Although happily married, 25-year-old Charles Whitman was a worried man. He knew that he was in the grip of a terrible compulsion and on the verge of doing something appalling. Finally, on 31st July 1966 his self-control snapped and after killing his wife and mother so that they would be spared the shame he climbed the white granite tower of the University of Texas administration building, and started shooting at anyone who moved below. Fifteen people died and thirty were injured before police assault teams got close enough to gun him down.
