CHARLES WHITMAN'S CLOCK TOWER SHOOTING SPREE 1966

Survivors remember those who lost their lives at UT Shooting 

Before Virginia Tech, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora and Orlando there was the horrific University of Texas tower shooting. 54 years ago on August 1, 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, a twenty-five year old University of Texas student and ex-marine, climbed to the top of the iconic University of Texas Clock Tower and went on a shooting spree, killing 14 people and wounding at least 33 others.

Charles Whitman with his mother and wife

In the early morning hours prior to the UT attack, Whitman murdered his beloved mother and then his wife in cold blood. Another individual died years later of complications from a gunshot wound inflicted during the UT attack, bringing the total death toll to 17. At the time, this seemingly senseless massacre of civilians was unprecedented and considered the worst mass murder in modern U.S. history.

What set the Texas Tower shooting apart was the instantaneousness of its coverage on radio and television by reporters on the scene who described the events as they happened.

Above: A victim of sniper Charles Whitman is placed into a waiting ambulance during the shooting spree at the University of Texas in Austin, Aug. 2, 1966. Until the carnage at Virginia Tech Monday, April 16, 2007, the Aug. 1, 1966, the sniper rampage by Charles Whitman from the Austin school's landmark 307-foot tower had remained the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history. (AP Photo)

Whitman and wife Kathy

I don’t want her (his wife) to have to face the embrasssment [sic] my actions would surely cause her.…I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die, and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it….Similar reasons provoked me to take my mother’s life. Note from Whitman

Sometime after midnight August 1, Whitman went to his mother’s apartment, where he took her life. Returning home, he killed his wife at about 3:00 AM on August 1, stabbing her as she slept. Again he paused to document his actions, though he wrote nothing about the events to come.

Whitman placed all of these weapons around the top of the clock tower so he could run and shoot from all directions.

Above: These brave officers made their way to the top of the Tower and shot and killed the sniper.

As police began arriving in greater numbers, they were joined by private citizens (many alerted by the on-the-scene radio report of the incident as it occurred) who came armed with hunting rifles. The expanding fire from the ground forced Whitman to seek shelter behind the observation deck’s thick walls and limited his targeting ability by confining him to shooting through waterspouts.

The officers removing the body of Charles Whitman

As a result of the lack of communication technology, the assault that ended Whitman’s rampage came about rather haphazardly. Using stairs and the elevator, three police officers and an armed citizen (the university bookstore manager!!), acting largely independently, found themselves together on the 27th floor.

UT Clock Tower Memorial

Without a plan or any real coordination, all four men took to the observation deck in a successful attempt to surround Whitman, enabling policemen Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy to shoot and kill Whitman.

After more than 90 terrifying minutes, Whitman’s murder spree had been brought to an end. Excluding his wife and mother, he had killed 14 people (including the unborn child) and wounded another 31 (one of whom would die some 30 years later after deciding to end the daily dialysis treatments necessitated by his wounds). read more

Autopsy revealed tumor, but questions linger

Why did Charles Whitman commit this heinous crime? Was it that his Daddy was a bully? Or his lackluster attempts to achieve success in college? Or was it a brain tumor that caused him to lose his mind?

retrokimmer@gmail.com

THE DC SNIPER CASE OF 2002

 

Chief Charles Moose took the brunt of the media glare and public outrage...he deserved much better treatment than he received....

One tough Police Chief Charles Moose

The Beltway sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that took place during three weeks in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia.

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo

It was widely speculated that a single sniper, initially identified as a white man with assumed military experience, was using the Capital Beltway for travel, possibly in a white van or truck. It was later learned that the rampage was perpetrated by one man, John Allen Muhammad, and one minor, Lee Boyd Malvo, driving a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan, and had apparently begun the month before with murders and robbery in Louisiana and Alabama, which had resulted in three of the deaths.

In September 2003, Muhammad was sentenced to death. One month later, Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. On November 10, 2009, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection.
 

Police collecting evidence from the late model Chevy Caprice the DC Snipers used. A brown glove similar to one found at one of the shooting scenes was discovered in the trunk of the car.

Other contents included a laptop computer, a set of two-way radios, a wallet with several licenses all with Muhammad’s picture, a global positioning system, and the altered rifle believed to be the weapon used in one of the shootings.

Mark Spicer is a world-renowned authority on snipers and sniping.

Mark Spicer was called in to assist the law enforcement agencies find the DC Snipers.  Here is an excerpt from his article on this topic:

In a clearly detailed and very well constructed campaign, the men attacked the general public in order to dictate actions to the Government. They set about a plan to limit public movement and hence drop localised economy profit. This in turn applies pressure on local and then higher authority, to remove this threat, as business losses dictate an angry demand by corporate entities for the law enforcement departments to protect and hence return profit. 

 Mark Spicer simulating a car "Sniper Nest"

By scaring or terrorizing the general public into not driving their cars, because getting fuel could mean getting shot, you cost the fuel industry vast amounts of money, and to compound that effect by killing an innocent bus driver you ensure that even public transport starts to grind to a halt.  Read full Article on DC Sniper Attacks

John Allen Muhammad's motive: The Ex-Wife Connection.....

with all the subsequent loss of earnings to the economy. If this seems all a bit far fetched, just ask anyone living in the DC area during these attacks how they felt and you will get the point.