CHARLES WHITMAN 1963 Univ. Texas Tower Sniper (Marine Corps NESEPer 1961) (BACK)
In 1959, Charles was in the upper quarter of his high school class.  He joined the Marine corps at age 18, although he had been accepted to the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He became a sharpshooter in numerous weapons and was outstanding in rapid fire exercises.  He was a squared away Marine and could expect an excellent military career before him.
In September 1961, Whitman received a scholarship from the Navy/Marine Corps 'Naval Enlisted Science Education Program' (NESEP), which allowed him to select both his major and university.   He elected to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas.
During his time at UT, Whitman met Kathryn ("Kathy") Leissner, from Needville, Tx.  After a 7-month courtship, they married on August 17, 1962.
February 1963, his NESEP scholarship was withdrawn due to poor academic performance.   He was released to Marine Corps control, and he was stationed with the Marines at San Diegoo, CA and wife Kathy continued her schooling and graduated from UT.  She found work in Austin as a teacher.  In April, Whitman reapplied to the Marine Corps for NESEP, he was rejected.
By July he had advanced to the rank of Lance Corporal.  One of his former superiors, remembered him as a model Marine, whose superior performance served as an example to those around him.
His attitude changed when he got into gambling, booze, loan-sharking and altercations with every one including his wife.  Eventually, he was charged and courts-martialed for numerous offences concerning having unauthorized weapons and ammunition and threating to KILL another marine.  He was given a light sentence of 30 days restriction and loss of one paygrade to Private.
He petitioned to get out of the Marine Corps early.  It was approved and he was given an early honorable discharge to attend Univ. of Texas beginning in January, 1965.  He changed his major and studied for a degree in archtectural engineering.  While he attended UT, his wife was a full-time teacher and the main bread winner.
His parents separated in late February, 1966.  In March, Whitman drove to Florida and helped his mother move to an appartment in Austin.
July 31/August 1, Charles Whitman drove to his mother's, Margaret Whitman, apartment.  He stabbed her in the chest with a bayonet and then fatally shot her in the head.  Afterward, he drove back to his home and stabbed his sleeping wife, Kathy, to death with the same knife.
View the NOTE he left alongside his wife's body. Whitman drove to the ground floor entrance of the Tower.   He told a security guard that he needed to unload equipment at the Experimental Science Building, and thus obtained a parking permit.
Five minutes later he loaded a footlocker onto a dolly and with it rode the elevator to its top, on the 27th floor.  He hauled the locker up a flight of stairs to the 28th floor, where a secretary tended the reception area.  He struck her and and hid her body.   When two tourist families arrived, he shot them as well, wounding two of them and killing two, then Whitman began to shoot from the top of the tower.
Five weapons and other equipment he took into the tower are displayed to the right. See the official LIST of weapons and stuff he had on the tower:
Someone called the UT Police to tell them that a person was shooting from the top of the tower.  The City of Austin Police Department received a call to the same effect at 11:52.  Whitman was walking along the open-air deck, shooting pedestrians from all four sides of the tower with such speed that there was confusion as to who exactly was shooting - some people feared that there might be more than one sniper at work.   Officer Jim Boutwell flew in an airplane around the tower in an unsuccesful attempt to stop the sniper.
The victims numbered a total of 31 wounded and 16 dead.   Three Austin Patrolmen and one retired Air Force Tailgunner (who had been deputized by Austin policeman Ramiro Martinez that day) tunneled in the catacomes beneath the South Mall and found their way into the Tower, where they shot him six times with .38s, and twice in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun from 5 feet away.  Ninety-nine minutes after he began shooting, Whitman's life was ended.
To this day there exists no marker on the University soil, no explanation in the tours of campus.  The administration would just like to forget about what happened on that day. RETURN
MORE? Link to Charles Whitman's Original Documents.