Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper".

[12] Whitman's father was a firearms collector and enthusiast, who taught each of his young sons to shoot, clean, and maintain weapons.

[15] In September 1955, Whitman entered St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach, where he was regarded as a moderately popular student.

[8] Whitman left home on July 6, having been assigned an eighteen-month tour of duty with the Marines at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

[20] Shortly after his enrollment, Whitman and two friends were observed poaching a deer, with a passerby recording his license plate number and reporting them to the police.

[21] Whitman earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements.

Leissner's family and friends approved of her choice of husband, describing Whitman as a "handsome young man" who was both intelligent and aspirational.

In November 1963, he was court-martialed for gambling, usury, possession of a personal firearm on base, and threatening another Marine over a $30 loan ($300 in 2023) for which he had demanded $15 in interest.

In January 1965, Whitman took a temporary job with Central Freight Lines as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department, while his wife worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School.

He was reportedly so afraid that his father would resort to violence against his mother as she prepared to leave that he summoned a local policeman to remain outside the house while she packed her belongings.

He picked up his wife from her summer job as a telephone operator before he met his mother for lunch at the Wyatt Cafeteria, which was close to the UT Austin campus.

[42]In his note, Whitman went on to request an autopsy be performed on his remains after he was dead to determine if there had been a biological cause for his actions and for his continuing and increasingly intense headaches.

[45]Whitman then returned to his home at 906 Jewell Street, where he killed his wife by stabbing her five times in the chest as she slept.

I was only trying to do a quick thorough job [...] If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts [...] donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation.

[42]Whitman also left instructions in the rented house requesting that two rolls of camera film be developed and wrote personal notes to each of his brothers.

[44]At 5:45 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Whitman phoned his wife's supervisor at Bell System to explain that Kathy was ill and unable to work that day.

Whitman's final journal entries were written in the past tense, suggesting that he had already killed his wife and mother.

Patrolman Houston McCoy and Ramiro Martinez of the Austin Police Department had raced to the top of the tower and a combination of shots from both men killed Whitman.

[51][52] Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several UT Austin physicians in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him.

[53] Whitman met with Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966.

[54] He 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.

Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to 'thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people.

[57] On August 2, Dr. Coleman de Chenar, a neuropathologist at Austin State Hospital, realized the autopsy at the funeral home; Whitman's urine and blood were tested for amphetamines and other drugs.

[58][59] During the autopsy, Dr. Chenar reported that he discovered a pecan-sized brain tumor,[60] above the red nucleus, in the white matter below the gray center thalamus,[61] which he identified as an astrocytoma with slight necrosis.

John Connally, then governor of Texas, commissioned a task force to examine the autopsy findings and material related to Whitman's actions and motives.

The commission was composed of neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, pathologists, and psychologists, and included the University of Texas Health Center Directors, John White and Maurice Heatly.

[62] Following a three-hour hearing on August 5,[63] the commission concluded that Chenar's diagnosis of astrocytoma with a small amount of necrosis had been in error.

[66] The neurologists and neuropathologists were more circumspect, concluding that, "[t]he application of existing knowledge of organic brain function does not enable us to explain the actions of Whitman on August first.

"[67] Forensic investigators have theorized that the tumor pressed against Whitman's amygdala, a part of the brain related to anxiety and fight-or-flight responses among numerous other functions.