A story of the Christmas spirit

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
-Christopher Reeve

We all have heard the story of the Texas clock tower massacre where the former marine with the brain tumor went to the top of the tower with a rifle and started killing people. It happened back in 1966. I didn't know the rest of the story, but to me, the people who took action against Whitman really embody the Christmas spirit. They loved their fellow human beings so much that they took action. They went home and got their rifles and even a plane, to try to stop him.

I love stories of regular citizens being extraordinary. It helps dispel the wrath I feel when my friend got hit by a car during morning rush hour and no one stopped to help him (least of all the person who hit him). And other stories I hear of people running around with blinders on because their business is more important than anything else.

Enjoy. It's from an article by Rick Armellino.


When the average citizen snaps and murders, the results are bad. When a recently trained, physically fit and well armed former Marine decides to commit mass murder the situation can be catastrophic. On August 1st, 1966, the citizens of Austin, Texas experienced a horrific event, forever known as "The Texas Clock Tower Massacre".

An honorably discharged U.S. Marine named Charles Whitman was attending engineering school at the University of Texas in Austin and one night he snapped, savagely stabbing his wife and mother to death at each of their respective homes. The morning after, Whitman secured his gun locker onto a wheeled dolly, rolled it into the university’s main administration building and headed up the elevator. Weighing an estimated 250 pounds, the gun locker contained 5 rifles, 3 handguns, a sawed-off shotgun, ample ammunition, binoculars, food and water. [of course my first question was, "Didn't anyone notice the guy with the gun locker going up the elevator? But it was 1966 and we weren't used to mass murderers then.]


The Main Bell Tower at the University of Texas is shown in 1999, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)This well trained homicidal and suicidal predator had chosen a tactically superior location to play out his last living events on earth. In addition to the University of Texas administration building being a virtual stone fortress, it was located on a hilltop that overlooked much of the City of Austin. Exiting the elevator on the 27th floor, Whitman lugged his gun locker up the stairs to the top floor and proceeded to shoot the four occupants, gaining full control of the observation deck.

The University of Texas clock tower, surrounded by the concrete observation deck, was both a snipers' dream and a police nightmare. The cement and stone block construction of this section of the building included recessed rain gutters, enabling him to remain low, unseen and well protected from return fire. Whitman had a nearly unlimited ability to maneuver and change shooting positions at will. He barricaded the doorways and then continued working his final plan - to kill every human in sight.

Charles Whitman was a well trained Marine receiving above average grades for marksmanship, excelling at hitting moving targets. For the next hour and a half Whitman methodically fired upon the citizens of Austin, killing 16 and wounded 31, hitting some as they attempted to pull seriously wounded victims to safety and others as they peeked out from behind cover to locate the sniper’s position. Whitman may have been a heartless deranged killer, but he was amazingly quick, agile and an exceptionally good shot.

Don't mess with Texas
The brave citizens of Austin also knew how to shoot. Red-blooded Texans were up for the fight, outraged that this maniac was killing their own. Some scrambled home, grabbed their most accurate weapon and hurried back to the school to exchange gunfire with the unknown sniper.
A local pilot rushed to the nearby airport and returned flying a small aircraft carrying a passenger armed with a scoped hunting rifle. Unfortunately, low level air turbulence prevented accurate aiming at Whitman. As the plane circled the tower it took 14 of Whitman’s well aimed rounds through various sections of the metal tube and fabric covered structure, narrowly missing both occupants. The airmen retreated to a safe distance after realizing they were on the losing side of this air-to-ground battle.

Two young Austin police officers, without prior coordination, steadily made their way into the administration building and up to the 27th floor. Patrolman Houston McCoy, armed with a 12 gauge shotgun, had graduated the police academy less than three years earlier and Patrolman Ramiro (Ray) Martinez, armed with his Smith & Wesson .38 caliber duty revolver, had less than five years on the job. [it boggles my mind that even now, some departments don't make long guns available to patrol officers. At least Austin PD had some sense back in 1966.]

Martinez, revolver in hand, recalled his thoughts as he rode the elevator up towards the unknown sniper, “of course you could see the little lights flicker (on the elevator’s panel) as the floors go by. I said an Act of Contrition, because as a Catholic I was taught that in case of imminent death, you know, you say an Act of Contrition." As the elevator door opened he spied Patrolman McCoy and a man with a rifle, whom he did not know but assumed, was a plain clothes officer. The three men conversed briefly and then slowly and deliberately climbed the stairs from the 27th floor leading up to the observation deck's reception area. Upon reaching the top of the stairwell, they found two people dead and two critically injured at the reception area.
Standing at the top of the stairs, Martinez remembers the armed plain clothes man whispered a question, “he said, ‘are we playing for keeps?’ And I looked at him, and I said, as I saw dead people there, and you know all the dead people outside, I said, ‘You damn right we are.’ He said, ‘Well, you better deputize me.’ That’s when I found out that he was a civilian. And I said, ‘consider yourself deputized'."

Patrolman Martinez began kicking the glass-paneled door leading outside to the observation deck. It was jammed by the wooden dolly that Whitman used to transport his gun locker. The dolly finally gave way and tipped over. Martinez recalled this particularly anxious moment, “and then it went over, clanging. And I braced myself. I figured that he, the sniper, could hear this. And there was no response, but you know, all that shooting, I’m pretty sure he didn’t hear it.”
The hastily assembled contact team, including the armed citizen, stealthily made their way outside onto the observation deck. The sniper was not in view. The sporadic and frequent crack of rifle fire was deafening, but sound alone could not determine exactly where on the deck the sniper was positioned; it was too loud and too close. Martinez, McCoy and the armed citizen, in line and in that order, slowly rounded the first corner. They couldn't see the sniper because the clock tower protruded and blocked their line of sight. Continuing their approach, they soon spotted Whitman, who was intently firing his rifle pointed over the southwest corner. Whitman, comfortably on the attack, was unaware he was no longer the hunter and was now considered the prey.

Wasting no time, Martinez carefully aimed his revolver and described what happened next. "That's when I fired the first round, and I charged. I hit him - left side somewhere - and he came up with the rifle. He was trying to turn and to fire. I kept charging him and shooting, and McCoy was right behind me. I hollered at McCoy to shoot, and he did - hit him with the shotgun,” Martinez said.

McCoy had instinctively shifted to Martinez’s right side and fired two shotgun rounds at Whitman. McCoy recalls, “all of sudden he just slowly slid down into a laying position. He was no more dangerous. Still to this day I didn't need that second shot."

Prophetically, Whitman had left a written journal which, in part, specifically requested the coroner to autopsy his brain. When accomplished, a large tumor was discovered which was applying pressure to the region of the brain that controls violent and impulsive tendencies.
It has been reported that the so-called Texas Clock Tower Massacre was the mass murder event that rallied law enforcements' call for the creation of the modern day SWAT team.