Charles Whitman

COMING SOON!

Although happily married, 25-year-old Charles Whitman was a worried man. He knew that he was in the grip of a terrible compulsion and on the verge of doing something appalling. Finally, on 31st July 1966 his self-control snapped and after killing his wife and mother so that they would be spared the shame he climbed the white granite tower of the University of Texas administration building, and started shooting at anyone who moved below. Fifteen people died and thirty were injured before police assault teams got close enough to gun him down.

Biography

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Charles Whitman
born: 23-06-1941
birth place: Florida, USA
died: 01-08-1966

He disliked the fact that she earned more than he did, thanks to her job as a teacher, and he felt ashamed of himself for continuing to accept both money and expensive gifts from his father. Despite his outward façade of conscientiousness, Kathy became increasingly aware of his inner turmoil, and urged him to seek professional counselling. Initially refusing any help, the final breakdown of his parents’ troubled marriage in the Spring of 1966 persuaded him that he needed help.

University Psychiatrist Dr. Heatly recognised the latent hostility in Whitman, but was not overly concerned when, during the course of their session, he mentioned a fantasy that involved “going up on the Tower with a deer rifle and shooting people,” as Heatly had seen no signs that he might seriously take action. Heatly was unaware that Whitman had repeated this fantasy to many people over the years, who had dismissed it as nonsense. Heatly suggested that Whitman return the following week for further counselling, but he failed to do so.

Throughout the summer of 1966, Whitman attended classes and kept up work commitments with the assistance of the amphetamine, Dexedrine, which affected his sleeping patterns and made it difficult for him to deliver both study and work commitments. This exacerbated his feeling of low self-esteem, and his father’s attempts to embroil him in his parents’ ongoing marital trauma only served to concentrate his mind even more on his fantasies of mass murder.

The Crimes

The plan that had been gestating in his mind took real form on 31st July 1966, with the purchase of binoculars and a Bowie knife, as well as some supplies. That evening, he began typing a final letter of explanation, which detailed his irrational thoughts, and failure to find any respite from them. He requested a formal autopsy of his body, to establish whether any physical cause might prove to be the source of his mental anguish.

He outlined his plan to kill his wife that evening, to enable her to avoid any suffering, and would have continued his typing, but he was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of family friends, who stayed for a while, noticing nothing unusual about his behaviour.

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Links relating to this biography:
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