50th Anniversary of the Tower Shooting. (Austin, Littlefield: house, dorm, mall)

[pop251808]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

And some just hallucinate .

I never understand why so many people try to deny the obvious manifestations, like death by gunshot, of violence against women by the men in their lives. I mean, what's the motivation?
In contrast, all the stories about "brave people shooting at the tower" are profoundly uninteresting to me and have no further significance to our lives today. Unless, of course we're living in a video game. Talk about a hallucination!

[pop251808]

A few facts from the U.T. History Dept. Behind the Tower: New Histories of the UT Tower Shooting Looks as if he stabbed his wife and his mother to death before he shot everyone else that he killed and injured. Make of that what you will.

[Texas Ag 93]

From the account I read in the Texas Monthly article (a magazine that I admittedly sometimes read with a grain of salt), Whitman previously went to the Student Health Center complaining of headaches and all but told one of the young physicians on staff there that he wanted to go up into the Tower and shoot at people. The Psychiatrist didn't follow up on it, perhaps because he didn't think it to be a credible or immediate threat.

A couple of excerpts from that piece:

By three o’clock on the morning of the shootings, Whitman had stabbed and strangled his mother, Margaret, in her apartment and stabbed his wife, Kathy, in their bed as she slept. In the half-typed, half-handwritten letter he left on Kathy’s body, he wrote, “Lately (I can’t recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts … I talked with a doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come overwhelming violent impulses [sic]. After one session I never saw the doctor again, and since then I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail. After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder … Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.”

JOHN ECONOMIDY: The day after the shootings, the university held a press conference in the main newsroom of the Daily Texan. It turned out that Whitman had gone into the Student Health Center that spring complaining of terrible headaches and depression and had seen a psychiatrist named Maurice Heatly. Heatly was the brother of a very powerful state legislator, and that caused some embarrassment politically, because—as the university, to its credit, immediately disclosed—Whitman had told him exactly what he planned to do. Heatly wrote in his report, which was released to reporters, that Whitman was “oozing with hostility” and had expressed a desire to go to the top of the Tower and shoot people with a deer rifle. That was a jaw-dropper. Heatly defended himself by saying that if he committed every kid who threatened to jump off the Tower or do harm to others, there would be a lot of people in the psychiatric ward.

[hound 109]

Originally Posted by pop251808

I never understand why so many people try to deny the obvious manifestations, like death by gunshot, of violence against women by the men in their lives. I mean, what's the motivation?

Obvious manifestations?? What is obvious?

- He killed his mom & his wife. But said he loved them both. & he spared his dog. (?)

- He hated his dad (for being a bully, a wife beater and a child beater).....too bad he didn't kill him and spare everyone else.

- He had a genius IQ, but a 1.9 GPA at UT (& lost his Marine Corp. scholarship).

- He ran away from home and joined the Marines because his dad beat the hell out of him and he had had enough.

- He got in trouble with the Marines for gambling & being a loan shark (& after going to UT on a Marine Scholarship....his awful GPA).

- He got in trouble at UT for gutting a deer in his dorm bathroom. (& I guess under-performing as a student).

- So he had a genius IQ, but was a failure as a son, a Marine, a student (& possibly in other areas).

- He seeked help (& met with) two different UT Psychiatrists (one of whom he shared his fantasy of killing people from the tower).

- He had dinner with his mom & wife (the evening of) & went to a get together with friends (the evening of) prior to murdering his wife and mom.

- He killed a cop, a pregnant woman (& her unborn child), a student, a teacher & a dozen others (& wounded a couple dozen more). He didn't appear to have a preference between race, age or gender when he picked off targets.


So nothing about this 50 year old event is "obvious" to me. (Except that his scumbag dad probably had a lot to do with Whitman going postal & the dysfunction of his ENTIRE family)

But it seems (to me) there was a LOT more going on with Whitman (the shooter) than "he hates women so he killed his wife and mother".
.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by hound 109

But it seems (to me) there was a LOT more going on with Whitman (the shooter) than "he hates women so he killed his wife and mother".
.

Ah, yes, but it MUST fit into a neat little 'bucket' - there CAN'T be multicausal events. Those are too hard to tie up with a neat little explanation and/or cure.....

[hound 109]

I don't know if all of this web site info is accurate, but I found it to be a short & easy to read synopsis of the man, some of the events, & also the victims.

Charles J. Whitman (June 24, 1941
.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by hound 109

I don't know if all of this web site info is accurate, but I found it to be a short & easy to read synopsis of the man, some of the events, & also the victims.

Charles J. Whitman (June 24, 1941
.

Damn, that is a chilling account, although I am not sure why. I have never read the notes prior to a few days ago, but they are eerily calm and thought out.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by hound 109

From what I read:

- It was the father of Whitman who beat his wife (the mother) & also beat young Whitman and his two brothers (& others) as kids.

- Whitman had actually rescued his mother from FL (from his father) & brought her to Austin a couple of months earlier before the shooting.

- Not sure if Whitman (the shooter) ever hit his wife (before the event). Maybe someone who's read one of the books can clarify.

- Whitman had more issues with being a failure & hating his dad (or maybe he was just a whack job) than issues with women (from what I've read).


I attended UT in the late 70s. Many students would glance up when crossing in front of the Tower while walking to class. (usually when walking by oneself). It was definitely on our mind 10-12 years after the event. I wonder if it still is for students? (glancing up even though the tower is closed....or looking around for a logical spot to run to, behind a statue or flagpole or hedge if a shot rang out?)

A few days after the shooting, I was walking on 24th just past the Varsity Theater to my apartment in West Campus after class when a crane at the construction site for the Castilian high rise dorm had a cable snap and the heavy load crashed on the ground like a cannon shot. Scared the peewunkus out of me!
I and a number of other student pedestrians immediately hit the sidewalk flat. Quickly realizing it was a false alarm, we all got up, dusted off and went about our business.
About 10 or 15 years later while attending a Texas/OU game in Dallas, I saw an Oklahoma fan wearing a T-shirt with Whitman's face on the front over the caption, "Where Is Whitman When You Need Him?"
Classy guy - I hope someone beat his ass.

[texan2yankee]

The shooting was before my time, but I remember learning about the murders by Charles Whitman as a teen. I was on the UT campus a few weeks ago and looked up at the clock tower and thought about the victims killed that day. That tragedy is still in the minds of people who live in this state and will always be.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

From the account I read in the Texas Monthly article (a magazine that I admittedly sometimes read with a grain of salt), Whitman previously went to the Student Health Center complaining of headaches and all but told one of the young physicians on staff there that he wanted to go up into the Tower and shoot at people. The Psychiatrist didn't follow up on it, perhaps because he didn't think it to be a credible or immediate threat.

A couple of excerpts from that piece:

By three o’clock on the morning of the shootings, Whitman had stabbed and strangled his mother, Margaret, in her apartment and stabbed his wife, Kathy, in their bed as she slept. In the half-typed, half-handwritten letter he left on Kathy’s body, he wrote, “Lately (I can’t recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts … I talked with a doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come overwhelming violent impulses [sic]. After one session I never saw the doctor again, and since then I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail. After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder … Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.”

JOHN ECONOMIDY: The day after the shootings, the university held a press conference in the main newsroom of the Daily Texan. It turned out that Whitman had gone into the Student Health Center that spring complaining of terrible headaches and depression and had seen a psychiatrist named Maurice Heatly. Heatly was the brother of a very powerful state legislator, and that caused some embarrassment politically, because—as the university, to its credit, immediately disclosed—Whitman had told him exactly what he planned to do. Heatly wrote in his report, which was released to reporters, that Whitman was “oozing with hostility” and had expressed a desire to go to the top of the Tower and shoot people with a deer rifle. That was a jaw-dropper. Heatly defended himself by saying that if he committed every kid who threatened to jump off the Tower or do harm to others, there would be a lot of people in the psychiatric ward.

I do feel that this incident was more about a mental illness than it was about domestic violence against women. His mother and wife were unfortunately the closest and easiest victims of this aberration, but from what I've read here http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/96-minutes/ , once he was in the tower he did not necessarily target women, he shot at anyone who was an easy target.

“WHY DID WHITMAN DO IT?”
When an autopsy was performed on Whitman the next morning, Dr. Coleman de Chenar discovered what appeared to be a small brain tumor. The consensus in the medical community, however, was that the tumor was probably not to blame, given its size and location. (Whitman was not neurologically impaired at the time of the shootings, for example; he was a crack shot.) As for what had made him “snap,” there were plenty of theories. Was it his abusive childhood? His overwhelming anger? The amphetamines he consumed, observed one friend, “like popcorn”?