Posted on 08/23/2025 11:27:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Friday marks 59 years since the tragic University of Texas Tower shooting.
On Aug. 1, 1966, a man by the name of Charles Whitman disguised himself as a janitor and carried bags of guns to the top of the UT Tower.
Whitman set up on the observation deck of the tower where he then opened fire on the people below.
“At approximately 11:53 a.m. on Aug. 1, 1966 I came within 4 feet of being shot by the tower sniper,” said Austinite Forrest Preece, who was a student during the shooting. “A gentleman standing that far to my right was actually killed. He took a fatal round.”
First Warning Weather Early Evening Forecast with Chief Meteorologist Nick Bannin (August 22, 2025)
Preece said he was eating on the drag and when they heard there was something going on outside they stepped outside. After they heard the shots fired in their direction they ran back inside for cover.
“There has not been a day in the ensuing 59 years I have not thought about it,” Preece said. “And on Aug. 1st it brings everything crashing back.”
Student project sheds light on forgotten moments of UT tower massacre Video taken during that fateful day shows students running in every direction for cover, and many were killed.
In all, 17 people were killed — and more than 30 injured by Whitman — who used multiple guns and fired off about 150 rounds.
On Friday, Preece and his wife Linda spent the day paying their respects to those who were killed by stopping by a few grave sites and the memorial on UT’s campus.
“It has made an impact on my life, and it’s one reason that I have been civically active and contributed everything I can to good causes around town. It’s because I felt like I was given a second chance at life that day,” Preece said.
The shooting ended at 1:24 p.m. when Whitman was ambushed and shot by police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy.
“...and it’s one reason that I have been civically active and contributed everything I can to good causes around town...”
Austin is loaded with people like this. They are called democrats.
IIRC the citizenry further aided the cops in providing suppressive fire so the cops could get to the base of the tower.
Education isn’t a liberal art. The liberal arts include language and literature, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, history, logic, and rhetoric.
A Marine and his weapon holds off a city...he also had brain damage and knew something was wrong...he left a suicide note
“After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mind-murderer_n_1384102
My best friend’s Father in law was killed by that man that day. For some people, it’s very personal. Not for me, but for them, it is deeply personal.
It is personal. He killed 17 people including his own mother and his wife. He injured 31 others.
Sickening.
An excellent movie made for TV in 1975 was ‘The Deadly Tower’ - mostly from the viewpoint of Officer Martinez. Of all people, Kurt Russell played Whitman, and was excellent in the role. Seemed to be effective for having him break a Disney stereotype.
Yes. I wouldn’t go out in the courtyard or whatever they called it, it was a large open space between all the buildings which were on either side. It occurred to me how easy it would be to be up somewhere and pick people off.
Remember this was 1970 and really I don’t remember many or any shootings around that time, or before, other than that one. There might have been but it wasn’t a regular part of the news, at all. Those days we didn’t even lock our doors.
Texas Tower Sniper-Charles Whitman
And this just a couple of weeks after Richard Speck murdered 8 nurses in Chicago.
The 60's were extremely disasterous for the country with the murders of King, both Kennedys,out of control race riots and demonstrations, Viet Nam, anti-Americanism, moral rot etc. Problem was government let them get away with it. A turning point in our history after the halcyon post WW 2 1950's. Led to the filth we see going on to this day. Government still letting them get away with it.
He might have been a victim of the Camp LeJuene water contamination which is still being litigated.
***who used multiple guns and fired off about 150 rounds. ***
His main rifle he used was a Remington bolt action 6 MM hunting rifle. The news media dubbed it a “sniper rifle”.
Just a few months earlier Richard Speck murdered eight student nurses with a knife.
One of THREE mass killings done before the 1968 gun control act became law and before the insane asylums were closed down in the 1970s and the crazies dumped on the streets. When that happened mass shootings took off like a rocket.
The ONLY mass killings(not done by criminal gang wars) before 1970 were...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-first-mass-murder-us-history-180956927/
Howard Unruh in 1949 with a Luger pistol.
Richard Speck 1966 who murdered 8 student nurses with a knife.
Charles Whitman in 1966 with a Remington bolt action rifle.
Yet semi auto rifles had been on the market to anyone since 1903. Why no mass killings blamed on semi auto rifles till 1984?
I remember watching it on black and white tv. I knew the campus pretty well even as a kid.
It was so hot that day, and there was a girl who had been shot laying out in the sun for what seemed like hours. Horrifying.
This is true. When all those Texans realize they were under fire they grabbed their own rifles out of their pickup trucks and shot back causing Whitman to take cover and try to shoot through drainage holes in the observation deck.
In 1975 there was a made for TV movie about this shooting. And as usual they blamed the guns. As the end titles ran there was a voice over telling how Whitman was found to have a tumor on his brain and it may or may not have caused his rampage. HOWEVER there was an even LOUDER voice over drowning out the first voice over telling people to be sure and watch another TV show coming on. It is like the TV station did not want you to hear about Whitman’s tumor.
As for the movie TARGETS, I thought it was interesting that Boris Karloff played an actor named ORLOCK (from Nosferatu).
I thought it was John Boy Walton.
Nope. You’re right.
Warren said he was an excitable boy.
Yet one more reason to ALWAYS CARRY!
A lot of doctors think this caused his anger and violent impulses behind the shooting
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