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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1966)
THE BATTALION Thursday, September 15, 1966 College Station, Texas Page 5 "Tragedy Strikes Atop The Tower ~ J JT — ■ f Mete. ^ wired I iile re. Matioj EDITOR’S NOTE: Battalion editor Tommy DeFrank was part of a reporting team from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sent to Austin Aug. 1 to cover the massacre at the University of Texas. This is DeFrank’s report on the deadliest one- man crime spree in American history. By TOMMY DeFRANK Battalion Editor AUSTIN — University of Tex as sophomore Fred Baron’s gov ernment class discussion—on in ternational warfare—was nearing Its end when a boy yelled that jsome guy with a rifle was shoot ing at people. Nobody believed him. Not until a high-powered rifle Islug ricocheted through a window into the crowded classroom with a tremendous crash. “That’s when everything broke loose and we all scattered,” Baron recalled. “But we still didn’t know what was going on.” But as James Love, 18, an Aus tin sophomore, crouched for his life with four companions in front of the UT Library, there was no doubt as to what was happening. Two slugs churned into a wall only inches above Love’s head as he scanned the open area that led to the library’s main entrance. “There were five people out there,” he said, “and the closest to us were a man and woman down together. “We knew the woman was alive because she would raise her leg from time to time.” CHARLES JOSEPH Whitman’s deadly accurate fire kept the group pinned down for nearly 45 minutes before they decided to attempt a rescue. “We couldn’t just sit there, see ing those people so badly hurt in that broiling sun,” Love said, “so this big guy back from Viet Nam started running and we followed him.” When the boys reached the woman, she raised up to speak. “She said she had Type O posi tive blood, that she was pregnant, and that the boy beside her was dead.” The group evacuated her to an ambulance, raced back up the mall and picked up the man who had fallen next to the woman. They carried him to an ambu lance orderly, and for the first Ml time James Love looked into the face of the man. He was dead, with a bullet in his head. “I don’t think the girl died,” said Love, “and I’m going to try to see her at the hospital.” Mrs. Claire Wilson, 18, whom Love and the other four carried to safety, survived a bullet wound in the abdomen. But her 8-month-old child—a boy—was born dead. ON THE NORTH side of the tower, the opposite side from where Mrs. Wilson was shot, a National Science Foundation summer training program class was in progress when first re ports of the man in the tower were received. Steve Arthur, 16, from Brown- wood, was in a lab in the Biology Whitman Was Shot In This Corner mm iii Deputized Ex-Soldier Crum Covered This Corner (I -- iff*-—^ Police Officers Martinez And McCoy Shot Whitman From Here n: iij" ' r, ex- ait#' 1 Asm***. WHITMAN KILLED 14 FROM TEXAS TOWER Jrhis diagrammed air view shows the University of Texas (Tower where Charles Joseph Whitman killed 14 persons "and wounded 30 before being killed by Austin police of ficials. Whitman also killed his wife and mother before ascending the tower Aug. 1. SNIPER’S SUPPLIES This is the Army-type foot locker and supplies Charles Whitman carried with him to the top of the tower. The cache could have kept him supplied with necessities for days. (AP Wirephotos) fill the Houze, Ian at in has experi- T niver- ahoma, i and Clayton’s RESTAURANT Fine Food Seafood Steaks Mexican Food Italian Food Hamburgers HOURS— 5:30 a. m. till 12:00 Midnight Saturday till 1:30 a. m. Building when a policeman dashed in and asked if anyone had a key to the roof. As Arthur returned from ac companying the officer to the building’s top floor, a slug tore into the ledge six inches below a corridor window as he passed. A fellow science program par- |p ticipant, 17-year-old Ronald Mur- ' ' ray of Houston, heard sharp sounds he reasoned had been , made by construction crews on " the campus. Then, as he walked near the library, he saw a young couple point to the tower. “As I looked up, a shot rang out and the girl slumped to the ground,” he recalls. “The boy tried to help her but then he was hit in the back and fell, too.” A man quickly ran to the pair and dragged them to cover. “We tried to help but there was nothing much we could do,” Mur ray said. “The girl was con scious but the man was uncon scious and I think he was dead.” AT ABOUT the same time that Arthur and several others tried to help the wounded couple, Fred Baron left Waggener Hall, about 100 yards from the library’s southeast edge. As a policeman yelled at him to get down, Baron saw the glint of a rifle high atop the tower ob servation deck. He dove for cover at the top of a concrete stairway, and as he looked toward the flagpole he saw a girl sprawled in a pool of blood less than 25 yards away. A boy near Baron ran toward the girl, but a bullet whined across the pavement and he turn ed and fled. “Her hair was completely cov ered with blood and she wasn’t moving,” Baron explained, “and we didn’t go after her because we thought she was dead. “We were just so scared we didn’t know what to do.” And in that respect, Fred Bar on was not alone on this tragic Monday in the state capital. KILLER AND WIFE Charles J. Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine and archi tectural engineering- student at the University of Texas, stabbed his wife Kathleen to death before his murderous barrage from atop the university tower. Nita’s Alterations Sulphur Springs — North Gate EXPERT ALTERATIONS ‘Where the Best-Dressed Men Go’ (to be better dressed) THE HALL OF FAME vs. AGGIES AGGIES! Don’t fail to have your picture in THE AG- GIELAND ’67! Make your Mother, your girls (!) proud when they find THEIR Aggie a beaming part of the University yearbook in his first year at Texas A&M, surrounded by all his friends. So don’t vanish into obscurity! AGGIELANDS live forevjer! Join in the Aggie tradition ... be a part of the future history of Texas A&M . . . have your picture taken for the ’67 yearbook at the University Studio! Watch THE BATTALION for schedule or come by or phone: UNIVERSITY STUDIO Official Photographer College Station 846-8019 FRESHMEN!! — Listen to Lou — Save Like Upper Classmen Do .... Take Advantage of the Largest Stock of Used Books IN OUR 27 YEARS OF SERVICE Accumulated through the Satisfaction Texas Aggies have with our USED BOOK RENTAL POLICY. Ask An Upper Classman - Or An Aggie-Ex - He’ll Tell You About loupots North Gate