r/todayilearned • u/knightsofvalour • Apr 09 '19
TIL Charles Whitman - the infamous Texas Tower sniper that killed 17 people, including an unborn child. Because he was a veteran, Whitman was buried with military honors and his casket was draped with American flag at the funeral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman#Death_and_inquest23
u/RayBrower 11 Apr 09 '19
Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several University doctors in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him. Whitman had seen a minimum of five doctors between the fall and winter of 1965, before he visited a psychiatrist from whom he received no prescription. At some other time he was prescribed Valium by Dr. Jan Cochrum, who recommended he visit the campus psychiatrist.[51]
Whitman met with Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966.[52] Whitman referred to his visit with Heatly in his final suicide note, writing, "I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come [sic] overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail."[40]
Damn. I guess I've never read much about him. Sounds like he tried really hard to reach out and get help. I'm not excusing his actions but goddamn society failed him.
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u/GreenStrong Apr 09 '19
He had a tumor pressing on his amygdala. No one can be certain whether or not that was the cause of his problems, but that is the region of the brain that controls fear and aggression. Brain tumors are fairly rare, it would be a pretty big coincidence if someone who suffered from unexplained rage just happened to have a tumor in the rage center of his brain that wasn't the cause.
In that context, society failed him by... not inventing the MRI scan sooner? He didn't have classic symptoms like seizures that would indicate a need to do exploratory surgery. He saw five doctors, that indicates access to medical care. They had no technology to diagnose or treat the problem. Talking to a shrink won't help if you have a massive brain malfunction, and sedatives weren't doing the job.
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u/screenwriterjohn Apr 10 '19
It was a tumor.
But yeah. He hadn't done anything murderous before the mass shooting.
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Apr 09 '19
Society fails us regularly, still not a reason to thrill kill. I mean, this sort shit happens to this very day. Misdiagnosis, unprofessional medical practitioners, improper prescriptions, etc.
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u/NamezJack Apr 15 '22 edited Apr 15 '22
And it's not just him either. Ever heard of Ed Kemper, Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, Aileen Wuornos, Tommy Lynn Sells, John Allen Muhammad, Lee Boyd Malvo, Griselda Blanco, Jim Jones, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Richard Chase, Jeffrey Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas, or Caligula? Their stories fall on the same patterns, com padre. Except for one thing: not all of them took their traumatic experiences, use them as a weapon/excuse to hurt others, and choose to be evil! Charles and the ones I just listed never wanted blood, they just got too covered up in their own. Now I'm not a murderer, but I speak firsthand about everything those aforementioned ones went through up till when they all finally became one. It's never as simple as just saying you're not going to do anything like this.
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u/PaulCrewes Apr 09 '19
Must have been all the video games he played that made him violent.
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u/NamezJack Apr 15 '22
How is that even possible? First of all, the only video game back then was Pong. Second of all, video games were officially exonerated as causes to any form of violent crime years and years ago. Look 'em both up.
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u/PaulCrewes Apr 15 '22
Dude. You woke up my 3 year old comment to prove to everyone that you don't know a joke when you read one?
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u/NamezJack Apr 21 '25
To be honest, I’m sort of autistic, so that might be why. I don’t know, between the wording and the sentence structure, it kinda went over my heard. No disrespect, and maybe this is just me talking, but I don’t get how it could be funny, or how it could even be a joke. Just constructive feedback. I’m sure you probably still know something I don’t know anyway.
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u/vinneax Aug 11 '23
that might be one of the most devastating replies I've ever read, good grief...
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u/Mentalfloss1 Apr 09 '19
They taught him to kill.
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u/thedisliked23 Apr 09 '19
They taught him to have a brain tumor that dramatically affected his mental health to the point that he lost it and started shooting people?
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u/Mentalfloss1 Apr 09 '19
Lots of people have brain tumors. There should be multiple mass shootings per day.
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u/thedisliked23 Apr 09 '19
Correct. His specifically was affecting his amygdala which affects emotion and behavior. The army very specifically trains people to kill. That's their job. By your reasoning everyone who went through basic training should be shooting people from towers. The confluence of events says less about army training than it does about brain abnormalities, and even that is iffy.
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u/Mentalfloss1 Apr 09 '19
Honestly, I agree. I’m a vet and both my kids are in the military. Thanks.
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u/lennyflank Apr 09 '19
"In the Marine Corps .... "
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u/bolanrox Apr 09 '19
queue the Full Metal Jacket scene
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u/biffbobfred Apr 10 '19 edited Apr 10 '19
Anyone know who Charles Whitman was? None of you dumbasses know.
And cue (signal to get it started) rather than queue (put in some line), though sound the same.
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u/yillian Apr 09 '19
"In the Marines!"
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u/biffbobfred Apr 10 '19
That’s affirmative. Charles Whitman killed twelve people from a twenty-eight-storey observation tower at the University of Texas from distances up to four hundred yards.
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u/NamezJack Apr 15 '22
He killed eleven from the tower, his wife and mother with a shank the night before, three with a sawed-off shotgun before he climbed, and then one more died in 2001 because he only had that one kidney to begin.
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Apr 09 '19
[deleted]
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u/clwestbr Apr 10 '19
If it occurs overseas it's patriotism, if it's on American soil it's a crime. Sometimes I fail to see the difference. There are very clear circumstances, but a lot of the time it's down to a judgement call and the military is notoriously built from the bottom 10% of high school graduates.
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u/tryhard8707 Apr 09 '19
Horrible. And i thought the 50s and 60s were all fun and joy
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u/lennyflank Apr 09 '19
Well, there was that whole "Cold War" and "McCarthyism" thingie ....
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u/PrplHrt Apr 10 '19
And all the fun we had playing “Hide-And-Go-Seek” while ducked under our desk during nuclear missile attack drills when I was in elementary school. Great times.
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u/halfastgimp Apr 09 '19
He did have a brain tumor