Original subtitles

August in Texas.

My mama used to say it got so hot the hens laid hard -boiled eggs.

That's how it was that morning in 1966.

It's funny what you remember.

I was on my way to handing a paper on the Great Gatsby.

Everything was normal, just like it always had been.

It was just regular college life.

Do you think that's how it always seems in the moments before the world

explodes?

It was helter -skelter.

One second I was walking to class, and the next I was running for my life.

I thought, what is happening?

This can't be real.

Gunfire was raining down on us.

From the top of the university tower.

Austin in 1966.

Sleepy little college town.

The biggest events were the football games.

And then it exploded.

30 minutes in, over a dozen people had been shot.

And were lying, bleeding to death and roasting in that sun.

And the gunfire continued.

Sirens screaming, people shouting, gunshots going off.

It was one god -awful mess down there with bodies all over the place.

Police communications were almost non -existent. We had radios in the car. So

you got out of your car, you were virtually cut off from communication.

They didn't know if there was one sniper or ten.

Did you guys have any additional shotguns? No.

We had no high -powered weapons at all. We had a 12 -gauge shotgun and we had

our sidearms, a .38 pistol, neither of which was effective.

I had a front row seat in hell.

Blood and bodies all around.

There were policemen everywhere.

But bullets kept coming and there was nothing they could do.

This is Neil Speltz on the University of Texas campus.

It's like a battle scene.

It's like there's another shot and another shot. The site is reminiscent of

sort of war.

There are two different kinds of shots. Apparently police are returning the fire

now.

I'm seeing a scene that you would never be prepared for. We've got KTBC

reporters ringing the campus.

The story went out to all broadcast outlets nationwide and then ultimately

worldwide.

It was one of the first crimes to be broadcast live.

Pop!

Pop, you all right?

There's a guy over there.

Sitting across the street from us was a student propped up against a parking

meter. And he's a sitting duck.

Three, two, one.

The bullets were coming in at our feet.

You talk about fear. That is beyond frightening.

I reached out and pulled him in.

And...

and at that moment recognized that he was mortally wounded.

Ambulances are screaming up and down the University Drive.

Breckenridge Hospital was a chaos. It was the only facility where an emergency

room was set up.

Here's the list, Mr. Adams.

Thank you, miss.

This is reporter Joe Roddy.

Normally, the media does not want to release the names of the dead or the

wounded. before the families are contacted.

These names were just given to us by the hospital administrator, Karen Griffith,

Irma Garcia, Harry Walsh, Billy Speed.

But in this case, because so many people in Austin had family at the university,

Joe Roddy at Rikenridge Hospital started ticking off the names.

Robert Hurd, Alex Hernandez, Robert Boyer, Paul Sontag.

And in our newsroom, the veteran news director, Paul Bolton,

jumped in.

And his voice was trembling.

He said, Joe, read that list of

names again.

I think you have my grandson up there.

I'm sorry.

I didn't know that boy at the time.

Turns out he was Paul Bowden's grandson.

There's no report as to who this man may be or what prompted this apparent

madness.

Of course, the officers want to know who's doing this.

But at this point, what's important is stopping the gunfire.

At the security office, a guy with the engineering department knew how to get

the base of the tower through a tunnel system.

The

young

police officer, Houston McCoy, leads a group of officers through the

maintenance tunnels.

At the same time, Romero Martinez runs in a zigzag motion.

And makes it to the building unharmed.

Officer, pull the doors.

Martinez meets up with Alan Crumb.

Let's go. Let's go.

With Officer Jerry Day, they take the elevator to the 27th floor.

The actual observation deck is one floor up.

You have to reach that by a stairwell.

So what you have at this point was two different groups of police officers

acting on their own initiative, and they just were not aware of the other.

Which is very dangerous.

Jerry Day heard the elevator coming up, so he goes back down.

On those stairs, they discover a family that had just been massacred.

Two of the people are obviously dead, and the others are wounded and bleeding.

The group of us, including myself and Houston McCoy, going up that elevator

where we have no idea what we're going to find when that door opens up there.

Jerry Day is standing on the 27th floor.

For all he knows, it could be other perpetrators from another floor coming

join the snipers.

We all have our weapons drawn.

A Houston's got a shotgun aimed point blank.

We all have our weapons drawn.

And then everybody kind of has a smile. That's probably the only time we smiled

all day. Is anyone out there? I got two already on their way up. All right, I'm

going with them.

All right, you guys, we need to find everybody on the floor, all right? I'll

with you guys.

So much pain.

So much death.

For 90 minutes, I stayed put, helpless as the bullets rained down, tearing

flesh, shattering lives.

Was anyone going to stop this?

Ray Martinez and Crum went up the top of the stairs.

So they'd make their way out into the reception area.

They find the body of a middle -aged woman whose head had been caved in lying

behind a couch.

Are we doing this?

Damn right we are.

Well, then you'd better deputize me.

You're not a cop? I'm a sergeant in the Air Force.

So Ribeiro says, okay, consider yourself deputized.

They know that this has got to come to an end, and they're going to have to be

the ones to do it.

And then, after what seemed like a lifetime of gunfire and screams and

couldn't believe what I heard next.

Nothing.

Pure silence.

Go radio the all -clear.

The sniper is dead.

And he is a young man wearing a white headband, and he's dressed in workman

overalls.

There were multiple rifles laid out.

He had canned food. He had toilet paper.

He was prepared to be up there a number of days.

But he clearly didn't intend to come down alive.

Officer McCoy finds a University of Texas ID card identifying this man as a

architectural engineering student at the university who is 25 years old.

Charles J. Whitman.

Charles Joseph Whitman.

A sea of people converged on the South Mall.

And they looked up at the tower.

And they looked at each other.

But it was just, what has happened?

The idea that someone would be shooting people, they did not know.

For no other reason.

then to do so was just not in their mental landscape in 1966.

This is all we have on Whitman.

Thanks.

All the authorities needed to try to determine, could we have prevented this?

there a way we could have stopped this?

At that time, they didn't know anything about Charles Whitman, including his

address. The guy had no criminal background.

Doesn't make any sense.

Charles Whitman's friends were just utterly shocked. To them, he was a nice

They all said that he was smart, that he had a bright future.

There was nothing wrong.

Charles Whitman was from a seaside town called Lake Worth, Florida.

He was the son of a very successful plumbing contractor.

His mother was a devout Catholic who stayed at home to raise her three boys.

Charles was an accomplished piano player by the age of 12.

He was reportedly the youngest Eagle Scout in history, and he had an IQ as

as 139.

The Marine Corps.

19.

And what years was that?

Charles Whitman joined the Marine Corps. And as he had throughout his life, he

excelled. He earned a very high sharpshooter rating.

He was a decorated soldier. He even saved a fellow soldier's life.

The Marines had a scholarship.

Charles Whitman was offered the scholarship in engineering to go to the

University of Texas and become a commissioned officer.

Have you guys talked with Kathy? Who's Kathy? It's his wife.

The police quickly found out that they lived in a little house in South Austin.

No one answers the door.

Mrs. Whitman, this is the police.

Are you home?

In February of 1962, Charles Whitman met Kathleen Leisner.

So, what are you reading?

I just didn't take any.

I don't know.

You know it? That's a good one, yeah.

Do you like it?

I do. Yeah? I do, yeah.

It's heavy.

That's true. I've been noticing that.

And he was immediately mesmerized by her.

Are you from around here?

No, I just moved here, actually.

Really? Where are you from? Yeah, I'm from Florida.

Oh, wow. This must be really different for you.

You know, the humidity's the same.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, do you know anything around here? I can show you around if

want. That would be great. Have you eaten lunch?

No, I haven't.

She was a beautiful, small -town Texas girl who everybody loved.

Six months later.

They marry.

In August of 1962, Charles Whitman seems to have everything going for him.

He's very handsome.

He's got a beautiful, accomplished wife, a full -ride scholarship.

And he has very good friends.

How could a man like this do what he did? This is not our understanding of a

monster.

They enter the bedroom.

And they realize that the bloodbath is not yet over.

With so many bodies fallen all over campus, it hadn't occurred to police

the crime scene could stretch wider.

But as it turns out...

It could.

In the bed is his wife, Kathy.

She had been brutally stabbed five times in the chest.

It was a very large knife, either a bayonet or a hunting knife.

It appeared that he had been asleep when she was stabbed.

And then covered up with a sheet.

The police found a long note left by Charles Whitman.

It was a very chilling note.

Believe me, I can't recall when it started.

I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.

It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight and

after I pick her up from work at the telephone company.

I don't know whether it is selfishness or I don't want her to have to face the

embarrassment my actions would surely cause her.

Get a load of this.

The note went on to say, for similar reasons, I have decided to take my

life.

His mother is separated from his father and living in Austin.

Charles Whitman's mother, Margaret, had been beaten and stabbed to death and

placed in her bed to make it look like she was asleep.

The police officers find a second note.

And this is where they first see what was going on within his mind.

The intense hatred I feel for my father is beyond description.

My mother gave that man the best 25 years of her life.

I am truly sorry that this is the only way I could see to relieve her

but I think it was best.

Charles Whitman's life was not as golden as they originally perceived it to be.

His father and his mother had a stormy relationship.

In fact, his father abused his mother.

Charles Whitman Sr.

was a very stern and some people even say a very cruel father.

When Charles was 17 years old, he got a little drunk and his father

beat him up and threw him in a swimming pool.

Charles almost drowned.

That was the event that provoked him into joining the Marine Corps.

To get away from his father.

Did you speak with the professor in 204?

In the spring of 1963, three years before the shooting, he's not

really focusing on school, and his grades begin to slip.

Charles Whitman lost his scholarship.

And the Marine Corps is not going to count his time at the University of

So he's forced to return to active duty.

And at this point, Charles Whitman's life begins to fall apart.

With every day that passed, we learned more about Charles Whitman.

A few years before the shooting, he lost that hard -won Marine Corps

scholarship, which meant he had to return to active duty.

And that's when a darkness inside him began to grow.

Drew.

Come on.

You gotta be quick on your feet.

You put him in the pile, come on, man.

He started gambling.

Heavily. Thank you.

That's it. That's it.

You have to deal me in.

Read them.

Where's the $45 you owe me?

I owe you $30.

I want $15 in interest.

And you're going to pay me. I'm going to knock your teeth in.

How about you get nothing?

It actually just culminates in the first documented act of violence committed by

Charlie when he assaults a fellow Marine over a gambling debt.

His second stint as an enlisted man is the opposite of his first.

He was a troublemaker, and he did hard labor in November of 1963.

And is reduced back in rank to a buck private.

I wish so much that the Marine Corps would quit hindering my life and give me

discharge.

I wonder if I will ever amount to anything in this world.

He's keeping a journal, and he's seething with anger.

I have great plans and dreams.

I have so much I want to accomplish.

Seems I'll never get started.

God, I can't stand the Corps.

He gets a discharge from the Marines.

And Charles Whitman returned to the University of Texas in the spring of

one year before the shooting.

Hey.

How was work?

It was fine.

Same as always.

Did you make anything for dinner?

No, I... I've been...

Doing homework.

Well, I got paid today.

You can go out and grab a bite.

But at this point, he no longer has a scholarship.

I'm not hungry.

This is a young man who is being supported by his wife and his father,

doesn't like that.

What's wrong?

Nothing. I just have a lot of work to do.

What's all of you mean?

It's around this time that Charles Whitman becomes aware that something is

changing inside him.

Charles Whitman wrote down that he had some severe headaches that he had not

noticed previously.

Don't charge them, Larry.

Come on, Larry.

What are you doing?

What do you think of the grill?

He's becoming quieter. He can't focus.

There is something unusual in my mental state.

Seems as if I am going to explode.

He is now projecting an image and Charles Whitman's life becomes more and

of a facade.

Do you know if he had any drug or alcohol problems?

Charlie was taking this amphetamine.

One of the things he tried to do in order to accomplish more was to

sleep less. And he did that by taking a dextroamphetamine called Dexedrine.

I know it's in help of temper.

Did he have a bad temper?

I mean, I never saw it personally. I know he wasn't proud about

it.

Investigators also learned that he had admitted to striking his wife, Kathy, on

two occasions, and that he felt horrible about this.

Because he associated that with his father.

He witnessed his father beat his mother, and four months before the shooting,

Charlie received a phone call from her, and she clearly believed that her safety

was imperiled.

His mother finally has the courage to leave his father.

And so he moves her across the country to Austin, Texas, where he sets her up

an apartment.

And it seemed like that gesture of kindness from a son to his mother

back an old familiar strain.

Charles Whitman Sr.

was constantly phoning his son.

Dad.

I need you to let me talk.

Dad!

You've got to help me. You've got to talk to your mother.

Help me get this family back together again.

I understand.

Will you please just let me talk?

Stop talking for a second and let me talk.

He experiences emotional distress to the point of a break.

Kathy herself suggested that he see a psychiatrist.

On March 29, 1966, just three weeks after his parents' separation, Charles

referred to see staff psychiatrist Dr. Maurice Dean Heatley.

So, why don't you tell me about what brings you here today?

I get very upset, and I can't control my temper.

Dr. Healy. Dr. Healy. Dr. Healy.

Details of that meeting were made public by the University of Texas a few days

after the shooting.

He was this massive, muscular youth who seemed to be oozing with hostility.

Dr. Maurice Healy held a news conference trying to describe what happened.

I've been having these headaches.

quite frequently my father was outraged threw me in the pool very angry

anything else that you

might be willing to tell me well i've had some thoughts uh

i've had a thought that i would go up to

the tower

to university and I would take my deer rifle and I would shoot people.

He was contemplating shooting people. Why didn't you report him?

The press was stupefied. What? You knew this?

Why didn't you do something?

However,

given the guidelines of 1966, Dr. Heatley had to maintain confidentiality.

Dr. Heatley did the only thing that was realistically available to him, and

that's ask Whitman to come back, and Whitman chose not to return.

Doesn't make sense.

But afterward, I became convinced that I could have done something.

That if I'd seen him around campus, I could have warned someone that that

-looking man sitting alone was like a stick of dynamite, just waiting for

something to light its fuse.

According to a family member, just a couple of days before the shooting

his father had threatened to cut off money being sent to the family.

This puts an enormous amount of pressure on Charles. He's left to provide

support for his mother and his wife.

The timing supports the idea that this was kind of a straw that broke the

camel's back.

Was that the push that Charles Whitman needed?

No one can say for certain, but that's when his violent fantasies became our

reality. The night before the shooting, he dropped off Kathy at the phone

company. And he returns home to Jewel Street and begins typing his infamous

note.

Hi, John. Hey, guys.

Come on.

How's it going?

See you.

What you working on, Charlie?

Next great American novel?

What

you

working on, Charlie?

Next great American novel?

Larry and Elaine Feast. See a letter, and they're so close to uncovering what

he's going to do.

Now, I'm writing a friend in Washington.

I haven't seen him in five years.

Sit down.

Thank you.

Interestingly,

they report to the police that Charles appeared more calm and relaxed and happy

than he had appeared in months.

It had been building for a long time in small ways, noticeable not even to those

closest to him.

And then the dam burst.

The first to go were the people he loved, his mother, his wife.

And then he turned his rage outward on us.

The morning of the shootings, Charles Whitman went to several gun stores,

additional weapons, buying hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

And then he dressed in a workman's overalls and bluffed his way

onto the campus by saying he was there to do some repairs.

The elevator didn't work.

Is it stuck?

And in a tragic irony, one of the elevator operators actually helped him.

And she was able to turn the power on for him, and he said so infamously,

you. You don't know how happy that makes me.

Edna Townsley was the receptionist up there.

She wasn't even supposed to be there that day. She was taking somebody's

May I help you?

Sir? This is the woman that Alan Crum and Ramiro stumble across when they

enter the reception area.

Charles Whitman takes Edna Townsley's desk and he begins to barricade the

But at that moment, two sisters and their families are coming up the stairs

look out on the observation deck.

16 -year -old Mark Gabor is killed instantly. His older brother, Michael,

also hit.

He hit their mother, Mary Gabor.

And Mike and Mark's aunt, Marguerite Lampour, killing her.

We learned everything we could learn about Charles Whitman.

But a person's biography, no matter how detailed, isn't the person.

Why did Whitman do this?

From his letters, it seems like even he didn't know.

He requested that someone autopsy his brain.

During the autopsy, it was discovered that Charles had a large tumor the size

a walnut.

in an area of the brain associated with emotion and aggression, perhaps leading

to more violent and aggressive impulses in Charles.

However, we know that there are individuals who have similar tumors in

brain and yet do not go up on top of clock towers and start shooting

indiscriminately at people.

Maybe I'm simplistic, but I still think there's good and there's evil, and this

was just pure evil.

Understanding Charles Whitman is understanding that you're dealing with a

man who wants to set up his dad for something really terrible.

He does the one thing he does well, shoots.

He shoots people and he kills the two people he says he loves so that his

is left behind to have to explain all of what he has done.

My wife, my son's mother, had left me as I said.

approximately five months ago. Do you think his anger over this might have

a factor in what he did? At times, he did get angry with me for this.

Other than that, my son and I have had no problems whatsoever prior to this,

sir.

Are we doing this?

To him, right, we are.

All units, watch your fire. We've got men on the roof.

Romero goes first, the observation deck. And there's no one there.

Alan Crum and Jerry Day go one way, and Houston McCoy and Romero go the other.

Everything started happening so quickly.

The adrenaline's pumping.

All of this happens in a matter of a couple of seconds.

The sniper wasn't pointed towards him.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Six shots. He pulled the trigger. But he's never

hit by the revolver.

McCoy, behind him, fires his shotgun two times.

hitting the young man in the head.

And then Martinez grabs that shotgun and fires a third shot into his shoulder.

What's that saying?

Life is what you make of it?

As terrible as this was, we did learn a few things from it.

A lot of people credit that with the subsequent creation of SWAT teams.

Ambulances, they develop EMTs.

And today, in many states, it is law that public employees have to report

threats towards individuals and institutions.

But I think the biggest change that occurred was that this hideous act was

in our collective consciousness.

The seal had been broken.

Remember my dad telling me that this is not good because that guy is

showing us what is possible.

We're going to see a lot more of this.

Columbine.

Virginia Tech.

Newtown.

I think Charles Whitman told very, very troubled people who don't want to live

anymore what they can do to make a name for themselves before they force

somebody else to kill them.

And there are some who found a way to deny Whitman and any of his imitators

notoriety.

Houston McCoy never would use the sniper's name.

And I agree, by not using his name, we're not elevating him to that.

that level that he wanted to be elevated to.

And for me, one of the lucky ones, the worst part is that I will never entirely

feel safe again, no matter where I go.

Before this incident, many of us assumed that there was safety in public places.

Charles Whitman, in some ways, took that away from us.

The key is trying to keep guns out of the hands of people that shouldn't have

them. But how do you do that in a free society?

There will be people who are going to do what Charles Whitman did.

It's part of what it means to live in America.