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Texas Tower Sniper · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Welcome to ten Minute Murder, Brief and bingible true crime. My name is
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Joe. I'm the host, and thank you for joining today. And when
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one of you listening suggested that I do this story that I talk about the
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story you're going to hear today, before I looked it up, I thought,
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Charles Whitman, I know who that guy is, and I immediately thought
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of We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write
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poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is
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filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering, these are
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noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance,
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love, these are what we stay alive for. That is from Leaves of
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Grass by Walt Whitman, not the person we're talking about today, Charles Whitman.
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Joe, you dummy, So that was my mistake. But you can
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see where I would get confused. Right. If this is your first time
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listening to ten Minute Murder, please subscribe now so that you can catch up
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on all the back episodes. Makes it super simple. When you're a subscriber,
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you never miss any new ones as well. Connect with me on social
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to ten Minute Murder dot com for all things related to ten Minute Murder.
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Now to today's story. When Charles Whitman, armed with multiple firearms, terrorize
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the University of Texas Austin campus on the first of August nineteen sixty six,
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it seemed that his only goal was taking as many lives as possible. He
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had no vendetta against these people. He didn't even know them. What does
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it take for a seemingly ordinary young man to spend more than an hour shooting
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strangers on a university campus, killing sixteen people. Charles was a smart boy,
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with an IQ of one hundred thirty nine at the age of six.
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His parents supported all of his academic achievements, but to Charles's father, any
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failure was unacceptable. If Charles didn't perform to his father's standards, he would
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be disciplined. His parents had married when his mother was only seventeen years old,
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and she was abused throughout their marriage. The control that Charles's father exerted
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over his mother was clear to their children, who lived in fear of upsetting
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the fragile balance. From a young age, Charles desperately wanted to impress his
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father. He found another way to do that firearms. Charles's dad was a
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gun enthusiast, a pro at shooting and taking care of weapons, and Charles
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began accompanying him on hunting trips. He showed a natural aptitude for firearms and
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was a talented marksman, which impressed his father greatly. This is the first
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piece of the puzzle. The love for guns and the natural talent for hitting
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targets from a distance followed Charles into adulthood. He went on to enlist in
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the United States Marine Corps, where his firearms skills earned him a Sharpshooter's badge,
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although he never became a Marine Corps sniper. That day at the University
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of Texas, a part of Charles was remembering the skills that he had first
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learned as a young child while his father talked him through shooting and killing his
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first squirrel from a distance. University students were just a target to Charles,
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like the ones he had shot in his marine marksmanship tests. The UT Austin
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campus wasn't just some random target. In fact, this is where Charles had
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studied engineering in nineteen sixty one, thanks to a scholarship with the Marines.
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It's also where he met Kathleen Leisner known as Kathy, the woman who would
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become his wife one year later. However, Charles wasn't a great student,
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and the Marines canceled his scholarship due to his poor grades, ordering him to
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return to active duty the following year. The bad habits that Charles had engaged
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in university, especially gambling, still plagued him, and he was no longer
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happy to be serving in the Marines. In late nineteen sixty four, he
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was discharged and worked a series of temporary jobs. Shortly afterwards, something happened
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that put Charles under immense stress. His mother decided that she had had enough
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of her abusive marriage and wanted to divorce. Charles made every effort to help,
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terrified that his father's violence would escalate. Although Charles managed to help his
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mother get to safety, he started abusing amphetamines to help with the stressful situation.
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But only months after saving his mother from her abusive marriage. He would
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go on to brutally take her life himself. One day before the murders,
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Charles visited a hardware store where he purchased a knife and a pair of binoculars.
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Despite these sinister purchases, Charles's loved ones didn't see any signs of anything
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that was about to go terribly wrong, just like normal. He picked Cathy
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up from work and then went out for lunch with his mother. Cathy had
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a shift beginning at six pm. While she went to work, Charles wrote
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a letter only days later. The letter would gain notoriety as the suicide note
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of a homicidal maniac, the Texas Tower Sniper. The note didn't have the
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confidence or the anger that usually oozes from the manifestos of mass shooters. Instead,
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Charles seemed to be doubting himself, saying quote, I don't really understand
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myself these days, and confessing that despite being an average, reasonable and intelligent
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young man, he had recently been plagued by alarming, intrusive thoughts which became
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harder and harder to ignore. These thoughts had gotten so distressing that it was
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difficult for Charles to function in day to day life, bringing him to the
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point of desperation that led him to writing the note. As well as the
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feeling like he was losing control of his own mind, Charles was distressed by
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almost constant headaches. This led him to writing an unusual request. He asked
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that his body be autopsied to see if there were any medical reasons for his
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change in behavior and worsening headaches. The note made it clear that Charles fully
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intended to murder his wife and his mother, but he wasn't even sure why
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he had decided to. Even referring to his wife as quote as fine a
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wife to me as any man could ever hope to have, he settled on
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a motive for their murders. By killing them, he would save both of
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those most important women in his life from any further suffering and from the shame
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that would no doubt follow his next actions. Although this implied that he planned
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to commit more than just two murders and his own suicide, the note never
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directly mentioned a plan for the mass shooting. He did not wait to carry
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out his plan. Shortly after midnight, Charles arrived at his mother's apartment,
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killing her with a stab wound to the heart. He gently placed her lifeless
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body on top of her bed, wrapping it with bedsheets, and placing another
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note next to it, addressed to only to whom it may concern. The
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note began quote, I've just taken my mother's life. I'm very upset over
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having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven,
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she is definitely there now. Charles went on to apologize to the anonymous reader,
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assuring them that he loved this woman with all of his heart. Charles
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had now done something irreversible. It might have felt as though he had no
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choice but to continue with the rest of his plan. Returning home to find
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his wife sleeping in their bed, he abbed her in the chest, just
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like he had done with his mother's body. He covered her with sheets.
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Then he edited his suicide note, writing in the margins that both of his
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intended victims were dead. He finished the note in a ballpoint pin, making
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a series of requests, including being cremated, his life insurance used to pay
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off debt, and that any remaining money be donated to mental health charities.
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Despite having killed his wife, he was concerned for the well being of the
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couple's dog, asking for his wife's parents to take care of it. Early
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in the morning of August first, Charles made phone calls to both his wife's
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and his mother's workplaces, saying that they were sick and would not be coming
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into work. Six hours later, he made his way to the University of
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Texas Austin campus, where he told the security guard that he was delivering research
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equipment. Then his rampage began. Charles entered the university's clock tower, shooting
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and killing three people on his way up to the twenty eighth floor. Once
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he was on the observation deck, he aimed his hunting rifle and began shooting
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indiscriminately at passers by. He was actively shooting for a total of ninety six
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minutes, using several weapons. During this time, he wounded thirty one and
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killed fourteen two. More of the wounded would later die from their injuries.
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It's unclear whether Charles had planned to commit suicide by cop, but as he
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had intended, he died that day. His rampage was ended when two Austin
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police officers entered the top of the clock tower, and patrolman Houston McCoy shot
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and killed Charles at the scene of the crime. The autopsy was carried out
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on August second. Blood and urine were sampled after it was discovered that Charles
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had been prescribed valium before his death, and he had also been abusing amphetamines.
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The toxicology, however, was not the most interesting part of the autopsy.
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The neuropathologist who performed the tests discovered that there was a tumor and Charles's
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brain. Although investigators could not say for sure that the tumor had led Charles
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to the massacre, it was possible that it had changed his behavior enough to
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make an ordinary man into a killer. They believed that the tumor was pressing
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against a part of the brain called the amygdala, which controls the fight or
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flight response of the body. With the amygdala compromised by the tumor, Charles
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might have experienced out of control emotions and a lack of rational thinking. He
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had no way of knowing that a brain tumor was growing inside his skull,
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taking away his ability to think reasonably and tormenting him with headaches. The tumor
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was a glioblastoma, a type of cancer with incredibly poor survival rates even in
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twenty twenty three, let alone in the nineteen sixties. Even before he committed
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the murders, Charles Whitman had been a dead man walking. That is your
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ten minute murder story for today. Now, what I'm about to tell you
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about has nothing to do with the story that you just heard, even though
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it's about Austin. It's a complete coincidence. But it's something that I feel
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like I need to pass along to you. There is current information that there's
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something going on in Austin, Texas right now. I don't want to be
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all dramatic and sound the alarm that there's a serial killer out prowling around,
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but there's definitely something happening. People are going missing and being found drowned near
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Rainy Street that seems to be the primary point of origin, and it looks
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like it could be a group or team of people maybe doing this. No
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one really knows, and if the police know, they aren't saying at this
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point. If you live or visit Austin until this gets figured out, it's
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advisable that you hang out in groups and absolutely not alone, buy your own
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drinks, and don't for any reason leave it unattended. I know it can
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be a nice gesture or an ice breaker if a stranger buys you a drink,
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but don't do it, don't put your mouth on that thing, and
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don't go walking anywhere alone. Ladybird Lake is the bodies are being found,
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and the problem here is that many of these drownings are being ruled accidental despite
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the fact that there appears to be blunt forced trauma on some of the bodies.
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So there's really no way of knowing how many potential victims there are,
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but it's possibly over twenty, approaching thirty, and all of them are young
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male victims. So that is happening right now in Austin, Texas. It's
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been going on for the last few years, but it seems to be ramping
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up, so if you live in that area or a plan to visit that
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area, please be careful.