July 23, 2006

Charles Whitman's Killing Spree

If for some reason you want to read a harrowing oral history of one of the worst mass murders in the country's history, one that's largely forgotten (quite oddly, given our country's taste for lurid crime stories), read this.

Trying to think about that horrible day in Austin what I find hardest to relate to is there was a time before SWAT teams and the like. I mean I know enough about public policy to know that it often takes a horrible disaster to break routines and provide for organizational change and resource commitments. But this was only 40 years ago - yet an entirely different era in some ways. Obviously changes in education, technology and communications mean that the world that existed in the decade before I was born was very different than the one we have today. But still ... well, this story is just one of those things that makes me realize the scope of the change.

Posted by armand at July 23, 2006 11:52 AM | TrackBack | Posted to


Comments

It's part of the weird lore here; the fact that they had to call in citizens with rifles because none of the police officers had any always seemed strange. I know two people who lived here on the day of the event; one was actually on South Congress with his wife, the other was working at a grocery store about 2 miles away.

Posted by: norbizness at July 23, 2006 12:29 PM | PERMALINK

My dad was at Ft. Hood about an hour from Austin on the day of the shootings. He says there was talk of getting a helicopter down there to try to take out Whitman with some heavy-duty stuff, but the concern was that the tower would be heavily damaged and more casualties created.

The deck was closed the whole time I was at UT. Hombre and Rocketboy have visited since it reopened. Rocketboy was about four and took a whole bunch of photos looking out through the rainspouts. He didn't know anything about Whitman, of course, but those pictures spook the hell out of me.

Posted by: kcb at July 24, 2006 09:39 AM | PERMALINK

the one time i visited campus, when i was very close to attending, i was chilled by being in the former line of fire. the deck was still closed then.

Posted by: moon at July 25, 2006 12:56 AM | PERMALINK
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