, and they went to a matinée before meeting his mother for lunch at her job.
Around 4:00 PM, they went to visit friends John and Fran Morgan, who lived in the same neighborhood. They left at approximately 5:30 so that Kathy could leave for her 6:00-10:00 PM shift that night. At 6:45, 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.
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 had been anything to explain his actions and increasing headaches. He willed any money from his estate to mental health research, saying that he hoped it would prevent others from following his route.
Margaret Whitman, as found by policeJust after midnight, he killed his mother Margaret. 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 Jewell Street and stabbed Kathy five times as she slept naked, 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 and 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.
Tower shootings
Weapons
12 gauge shotgun
Remington 700 with 4x Leupold Scope
6 millimeter 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 Marine Corps
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
