All language subtitles for a_crime_to_remember_s02e04_the_28th_floor

August in Texas.

My mama used to say it got so hot the
hens laid hard -boiled eggs.

That's how it was that morning in 1966.

It's funny what you remember.

I was on my way to handing a paper on
the Great Gatsby.

Everything was normal, just like it
always had been.

It was just regular college life.

Do you think that's how it always seems
in the moments before the world

explodes?

It was helter -skelter.

One second I was walking to class, and
the next I was running for my life.

I thought, what is happening?

This can't be real.

Gunfire was raining down on us.

From the top of the university tower.

Austin in 1966.

Sleepy little college town.

The biggest events were the football
games.

And then it exploded.

30 minutes in, over a dozen people had
been shot.

And were lying, bleeding to death and
roasting in that sun.

And the gunfire continued.

Sirens screaming, people shouting,
gunshots going off.

It was one god -awful mess down there
with bodies all over the place.

Police communications were almost non
-existent. We had radios in the car. So

you got out of your car, you were
virtually cut off from communication.

They didn't know if there was one sniper
or ten.

Did you guys have any additional
shotguns? No.

We had no high -powered weapons at all.
We had a 12 -gauge shotgun and we had

our sidearms, a .38 pistol, neither of
which was effective.

I had a front row seat in hell.

Blood and bodies all around.

There were policemen everywhere.

But bullets kept coming and there was
nothing they could do.

This is Neil Speltz on the University of
Texas campus.

It's like a battle scene.

It's like there's another shot and
another shot. The site is reminiscent of

sort of war.

There are two different kinds of shots.
Apparently police are returning the fire

now.

I'm seeing a scene that you would never
be prepared for. We've got KTBC

reporters ringing the campus.

The story went out to all broadcast
outlets nationwide and then ultimately

worldwide.

It was one of the first crimes to be
broadcast live.

Pop!

Pop, you all right?

There's a guy over there.

Sitting across the street from us was a
student propped up against a parking

meter. And he's a sitting duck.

Three, two, one.

The bullets were coming in at our feet.

You talk about fear. That is beyond
frightening.

I reached out and pulled him in.

And...

and at that moment recognized that he
was mortally wounded.

Ambulances are screaming up and down the
University Drive.

Breckenridge Hospital was a chaos. It
was the only facility where an emergency

room was set up.

Here's the list, Mr. Adams.

Thank you, miss.

This is reporter Joe Roddy.

Normally, the media does not want to
release the names of the dead or the

wounded. before the families are
contacted.

These names were just given to us by the
hospital administrator, Karen Griffith,

Irma Garcia, Harry Walsh, Billy Speed.

But in this case, because so many people
in Austin had family at the university,

Joe Roddy at Rikenridge Hospital started
ticking off the names.

Robert Hurd, Alex Hernandez, Robert
Boyer, Paul Sontag.

And in our newsroom, the veteran news
director, Paul Bolton,

jumped in.

And his voice was trembling.

He said, Joe, read that list of

names again.

I think you have my grandson up there.

I'm sorry.

I didn't know that boy at the time.

Turns out he was Paul Bowden's grandson.

There's no report as to who this man may
be or what prompted this apparent

madness.

Of course, the officers want to know
who's doing this.

But at this point, what's important is
stopping the gunfire.

At the security office, a guy with the
engineering department knew how to get

the base of the tower through a tunnel
system.

The

young

police officer, Houston McCoy, leads a
group of officers through the

maintenance tunnels.

At the same time, Romero Martinez runs
in a zigzag motion.

And makes it to the building unharmed.

Officer, pull the doors.

Martinez meets up with Alan Crumb.

Let's go. Let's go.

With Officer Jerry Day, they take the
elevator to the 27th floor.

The actual observation deck is one floor
up.

You have to reach that by a stairwell.

So what you have at this point was two
different groups of police officers

acting on their own initiative, and they
just were not aware of the other.

Which is very dangerous.

Jerry Day heard the elevator coming up,
so he goes back down.

On those stairs, they discover a family
that had just been massacred.

Two of the people are obviously dead,
and the others are wounded and bleeding.

The group of us, including myself and
Houston McCoy, going up that elevator

where we have no idea what we're going
to find when that door opens up there.

Jerry Day is standing on the 27th floor.

For all he knows, it could be other
perpetrators from another floor coming

join the snipers.

We all have our weapons drawn.

A Houston's got a shotgun aimed point
blank.

We all have our weapons drawn.

And then everybody kind of has a smile.
That's probably the only time we smiled

all day. Is anyone out there? I got two
already on their way up. All right, I'm

going with them.

All right, you guys, we need to find
everybody on the floor, all right? I'll

with you guys.

So much pain.

So much death.

For 90 minutes, I stayed put, helpless
as the bullets rained down, tearing

flesh, shattering lives.

Was anyone going to stop this?

Ray Martinez and Crum went up the top of
the stairs.

So they'd make their way out into the
reception area.

They find the body of a middle -aged
woman whose head had been caved in lying

behind a couch.

Are we doing this?

Damn right we are.

Well, then you'd better deputize me.

You're not a cop? I'm a sergeant in the
Air Force.

So Ribeiro says, okay, consider yourself
deputized.

They know that this has got to come to
an end, and they're going to have to be

the ones to do it.

And then, after what seemed like a
lifetime of gunfire and screams and

couldn't believe what I heard next.

Nothing.

Pure silence.

Go radio the all -clear.

The sniper is dead.

And he is a young man wearing a white
headband, and he's dressed in workman

overalls.

There were multiple rifles laid out.

He had canned food. He had toilet paper.

He was prepared to be up there a number
of days.

But he clearly didn't intend to come
down alive.

Officer McCoy finds a University of
Texas ID card identifying this man as a

architectural engineering student at the
university who is 25 years old.

Charles J. Whitman.

Charles Joseph Whitman.

A sea of people converged on the South
Mall.

And they looked up at the tower.

And they looked at each other.

But it was just, what has happened?

The idea that someone would be shooting
people, they did not know.

For no other reason.

then to do so was just not in their
mental landscape in 1966.

This is all we have on Whitman.

Thanks.

All the authorities needed to try to
determine, could we have prevented this?

there a way we could have stopped this?

At that time, they didn't know anything
about Charles Whitman, including his

address. The guy had no criminal
background.

Doesn't make any sense.

Charles Whitman's friends were just
utterly shocked. To them, he was a nice

They all said that he was smart, that he
had a bright future.

There was nothing wrong.

Charles Whitman was from a seaside town
called Lake Worth, Florida.

He was the son of a very successful
plumbing contractor.

His mother was a devout Catholic who
stayed at home to raise her three boys.

Charles was an accomplished piano player
by the age of 12.

He was reportedly the youngest Eagle
Scout in history, and he had an IQ as

as 139.

The Marine Corps.

19.

And what years was that?

Charles Whitman joined the Marine Corps.
And as he had throughout his life, he

excelled. He earned a very high
sharpshooter rating.

He was a decorated soldier. He even
saved a fellow soldier's life.

The Marines had a scholarship.

Charles Whitman was offered the
scholarship in engineering to go to the

University of Texas and become a
commissioned officer.

Have you guys talked with Kathy? Who's
Kathy? It's his wife.

The police quickly found out that they
lived in a little house in South Austin.

No one answers the door.

Mrs. Whitman, this is the police.

Are you home?

In February of 1962, Charles Whitman met
Kathleen Leisner.

So, what are you reading?

I just didn't take any.

I don't know.

You know it? That's a good one, yeah.

Do you like it?

I do. Yeah? I do, yeah.

It's heavy.

That's true. I've been noticing that.

And he was immediately mesmerized by
her.

Are you from around here?

No, I just moved here, actually.

Really? Where are you from? Yeah, I'm
from Florida.

Oh, wow. This must be really different
for you.

You know, the humidity's the same.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, do you know anything
around here? I can show you around if

want. That would be great. Have you
eaten lunch?

No, I haven't.

She was a beautiful, small -town Texas
girl who everybody loved.

Six months later.

They marry.

In August of 1962, Charles Whitman seems
to have everything going for him.

He's very handsome.

He's got a beautiful, accomplished wife,
a full -ride scholarship.

And he has very good friends.

How could a man like this do what he
did? This is not our understanding of a

monster.

They enter the bedroom.

And they realize that the bloodbath is
not yet over.

With so many bodies fallen all over
campus, it hadn't occurred to police

the crime scene could stretch wider.

But as it turns out...

It could.

In the bed is his wife, Kathy.

She had been brutally stabbed five times
in the chest.

It was a very large knife, either a
bayonet or a hunting knife.

It appeared that he had been asleep when
she was stabbed.

And then covered up with a sheet.

The police found a long note left by
Charles Whitman.

It was a very chilling note.

Believe me, I can't recall when it
started.

I have been a victim of many unusual and
irrational thoughts.

It was after much thought that I decided
to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight and

after I pick her up from work at the
telephone company.

I don't know whether it is selfishness
or I don't want her to have to face the

embarrassment my actions would surely
cause her.

Get a load of this.

The note went on to say, for similar
reasons, I have decided to take my

life.

His mother is separated from his father
and living in Austin.

Charles Whitman's mother, Margaret, had
been beaten and stabbed to death and

placed in her bed to make it look like
she was asleep.

The police officers find a second note.

And this is where they first see what
was going on within his mind.

The intense hatred I feel for my father
is beyond description.

My mother gave that man the best 25
years of her life.

I am truly sorry that this is the only
way I could see to relieve her

but I think it was best.

Charles Whitman's life was not as golden
as they originally perceived it to be.

His father and his mother had a stormy
relationship.

In fact, his father abused his mother.

Charles Whitman Sr.

was a very stern and some people even
say a very cruel father.

When Charles was 17 years old, he got a
little drunk and his father

beat him up and threw him in a swimming
pool.

Charles almost drowned.

That was the event that provoked him
into joining the Marine Corps.

To get away from his father.

Did you speak with the professor in 204?

In the spring of 1963, three years
before the shooting, he's not

really focusing on school, and his
grades begin to slip.

Charles Whitman lost his scholarship.

And the Marine Corps is not going to
count his time at the University of

So he's forced to return to active duty.

And at this point, Charles Whitman's
life begins to fall apart.

With every day that passed, we learned
more about Charles Whitman.

A few years before the shooting, he lost
that hard -won Marine Corps

scholarship, which meant he had to
return to active duty.

And that's when a darkness inside him
began to grow.

Drew.

Come on.

You gotta be quick on your feet.

You put him in the pile, come on, man.

He started gambling.

Heavily. Thank you.

That's it. That's it.

You have to deal me in.

Read them.

Where's the $45 you owe me?

I owe you $30.

I want $15 in interest.

And you're going to pay me. I'm going to
knock your teeth in.

How about you get nothing?

It actually just culminates in the first
documented act of violence committed by

Charlie when he assaults a fellow Marine
over a gambling debt.

His second stint as an enlisted man is
the opposite of his first.

He was a troublemaker, and he did hard
labor in November of 1963.

And is reduced back in rank to a buck
private.

I wish so much that the Marine Corps
would quit hindering my life and give me

discharge.

I wonder if I will ever amount to
anything in this world.

He's keeping a journal, and he's
seething with anger.

I have great plans and dreams.

I have so much I want to accomplish.

Seems I'll never get started.

God, I can't stand the Corps.

He gets a discharge from the Marines.

And Charles Whitman returned to the
University of Texas in the spring of

one year before the shooting.

Hey.

How was work?

It was fine.

Same as always.

Did you make anything for dinner?

No, I... I've been...

Doing homework.

Well, I got paid today.

You can go out and grab a bite.

But at this point, he no longer has a
scholarship.

I'm not hungry.

This is a young man who is being
supported by his wife and his father,

doesn't like that.

What's wrong?

Nothing. I just have a lot of work to
do.

What's all of you mean?

It's around this time that Charles
Whitman becomes aware that something is

changing inside him.

Charles Whitman wrote down that he had
some severe headaches that he had not

noticed previously.

Don't charge them, Larry.

Come on, Larry.

What are you doing?

What do you think of the grill?

He's becoming quieter. He can't focus.

There is something unusual in my mental
state.

Seems as if I am going to explode.

He is now projecting an image and
Charles Whitman's life becomes more and

of a facade.

Do you know if he had any drug or
alcohol problems?

Charlie was taking this amphetamine.

One of the things he tried to do in
order to accomplish more was to

sleep less. And he did that by taking a
dextroamphetamine called Dexedrine.

I know it's in help of temper.

Did he have a bad temper?

I mean, I never saw it personally. I
know he wasn't proud about

it.

Investigators also learned that he had
admitted to striking his wife, Kathy, on

two occasions, and that he felt horrible
about this.

Because he associated that with his
father.

He witnessed his father beat his mother,
and four months before the shooting,

Charlie received a phone call from her,
and she clearly believed that her safety

was imperiled.

His mother finally has the courage to
leave his father.

And so he moves her across the country
to Austin, Texas, where he sets her up

an apartment.

And it seemed like that gesture of
kindness from a son to his mother

back an old familiar strain.

Charles Whitman Sr.

was constantly phoning his son.

Dad.

I need you to let me talk.

Dad!

You've got to help me. You've got to
talk to your mother.

Help me get this family back together
again.

I understand.

Will you please just let me talk?

Stop talking for a second and let me
talk.

He experiences emotional distress to the
point of a break.

Kathy herself suggested that he see a
psychiatrist.

On March 29, 1966, just three weeks
after his parents' separation, Charles

referred to see staff psychiatrist Dr.
Maurice Dean Heatley.

So, why don't you tell me about what
brings you here today?

I get very upset, and I can't control my
temper.

Dr. Healy. Dr. Healy. Dr. Healy.

Details of that meeting were made public
by the University of Texas a few days

after the shooting.

He was this massive, muscular youth who
seemed to be oozing with hostility.

Dr. Maurice Healy held a news conference
trying to describe what happened.

I've been having these headaches.

quite frequently my father was outraged
threw me in the pool very angry

anything else that you

might be willing to tell me well i've
had some thoughts uh

i've had a thought that i would go up to

the tower

to university and I would take my deer
rifle and I would shoot people.

He was contemplating shooting people.
Why didn't you report him?

The press was stupefied. What? You knew
this?

Why didn't you do something?

However,

given the guidelines of 1966, Dr.
Heatley had to maintain confidentiality.

Dr. Heatley did the only thing that was
realistically available to him, and

that's ask Whitman to come back, and
Whitman chose not to return.

Doesn't make sense.

But afterward, I became convinced that I
could have done something.

That if I'd seen him around campus, I
could have warned someone that that

-looking man sitting alone was like a
stick of dynamite, just waiting for

something to light its fuse.

According to a family member, just a
couple of days before the shooting

his father had threatened to cut off
money being sent to the family.

This puts an enormous amount of pressure
on Charles. He's left to provide

support for his mother and his wife.

The timing supports the idea that this
was kind of a straw that broke the

camel's back.

Was that the push that Charles Whitman
needed?

No one can say for certain, but that's
when his violent fantasies became our

reality. The night before the shooting,
he dropped off Kathy at the phone

company. And he returns home to Jewel
Street and begins typing his infamous

note.

Hi, John. Hey, guys.

Come on.

How's it going?

See you.

What you working on, Charlie?

Next great American novel?

What

you

working on, Charlie?

Next great American novel?

Larry and Elaine Feast. See a letter,
and they're so close to uncovering what

he's going to do.

Now, I'm writing a friend in Washington.

I haven't seen him in five years.

Sit down.

Thank you.

Interestingly,

they report to the police that Charles
appeared more calm and relaxed and happy

than he had appeared in months.

It had been building for a long time in
small ways, noticeable not even to those

closest to him.

And then the dam burst.

The first to go were the people he
loved, his mother, his wife.

And then he turned his rage outward on
us.

The morning of the shootings, Charles
Whitman went to several gun stores,

additional weapons, buying hundreds of
rounds of ammunition.

And then he dressed in a workman's
overalls and bluffed his way

onto the campus by saying he was there
to do some repairs.

The elevator didn't work.

Is it stuck?

And in a tragic irony, one of the
elevator operators actually helped him.

And she was able to turn the power on
for him, and he said so infamously,

you. You don't know how happy that makes
me.

Edna Townsley was the receptionist up
there.

She wasn't even supposed to be there
that day. She was taking somebody's

May I help you?

Sir? This is the woman that Alan Crum
and Ramiro stumble across when they

enter the reception area.

Charles Whitman takes Edna Townsley's
desk and he begins to barricade the

But at that moment, two sisters and
their families are coming up the stairs

look out on the observation deck.

16 -year -old Mark Gabor is killed
instantly. His older brother, Michael,

also hit.

He hit their mother, Mary Gabor.

And Mike and Mark's aunt, Marguerite
Lampour, killing her.

We learned everything we could learn
about Charles Whitman.

But a person's biography, no matter how
detailed, isn't the person.

Why did Whitman do this?

From his letters, it seems like even he
didn't know.

He requested that someone autopsy his
brain.

During the autopsy, it was discovered
that Charles had a large tumor the size

a walnut.

in an area of the brain associated with
emotion and aggression, perhaps leading

to more violent and aggressive impulses
in Charles.

However, we know that there are
individuals who have similar tumors in

brain and yet do not go up on top of
clock towers and start shooting

indiscriminately at people.

Maybe I'm simplistic, but I still think
there's good and there's evil, and this

was just pure evil.

Understanding Charles Whitman is
understanding that you're dealing with a

man who wants to set up his dad for
something really terrible.

He does the one thing he does well,
shoots.

He shoots people and he kills the two
people he says he loves so that his

is left behind to have to explain all of
what he has done.

My wife, my son's mother, had left me as
I said.

approximately five months ago. Do you
think his anger over this might have

a factor in what he did? At times, he
did get angry with me for this.

Other than that, my son and I have had
no problems whatsoever prior to this,

sir.

Are we doing this?

To him, right, we are.

All units, watch your fire. We've got
men on the roof.

Romero goes first, the observation deck.
And there's no one there.

Alan Crum and Jerry Day go one way, and
Houston McCoy and Romero go the other.

Everything started happening so quickly.

The adrenaline's pumping.

All of this happens in a matter of a
couple of seconds.

The sniper wasn't pointed towards him.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Six shots.
He pulled the trigger. But he's never

hit by the revolver.

McCoy, behind him, fires his shotgun two
times.

hitting the young man in the head.

And then Martinez grabs that shotgun and
fires a third shot into his shoulder.

What's that saying?

Life is what you make of it?

As terrible as this was, we did learn a
few things from it.

A lot of people credit that with the
subsequent creation of SWAT teams.

Ambulances, they develop EMTs.

And today, in many states, it is law
that public employees have to report

threats towards individuals and
institutions.

But I think the biggest change that
occurred was that this hideous act was

in our collective consciousness.

The seal had been broken.

Remember my dad telling me that this is
not good because that guy is

showing us what is possible.

We're going to see a lot more of this.

Columbine.

Virginia Tech.

Newtown.

I think Charles Whitman told very, very
troubled people who don't want to live

anymore what they can do to make a name
for themselves before they force

somebody else to kill them.

And there are some who found a way to
deny Whitman and any of his imitators

notoriety.

Houston McCoy never would use the
sniper's name.

And I agree, by not using his name,
we're not elevating him to that.

that level that he wanted to be elevated
to.

And for me, one of the lucky ones, the
worst part is that I will never entirely

feel safe again, no matter where I go.

Before this incident, many of us assumed
that there was safety in public places.

Charles Whitman, in some ways, took that
away from us.

The key is trying to keep guns out of
the hands of people that shouldn't have

them. But how do you do that in a free
society?

There will be people who are going to do
what Charles Whitman did.

It's part of what it means to live in
America.