Until the carnage by a student gunman at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., on Monday, April 16, 2007, the sniping rampage by Whitman from the Austin school’s landmark 307-foot tower had remained the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. Whitman, a 24-year-old student at the University of Texas, a sniper who killed 16 and wounded 31 from the tower of the University of Texas administration building in Austin, Texas, Aug. ** FILE **This 1966 file photo shows Charles J. Whitman’s academic achievements were encouraged by his parents, yet any indication of failure or a lethargic attitude would be met with discipline often in the way of beatings, from his father. He was extremely intelligent: an examination at the age of six revealed his IQ to be 139. led to great anger in young Whitman.Īs a boy, Whitman was described as a polite, well-mannered child who seldom lost his temper. He was known to physically and emotionally abuse his wife and children. Whitman’s father was an authoritarian who provided for his family but demanded perfection from all of them. The marriage of Whitman’s parents was not a good one and neither was Whitman’s childhood, both of which were marred by domestic violence. Whitman was the eldest of three sons born to Margaret E. Perhaps if people had paid more attention to his angry behaviour and his admission that he had violent thoughts, the day of the Texas Tower Sniperwouldn’t have existed. He was well-liked for much of his life and not considered to be at all unusual. Whitman was good-looking, blonde, and to look at him he was the proverbial All-American boy next door.
Perhaps it was a combination of the two that led to the gruesome killings on August 1, 1966.Ĭharles Joseph Whitman(J– August 1, 1966) was an American engineering student at the University of Texas, and a former U.S. However it was also a fact that he suffered a horrific childhood at the hands of his abusive, authoritarian father. In this story, a neurological disease was considered to be partly to blame for the tragic actions of Charles Whitman. Nature vs nurture will always be an argument in the context of criminal behaviour.
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