Brady Lowery                                                  Texas Tower Shooting

            I am doing my project on the shooting that happened in Austin Texas on August 1, 1966. This event changed history especially in Texas. It caused the tower to be a symbol of fear instead of showing the beauty of the city. I wanted to do my project on this topic because I find it really interesting that a person can go up in a tower and shoot at innocent unsuspecting people in the city. I also wanted to know what provoked the shooter who was Charles Whitman to do something this drastic.

            At first I began trying to find info on Charles Whitman the shooter from the tower. I used AVL to find out an actual account on what Charles actually did during this time.  In his early life Charles was a good student, Eagle Scout, and appeared to have a good home life. Once he turned eighteen troubles began to arise between him and his father. Charles came home drunk one night and his father beat him. A few days later he applied to enlist in the army, which is where he learned how to be a very talented sharpshooter. He was honorable discharged from the army and then attended the University of Texas. His grades were very low and he eventually failed out of college and went from small jobs just to make as much money as he could.

            I learned that Charles Whitman had prepared a lot for August 1^st 1966. On July 31^st he purchased binoculars and a bowie knife. His first actions were calling his mother to see if they could meet at her apartment. He met her in the lobby walked upstairs. He then strangled and beat her to death. Then he left a note saying why he did this to his mother, he arrived home later that night and stabbed his sleeping wife five times in the chest.

           
            Earlier during the day of July 31stCharles had purchased a radio, three gallons of water, gasoline, notebook, multiple hunting rifles one having a scope, sawed off shotgun, and at least two smaller pistols. Once inside the tower I learned that Charles had hit the receptionist in the tower with the butt of the rifle until she was knocked unconscious. Then Charles barricaded the stairway so it would be difficult to come up to him. One unsuspecting family opened the doorway to see what was going on and Charles grabbed his shotgun and began firing through the stairwell and killed two of the family members.

          

         After going on AVL and making sure the information I had just found a True Crimes.com was true I began finding out what Charles Whitman actually did when he got up to the tower. His first victim was an eighteen year old pregnant women and his bullet penetrated through her stomach, which fractured the skull of her baby. When she cried out for help a man named Thomas Eckman turned to her asking what happened and immediately after this happened he was shot in the chest and died on the spot. I also learned that at first while Whitman was laying down fire victims were helpless because they didn’t want to be shot again. Everyone was scared to move. At first no one was really sure what was going on the once the police and Texas law enforcement got involved it became much more difficult for Whitman to pick off unsuspecting targets. Then many civilians went and brought in the firearms shooting up at the tower to make sure Whitman couldn’t get a clear shot at anyone. While this was going on three officers made their way to the top of the tower on Whitman. Officer McCoy crawled through friendly fire coming from below and as Whitman popped up to return fire at him he shot Charles Whitman point blank twice with his shotgun killing him on the spot. Then I found a website with a video someone took on the day it was happening and captured Whitman shooting from the top of the tower. 

            

        After I found out these terrible details on what actually happened when Whitman was up on top of the tower I researched about what was the aftermath effect. Charles Whitman killed fourteen people and injured dozens more. He shot fifty people which could have easily all been killed instead of just fourteen. Another effect of the shooting was that the tower was closed until 1999 because of suicides and the killings. Then it was reopened and guard rails were put up top to prevent anyone somehow falling off the edge. After finding these facts I went to CBS.com and read how this shooting was the first shooting involving many victims on a college campus. Then after that I went to a website called Dallas News.com and had a interview with officer Martinez about the tragic day in August 1st 1966. This shooting inspired others such as the Virginia Tech massacre and was monumental during this time because nothing like the Texas tower shooting had happened during this time before.