Who remembers or has heard of Charles Joseph Whitman?

Didn’t recognize the name, but I remember the incident. For a minute I wondered if he had anything to do with Whitman Samplers.

I do—unfortunately. I was working and going to school in New York City—recently moved from Texas. The news was such a shock.

Past is Prologue.

Wasn’t that the guy in the tower at UT?

Like @zenvelo, the name sounded vaguely familiar but couldn’t place it until I saw the video intro.

I never heard the name before.

Yeah, the Texas Tower dude.

It would be good if the world has forgotten the shooter, but remembered the victims:

Claire Wilson James, 8 mos. pregnant, lost her baby and her boyfriend Thom Eckman. She was wounded and was unable to bear more children. Margaret Whitman
Killed in her apartment prior to the tower shootings.

Kathy Whitman
Killed while she slept, prior to the tower shootings

Edna Townsley
47-year-old receptionist and divorced mother of Danny (16) and Terry (12). Whitman encountered her on the 30th floor. He hit her on the head with the back end of his shotgun

Marguerite Lamport
Aunt of Mike and Mark Gabour

Mark Gabour
Mike and Mark Gabour, the 16— and 19-year-old sons of M.J. Gabour, led their father, mother, aunt and uncle up to the observation deck of the tower just as Charles Whitman was assembling his arsenal. He opened fire on them. Mark and his aunt Marguerite died nearly two minutes later.

Robert Hamilton Boyer
A 33-year old mathematics professor at UT, Robert Boyer had just finished a month teaching in Mexico and had secured a job at Liverpool University to be nearer his pregnant wife Lyndsay, and their children Laura and Matthew. He was shot in the back.

Thomas Ashton
A 22-year old Peace Corps trainee from Redlands, California, Thomas Ashton was a recent USC graduate attending UT for orientation for his upcoming deployment to Iran on September 14, 1966. He was walking atop the University’s Computation Center when he was shot in the chest. He died at Brackenridge, a local Austin hospital. His parents were George F. and Alice Ryan Ashton.

Thomas Karr
A 24-year old UT student, Karr had just finished a Spanish exam when he was shot in the spine. He was walking alongside Karen Griffith. He died after being taken to the hospital. His father was Ray T. Karr.

Billy Paul Speed
A 22-year old policeman, Billy Speed was married to Jean and had one daughter, Rebecca Lynn. He had joined the Austin City Police on July 2, 1965 after a stint in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was eating lunch when he heard the gunfire, and was one of the first police officers on the scene. He had taken cover behind a stone railing beneath a statue of Jefferson Davis in The Mall, but Whitman managed to shoot him as he peered out.

Harry Walchuk
A 39-year old PhD student, he had six children with his wife Marilyn: John, Peter, Christopher, Jennifer, Thomas, and Paul. He had gone to Guadalupe Street to purchase a magazine during his lunch hour, was shot, and died while in emergency surgery. A memorial fund was established in his name and raised $850.

Paul Bolton Sonntag
An 18-year old graduate of Stephen F. Austin High, Paul Sonntag had been accepted to the University of Colorado for the upcoming term, and was working as a lifeguard at the local pool. Out with his fiancée Claudia Rutt and their friend Carla to pick up his paycheck and get Claudia a polio vaccination, when the shooting started the three of them took cover behind construction barriers in front of the Snyder-Chenards dress shop. At one point Paul stood up, exclaimed “Carla! Come look, I can see him. This is for real!” and was shot in the mouth. His grandfather, KTBC anchor Paul Bolton, learned of his death when he asked reporter Joe Roddy to read out a list of casualties on-air. He was buried in Austin Memorial Park.

Claudia Rutt
An 18-year old who dreamed of becoming a dancer, Claudia Rutt had been accepted to Texas Christian University for the upcoming term. She was out with her fiancé Paul Sonntag, getting a polio vaccination. Rutt moved out from the barriers to try and help the wounded Sonntag, but was shot in the chest by Whitman moments later. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Her father was Melvin, her mother is Diane, and her sister is Mary Anne.

Roy Dell Schmidt
A 29-year old electrical repairman, Roy Dell Schmidt had just finished making a phone call when a bystander announced the gunfire. He was running towards his truck with a co-worker when he was shot in the stomach. He left behind his wife Nancy White and their daughter, Kimberly Dawn.

Karen Griffith
17-year old daughter of Harvey Griffith, Karen also had a sister Pamela. She was a student at Sidney Lanier High School, where Whitman’s wife, Kathy, was a teacher. She was shot in the lung and died after a week in the hospital. Her funeral was held the following day at Crestview Memorial Park in Wichita Falls. Her school’s 1967 yearbook was dedicated to her and Kathy Whitman.

David Gunby
A 23-year old electrical engineering student, Gunby was shot in the lower-left back, while walking towards the University library. During surgery to reconnect his severed small intestine, doctors realized that Gunby’s sole kidney had been severely damaged by the shooting. He later required a kidney transplant, and dialysis. He moved to Fort Worth, Texas and on November 7, 2001 announced he was stopping dialysis. He died a week later at Harris Methodist Hospital.

Source

I do. I’m a UT grad and little too young to have been there during the shootings, but I vividly remember the news reports.

The name sticks because the D I in “Full Metal Jacket” emphasizes that Whitman & Oswald acquired their marksmanship in the Marine corps.

I very much disliked the link, and I think that you have given all of us who did not know the name before a disservice.

I regard you highly, @rojo, and I believe this question beneath you.

I was working in s large private psychiatric hospital; we had a patient that had a similar brain tumor and been hospitalized when he started “acting out”.

It took me an extra few seconds, because I had never known his middle name. Yes, I knew who he was, what he did and where he did it… only not with a middle name.

And I don’t see why anyone should be upset about learning of this for the first time. Being reminded of a painful incident from one’s past, sure, I can see the objection in that. But learning? Where’s the harm? I learned today that many American high school students actually believe that Southern plantation owners on this continent invented the whole institution of human chattel slavery. That is, that slavery had never existed – anywhere on the planet – until around the 1600s when “white Christians” invented it. It was upsetting to learn that, too – that American students could have been so ignorant or so badly taught as to have not learned otherwise – but I’m glad that I did learn that item.

I remembered the name but not the reason. Nut jobs with guns are not a recent invention.

Learning the name of the shooter in the Texas bell tower is upsetting, @CWOTUS, because these nut jobs usually do these horrific things for that very reason…that they will go down in infamy.
During the recent Orlando shooting, notably, there was a conscious choice by the media not to use the shooter’s name.

Ii prefer Whitman be forgotten. What, exactly, is the lesson here? That if you take a few innocent lives before your own miserable life is taken that you will still be remembered, 50 years later? I think that message has been received.