Charles Whitman | |
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![]() Whitman in 1963 | |
Born | Charles Joseph Whitman June 24, 1941 Lake Worth, Florida, U.S. |
Died | August 1, 1966 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 25)
Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
Resting place | Hillcrest Memorial Park, West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
Other names | The Texas Tower Sniper |
Known for | Perpetrator of the University of Texas tower shooting |
Spouse | |
Motive | Homicidal ideation, mental illness possibly caused by brain tumor |
Details | |
Date | August 1, 1966
|
Location(s) | University of Texas at Austin |
Target(s) | Mother, wife, random strangers |
Killed | 17 (including an unborn child and a victim who died from complications in 2001)[1] |
Injured | 31 |
Weapons |
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people. He fatally shot three people inside UT Austin's Main Building, then accessed the 28th-floor observation deck on the building's clock tower. There, he fired at random people for 96 minutes, killing an additional eleven people and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin Texas law enforcement. Whitman killed a total of seventeen people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.[2][3][4][5]