Charles Whitman (Houston, Dallas, Austin: crime, coop, credit)

[atxcio]

Robert Lee Moore Hall, built in 1974 (according to this site), 31st tallest building in Austin:

Robert Lee Moore Hall, Austin | Emporis.com

Perhaps it was the ENS (Engineering Sciences / Electrical Engineering) building? That's 50s construction, I think, and would have been one of the taller buildings in that area of campus:

Campus Building Detail - Engineering-Science Building

[starviego]

Maybe Charles Whitman wasn't the only one up in that clock tower.



He was firing so fast and so often, with so many puffs of smoke coming from different angles on the observation deck, that many on the ground believed there were two or three snipers.

Deek Magazine - Elegant Madness
Whitman moved around the observation deck as he continued to shoot, leading witnesses to think there were multiple snipers.


Deranged Killers: Charles Whitman (2009) - YouTube
22:35 mark
PO Houston McCoy: I looked up there on the north end there's the one shot, then right in the middle there's a shot, then on the south end there was a shot.
Voice Over: .... (The sniper was)shooting from east, west, north, and south. He(the gunman) gave the impression that there was more than one sniper.
McCoy: I thought there was at least three of them right there, you know.
Voice Over: ...It was a time of uncertaintly in America.
McCoy: The thing that hit my mind that with all these political factions going on
and everybody's saying they're gonna rebel against America, that this would just about be the time the revolution's started, you know.

Article from Austin-American Statesman, Aug 2, 1966
It was so deadly and efficient police officers were not convinced until the moment of Whitman's death there were not two snipers firing at human targets below.

40 years later: The University of Texas Tower shootings. - Miscellaneous - Fort Worth Forum
At first it wasn't obvious to police, bystanders or the media if there was more than one person shooting from the Tower.

Houston McCoy Own Story
Houston McCoy: "On remaining at the northeast corner, I had drawn and cocked my .38 revolver, being leery of another possible sniper."

Story about Houston McCoy - Waco Tribune Herald
Waco Tribune-Herald April 23, 1967
From the volume of fire, police believed several people were up there....

Chief Miles - McCoy
Austin Police Chief Bob Miles:
"The first report didn't really strike a note; it just said something about invetigating someone shooting from the tower. But the next report, when I started paying attention, said there appeared to be two of them shooting from the tower."


UT Tower Sniper News Special From 2006 - YouTube
PO Jerry Day: 2:12 mark
"There were shots coming from everywhere. ... It looked like a gang of people up there."


/

[Ole Texan]

I was in San Marcos that day. Otherwise would have been cruising the 'drag' with a friend in his 34 Ford coupe. We would have made a nice target. That was a sad day.

[ScoPro]

Interesting to see the conspiracy theorists trying to promote an unfounded "theory" about multiple snipers. Starviego - those statements were just speculation before the two officers, Martinez & McCoy, and the civilian Crum got onto the observation deck. For the first half hour or so, Whitman easily & quickly ran around all sides of the observation deck to shoot at many victims.


My roommate & I were eating lunch at the Holiday House on the Drag when we noticed all the ambulances roaring up Guadalupe. When we finished we walked through the driveway up to the parking lot (where the Dobie high rise is now) to my car. Started hearing the gunshots, but didn't know what was going on until the people crouched behind their cars yelled at us to "get down, someone's shooting off the Tower".

We did so and watched Whitman do his evil, maniacal work. We had a clear view of the Tower from the south side of 21st Street and could easily see him leaning over the parapet with his rifle. The Remington 6mm made a deep "booming sound, while his M1 Carbine was more of a "pop-pop-pop". But a lot more shots began to be fired from the ground up at him, and he no longer could expose himself leaning over, so Whitman started shooting through the drain openings at the bottom of the parapet.

Saw the light plane circling the Tower, obviously looking for a shot at the sniper. Jim Boutwell, later Wilco sheriff, was riding in that plane with his deer rifle. But Whitman apparently shot at the aircraft, scaring the pilot away. Boutwell said he could see only one sniper as they circled around the Tower at a distance of maybe 100 yards or more. The return fire sounded like the Vietnam War firefights we saw on the evening news. Those anonymous students/civilians who kept Whitman pinned down for over half his rampage undoubtedly saved many more lives.

When it was over, we ran up Guadalupe to the West Mall and then to the area below the Tower. Hundreds of students & staff were milling around, carefully avoiding the blood pools scattered all over. I saw a Texas Ranger holding a Thompson submachine gun at a 90 degree angle in the air, a police officer with a pump shotgun (both useless weapons to use against a distant sniper), and a Daily Texan "reporter" with his clipboard, press ID, and an Army helmet on his head. On the west side of the Tower the mob was pretty thick, and a student sitting on top of a wall yelled, "When they bring him out, let's hang him!". Of course we didn't know he was dead at the time, as the bodies from the top of the Tower were brought out of the east entrance, IIRC.

After a while, the roommate & I went back to our apartment in west campus to watch the news coverage. That evening we went to Scholz's and downed a couple pitchers of beer.

We later heard that Neil Spelce, the KLBJ radio newsman did speculate on the air about more than one shooter, but he didn't know squat except for what we all could see. He also speculated that some of the victims laying out in the open might be playing dead so as to not get shot again. I thought that was pretty stupid to say on the air, because the sniper could've had a radio turned on (Whitman did have a little transistor radio).

[G Grasshopper]

I still lived in Wisconsin at the time. I suppose I would have been in summer vacation, getting ready to start high school in a few weeks. My family moved to Texas in 1969, but I knew about the tower shootings, not only because of the news, but because I had family in Texas, and my father was a UT grad. I later became a UT grad, and I remember the tower being closed at times when they judged the students would be stressed, like finals week. I suppose that was mostly to prevent suicides. Maybe they still do that - I don't know.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by G Grasshopper

I still lived in Wisconsin at the time. I suppose I would have been in summer vacation, getting ready to start high school in a few weeks. My family moved to Texas in 1969, but I knew about the tower shootings, not only because of the news, but because I had family in Texas, and my father was a UT grad. I later became a UT grad, and I remember the tower being closed at times when they judged the students would be stressed, like finals week. I suppose that was mostly to prevent suicides. Maybe they still do that - I don't know.

Wow, I had never heard about the temporary closings during "stressful" periods. I did know that they closed the tower entirely for decades due to the suicides. The 5 years I went to UT was during this time... no access to the observation deck, period, anytime. Then they re-opened it in '99 just a couple of years after I graduated. Then closed it again for 2 years after 9/11.

Main Building (University of Texas at Austin) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[CptnRn]

Is that you starviego? Wow beaming in all the way from ZIP Code 92104, San Diego!

[starviego]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

... an unfounded "theory" about multiple snipers.

The theory is not 'unfounded.' It is based on the numerous statements from media and witnesses made on the day of the shooting.

Originally Posted by ScoPro

For the first half hour or so, Whitman easily & quickly ran around all sides of the observation deck to shoot at many victims.

Did witnesses actually see him run around the observation deck? Was there enough of a gap between shots that would have been consistent with one sniper moving from firing point to firing point? Or did they come so closely together that one shooter on the move simply cannot account for them all?

Originally Posted by ScoPro

We had a clear view of the Tower from the south side of 21st Street and could easily see him leaning over the parapet with his rifle.

Did you get a good enough look at him to identify him as Whitman based upon his picture in the media later on?

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Boutwell said he could see only one sniper as they circled around the Tower at a distance of maybe 100 yards or more.

I believe the other shooter or shooters evacuated the tower after about 15 minutes, when the people on the ground started firing back. The vast majority of the dead and wounded were shot within those first minutes.



/

[ScoPro]

Hogwash!

Yes, witnesses saw ONE shooter - including Boutwell and his pilot.

NONE of the witnesses IN the Tower saw anyone else but Whitman. What you are quoting are the speculations of some participants before it was known that Whitman was the sole shooter.

I personally witnessed ONE shooter moving around firing over the parapet for the minutes up until he was pinned down.

The two officers and the civilian Crum never saw any other shooter, nor did the father of the family which was ambushed by Whitman after he killed the receptionist. Neither did the young couple who walked by Whitman after he had murdered said receptionist and hid her body behind her desk.

Those people witnessed Whitman's actions in the reception area of the Tower BEFORE he started shooting, and the survivors of the Gabor family NEVER reported anything like YOU, who were obviously not there, are claiming. You believe in nothing but a fantasy generated by an overactive imagination.

I certainly hope you are not one of those nutcase ghouls who try to make up crap so as to make a "name" for yourself and to get some kind of monetary return.

Give it a rest, NO eyewitnesses knew ANYTHING about a second shooter, and NO forensic evidence pointed at it, including Whitman's OWN notes.

Any further speculation of your fantasies just make you look foolish.

Go troll some other forum with your nonsense.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Is that you starviego? Wow beaming in all the way from ZIP Code 92104, San Diego!