A Sniper in the Tower (36 page)

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Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #History, #United States, #General, #State & Local, #Southwest (AZ; NM; OK; TX), #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: A Sniper in the Tower
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Page 109
I imagine it appears that I bruttaly [sic] kill [sic] both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick through [sic] job.
If my life insurance policy is valid please see that all the worthless checks I wrote this weekend are made good. Please pay off all my debts. I am 25 years old and have never been financially independent. Donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.
Charles J. Whitman
In Whitman's hateful mind, it only "appeared" that he brutally murdered his mother and his wife. His twisted benevolence required a quick and thorough job to relieve them of the burden of having to live in this world. That he gave them no choice but to die seems to have escaped him. He made no mention of the people he planned to kill and seemed to be more concerned for the recipients of bad checks he had not yet written. (His bank balance at the time was $13.87.)
Even at this moment, he obsessed over money. The fact that he had never been financially independent bothered him more than the murders he had committed. It seemed to trouble him that he could not pay for the tools of his crime. The final and most heartless of his insults took the form of a post-script below his signature.
Give our dog to my in-laws please.
Tell them Kathy loved "Schocie" very much.
R. W. Leissner
Needville, Texas
13
He did not seem to appreciate that they loved Kathy very much. Nor did he comprehend what he had just done to the Leissner family, and to a lesser extent what he had done to all of Needville. He wrote not of what he intended to do to a premier university, a city, and more innocent people. Instead, he saw to the adoption of a dog. And finally: "If you can find in yourself to grant my last wish cremate me after the autopsy." He placed the note in an envelope and
 
Page 110
addressed it and the note "to whom it may concern" and placed it on the bed with Kathy's body Austin Police Chief Bob Miles later observed, "Considering the situation, he was quite rational in his notes."
14
To others the notes are the most compelling
prima facie
evidence of Whitman's insanity and irresponsibility Actually, they were neither. They were further attempts to have questions and guilt directed at C. A. Whitman of Lake Worth, Florida.
Just before 3:00 A.M. on 1
August 1966, Whitman killed
his wife, Kathy, as she slept.
Five vicious thrusts to her
chest with a large hunting
knife probably meant that she
went from sleep to death without
ever knowing who killed
her. Only a few hours earlier
she had pleasant telephone
conversations with a teaching
colleague and her family in
Needville, Texas. 
Texas Department
of Public Safety Files.
After killing Kathy, he had to have spent a considerable amount of time reviewing his diary entries about her over the years. His entry of 23 February 1964 had been devoted almost entirely to her. He gushed about her versatility, physical features and his life with her. It was to last forever. Above the top line of the entry he wrote in large letters, "I still mean it. CJW 8-1-66." He used the same light blue ballpoint pen he had used to write "Both Dead" on the note entitled "To whom it may concern."
On 23 February 1964 he had closed his comments about her: "My Darling Kathleen, I love you very much. That statement is so simple but maybe someday I'll be able to convince you of all the emotions and feelings that it encases. My wife, you are wonderful." Shortly after he killed her he added: "Only time has shown me how right I was in these thoughts over 2-1/2 years ago. My wife was a true person. CJW"
Whitman wrote four more notes. On a slip of paper he used a green felt-tipped pen to write: "Have the film developed in these cameras." He placed the two cameras and the note next to Kathy's
 
Page 111
The half-typed, half-handwritten letter that Whitman left on his wife's body. His
notation, "Both Dead," indicates that he had already killed his mother by this time,
too. 
Austin Police Department Files.
 
Page 112
The 23 February 1966 diary entry on which Whitman wrote, "I still mean it," after
killing his wife that he claimed to love and admire so much. 
Austin Police Department
Files.

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