[skankhunt]

Charles Whitman, a former Marine and engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin, committed one of the most infamous mass shootings in American history on August 1, 1966. Prior to his public rampage, Whitman murdered his mother, Margaret Whitman, and his wife, Kathleen Whitman, in the early hours of the same day.

Whitman's violent spree culminated at the University of Texas campus, where he ascended the university's iconic tower armed with a cache of firearms. From the observation deck, he opened fire indiscriminately on individuals below. Over the course of approximately 96 minutes, Whitman killed 14 people and wounded 31 others before he was fatally shot by police officers.

The shooting was unprecedented at the time, both in terms of the number of casualties and the public nature of the attack. It shocked the nation and brought the issue of mass public shootings into the national consciousness. In the aftermath, there were calls for increased campus security measures and debates over gun control laws.

Investigations into Whitman's actions revealed that he had struggled with mental health issues and had expressed concerns about his mental state in a note found after his death. An autopsy also discovered a brain tumor, although medical experts were divided on whether it had influenced his actions.

[LadyCPlum]

After his death the autopsy revealed that he had a tumor the size of a walnut in his brain. but they said it wasn't in a place where it would have influenced his actions or changed his personality....

[skankhunt]

he hit all of them people from so far away and for that he is my favorite killer

[Konglomo]

Originally Posted by johndoe1112 ↗

he hit all of them people from so far away and for that he is my favorite killer

Why? He killed the way the government had taught him, seems strange someone with an anarchist's symbol would choose him as their favorite killer.

[skankhunt]

Originally Posted by Konglomo ↗

Why? He killed the way the government had taught him, seems strange someone with an anarchist's symbol would choose him as their favorite killer.

he was my favorite because he had a skill that he used to kill those people and he had it long before the military as a little boy he would win awards for his shooting and the marines just made him better and shooting and crazy enough to do it.

[skankhunt]

The day before the shootings, Whitman bought a pair of binoculars and a knife from a hardware store, and 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, located close to the university.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. on July 31, Charles and Kathy Whitman visited their close friends John and Fran Morgan. They left the Morgans' apartment at 5:50 so that Kathy could get to her 6:00–10:00 p.m. shift.
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.[38]
Whitman wrote that he requested an autopsy be conducted upon his body, to determine if there was a biological reason for his actions and increasing headaches. He also wrote that he had decided to kill both his mother and wife. Expressing uncertainty about his reasons, he stated he wanted to relieve his wife and mother from the suffering of this world and to save them the embarrassment of his actions.[39] 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.[40] His method of murder is disputed, but officials believed he rendered her unconscious before stabbing her in the heart.[41]
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.[42]
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.[41] Using a ballpoint pen, he wrote at the side of the page:
Friends interrupted. 8-1-66 Mon. 3:00 A.M. BOTH DEAD.[40]
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.[38]
He also left instructions in the rented house requesting that two rolls of camera film be developed. Whitman also 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.[40]
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.Following the sniper tradition of "one shot, one kill", Whitman never shot twice anyone who had fallen to the ground.[52] The first shots fired by Whitman from the tower's outer deck came at approximately 11:48 a.m. He first hit Claire Wilson, an 18-year-old anthropology student who was eight months pregnant. Whitman shot Wilson in the abdomen, killing her unborn child. The shot dropped Wilson to the concrete on the mall as her fiancé, 18-year-old Thomas Eckman, asked her, "What's wrong?"[56] Whitman shot and killed Eckman as he tried to help Wilson. He next shot Robert Boyer, a 33-year-old mathematician, who was killed instantly by a single shot to the lower back.[57] After shooting Boyer, Whitman shot a 31-year old student named Devereau Huffman in the right arm; Huffman fell wounded beside a hedge.[58] When Charlotte Darehshori, a young secretary, ran to help Boyer and Huffman, she came under fire. She crouched beneath the concrete base of a flagpole for an hour and a half, shielding herself from Whitman's view.[59] Nearby, Whitman shot David Gunby, a 23-year-old electrical engineering student walking in the courtyard.[60] Whitman fatally shot Thomas Ashton, a 22-year-old, in the chest.[61] Next he shot Adrian and Brenda Littlefield as they walked onto the South Mall. Two young women, Nancy Harvey and Ellen Evganides, were wounded as they walked down the West Mall. Whitman shot Harvey, who was five months pregnant, in the hip, and Evganides in the leg and thigh.[62] Both Harvey and her unborn child survived.


Karen Griffith, aged 17.
Whitman began to fire upon people walking on Guadalupe Street; he shot and wounded 17-year-old newspaper delivery boy Alex Hernandez, before fatally wounding 17-year-old Karen Griffith[63] with a shot to the shoulder and lung. The next victim was a 24-year-old senior named Thomas Karr, whom Whitman fatally shot in the back as he walked to his residence after completing an exam. On the third block, Whitman shot and wounded 35-year-old basketball coach Billy Snowden from a distance of over 1,500 feet (460 m). Nearby, he shot 21-year-old Sandra Wilson in the chest.
On the corner of 24th and Guadalupe, Whitman shot and wounded two students, Abdul Khashab and his fiancee Janet Paulos, outside a dress shop. Khashab, a 26-year-old chemistry student from Iraq, was shot in the elbow and Paulos in the chest.[64] The next to be shot was a 21-year-old named Lana Phillips, whom Whitman wounded in the shoulder.[65] Phillips' sister ran from cover to drag Lana to safety.
Three Peace Corps trainees, Tom Herman, Roland Ehlke and David Mattson, were Whitman's next targets. The trio were shot at as they walked toward a luncheon for volunteers. Mattson had part of his wrist blown off.[52] Ehlke subsequently recalled that he heard Mattson scream as the bullet hit him in the wrist; the youth saw shrapnel from the shot had embedded into his own left arm. Ehlke was shot in the left biceps before he dove for cover. Ehlke emerged from cover to drag his friend to safety and was shot again in the leg.[66] A 64-year-old local shopkeeper named Homer Kelly helped drag the wounded duo—plus Herman—into his shop, before he was shot and wounded in the leg.
To the rear of the intersection of 24th and Guadalupe Street, Whitman targeted two 21-year-olds, Oscar Royvela and Irma Garcia, as the pair walked toward the university's biology laboratory. Shot first, Garcia later said the bullet spun her "completely around" and she fell to the ground. Royvela tried to help Garcia when he was shot through the shoulder blade; the bullet exited through his left arm.[67] Students Jack Stephens and Jack Pennington ran from cover and dragged the pair to safety. Whitman targeted a 26-year-old carpenter named Avelino Esparza and seriously wounded him in the left shoulder.
Directly in front of the entrance to the West Mall on Guadalupe Street, two 18-year-old students named Paul Sonntag and Claudia Rutt had taken refuge behind a construction barricade alongside teenager Carla Sue Wheeler. Whitman started shooting in that direction and hit Sonntag in the mouth, killing him instantly. Sonntag's body fell against a parking meter and knocked the barricade slightly open.[68] Rutt tried to reach Sonntag while Wheeler restrained her; Whitman shot a bullet that took three fingers of Wheeler's left hand, and hit Rutt in the chest. Rutt died later in hospital;[63] Wheeler survived.
A block north of where Sonntag and Rutt were killed, Whitman shot and killed Harry Walchuk, a 38-year-old doctoral student and father of six. He next shot the 36-year-old press reporter Robert Heard in the arm as Heard ran toward two highway patrolmen coming on the scene. Slightly north, 18-year-old freshman John Allen was wounded in the forearm as he and acquaintances looked toward the tower from the University of Texas Union.
Having seen several students shot in the South Mall, a history professor was the first to telephone the Austin Police Department at 11:52 a.m.;[69] four minutes after Whitman had first fired from the tower. Austin patrolman Billy Speed was one of the first police officers to arrive at the University. He and a colleague took refuge behind a columned stone wall but Whitman shot through a space and killed Speed. At a distance of approximately 1,500 feet (460 m), Whitman shot and killed 29-year-old electrical repairman Roy Schmidt as he tried to hide behind a parked car.


Charlotte Darehshori takes refuge behind the concrete base of a flagpole as a wounded student lies beside a hedge.
Students and university staff worked to assist and move the wounded to safety, risking their lives. One student later recalled, "That was the moment that separated the brave people from the scared people ... I realized I was a coward." Medical personnel used an armored car and provisioned ambulances from local funeral homes to reach the wounded.[52] A 30-year-old ambulance driver named Morris Hohmann was shot in the leg on West 23rd Street as he tried to evacuate the numerous wounded. The wound severed a major artery. A fellow ambulance driver gave him first aid before he was taken to Brackenridge Hospital, the only one with a local emergency room. The Brackenridge Hospital administrator declared a state of emergency. Medical staff raced there to reinforce the on-duty shifts. Numerous volunteers donated blood at both Brackenridge Hospital and the Travis County Blood Bank.
The shootings and news of the sniper caused panic in and around the University. All active police officers in Austin were ordered to the campus. Off-duty officers, Travis County Sheriff's deputies, and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers also converged on the area.
Approximately 20 minutes after first shooting from the observation deck, Whitman began to encounter return fire from both the police and other armed citizens. One Texas Ranger used a student as spotter to help locate the sniper. At this point, Whitman chose to fire through waterspouts located on each side of the tower walls. This action largely protected him from gunfire below, but limited his range of targets.[52] Police sharpshooter Marion Lee reported from a small airplane that he had observed a single sniper firing from the observation deck. Lee tried to shoot Whitman from the plane, but the turbulence proved too great. Whitman shot at the plane, and it moved off to circle from a greater distance.Three officers who responded to reports of the sniper were Ramiro Martinez, Houston McCoy and Jerry Day.[69] Prior to advancing upon the tower, McCoy had seen his colleague Billy Speed killed.[69] Both Martinez and Day had driven to the University of Texas after listening to radio reports.[70]
Accompanied by 40-year-old civilian Allen Crum—whom the trio encountered as they ran toward the tower—they were the first to reach the tower's observation deck. After reaching the 26th floor by elevator, they encountered M. J. Gabour. Gabour—clutching his wife's shoes[7]— screamed that his family had been shot and tried to wrestle the rifle from Day to shoot Whitman himself. Day consoled Gabour and led him to safety before joining McCoy, Crum and Martinez as they walked up to the 27th floor.[7]
Beneath the stairwell leading to the reception area, Officer Martinez saw the body of a teenage boy, Mark Gabour. Next to him lay a middle-aged woman, Marguerite Lamport.[71] Nearby, Mike Gabour lay slumped against the wall, with his mother lying face down in a pool of blood. The officers turned Mary Gabour onto her side to prevent her from drowning in her own blood. Mike Gabour gestured to the observation deck and said, "He's out there.

[Catsratz]

"Favorite killer?"

Gee, I don't know that I have a favorite. Maybe if there was one who killed himself instead of taking his craziness out on innocent others

[Konglomo]

Whitman was born on June 24, 1941 in Lake Worth, Florida where his father, Charles Adolph "C.A." Whitman, ran a plumbing business and had, besides Whitman, two sons named Patrick and John with his wife, Margaret. He was sometimes abusive to her and would discipline his sons physically. Growing up, Charles was a pitcher in a local baseball team, took up piano lessons, was an Eagle Scout and was taught by his father how to handle firearms along with his brothers. All three brothers were also altar boys at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church.

On July 6, 1959, less than a month after he turned 18, Charles joined the U.S. Marine Corps. His father, who was strongly opposed to the decision, personally made a call to "some branch of Federal government" and tried to have his son's acceptance reversed. Charles spent most of his service at the USMC's base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and was a part of the Naval Enlisted Science Education Program (NESEP), a scholarship program which trained engineers who were to become officers. He earned a number of decorations, including a Sharpshooter's Badge, and proved to be an excellent marksman, especially at rapid fire from long distances and at moving targets.

On September 15, 1961, he entered the mechanical engineering program at the University of Texas on a Marine Corps scholarship.
While studying, Whitman practiced karate, scuba diving and was also an avid hunter; the latter got him in trouble on one occasion when he shot a deer, took its carcass to his dorm room and skinned it in the shower. Also, though he was quite intelligent, his grades were sub-par and he began racking up some gambling debts.

After marrying his girlfriend, Kathy Leissner, he did pick up the slack a bit, but the USMC withdrew his scholarship in 1963 and he was sent to active duty at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville, North Carolina. Though he was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal upon returning, it was difficult for him to re-adjust to the military after his time in civilian life; he was court-martialed for gambling, usury and possession of a non-regulation firearm. He was sentenced to 30 days of confinement and 90 days of hard labor and was demoted to the rank of Private. In 1964, he was honorably discharged, having had his father use his connections to get his service time shortened, and moved back to Austin, Texas, where he continued studying.

While his wife worked as a biology teacher, he changed his major from mechanical engineering to architectural engineering and held down some jobs for short periods of time, including as a bill collector for Standard Finance Company, a bank teller and a traffic surveyor. He was also a Scoutmaster. In May of 1966, Whitman was contacted by his mother, Margaret, who announced that she was filing for divorce from her husband.

Whitman went to Fort Worth and helped her and one of his brothers, John, move to Austin. The third brother, Patrick, stayed in Fort Worth with their father, who kept calling Whitman and asked him to talk Margaret into returning.

Over time, Whitman became more and more troubled with the way his life had gone; his wife even suggested that he should seek counseling.

From the sounds of it he had the potential to do great things. Sadly he allowed outside influences dominate his directive. His parents, inparticular, seemed to impeed his developement as an adult. Maybe there was more to killing his mother other than sparing he the embarrassment, whether he conciously realized it or not. And he left his father to endure the public shame.

[skankhunt]

Originally Posted by Catsratz ↗

"Favorite killer?"

Gee, I don't know that I have a favorite. Maybe if there was one who killed himself instead of taking his craziness out on innocent others

yep he is my favorite for other reason he also helped people medically because right before he died he wrote several note on of them being that when they got to him and killed him he wanted his brain to be examined for medical reasons so this does not happen to any other people.

[Konglomo]

In his suicide note, Whitman said he killed his mother and wife to spare them from the murder spree he would launch. He might have just been telling himself that, as he actually was angry at his family. It should be noted that the nature of these particular killings suggested rage, since both were very violent, personal, and that the targets were women that he professed to love a great deal. He had been taking amphetamines months before the massacre, making his frequent mood swings become more violent as it progressed.

He put an extraordinary amout of planning into this. Thanks to the USMC.

Whitman killed his mother and wife by stabbing them; his mother was also shot. At the University of Texas campus, he usually fired from the tower's observation deck at bypassers with the following firearms he brought:
* A Universal M1 carbine rifle
* A sawed-off 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun
* A scoped Remington 700 ADL bolt-action hunting rifle
* A Remington M 141 .35-caliber pump-action rifle
* A .357 Magnum Smith and Wesson Model 19*revolver

* A 9mm Luger P08 semiautomatic pistol
* A Galesi-Brescia semiautomatic pistol

Whitman placed one weapon each at a different position on the observation deck, allowing him to fire from all directions and to give the illusion that there were multiple shooters. He was a better marksman at hitting moving targets than stationary targets. Whitman also murdered Edna Townsley by striking her head with the butt of a rifle, then shooting her, and attacked the Gabours and Lamports at the stairway with the aforementioned sawed-off 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun.