Charles Whitman, Austin Texas 1966. It's a name I'll never forget Chet Huntley, on that night's news cast, proclaiming as the man who killed 14 and wounded over 30 from the clocktower at the University of TX. It's my first memory of a "spree killing".
It happened back in the day, but it just didn't happen as often.
Charles Whitman’s spree was cut short by people shooting back. I remember reading about it when I was a boy. Once the Texans realized what was happening, the perp was pinned in the tower by the locals who went to get their guns. It is too bad they didn’t have a sharpshooter in the bunch, but I recall reading that the perp couldn’t get a clear shot at anyone once the Texans started shooting back and eventually became so frustrated that he offed himself.
“It happened back in the day, but it just didn’t happen as often.”
Pretty much the point I was making...the whole country was shocked by that Texas Tower for a long time then...and it haunted us...but, that was the sixties, like I said...before that, in the 40’s and 50’s, this kind of mass murdering just was about as rare as could be...these things are so common now...it is sad, but not the kind of outrage it was...the sixties brought something very bad with them...assasinations, mass killings, all manner of crap that was new to us...