TOWER SNIPER | history-with-hagan

TOWER SNIPER

Tower Sniper is a complete study of the Charles Whitman Massacre that took place at the University of Texas August 1, 1966. Whitman committed the first mass school shooting in American history on that day, and enough time has passed that his crime has become a historical event, rather than a true crime story.

We will consider the crime in historical context, looking at the social and cultural conditions in which it occurred, the people involved, the event itself, and the aftermath. Any examination of the Tower shootings must also consider motive. Why Whitman climbed the Texas Tower that day and began sniping at fellow students is the central question surrounding August 1, 1966.

ACTIVE READING:

Active reading is pretty much required in a book like this. The authors have included a tremendous amount of detailed information, and there's no way to remember and recall everything if you don't write in the book. As you read, underline important points and then briefly summarize them. It is strongly recommended that you underline and take margin notes extensively. That is the best way to handle a book as dense as this one.

For an example of active reading, on Page 8, the authors consider whether Whitman pre-planned the shooting or climbed the Tower in response to a specific trigger. They lean more towards the specific trigger argument and believe that what broke Whitman from reality was his father's announcement that he would no longer financially support Whitman or his mother.

Because the authors believe this is important for understanding Whitman's actions, I've underlined their description of the "incident" itself, and the written a brief summary of what they believe in the margins. I've written out their line of reasoning and drawn an arrow to the "incident" that they believe triggered the massacre.

This test will cover the book but also involve all levels of thinking. There will be basic fact questions, along with chances to engage understanding, analysis, evaluation, and creativity.

Begin with basic facts by learning and/or finding the information listed below.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Who wrote the book?
What are the author's backgrounds?
Have the authors worked with history before? What is their training?
Are these individuals qualified to write a book about this subject?
Is there anything about any of the authors that might suggest bias when it comes to Whitman's crime?

With any history book, analysis of author(s) goes a long way towards critical understanding. Scholars always say "To know the history, know the historian."

INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK:

When was it written and published?
Why was it written? What motivated the authors to write this book?
What pictures are included? What do they do for the book?
What is the level of research? Take a look at the bibliography to see what sources were consulted and the level of research involved. Is it superficial or thorough? Do the authors look at original documents? Is the research lazy and reliant on secondary sources written by other scholars?
Is the research recent? Or did the authors rely on dated material?

THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK:

There is TON of information in this book. As you go through the contents, remember that we only have 100 points on the test. There's no time or reason to burn a question on something minor - an obscure person, a minor date, the specific caliber of a weapon or the exact number of inches cut down on a weapon.

Within reason, therefore, be familiar with the following:

AUSTIN, TEXAS, 1966: THE SETTING

The authors call this Old Austin, before everything changed. They also call the Whitman shooting the watershed moment that separated two eras in the city. What do they mean by this?
The city population in 1966.
The city's mood and mentality in 1966. Was anything changing in Austin? Was anything new starting to emerge?
The Texas Tower - its history, dimensions, purpose, and appearance.

CHARLES WHITMAN: THE KILLER

Be familiar with the investigations into Whitman's past.
Understand the urgency behind these investigations, especially in light of the Kennedy assassination of 1963.
Be familiar with the factors that influenced Whitman as he grew up and became an adult. Here, the list of things is going to be lengthy.
You'll want to understand the following:
The five stages of Whitman's life assigned by the authors.
Whitman's father and family life.
The relationship Whitman had with his father through his adulthood. The authors find it important, for instance, that though Whitman seems to have disliked his father, he also accepted money from him regularly until his death. Whitman also depended on the man for help with major life events - like when he tried to get released from the Marine Corps.
Whitman's childhood and achievements as a young person.
Whitman's decision to join the Marines and his experience in the Corps.
The reason Whitman initially enrolled in the University of Texas.
Whitman's particular interest in the Texas Tower.
Kathy Whitman and her marriage to Charles. Were they a happy couple?
Why Whitman had to return to the Corps and what happened to him when he went back in in 1963. His experiences in the Marines this second time around are remarkably different from his first tour. The authors even call his second time in the Corps a
watershed period between a relatively normal life and a life marked by growing irrationality."
Through all this, what do you see? Do you pick up anything ominous about Whitman? Is he unusually alarming in any way? For this, you have to forget what he will do in 1966. If you didn't know Whitman would become a mass killer, would you see anything alarming in his behavior up until 1963-64?
Whitman is the mystery in the Tower Massacre. Some have looked at him and seen an unbalanced individual heading for trouble, while others have perceived a normal young man whose actions on August 1 came as a complete surprise. Expect to have some type of question about the nature and biography of Charles Whitman.

THE IRRATIONAL PERIOD: AFTER THE MARINES, 1964-66

Whitman's jobs after he returned to Austin.
Whitman's behavior after he returned to Austin.
Whitman's writings about his feelings and his sense of a rising uneasiness.
Whitman's relationship with Kathy and treatment of her after 1964. Sources of stress in their marriage and in Whitman's life.
Who first suggested Whitman see a counselor or a therpist.
What happened within Whitman's family in the Spring of 1966.
Doctor Heatly and his reaction to Whitman.
Dr. Heatly's report on Whitman and what the author's think stands out in what Heatly said.
The interview with Doctor Heatly in March, 1966 and what the authors believe stands out about that interview.
Whitman's plans for the future and grades.
The last week of Charles Whitman's life. One of the big mysteries about Whitman is whether his crime was spur of the moment or planned long in advance. What does his behavior in the last week of his life say about this mystery?

THE CRIME:

Be sure you understand the events of August 1, 1966 in context. Go through the first chapter about the last week in Whitman's life and understand what he was doing in his last week.
The book goes through the events of August 1 in great detail. For our purposes here, it is not important to remember every event of that day. You should have a general understanding of the following:
When Whitman first started talking about shooting people from the tower or a tower.
The event the authors think might have triggered the massacre.
Whitman's motive. What might it have been, judging from his own words and from the circumstances of his life.
When he killed his mother and wife, and why. What did Whitman say about these murders? What does the book say about the nature of these killings?
Whitman's preparations - what he purchased for the mass murder and when.
What he took to the Tower.
The luckiest people in Texas.
Why no one seemed particularly concerned about the weapons Whitman acquired, the huge amount of ammunition he purchased, or the sight of him holding rifles inside a building.
What his weapons say about whether the attack was planned or spur of the moment.
Where the victims died.
How many people died.
How people first reacted as victims fell around them.
Paul Sonntag and his particular importance to one of the authors.
Billy Speed
Claire Wilson and Rita James
David Gunby
The duration of Whitman's sniper attack. How long was he firing from the Tower? Why did he find fewer targets and less time to shoot as the massacre continued?
The a group of people were able to run off the South Mall and/or pick up some of Whitman's victims. Why did they do this? Why didn't Whitman shoot at them?

PUBLIC/LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONSE TO THE CRIME:

Once the people of Austin understood what Whitman was doing, how did they respond?
Why was an airplane flying around the Tower during the sniper attack?
The police officers who climbed the Tower - what they had been doing, how they came to the scene.
Who went out on the top of the Tower to confront Whitman. Where they found him.
Who killed Whitman?
How/where was Whitman killed?
Were the right people given credit for ending the massacre?
Dr. Healtly's statements after the massacre ended.
Whitman's father and his behavior in the aftermath of the crime.

THE AUTOPSY/TUMOR:

Where was Whitman autopsied? Who performed the autopsy?
Where did Whitman's brain end up?
The tumor. What did the autopsy discover in Whitman's brain, exactly?
What does the book say about the alleged tumor. Was it the cause of the massacre? Why or why not?
The arguments against a tumor being responsible for the massacre.
Why do people still want to believe a tumor was responsible for Whitman's crime?

THE EXPLANATION:

The book goes through several explanations for Whitman's actions. Have a look at them.
Freidman's more detailed analysis of Whitman and mass shooters. This is the big analysis in the book, in which one of the author's attempts to explain the actions of the man who killed his friend. From this section, you should be familiar with the following:
Dr. O'Toole's work on school shooters.
The FBI's Critical Incident Response Group's (CIRG) approach to understanding mass shooters and it's acceptance that there will likely never be a simple, understandable explanation for why these crimes occur.
The CIRG's conclusion about where we can find clues as to the motives of mass shooters.
CIRG's "predatory profile" of school shooters and how Whitman fit this profile. The personality disorders associated with this profile and evidence Whitman had one or more of these disorders.
Friedman's conclusion about the nature of Charles Whitman and the reason he committed this crime. Friedman is unsympathetic to Whitman. Is this entirely fair?

THE AFTERMATH:

When did the University of Texas memorialize the victims killed and injured on August 1? How did the school behave towards the victims in the immediate aftermath of the shootings?
The last of Whitman's victims to die.
The number of mass shootings since the Whitman crime.
The final conclusion about who killed Charles Whitman.
How the massacre has lingered in the press and in popular culture.
Claire Wilson's son and his burial site.
The Tower today - what is has become and its future.
The book has a great deal of information about what happened to the many people affected and/or injured by Charles Whitman. You do not have to know all their stories. Look at some of the important players, Charles Whitman's brother, etc.

HIGHER-ORDER THINKING:

This is a little bit of overkill for a test like this, but a full analysis of anything you read should move into high levels of thinking and examination.

UNDERSTANDING:

To demonstrate understanding, engage in some compare/contrast, description, inference, rephrasing. You can use questions like these:

(Don’t write full essays for all these higher-order questions unless you choose to do so. It’s not required. Just consider the answers.)

Compare/contrast the image of Charles Whitman, the all-American young man and Eagle Scout, with the negative aspects of the man uncovered in this book.
Describe the preparations Charles Whitman conducted before going to the top of the Tower.
Summarize the events of August 1, 1966.
Compare the reasons Whitman gave for murdering his wife and mother with the explanations for these acts suggested by the book.
List the warning signs that suggested something terrible was stirring within Charles Whitman.

APPLICATION:

Application is when you apply what you know to answer questions or make an argument.

Judging from the information in this book, when do you think Whitman decided to murder people from atop the Texas Tower? Was this a spur of the moment decision or something he planned?
Was Whitman a psychopath? Or was he damaged by head injuries, a traumatic childhood and stress?
Which picture in the book is the most powerful?
Do the pictures contribute to our understanding or are they sensational?

ANALYSIS:

This is when you get into detailed comparisons and look at how information interconnects.

The idea that Whitman's crime was because of a brain tumor persists to this day. The authors of this book do not believe a tumor had anything to do with the massacre. Debunk the tumor explanation using information from this book.
Charles Whitman didn't play as a child. Why is that important to know?
Public access to guns is a controversial topic today. In what ways did widespread gun ownership and an acceptance of guns help Charles Whitman kill so many people? And in what ways did the widespread ownership of guns stop him? What do you conclude from this information?

EVALUATION:

This is when you evaluate someone else's argument.

How useful is the CIRG's predatory profile? Can it in any way help prevent future school shootings or mass killings? What do you think?
Do you agree with Dr. Friedman's conclusions about Charles Whitman? Is it possible Friedman is biased in his treatment of Whitman?
This book is one of the most thoroughly researched when it comes to Charles Whitman and the events of summer, 1966. What is it's most important contribution to our understanding of the Tower shootings?
What is the strongest part of this book? The weakest?

CREATIVITY:

This is when you come up with something original after taking in everything you've read.

Why do you think Charles Whitman became a sniper in August, 1966?
Draw a map of the events of August 1, 1966.
Visit the site of the massacre a draw what you see today.