20160801

University of Texas mass murder in 1966, 50 years ago


Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American engineering student at the University of Texas and mass murderer who gunned down 49 people, killing 16.

In the early morning hours of August 1, 1966, Whitman murdered his wife and his mother in their homes. 

Later that day, he brought a number of guns, including rifles, a shotgun, and handguns, to the campus of the University of Texas at Austin where, over an approximate 90- to 95-minute period, he killed 14 people and wounded 32 others in a mass shooting in and around the Tower. 

Whitman shot and killed three people inside the university's tower and eleven others after firing at random from the 28th-floor observation deck of the Main Building. 

Posted by at