Deranged Killers： Charles Whitman - Serial Killer Documentary

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He seemed to be the all American boy, but dark
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thoughts clouded the mind of Charles J.
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Whitman, an urge to kill that he couldn't stop.
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On August the first, nineteen sixty six, he barricaded himself
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at the top of the clock tower at the University
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of Texas and began shooting.
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There's no report as to who this man may be
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or what he's doing up there, and what was this
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abarent madness.
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He had the whole program set up for himself. He
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was in the killing field and he was the killer.
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In ninety six minutes, Charlie Whitman gunned down forty five strangers,
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killing fourteen. It was a murders free that changed America forever.
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But everybody wants to wonder why he just rayed.
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When he was twelve, Charles J. Whitman became the youngest
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Eagle Scout in America. As an adult, living in Austin,
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the state capital of Texas, he led a Scout troop
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at his local Catholic church.
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He was loved by the boy scouts, and he took
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the boys out on a rifle range and he showed
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them and they injoared.
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That Toby Hamilton was in Whitman's troop, but he didn't
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enjoy it. The scout master often taunted the boys.
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He would take a dollar bill out and he would
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throw it down on the floor and say, anybody can
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do what I do, you can have the dollar. Well
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dollar in nineteen sixty six a lot of money to
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a kid. But he'd flip upside down. He would go
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into a handstand position with his feet up on the
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wall and he would do push ups upside down, and
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of course we'd all try to do it with fall
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on our faces, and he would just laugh at us
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and snatch a dollar bill back and say, see you
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can't do it, and walk away. I mean, he was
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just that. It was all about showing off. It was
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about Charles Whitman. Nothing was about us. I don't know
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if anybody else in Austin that could shoot like he could.
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He'd taken us all out to a rifle range at
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one point, and his marksmanship skills were incredible.
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There didn't seem to be any reason why he felt
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so angry, and yet the anger was really deep seated.
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From his childhood.
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His father was a domineering presence in Charlie's life. Charles
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Whitman Senior was strict and overbearing. He often beat his
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wife and his sons.
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What's tragic about that relationship is that Charles Whitman Senior
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apparently didn't see anything at all.
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Unusual about that.
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He was a kind of a person who could associate
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violence and love for a family all in the same sentence.
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Charlie nursed a hatred for his father. His violence wasn't
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the only reason. The year constantly pressed and bullied Charlie
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to succeed. No matter how hard the boy tried, he
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could never please him, except when it came to his
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aptitude for guns. His father kept a gleaming collection of
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over sixty firearms at their home. By the age of twelve,
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Charlie was an expert shot.
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He'd been excellent with firearms from the time he was
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a small boy. His father said he could shoot the
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eye out of a squirrel at fifty yards beautiful.
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When Charlie was nineteen, his relationship with his father reached
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breaking point.
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He went out with some friends and he got drunk,
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and his father got enraged to the point where he
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beat up Charlie and threw him in the family swimming pool.
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He was so beaten up and drunk at the same
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time that he almost drowned.
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He decided to savitize with his father for good. With
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his mother's encouragement, he joined the United States Marines.
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When he joined the Marine Corpsy was an outstanding marine.
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On his first tour, he was well liked. People said,
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if you had been somebody who'd want to go up
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with Charles wit he was courteous.
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His IQ was one hundred and thirty eight.
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Seeing promise in Whitman, the Marines awarded him a scholarship
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in nineteen sixty one to study mechanical engineering at the
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University of Texas in Austin. There he met a woman
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who would change his life, Kathy Leisner.
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She was outgoing, fun cute. She was the kind of
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girl that everybody wanted to be friends with in when
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we were in college.
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After a six month courtship, they married, but their home
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life was short lived.
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I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately.
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On October fifteenth, nineteen sixty two, the Cuban miss Up
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crisis began. The confrontation between the Soviet Union and the
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US brought Whitman back to active duty. When he managed
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to return to university. He was no longer a good student,
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and the Marines withdrew his scholarship. They took Whitman out
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of the University of Texas and returned him once again
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to active duty.
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When Charlie returned to Camp Lejune, North Carolina.
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He was not a good marine anymore.
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He guide into fights, he engaged in gambling, He got
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caught in the possession of an illegal weapon.
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In December nineteen sixty four, Whitman was discharged from the Marines.
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He returned to Austin. Determined to redeem himself. He reapplied
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to the university, was accepted, and started a new course
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architectural engineering. Charlie Whitman may have had a violent temper,
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influenced by his father, but he managed to hide it
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from fellow students and most of his friends. However, his
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streak of aggression would soon reveal itself in the most
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brutal manner. Charles Whitman returned to the University of Texas
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to resume his engineering studies after being discharged from the Marines.
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In the city of Austin, he settled down with his wife, Kathy,
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who was also an undergraduate on the surface everything seemed normal,
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but below a calm exterior, an aggressive personality seethed.
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He does seem to have been the type of person
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who did not have much resilience, who was a rigid temperament,
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probably because his father was as well, and so he
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would have stored up that anger and the grievances he
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had so that it really didn't matter if he had
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friends and had family and went out. He still was
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an angry young man.
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July the thirty first, nineteen sixty six, was the hottest
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day of the year in Austin. Charles Whitman sat at
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his typewriter in his sweltering home and wrote a letter
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that attempted to explain his feelings.
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I don't quite know what compels me to write this letter.
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I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed
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to be an average, reasonable and intelligent young man. However,
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lately I've been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.
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The twenty five year old was about to put those
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irrational thoughts to a deadly purpose.
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July thirty first, nineteen sixty six. We have a man
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who has decided to kill a lot of people, and
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that day was focused on preparing and making decisions and
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getting what he needed to get to accomplish that goal.
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That day, he picked up his wife from her part
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time some job and took her to the cinema. He
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dropped Kathy for her evening shift and went shopping, buying ammunition, weapons,
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cans of food, and bottles of water.
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He planned meticulously, and he made a number of decisions
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that led to the largest mass murder in the history
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of America up until that time.
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In the early evening, Whitman started typing.
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I've been to a psychiatrist. I've been having violent impulses.
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I've had tremendous headaches.
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As he typed, two friends dropped by.
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When we walked in, there was a typewriter and there
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was something in it, but of course we didn't stop
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to look at it or read it, and he was
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acting very normal.
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The couple soon left. Despite exams being imminent, Charlie seemed
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strangely calm and low key.
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Usually before exams, Charlie was very into studying and didn't
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have time to do anything, and he was remarkably relaxed.
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When he was alone again, Whitman continued to type. He
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outlined exactly what he planned to do.
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It was after much thought that I decided to kill
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my wife Kathy tonight. I cannot rationally pinpoint any specific
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reason for doing this. I intend to kill her as
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painlessly as possible.
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After Cathy came home and fell asleep, Whitman went to
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the home of his mother, Margaret. She had recently moved
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to Austin to escape her brutal husband. Whitman attacked her
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as soon as he entered her flat.
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Then he picked up the body very gently and carefully
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placed her on her bed, where he put the covers
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over her body to make it look as if.
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She was asleep.
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He left a note near his mother's body, addressed to
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whom it may concern, I.
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Have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset
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over having done it. However, I feel that if there
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is a heaven, she is definitely there now.
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He blamed the murder of his mother on his father's cruelty.
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She took enough of his beatings, humiliation, degradation, and tribulations.
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I loved her with all my heart.
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I think the way that Whitman treated his mother by
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choking and stabbing her was really about anger at her
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for not saving him. As a child. She knew he
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was killing her before she died.
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Returning home, Whitman crept into the bedroom and stabbed his
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sleeping wife five times in the chest with a bayonet.
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He returned to the typewriter and the letter he had
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been right earlier in Blue Ink. He scowled three am
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both dead. In that letter, Whitman said he had killed
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the two women to spare them from the murders breed
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he would soon launch.
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We have mass murders who kill their families and then
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say they wanted to spare them. But that's usually a lie.
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Usually that's just something they're telling themselves. But in fact
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they're really very angry at these people.
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The nature of the killings suggests rage. So these were
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both very violent, very close, very upfront, personal deaths with
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someone that he professed to love a great deal.
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Kathy said that when they were first married that he
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would hit her. She told me that he used to
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really have a temper.
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Whitmen had been taking amphetamines in the months leading up
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to the killings, making his frequent mood swings more volatile.
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In Factmen had exhibiting warning signs that he was about
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to crack for quite some time.
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Often mass murderers are also abusing substances, the likelihood that
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they will act out is raised because their inhibitions are
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lowered and their impulsiveness is raised. So the fact that
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Whitman was taking dexadrine meant he probably wasn't sleeping well.
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He probably was irritated already being angry. That would have
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just magnified his sense of the need to pay back
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somebody or to get revenge.
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At one point, Whitman even confessed his revenge fantasies in class.
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Larry looked, Doug said, Miss Riley, Charlie's talking about taking
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a rifle and going up on the tower and shooting
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a bunch of people. And I just walked over and
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put my elbows on his table and said, now, that's
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just what an old marine needs to do to show
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that to prove that he can shoot.
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He never looked up.
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He had that little bit smile on his face, and
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he just kept drawing.
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Whitman saw a campus docture about his anxieties and severe headaches.
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Once again, he spoke about the clock tower.
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One of the things that Charlie indicated in the session
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was that he would like to go up to the
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top of the University of Texas with a deer rifle
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and kill people.
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The doctor asked Whitman to return in a week, but.
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He never did.
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I have thought very much about the concept of death.
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When it overtakes me, someday, I must remember to observe
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it closely.
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At sunrise on August the first, nineteen sixty six, Whitman
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packed enough food to last for two weeks. He also
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assembled ear plugs, matches, rope, a transistor, radio, binoculars, and
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gallons of water. There was a machete and three large
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hunting knives. He sought off the stark and barrel of
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a brand new twelve gage shotgun and packed it along
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with three rifles, three pistols, and seven hundred rounds of ammunition.
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He loaded everything into his car and then put on
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a repairman's overalls. At about eleven am, he drove to
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the University of Texas campus as a student. He was
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waved through security. Meanwhile, city police officer Jerry Day and
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his partner, Billy speed We was sharing breakfast before going
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on duty.
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Billy told me that he was going to turned in
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his resignation that day. I said, now, Bill, he didn't
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want to do that, He says, yeah, He says, I
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feel like I'm going to be heard or killed if
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I stayed.
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On the board.
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When Charles Whitman arrived on campus, he headed to the
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university's clock tower, a local landmark built in the nineteen thirties.
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It dominated the Austin skyline, attracting twenty thousand visitors a year.
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Whitman park nearby and took his equipment to the tower's lift,
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which carried him to the twenty seventh floor below. On
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the campus, students and staff walked around as normal.
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I remember very clearly the weather that day. It was
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extraordinarily hot. It felt like it was about one hundred degrees.
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In the towers reception area, the powerfully built former marine
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was confronted by Edna Townsley. She was a divorced mother
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of two who was filling in as a receptionist.
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On her day off, probably because she recognized him because
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he had been up there before and she knew he
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was a student and not a university employee or a repairman.
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Her immediately and he chased her down and just beat
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00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:06.799
her on the back of the head to the point
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where it almost destroyed her skull.
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00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:15.080
Minutes later, after he had barricaded the entrance to the
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reception area, a family of six bounded up the stairs
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to take in the view. As they attempted to jump
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the barricade, Whitman fired his sawn off shotgun. Fourteen year
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00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.360
old Mark Gabour and his aunt, Margaret Lamport were killed instantly.
264
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Eighteen year old Mike Gabour lay bleeding on the stairs,
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while the others fled to the floor below. It was
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eleven forty three am when Charles Whitman walked out onto
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the observation deck.
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He took his foot locker and placed it on the
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western side of the deck, and then went back and
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took the dolly and wedged it against the door that
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you could use to get.
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Out onto the deck.
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And so he took guns and he spread them out,
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guns and supplies and a bunch of different things, and
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00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:13.079
he spread them out in all directions so that he
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00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:16.039
could run from one place to the next and shoot.
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The University green stretched out on three sides in a
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dyllic summer mode, with students strolling the walks across campus
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between classes.
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August first, nineteen sixty six was a typical hot, steamy
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August day, in Austin, Texas summer school was in section
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on the campus.
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00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:40.920
Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that day anything out
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00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:42.880
ordinary is going to go on. You know, it was
285
00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:47.200
a very sunny summer Texas day with no clouds in
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00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.920
the sky and the very peaceful college campus environment.
287
00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:52.680
You know that we were in.
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00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:55.759
A cafe on busy Guadalupe Street on the full side
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00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:59.400
of the tower forest. Priest was taking his usual daily
290
00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:00.000
lunch break.
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00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:05.279
Friends for our lunchtime conversation ran over by about five minutes,
292
00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.759
which I think was instrumental in the say, in my life,
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00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:13.240
any other day that semester oud have been in the
294
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middle of the main mall.
295
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:18.200
Of Charles Whitman had chosen his sniper's nest with care.
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00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:21.759
The clock tower's walls were more than thirty centimeters stick,
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00:18:22.119 --> 00:18:27.160
making his position almost impregnable. From below. Behind the imposing parapet,
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00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:31.000
he had a bird's eye view in every direction. It
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00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:32.880
was a spot he had thought of often.
300
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.599
Five years before he did it. He looked at the
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00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:39.799
tower and then looked at a friend and said that
302
00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:42.440
would be a great place to go up with a
303
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.000
deer rifle and shoot people.
304
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.799
His friends hadn't taken that kind of talk seriously now
305
00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:52.279
would have been considered a joke was becoming a cruel reality.
306
00:18:56.279 --> 00:19:00.240
Squinting through his scope, Whitman first targeted Claire Wilson, an
307
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:02.480
eighteen year old student who was eight months pregnant.
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00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:08.319
If he had wanted to, he could have placed a
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00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:11.960
bullet between her eyes, but instead he went down the
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00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.640
body and zeroed in and focused on a fetus and
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00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:21.240
killed an unborn baby as his first target.
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00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.880
The bullet pierced Claire's abdomen and killed her unborn child.
313
00:19:28.839 --> 00:19:31.319
As she fell, her boyfriend Thomas Eckman bent down to
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00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:34.359
help her. He was shot as well and died instantly.
315
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:40.880
Claire was left bleeding on the ground, but she survived.
316
00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:49.119
The first thing that I noticed was a loud report
317
00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:55.640
from the firing of a rifle. I began to hear
318
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:59.680
people screaming. Someone standing fairly near me next to the
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00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.519
student union building shouted at me that someone was on
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00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:03.680
the tower firing.
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00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:10.160
As he got closer, Cliff Drummond came upon a scene
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00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:13.640
of pandemonium. As victims dropped and people ran for cover
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00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:14.880
from the sniper in the tower.
324
00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.200
The cashiers said, you guys are not go out there.
325
00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:20.200
Somebody's shooting a gun.
326
00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:25.680
He was popping out, selecting our target, focusing in on it,
327
00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:28.720
and firing and pulling back in a manner of a
328
00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:30.839
very small number of seconds.
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00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:34.279
This was not the act of a person who didn't
330
00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:36.119
know what he was doing. It is the act of
331
00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:40.039
someone who is preparing for in his own line of war.
332
00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:46.359
Charles Whitman's assault on Austin came without warning. Nothing like
333
00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:49.799
it had ever happened previously. There had been many mass
334
00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.480
murders in America, but their drama had been played out
335
00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:56.160
in private. Never before had a gunman taken aim on
336
00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.599
complete strangers in a public place and methodically them down.
337
00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:06.160
The thing that stopped everyone and made them probably more
338
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:09.279
of a target than they would have been normally. They
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00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.440
couldn't believe what was happening. They froze, and they looked
340
00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:16.559
up at that what you know, what's going on here?
341
00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:18.880
And that wham, they're here.
342
00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:23.880
Robert Boyer, a professor of mathematics, was due to take
343
00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:27.160
a position at Liverpool University in the autumn, lay dead
344
00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:34.920
on the South Moor. Then Thomas Ashton, who was attending
345
00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:38.839
a course before starting volunteer work in Iran, lay mortally wounded.
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00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:45.079
Four minutes after Whitman opened fire, Austin police started to arrive.
347
00:21:46.279 --> 00:21:49.839
We've got out. I don't know the details there yet,
348
00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:53.920
but we got all the going After the with rival.
349
00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:57.839
More than one hundred city policemen, the Highway Patrol and
350
00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:03.200
Texas Rangers began to converge on the camp. At first,
351
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.319
it was not clear what tactics to use against the sniper.
352
00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:11.799
Charles Whitman had everybody pinned down, but eventually the bravery
353
00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:25.400
of a few officers would end the carnage. In August
354
00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.400
nineteen sixty six, gunfire from the top of the clock
355
00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:31.119
tower on the campus of the University of Texas had
356
00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:35.319
law enforcement officers and the university population running for cover.
357
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:38.880
One of the first City of Bostin policemen to arrive
358
00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:40.359
was Houston McCoy.
359
00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:43.359
I looked up there on the north end there was
360
00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:48.319
one shot. Then right in the middle there was a shot,
361
00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:50.559
and then did on south there there was a shot.
362
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:55.480
Whitman had positioned weapons on every side of the tower,
363
00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:59.440
shooting from east, west, north, and south. He gave the
364
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:01.720
impression that there was more than one sniper.
365
00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:05.599
I thought there was at least three of right there, you know, it.
366
00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:07.359
Was a time of uncertainty in America.
367
00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:09.079
Thing to hit my mind.
368
00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:12.799
It was all these political factions going on, and everybody's
369
00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:15.480
saying there's going to rebel against America and all this stuff,
370
00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:17.759
and it's thought that this mightight be the time the
371
00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:18.960
revolution is started.
372
00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:23.000
You know, radio reporter Neil Spelse was one of the
373
00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:25.079
first newsmen on the scene.
374
00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:28.440
You know, as you drive up to the campus, you
375
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:31.640
hear sirens, you hear bullets, you see people running, you
376
00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:35.640
see people screaming, and so I started broadcasting right away.
377
00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:38.680
This is Negl Spels and Red Rovert from the University
378
00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:41.359
of Texas campus. This is the warnings of the citizens
379
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:44.279
of Austin stay away from the university area. Traffic is
380
00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:47.599
now converging on this area and there is a sniper
381
00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:49.720
on the university powerfying at will.
382
00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:54.480
Patrol Officer Jerry Day responded to the emergency shortly after
383
00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:55.279
the shooting began.
384
00:23:56.279 --> 00:23:59.200
And the first thing I saw was too young ladies,
385
00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:05.480
about seven and they were shot down. One of 'em
386
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:09.319
apparently was still was in terrible shot, her whole chest blow.
387
00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:12.640
Now he is definitely under the clock on the south
388
00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:16.440
side and police are returning the fire. After sniper. There's
389
00:24:16.519 --> 00:24:18.960
no report as to who this man may be, or
390
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:20.960
what he's doing up there, or what part did this
391
00:24:21.079 --> 00:24:22.039
abart madness.
392
00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:24.400
I didn't knew I had to do something.
393
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:27.319
I mean, you see, you see those bodies laying there
394
00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:28.440
forwhere and this.
395
00:24:28.519 --> 00:24:29.400
Gotta be stopped.
396
00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:34.200
As the bloodshed continued, people risk their lives to try
397
00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:35.640
and rescue the wounded and dying.
398
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.799
Ran. How many have you gone after rescue today too?
399
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.200
What did you have to do? Run hard and keep low?
400
00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:48.839
Did you have any trouble getting them up? Or? Uh?
401
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:50.480
Did any shots come close to you while you were
402
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:52.200
out there? The shots came close to me. It just
403
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:54.000
the last one. He was dead. He was dead way,
404
00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:55.720
he was a little hard.
405
00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:59.200
Picked up too limp, not like someone's not there.
406
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:03.000
How many have you seen that are dead today? There's
407
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:05.400
one whole nay more.
408
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:09.720
Cliff Drummond spotted one victim slumped against a parking meter.
409
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:13.960
Not moving at all, and it was clear that there
410
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.240
was some blood around his face and neck.
411
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.279
He and another student made a dash into the line
412
00:25:20.279 --> 00:25:22.319
of fire to help him.
413
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:26.720
We took off and it was then that, without hearing
414
00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:31.519
any shots, I had a very definite understanding that the
415
00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:35.759
pavement was exploding around us. We picked this young man up,
416
00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:38.559
who had obviously been shot in either the throat or
417
00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:43.359
in the mouth, and a car came racing down the drag,
418
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:47.240
saw that we were there, and it screeched to a stop.
419
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.279
They opened the back, We picked the m r. And
420
00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:52.039
they roared off south down the drag.
421
00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:00.519
Thirty five minutes into Whitman's massacre, eight people lay dead
422
00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:02.519
and seven more had been wounded.
423
00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:05.759
This was a.
424
00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.880
Huge scale that was unfolding before us, and it was
425
00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:13.519
real and it was deadly. There were a lot of
426
00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:16.079
people down, a lot of people that we knew were dead,
427
00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:19.240
we didn't have any idea how many, and a lot
428
00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:21.160
of blood in a lot of places.
429
00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:25.400
Charlie Whitman turned his blistering fire on the businesses of
430
00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:32.559
Guadaloupe Street with deadly effect. Recent high school graduates Paul
431
00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:38.799
Sontag and Cloudia Rutt were both shot dead. A teenage
432
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:42.920
paper boy was picked off while riding his bike. Forrest
433
00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:45.359
Priest was running down the street, moving quickly to his
434
00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:46.920
right when something made.
435
00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:51.240
Him stop, and approximately ten seconds after that, a very
436
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:54.119
high power rifle bullet came past my ride ear and
437
00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:56.759
it hit a gentleman named Harry Walchuck who was standing
438
00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:58.440
aside a little news stand in my ride.
439
00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:02.519
Harry Walchuck, ah SCHTI student and father of six, died
440
00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:03.559
later in surgery.
441
00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:05.559
I saw a wounded man out in the middle of
442
00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:08.640
Waterloop Street and Minor Pire, and he just sitting there
443
00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:11.599
and he's holding his arm, and.
444
00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:12.960
I told him, want to get up and get out
445
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:13.160
of here.
446
00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:14.160
Piece of what I do?
447
00:27:14.359 --> 00:27:17.400
What I do? This was the question of the day
448
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:18.519
for everybody.
449
00:27:19.559 --> 00:27:19.920
Anyway.
450
00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:22.640
I went over to the middle of the street and
451
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.240
I stood him nothing and put him behind a tree.
452
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:31.160
There was this odd feeling that ran through my head
453
00:27:31.880 --> 00:27:35.920
several times. How long can this go on? How long
454
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.839
can this continue? Yes, there are people shooting back at him,
455
00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:43.559
but how are they going to get to him?
456
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:46.680
The former marine in his citadel, had the citizens of
457
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.839
Austin in his sights and it's policemen at bay. There
458
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:52.559
seemed to be only one way to end it.
459
00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:56.599
I just thought he was in a ford. There's only
460
00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:58.119
got one way. We had to get him that fort
461
00:27:58.200 --> 00:27:58.799
with him.
462
00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:02.319
In his fault. On top of the University of Texas
463
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:05.480
clock tower, Charles Whitman listened to the reaction to his
464
00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:07.400
mayhem on a transistor radio.
465
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.920
It's a battle now. It's a battle between the sniper
466
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:13.079
and the police. It started out as a one sided
467
00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:17.559
affair with a man taking off targets from a good
468
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.319
distance away.
469
00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:23.079
He was very militaryly inclined. He had the whole program
470
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:26.200
set up for himself. He was in a killing field
471
00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:32.079
and he was the killer. And we found out later
472
00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:35.000
that he had left to note that he was going
473
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:39.880
out to kill the pigs, and he considered everybody a pig.
474
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:42.920
He had shot people who were either running or moving.
475
00:28:43.079 --> 00:28:45.960
He was actually a better marksman with a moving target
476
00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:47.480
than he was with a stationary target.
477
00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:53.119
Whitman's marksmanship was stunning. He shot and killed Roy Schmidt,
478
00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:55.759
an electrician who had taken cover with some reporters five
479
00:28:55.799 --> 00:28:56.720
hundred meters away.
480
00:28:57.480 --> 00:28:59.599
We just upper smoke and fired again.
481
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:03.480
The police carried only thirty eight caliber pistols and shotguns,
482
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:05.880
none of which had the range to reach Whitman in
483
00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:10.480
the tower. An aeroplane with a police marksman aboard was
484
00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:13.599
flown over the tower to bring him down, but as
485
00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:15.920
the plane approached, Whitman fired at it.
486
00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:20.440
But Whitman is sitting there on top of that with
487
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:23.359
a place to rest his arms and look up at
488
00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:26.400
that plane and fire a shot, and that plane got
489
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:28.319
out of there quickly, or it would have crashed because
490
00:29:28.359 --> 00:29:29.599
he could have brought the plane down.
491
00:29:31.079 --> 00:29:33.400
His marksmanship allowed him to bring down a policeman.
492
00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:36.279
There has been a report of a policeman that has
493
00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:36.839
been shot.
494
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:40.519
When I looked down, I saw Billy Speed. Officer Billy
495
00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:42.960
Speed get hit right up here on this right shoulder.
496
00:29:43.519 --> 00:29:48.680
The shot that killed police Officer Billy's Speed was placed
497
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:52.680
through an opening no more than this far, maybe six
498
00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:56.519
inches apart, and he from the top of the tower
499
00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:00.920
shot down between those two supports on a railing and
500
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:03.480
went right through there and hit Billy's Speed with a
501
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:04.160
fatal shot.
502
00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:08.640
He was the only Ulster killed that day.
503
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:14.519
He's sort of in some strange prophsided that left.
504
00:30:16.359 --> 00:30:19.400
An hour into Whitman's massacre, the body count stood at
505
00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:25.880
eleven dead and twenty wounded. Out Gunned police officers and
506
00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:29.400
civilians went home to retrieve their own high powered rifles.
507
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.440
The whole community turned out as like a militia out there.
508
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:36.640
I mean, they were after this guy. They didn't know either,
509
00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:37.599
how many were out there.
510
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:40.599
Nobody knew really what it was at the top.
511
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:44.720
As increasing numbers of armed civilians fired at the tower,
512
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:47.079
the sniper himself was pinned down.
513
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:53.279
Firepower from downstairs kept him under those walls, and his
514
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:54.960
plan went to mop right there.
515
00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:58.880
It just really stopped him.
516
00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:01.160
But the police was struggled too.
517
00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:04.160
Back in those days, we did not have communications, we
518
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.279
did not have henheild radios. And once the policeman was
519
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:09.400
out of his car, he was on his own. And
520
00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:12.079
what I was trying to do is find someone from
521
00:31:12.119 --> 00:31:14.039
the police department that could tell me, Hey, do we
522
00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:14.839
have a plan or.
523
00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:15.599
This is what we're doing.
524
00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:18.319
But I couldn't find anyone.
525
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:22.799
Ramiro Martinez, Jerry Day, and Houston McCoy independently decided to
526
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:27.920
make their way to the observation deck separately. They approached
527
00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:30.680
the tower, they.
528
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:35.960
Ran through gunfire, or dealt with death and dead bodies
529
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:41.400
and blood and gunfire, and they had no idea how
530
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:44.279
many people were up there. There could have been ten
531
00:31:44.359 --> 00:31:45.799
snipers for all they knew.
532
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:50.279
Houston McCoy made his approach through an underground maintenance tunnel.
533
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:54.920
Jerry Day met a civilian named Alan Crumb at the
534
00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:58.640
tower who insisted on being his backup. He had a
535
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:01.440
rifle and together they went up to the reception floor
536
00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:05.519
just below the observation deck. There they found the tourists
537
00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:07.119
that Whitman had shot on the stairs.
538
00:32:10.279 --> 00:32:14.680
And then I found poor bodies, one of them setting
539
00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:16.799
up his lady had been shot out from under him.
540
00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:20.000
An eighteen year old boy, a fourteen year old boy.
541
00:32:20.039 --> 00:32:24.400
Belong to paces by a shotgun laying on the floor.
542
00:32:25.079 --> 00:32:25.920
And then the ant.
543
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:29.640
So the eighteen year old boy house talking to him,
544
00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:31.839
and he grabbed me and he wanted my gun, and
545
00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:33.920
he said, I'm going up there and kill the oba.
546
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:36.119
I said, well, I'll go up there for you.
547
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:40.200
Ramiro Martinez was close behind.
548
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:43.319
I got on the elevator.
549
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:48.680
And pushed to the twenty seventh floor and I said, uh,
550
00:32:49.519 --> 00:32:52.440
perfect act of contrition. It's a prayer the Catholics say,
551
00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:57.640
if you are expecting to get into some danger or
552
00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:00.119
you may die.
553
00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:03.200
Meanwhile, Jerry Day descended to the twenty seventh floor to
554
00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:07.880
call for backup. He had the lift arriving and cocked
555
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:10.759
his thirty eight. The door slid open.
556
00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.319
I had my shot, got off safety and party right
557
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:19.759
of Jerry Day, and I think I remember the other
558
00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:23.519
officers saying that they all had their thirty eight two
559
00:33:23.559 --> 00:33:24.359
party of Jerry Day.
560
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:25.720
So we had Jery Day for sure.
561
00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:30.359
I'm point in my room over right now and more.
562
00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:33.839
I smiled like I was glad to say that.
563
00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.200
Alan Crumb had followed Ramiro Martinez.
564
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:42.920
When I first started going up the steps by myself
565
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.799
before Ellen Crumb volunteered to come up with me, I
566
00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:46.559
felt very.
567
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:56.160
Lonely and I could have gone. I would have continued
568
00:33:56.480 --> 00:33:57.160
by myself.
569
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:01.640
But I'll tell you what that Ellen Crumb, when you
570
00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:04.160
volunteered to go with me, So that was like the
571
00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:05.119
Rock of Gibraltar.
572
00:34:07.279 --> 00:34:13.039
They went up to the observation deck. Officer Martinez went outside,
573
00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:16.239
backed up by Houston McCoy armed with a shotgun, and
574
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:16.960
Alan Crumb.
575
00:34:18.119 --> 00:34:22.159
All of us followed Martelles out and I turned around
576
00:34:22.199 --> 00:34:24.760
and went my back to Marties. I told the civilia,
577
00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:27.039
don't you know, you just stay right here as you
578
00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:29.719
didn't think it comes around at the southwest corner.
579
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:36.119
All around them, bullets fired by people on the ground
580
00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.360
were hitting the tower's walls and parapet.
581
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:42.400
Three splats hit right above my head were ground fire.
582
00:34:43.480 --> 00:34:44.960
Somebody saw my head, you know, and.
583
00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:48.280
They didn't aim too good.
584
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:53.679
Over ninety minutes, forty five people had been shot. While
585
00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:57.840
Alan Crumb kept watch at the southwest corner, Ramiro Martinez
586
00:34:57.880 --> 00:35:02.159
and Houston McCoy moved towards the norm east. The nervous
587
00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:06.519
civilian accidentally fired his weapon. It's alerted Whitman, who had
588
00:35:06.519 --> 00:35:09.079
taken refuge from the withering fire below the parapets on
589
00:35:09.079 --> 00:35:10.400
the tower's north side.
590
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:15.360
He was sitting there and when Crumb fired the round,
591
00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:21.119
he was looking south and Martinez McCoy came around from
592
00:35:21.159 --> 00:35:22.599
the northeast side.
593
00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:24.960
Well, I fired or shot at right away.
594
00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:28.960
He started firing down to down town just that quick.
595
00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:35.119
And I kept advancing and shooting, and uh, into my gun.
596
00:35:35.679 --> 00:35:37.840
McCoy was behind me at the time with.
597
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:39.320
A shotgun and he shot.
598
00:35:39.079 --> 00:35:43.400
It and uh, I remember his mouth was open and
599
00:35:43.400 --> 00:35:47.719
and uh saw that's not relive just for that, he
600
00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:50.760
just kind of slid down. It in my mind's eye
601
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:54.000
and this is just what I see now, you know that, Uh,
602
00:35:54.119 --> 00:35:56.480
as he was sliding down out of I kind of
603
00:35:56.519 --> 00:36:00.000
seen that that rifle was dropping, dropping.
604
00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:00.440
Out of his hand.
605
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:04.400
Officer Martinez threw down his empty gun and grabbed his
606
00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:08.000
colleague shotgun. He ran to Whitman and fired at point
607
00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:13.960
blank range. The clock in the tower read one twenty four.
608
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:24.199
It's just been like a robot. But when I saw
609
00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:28.800
this dead guy right then I became a human being again.
610
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:30.679
I had fear.
611
00:36:31.719 --> 00:36:34.039
I could feel the heat, I could feel the strain,
612
00:36:34.719 --> 00:36:39.000
My adrenaline had stopped pumping. My knees just kind of buckled.
613
00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:42.880
My legs felt like the rubber and I said, I
614
00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:44.199
need to get the hell out of here.
615
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:47.760
So I told Martinez, you go tell Jerry Day to
616
00:36:47.800 --> 00:36:49.960
call the off. The police department had off. The police
617
00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:52.559
department announced over the radios that it's all over.
618
00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:55.840
After that, Martinez run downstairs hollering, I.
619
00:36:55.800 --> 00:36:56.719
Got it, and I got him.
620
00:36:56.760 --> 00:36:57.559
I got him.
621
00:36:57.719 --> 00:36:59.480
It was a real spouse for the bulletin from the
622
00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:02.480
KTB your radio news room, a sniper is dead.
623
00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:08.320
It didn't seem like ninety minutes that same It seemed
624
00:37:08.440 --> 00:37:12.679
like a few and then it's but then it's in
625
00:37:12.760 --> 00:37:15.440
like a thousand years, and it seemed like we were
626
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:16.159
all in war.
627
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:20.880
As words spread, people gathered silently beneath the tower.
628
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:24.159
From out of nowhere.
629
00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:27.519
It just seemed like people came pouring pouring in from everywhere,
630
00:37:28.199 --> 00:37:30.800
and we went about the business the end of taking
631
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:35.079
the bodies down the receptionists that had had been killed.
632
00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:37.559
Uh on the tower.
633
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:40.119
Phil counter and I found an old army like it
634
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:41.320
might even been one of the witnesses.
635
00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:44.039
We use that for a gurney or stretcher and took
636
00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:45.199
her down in the elevator.
637
00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:51.719
There were literally a few thousand people there, very close.
638
00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:57.119
It was extremely hot. It was now extremely quiet, and
639
00:37:57.159 --> 00:37:59.719
there were guns everywhere, and everyone had the muscles pointed
640
00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:04.400
up and or down at the street as they brought
641
00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:10.039
down the Gabors and later brought down Whitman, and people
642
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:13.440
then began to quietly disperse and go their own way.
643
00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:16.920
But it was very sad in Austin that night.
644
00:38:18.639 --> 00:38:21.360
In the aftermath of the mass murder in Austin, some
645
00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:23.639
who knew Charles Whitman was shocked and amazed.
646
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:28.400
He was always kidding and joking and just full of life,
647
00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:31.760
and I like to be around him.
648
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:34.280
Bad enough with what he did with people, But the
649
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:38.719
idea of killing Kathy and his mother just seemed incomprehensible
650
00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:42.199
because he just cared so much about them.
651
00:38:42.679 --> 00:38:45.880
Charles Whitman was dead, but could there be an explanation
652
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:58.840
for his butchery? Officers from the Austin, Texas Police Department
653
00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:02.039
ended the nineteen minutes massacre at the University of Texas.
654
00:39:02.360 --> 00:39:05.400
Once Charles Whitman was himself dead, people wanted to know
655
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:12.280
why he had become a mass murderer. Attention focused on
656
00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:14.480
his father. Charles Whitman sor.
657
00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:17.960
I only think the factor in this is his mental
658
00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:19.679
strength from his actual study.
659
00:39:19.880 --> 00:39:22.360
He was trying to prove a point to himself, to
660
00:39:22.480 --> 00:39:25.559
his family, me and his mother, and all of the
661
00:39:25.639 --> 00:39:29.760
microphones are in his face, and he says some very
662
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:31.159
very controversial things.
663
00:39:31.800 --> 00:39:32.760
I love guns.
664
00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:35.639
I'm a fanatic about guns, and I taught my children
665
00:39:35.639 --> 00:39:36.639
how to use guns.
666
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:39.159
He's been hunting with me ever since he was a youngster,
667
00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:41.880
and he has his own rifles and everything else, and
668
00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:43.679
I taught him the use of him as well as the.
669
00:39:43.719 --> 00:39:44.280
Value of him.
670
00:39:47.719 --> 00:39:50.400
The investigation led police to more weapons in the former
671
00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:52.000
Marine sharpshooters home.
672
00:39:54.039 --> 00:39:58.280
An amazing assortment of rifles, shotguns, pistols, knives.
673
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:01.719
They also found the self guarding writings of Charles Whitman.
674
00:40:02.760 --> 00:40:05.000
I wonder if I will ever taste the sweet honey
675
00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:08.840
of success for myself and my loved ones. As I
676
00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:11.599
look back over my past few adult years, they seem
677
00:40:11.679 --> 00:40:15.119
so wasted. Will I ever accomplish anything I set forth
678
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:15.400
to do?
679
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:18.239
At the top of one page, he had written, I
680
00:40:18.280 --> 00:40:21.840
never could make it. These thoughts are too much for me.
681
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:25.880
It was dated the day of the massacre. In one
682
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:29.000
of his lengthy notes, Whitman asked that an autopsy'd be
683
00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:32.719
carried out. He was convinced that something was physically wrong
684
00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:37.280
with him. As it turned out, he was right. Pathologists
685
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:39.079
discovered that he had a brain tumor.
686
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.199
It was determined that he had a glioblastoma multiforma, which
687
00:40:45.239 --> 00:40:51.480
is a later stage, virulent, aggressive, malignant tumor.
688
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:56.280
Man They said that that tumor was adjacent and involving
689
00:40:56.360 --> 00:40:59.599
a structure called the amygdala, and it's not uncommon for
690
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:03.360
people with tumors of the amigdala to have rage episodes
691
00:41:03.480 --> 00:41:04.400
or rage attacks.
692
00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:10.280
One of the symptoms of this type of tumor is hypographia,
693
00:41:10.760 --> 00:41:13.320
an uncontrollable urge to write.
694
00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:16.920
I don't quite know what compels me to write this letter.
695
00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:19.800
I don't really understand myself these days.
696
00:41:20.199 --> 00:41:23.559
He felt very strongly that he just had to write,
697
00:41:24.599 --> 00:41:28.960
and although it may have been incriminating, he couldn't control it.
698
00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:31.719
He just had to put it on paper.
699
00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:36.519
The final death toll for Charles Whitman's murderous free is
700
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:42.239
sixteen dead and thirty two wounded. The sixteenth victim, David Gunby,
701
00:41:42.920 --> 00:41:45.519
died in two thousand and one of complications from a
702
00:41:45.519 --> 00:41:52.400
wound inflicted on August the first, nineteen sixty six. But
703
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:55.800
the victims weren't all in Austin. Something in America changed
704
00:41:55.800 --> 00:41:57.599
that day.
705
00:41:58.280 --> 00:42:02.000
What he did changed a lot of things in this country.
706
00:42:02.119 --> 00:42:05.239
I think it really did take away our sense of
707
00:42:05.280 --> 00:42:07.000
safety in public places.
708
00:42:07.639 --> 00:42:11.320
I think Charles Whitman's legacy is that he left us
709
00:42:11.719 --> 00:42:15.119
with a sense of place that was no longer private
710
00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:17.440
and safe, that we always have to kind of look
711
00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:18.199
around a little bit.
712
00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:21.880
And that's a horrible legacy to have left behind.
713
00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:27.280
On the University of Texas campus, there is a memorial
714
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:32.960
garden dedicated to the victims. However, for Frederick Priest, the
715
00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:35.199
clock tower remains a potent symbol.
716
00:42:36.360 --> 00:42:38.280
It's kind of served as a marker in my life
717
00:42:38.320 --> 00:42:41.719
that when things had gone so well for me, I
718
00:42:41.760 --> 00:42:44.280
start saying, well, buck up, you've been standing.
719
00:42:44.039 --> 00:42:45.280
A few feet to your right.
720
00:42:45.400 --> 00:42:47.440
You probably wouldn't been shot that day, and you wouldn't
721
00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:49.400
be alive so come on, make the best of it,
722
00:42:49.440 --> 00:42:49.880
you know.
723
00:42:51.639 --> 00:42:54.400
For the men who stopped Whitman that day, it is
724
00:42:54.440 --> 00:42:55.519
impossible to forget.
725
00:42:56.280 --> 00:42:57.239
It never goes away.
726
00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:06.199
It's implanted in your mind, and his surfaces, but it's
727
00:43:06.239 --> 00:43:07.199
only adault now.
728
00:43:08.559 --> 00:43:12.199
Whitman's spirit still lives there. In effect, he might have
729
00:43:12.280 --> 00:43:13.159
gotten what he wanted.
730
00:43:13.559 --> 00:43:16.840
So after I'm gone, people are gonna forget me. But
731
00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:18.159
when they go around to get to.
732
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:22.480
Texas towers, say Charles Whitman. So his name will live well,
733
00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:26.280
And that's sad to see.
734
00:43:34.519 --> 00:43:37.559
Continuing the film's on Discovery season, Tomorrow Night at nine,
735
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:40.480
Laurence Olivier stars as the man trying to foil a
736
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:44.320
diabolical Nazi plot in classics thriller The Boys from Brazil.
737
00:43:44.760 --> 00:43:47.679
Next year Tonight, though there's an unseen evil in a
738
00:43:47.719 --> 00:43:48.159
haunting