Charles Whitman

He lost his life in an encounter with police force at the University of Texas. Police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy spotted him on the observation deck and shot him.

Born in Lake Worth, Florida, United States, Charles Joseph Whiteman was the eldest of three sons of Charles A. Whitman, Jr. and Margaret. His brothers and mother suffered a lot due to his father’s cruel nature. He received his early education from Sacred Heart grade and junior high schools. After joining the Boy Scouts, he became an Eagle Scout.

In 1955, he attended St. Ann’s high school located in West Palm Beach, Florida from where he graduated in 1959.

On July 6, 1959, he joined the United States Marine Corps. As a part of his training, he was sent at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for eighteen months.

For his remarkable performance in the training programme, he received awards like Good Conduct Medal and a Sharpshooter’s Badge. He also won the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal.

In order to become a commissioned officer, he applied to a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps scholarship program and cleared the exam for the same. After the approval of the selection committee, he attended a preparatory school in Bainbridge, Maryland, to study mathematics and physics. He successfully completed it to qualify for a transfer to the University of Texas to study engineering.

On the evening of July 31, 1966, Charles visited his mother’s apartment and stabbed and shot her. In a note, he tried to justify this act saying he relieved his mother from her sufferings.

After murdering his mother, he came back home. He typed a letter stating his plan to terminate the life of his wife. When his wife went to sleep, he stabbed her to death.

On August 1, 1966, he hired a dolly and purchased necessary arms and ammunition. Dressed in khaki attire, he planned for a mass murder from the top of a tower of at the University of Texas.

After entering the university, he went to the top floor of the tower by the elevator. In the observation deck area of the tower he met receptionist Edna Townsley whom he injured with the butt of his rifle and hid her body behind a couch.

Within a brief period, he met some tourists on their way up the stairs and shot one of them to death. He started firing from the tower’s outer deck from 11:48 a.m. and shot several students in the South Mall gathering centre.

In his suicide note, this notorious killer requested to examine his brain in order to find out the signs of physical cause of his mental problems. The autopsy report showed that he had a brain tumour. But doctors were not sure whether this tumour had any effect on his brutal actions or not.