O.T.- August 1,1966-The Deadly Tower

[RUhasarrived]

50 years ago today,University of Texas student and US marine,Charles Whitman,using a variety of high powered rifles,shot 49 people,killing 16,from a perch atop a tower on the Austin campus.Whitman himself was shot and killed after his 90 minute spree.Subsequently,it was discovered that Whitman had a brain tumor,but it could not be established that the tumor was the trigger-no pun intended-for the carnage.

At the gym today,I'll be wearing my Tower T-Shirt,purchased after our game there in 1997.

I would have forgotten-believe it or not-all about Whitman were it not for the still unexplained shooting in Austin Saturday night,when a gunman opened fire on an Austin street,killing one and wounding four.That story remains to be told.Whitman's story is done forever.

 

[Doctor Worm]

Kinky Friedman's take on it...

 

[BeantownKnight]

I learned, on "Aerial America," that there are still bullet holes in the tower's facade.

 

[srru86]

In the 80s I attended a student conference at UT - Austin. Being a nosy history nerd I figured I go over and take a look. I had not done my homework and did not realize the observation deck was closed. So I look around the plaza, not much to see and go into the building and hit the button for the top floor. The doors open onto a bureaucratic office staffed by ladies who clearly had enough of dorks poking around their workplace looking for the sniper's perch.
It was only a couple of years ago that they reopened the observation deck.