Charles Joseph Whitman was born on June 24 1941 to Charles Adolph Whitman and Margaret Whitman. On the fateful day of August 1 1966, confirmed reports indicate that he killed 15 people and injured some other 31 people during a mass killing spree at the University of Texas Tower (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 4). Charles died on the same day as he succumbed to injuries resulting from the retaliating fire from the police and the civilians who were assisting the police to overcome him. The reasons as to why Whitman did this remain more of uncertainties. Events leading to this mass killing are at times conflicting especially in making conclusive arguments. Whitman was brought up in a well and stable family where his father was a successful plumbing contractor who took great care of his children and was very strict in his disciplining. Whitman had two brothers, John and Patrick. Whitman’s mass murder is one of the most remembered as murder accounts in the history of the US. This paper fries to unearth how the society around Charles influenced him to become a mass murderer over a time.
In his early life, Whitman was a young, energetic and intelligent boy who his father described as “all American boy”. He possessed admirable qualities and was the kind of child every parent would have wished to have. His intelligence was quite evident at a young age. He is said to have scored 138 in an IQ test just at the tender age of six years (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 12). At the age of 12 he was achieved the Eagle Scout a historic feat at the time for such a young boy. He was an altar boy at the Sacred heart Roman Catholic Church where his mother was a staunch Catholic who insisted that all her children must attend church every other Sunday. From a young age, Whitman had a passion for firearms as described by his childhood friends and neighbors. Despite this, he did not initially show any signs of violent behavior. Whitman had been involved in a five year piano lessons class and was active in sports. He played baseball in his high school days and participated in football.
Charles Whitman got married to Kathleen Leissner in 1962 (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 94). At the time, Whitman’s father had asked the Federal government to cancel his son’s enlistment in the US Marine Corps. This event meant that he had to join the University of Texas where he enrolled for a mechanical engineering program through a USMC scholarship. He was not able to complete as he continuously achieved sub-standard grades and was charged with shooting a deer and skinning it in his shower within the university premises. He later rejoined the Marine Corps the following year after where he got involved in a motor bike accident that left him hospitalized for four days. In the same year he was court-martialed for several issues ranging from gambling, threatening another Marine and possession of personal firearms while in the base. He was demoted from a Lancer Corporal to a Private. Things did not end there as he was relieved off his duties in the Marine later in December 1964 where he took several other occupations, initially as a bill collector and later as a bank teller. He also rejoined the University of Texas to take up an architectural engineering program (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 168). The society was beginning to have a stroll on him as everything was not working as he would have wished.
Complications went higher in 1966 when his mother revealed of her intention to divorce. Whitman helped her vacate their premise moving to Austin, Texas where she worked in a cafeteria. His father’s pleaded to him to convince his mother to return back home fell on deaf ears as Charles Whitman could not take any of his father’s words. At this point, Whitman behaviors were beginning to change. While at the university, he visited a psychiatrist Maurice Dean Heatly to whom he disclosed his frustrations and how they were affecting him. He even mentioned of a feeling to use a deer gun to shot people at the university tower. Surprisingly, one of his close confidants for a long time, Fr. Leduc revealed that Whitman had told him that he had lost faith and did not consider himself a practicing Catholic. After visiting the psychiatrist, Whitman was placed under medication. He was prescribed Dexedrine (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 206).
The day before the shooting he had purchased several weapons among them a knife and a Spam. He also bought binoculars. Charles Whitman later picked his wife from her workplace and proceeded to visit his friends. It is at this point that he began typing the suicide notes. In one of the notes he explains of his changing attitude and his supposedly lack of control over his actions and thoughts in recent times. He explained that he intended to murder both the wife and his mother actions that he later accomplished. His will stated that all money from his estates be donated for mental research to enable authorities to handle mental cases in the future. On that evening he killed his mother and wife and later rang to their respective workplaces stating that they were ill and would not make it to work (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 230). He developed a trend to write notes and diaries expressing his feelings and justifying his actions while stating his regrets. To whom was he revealing these issues? Did he expect someone to read them? It means deep inside him, he had a feeling that the society would want to know the cause of his actions. He felt answerable to them especially given that he has developed within the same society.
After he accomplished this, Whitman proceeded to purchase several other weapons. Among them a shotgun barrel, a Remington hunting rifle, M1 Carbine, three pistols and rented a dolly. He also carried his Marine footlocker and wore khaki coveralls over his shirt and jeans (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 241). At the tower he gained entrance from the security guards by disguising himself as a research assistant at the university doing some delivery. He encountered a lady who assisted him to switch on the elevator and proceeded without harming her. At the reception desk in the main building, he knocked the receptionist lady on duty with the butt of his riffle and hid her body behind a couch. He spoke with a young coupled briefly while vacating the receptionist area and they left the room. He proceeded to the observation area and barricaded the stairs where he began shooting indiscriminately at any one on site (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 268).
At this point a University professor notified the Austin police of gunfire at the University tower where security personnel were sent with haste. He fought with the retaliating security forces and the armed civilians on for some time before he was overwhelmed. Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy are said to be the last people to see him alive and complete the mission after they found him in a corner trying to watch the presence of police officers. McCoy is said to have shot him on pointblank which ended his life. Whitman was buried on the same day as his mother despite indicating his notes of his preference to be cremated (Lavergne, Gary M, pg 305).
This incident remains a misery as it is quite impossible to draw accurate conclusions as to why Whitman had to conduct a mass murder. It is argue in some quarters that a brain tumor that had developed could have been triggered and led to loss of control over his actions. What is not clear is how this could have been the case while he was able to accomplish pre-action events in an orderly manner like purchasing the weapons, killing the wife and mother and taking time to write some notes, disguising several persons including the security guard at the university tower entrance and managing to avoid initial alert before reaching his preferred destination at the main building. If he had lost control, he could have killed anyone at sight (Blanco, Juan I. "Charles Whitman, http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/whitman-charles.htm). It is therefore quite clear that though the tumor could have contributed to his actions, he had prior plans about this event and there were other contributing factors.
His childhood upbringing by an overbearing and strict father could have had some profound effect on his actions. Family dysfunctional ties especially after the separation of his parents and the stress associated with balancing class work and job brought frustrations in his life. His financial instability and his hampered expectations especially by his father after he requested that he is removed from the Marine Corps enlistment further affected him. As much as he tried to justify his actions through keeping a diary, we can draw evidence that some kind of frustration was building within him and at a point it overwhelmed him (Blanco, Juan I. "Charles Whitman, http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/whitman-charles.htm). This coupled with the brain tumor and maybe the medication patterns all could have contributed to his actions.
Whitman is described by his childhood friends and associates as a very ‘nice guy’ who in his childhood could not have been thought to imagine conducting a mass murder. His strict upbringing and Catholic background cannot be a perfect upbringing for a born mass murder. It therefore implies that his character was made. He developed into a mass murderer probably due to the surrounding circumstances and his brain tumor elevated the issues further (Blanco, Juan I. "Charles Whitman, http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/whitman-charles.htm). The dynamics of the society had a profound effect on his changing behavior and the subsequent actions of mass murder.
Works Cited
Blanco, Juan I. "Charles Whitman." Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. Murderpedia, 2007. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/whitman-charles.htm>.
Lavergne, Gary M. A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1997. Print.
