Charles Joseph Whitman (Lake Worth,14th June 1941- Austin,1st August 1966), late in the morning of 1st August 1966, mingling with the students, got into the University Tower and went up to the 28th floor where there was a terrace with a panoramic view. Just inside he murdered the receptionist with an iron bar and at 11.45 he started shooting at the crowd below. Whitman had carefully prepared the execution of the massacre. In fact, in the big bag he had brought there were two pistols, one shotgun, one rifle, one air rifle, one Remington precision rifle of 35mm and seven hundred munitions.
All this was completed with a radio, mineral water, a hammer, a machete, a kit for cleaning the arms, a biniculus, optical precision instruments for rifles, two knives, an electric torch, a pair of gloves, ear plugs and an iron bar. Not to be out of anything or perhaps he was a tidy and meticolous fellow he had brought, besides some food, even a roll of toilet paper. Since he was a child he had been trained by his father for the use of fire-arms and when he was 12 he got the recognition of Eagle Scout.
His mother, on the contrary, fed up with the violence of her husband, had applied for a divorce and had moved to Texas. At the age of 18 Whitman had joined the marine corps and after being discharged two years later he went to the university of Texas: here he met and married Kathleen Frances Leissner, a student of the same university. While attending university the future serial killer went on cultivating his definitely manly hobbies like karate and hunting and got, on the contrary, poor results as a student. When he was 21 he joined the marines again, but later he had to face court-martial charged with gambling, possession of a personal fire-arm and aggression against a collegue. For this he was sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonement and 90 days’ penal servitude and demoted. After being discharged when he was 23 Whitman went to the university of Texas again. Meanwhile he was suffering from cephalea which he tried to treat with amphetamines. When his mother, because of her husband’s violence divorced, Whitman took her to Austin, in Texas, to live toghether.
On 1st August 1966 ,before going up to the University Tower, Whitman had killed his mother, strangling her with a rubber pipe, and his wife, while sleeping, with five stabs.
The massacre began at 11.45 and lasted 96 minutes during which 16 people were killed, among them an eight month pregnant woman and a policeman the serial killer could hit at a distance of 500 metres. The injured were 30. The serial killer was killed at 1.30 p.m. by two policemen
who, after entering the terrace of the University Tower, hit Whitman in the nape of his neck.
A letter, partly typed on the day before the two homicides and partly handwritten, probably just after the homicide, was found near his mother’s and wife’s corpses. Let’s copy the letter: “I can’t really understand the reason why I am typing this letter. Maybe I must leave you a hazy reason to explain what I have just done. Recently I don’t understand myself at all. I have always thought of being a rational and intelligent young man, in the average. Yet lately(I can’t remember when it started) I have been the victim of different irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur and in order to concentrate on every day’s duties I need a terrible mental effort.
In March, when my parents divorced, I suffered from stress. I consulted Dr. Cochrum from the health centre of the university and I asked him to suggest me someone to apply to for a consultation about the psychiatric disorders I thought I should have. I have been speaking to the doctor for two hours and I tried to explain him my fears about those violent impulses. After that meeting the doctor has seen me never again, since then I’ve been fighting my mental agitation alone, but in vain. After my death I would like an autopsy to be executed to verify whether there are clear signs of a physical disorder. In the past I suffered from terrible hemicranias and I have swallowed two big bottles of Excedrin in the last three months.
After thinking over for long I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight I have drawn lots for her out of the telephone directory (……..). I can’t find any rational motive to explain the reason why of all this. I don’t know whether it’s egoism or I do so because I don’t want my wife to face the embarassment my actions should cause her (…….). I intend killing her in the least painful way.
Similar motivations caused me to kill my mother. I don’t think that poor woman has never enjoyed her own life. She was a young plain woman who married a very possessive man…I have seen her been beaten for at least one month. Besides my father made her live under his standard level.
I think I’ll appear as the one who killed both his greatest beloveds. I only tried to carry out a complete and rapid job. f my life insurance is valid, check that all the bounced checks that I have compiled this week will be compensated. Pay my debts (……) Give all that will be left, in an anonymous way, to a foundation for mental health. Perhaps the research will be able to prevent further tragedies of this kind. Charles J. Whitman”.
Whitman’s words strike for their extreme lucidity both in denouncing the refusal of the psychiatrist to help him and for the hypothesis, formulated by the same serial killer, about a clear physical disorder on the base of his homicidal instincts.
Autopsy was actually carried out on his body and revealed a brain cancer in an advanced phase.
Till the massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 2007 where another serial killer, Seung-hui, killed 32 people, the massacre of Austin was the bloodiest episode of USA history.
The story of Whitman has inspired a lot of films and his name is mentioned in many others. A death metal band even dedicated a song to the serial killer..On the contrary, as far as I know, nobody has carried out an in-depth study in order to explain how a cerebral neoplasia could modify a behaviour in such an extreme way.
Starting from that remote 1966 we will go back to the episode of Joanna Dennehy through the examples and the explanations we can find in the chapter V-The Rebellious Angels-of The Intelligent Virus. In this chapter the phenomenon of serial killers, like cannibalism, murders of parents (matricide-parricide), infanticide (murderous mothers), is explained on the base of the genetic theory of the mechanism at negative retroaction or genetic feedback as a consequence of overpopulation.
Translated from “Il Virus Intelliente” by Enrica Narducci
Ferdinando Gargiulo offers you a new perspective on why new viral epidemics, assaults, infanticides, suicide epidemics and even environmental catastrophes. Always engaged in his research decides to create a blog to offer his readers content of high value.