Posted on 07/23/2016 6:07:46 PM PDT by Elderberry
The Texas Standard spoke to nearly 100 survivors of the UT Tower shooting. Next week, you can hear their stories.
Dallas. Baton Rouge. Nice. Orlando. It seems like we can’t go more than a few days without a violent event somewhere in the world. While it’s true these attacks are happening for very different and very complicated reasons – they keep happening. It’s almost hard to remember a time when they didn’t.
But when a shooter took aim at the University of Texas of Austin campus from the top of the UT tower on August 1, 1966, no one had any reference point for such an attack. The Texas Standard spoke to people who were there that day as part of a documentary that will air Monday.
Summer school was in session. While the campus wasn’t as full as it would be in the fall or spring, it was still teeming with life.
Judy Brooks had come to participate in a summer orientation right before her freshman year.
Gary Gibbs worked part time at what was then Capital National Bank. “You had to carry a full load so your draft board wouldn’t come after you for the Army while you were in school,” Gibbs says. “I was able to provide enough hours a year by working part time, but I would also go to both sessions of summer school.”
Linda Adkins was working for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the time, which was located on the 24th floor of the tower.
Cheryl Dickerson was walking around campus. “I struck up a conversation with the ticket agent and he asked me if I had ever seen the campus and I said ‘No,’ I had not,” she says. “He asked me if he could give me a tour of the campus the next morning and I said ‘Sure.’ And the tower was the first stop on the tour.”
Just a little before noon, a man began shooting from the tower at the campus below. Many people heard the sounds, but not many realized they were gunshots.
“All of a sudden I heard this noise that sounded like – back then we had Coke bottles – so it sounded like cases of Coke bottles being placed on top of each other,” Jeanette Lawrence says.
“I kept hearing what sounded like lumber dropping,” Bob Matjeka says. “It was like a clapping sound.”
“Just by chance, that was the day that Scholz’s Beer Garten was going to have some sort of celebration,” Sid Lawrence says. “I don’t remember what they were celebrating, but we commented – a couple of the students – to each other,’Oh, Scholz’s is starting a little early.’”
But a few people recognized the sounds of the shots, including then associate professor Michael Hall. He called 911 to report the gunfire.
“Hello, this is Michael Hall at the History Department from the university campus,” he said in the 9-1-1 recording. “There has just been a gunshot on the main plaza outside the main building and at least one person wounded.”
Hall says it was his war experience that helped put the sounds in context.
“I had been in World War II, and although that ended in 1945, I was still quite conscious of airplanes flying close by overhead, of the possibility of explosions,” he says.
Besides war experiences, few had any context for a mass shooting like this.
“That was a foreign concept back then. People didn’t shoot each other like now,” Dale Dorsey says.
“And it was just so abnormal,” Jan Klinck says.
“There’s no reference point. There’s no, ‘Oh this is like such and such,’” Sue Wiseman says. “There’s just nothing there.”
It came from out of the blue.
“Out of the Blue: 50 Years After the UT Tower Shooting” is Texas Standard’s oral history on the anniversary of the first public mass shooting of its kind. We’ll bring you these stories and many more in a special edition of our show Monday.
Me too.
Yes the criminology book used those same words “walnut size”.
Excellent ballistics and sectional density. Common bullet weights are typically “long” in relation to diameter thereby “stacking” more energy on target. Great silhouette round.
JFK was hit with a 6.5 Carcano
6.5 JDJ (6.5 X 225 Win.) was a popular Contender single shot pistol round while the 6.5 TCU (6.5 X 223)was used for silhouette competition.
News broadcasters told us that several private citizens, i.e., not law enforcement officers, stopped their cars, got their hunting rifles out and provided some of the covering fire for the police.
........
I believe it. I was 1st in Texas in 79 and most pickups had a rifle rack w/ gun. It’s weird, I live here for a while now and never see it. Maybe thievery??
Remington 700 in 6mm Remington
If I recall, the cop who actually shot Whitman had all kinds of mental problems afterward, and ended up committing suicide.
I remember the 8 nursing students. I was heading to college that August and my dad sat me down and had a long talk with me about safety.
So my shotgun stayed behind my seat in my truck for over 20 years.
Then a big billboard was put up at the front gate stating no firearms.
It was probably some fool hunters leaving their rifles in their "Easy Rider Rifle Racks" that messed it up for everyone.
I had rebarreled my Rem 700 in 6.5X47 Lapua. It was sadly lost at sea. Today I ordered a 6.5 Grendel upper. I’m sure that it’ll most likely be lost in shipping.
Do you know if Whitscum was buried or cremated?
No I have no idea.
6.5 is a fascinating caliber.
Some say it is the most efficient/ideal bullet diameter though it was never really popular here compared to the 30’s.
7MM got all the glory coming its way.
I too watched the live feed from the Austin TV Stations through those in San Antonio.
It sounds like he was buried because the body was later exhumed for further forensic testing. he is reportedly buried with his mother, brother who was murdered in 1973 in Florida.
I remember even tho I was only 10
I was a grad student on campus that day having just finished 3 yrs with the USAF. I came out of the Communications Building when some students in a basement window well told me to get back inside...which I did. Some students with cameras made money that day selling pictures to the media. Will never forget it.
You Never Know What Tomorrow Will Bring.
My husband and I were married the next day.
He had just dropped me off at my apartment at noon after a pre-marital counseling session. We could hear the shots from the car. He went off to see what was going on. On the Drag, he saw a man in a nice, big car park and get a rifle from his trunk.
One doesn’t realize that it was 50 years ago.
I was there. I ran to the tower when they waved the white tee shirt to cease fire. I was next to Gregory gym trying to get to the Government building where my future wife was. That building had bricks blown out by his shooting. I started out in the “ B.E.B” . A girl was shot but not killed in the north ground level door way. She was just looking out at the tower 200 yards away. I was very young. It was horrible to see them bring the innocent bodies down the elevator. I was trapped inside for 3 hours. Whitman was blown in chunks. Officer Martinez ( later Texas Ranger) and book store manager Crum were very brave that day. I saw the blood ( and other things)on the commons. When it was over, I cried.
It was surreal. I recall they had been working on the tower... sandblasting I think, and I remember thinking that was what was going on. Also, my parents called in a panic. My Dad had had a dream the previous night that I was being shot at (which was not the case) and they were naturally very anxious when they heard the news. I am not a big believer in the paranormal, but that incident has always made me wonder.
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