Read A Sniper in the Tower Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

A Sniper in the Tower (24 page)

 
Page 68
impulsive behavior. He became more and more vulnerable to the accumulated stresses with which he was dealing in a less and less satisfactory manner.
7
During one serious attack of depression, Charlie showed up after 10:30
P.M.
at the home of one of his teachers, Barton Riley. He dropped a bundle of papers on the living room floor. The strain on his face produced a familiar film of sweat that distressed Riley. ''What's the trouble, Charlie?" Charlie replied that he was carrying too much of a load. During the lamentation he finally shared the real reason for his anxious state. "I've got problems." A vicious tirade of how much he hated his father followed.
"I just despise my father. I hate him. If my father walked through that door, I'd kill him."
"Charles, you don't mean that," Riley replied in a quiet tone.
"I certainly do."
They had been talking quietly for some time, and just when Charlie seemed to have calmed down, he surprised Riley by saying, "I can't resist it anymore." Walking quickly to a baby grand piano, Charlie seated himself, and without request, played
Clair de Lune
. The tune, familiar to all pianists, is normally played in a soft and lyrical style, but Charlie's loud and strong rendition woke Mrs. Riley, who had been sleeping upstairs. As he played he seemed to mellow. The power with which he played seemed to drain his tension. Riley recalled that he played very well. Music could have been a source of relaxation and peace, but tragically, for some unknown reason he normally refused to playeven for friends.
8
Soon there would be another anxiety attack during which Charlie decided to quit school. While walking through Taylor Hall, an engineering student asked Larry Fuess, "What do you think of Charlie dropping out of school?" Disturbed at the question, Larry got into his car and drove to the Shelley Street apartment and found Charlie, who reported he had, without telling Kathy, resigned from the university and sold his books and other items. Fuess found him packing bags, determined to leave everything, including Kathy "She'll be
 
Page 69
o.k.; she has a job now. She'll be better off." He wanted to become a bum; he did not know why, he just had to do it. He also spoke of the separation of his parents, and how he had "something personal to settle." Not surprisingly, when she returned from a day of work at Lanier High School, Kathy was shocked and bewildered. Charlie told her he was leaving her. Later that evening they visited Larry and his wife, Elaine. No one could get him to open up. "But Charlie, why, why?" pleaded Kathy. He said nothing, but just shook his head.
9
In an attempt to help his friend, Fuess called their instructor, Barton Riley Although late, Riley intervened, but this time he had run out of patience. "This is ridiculous, you are not going to do it!" Riley, himself an ex-marine, using a stern voice, ordered Charlie to skip his (Riley's) classes, focus on other classes and do make-ups later. Stunned, Charlie replied, "Yes, sir." When he saw Riley the next day he said, "Thank you, sir."
10
Giving orders may have been the best way to deal with Charlie; the kindness and patience initially exhibited by his teacher, and always used by his wife and good friends, did not work.
II
The phone calls from C. A. Whitman kept coming; Charlie estimated an average of one every forty-eight hours. Relentlessly, C. A. pleaded with him to intercede with his mother and try to get her to return to Lake Worth. C. A. believed that was the only source of conflict between him and his son: "The only animosity was that I fought like the devil to get her back." C. A. did not believe that Charlie had anything to do with Margaret's departure, but he surely believed that he could use Charlie to get her to return.
11
Charlie never had any intention of trying to convince his mother to return to Florida, but still, the phone calls kept coming.
"He was at the point of hypertension, even in his everyday life," observed Elaine Fuess.
12
While he may have shown all the other signs of hypertension, he did not suffer from high blood pressure. In an effort to help Kathy's uncle, Frank E. Holloway, who had been hospitalized in Houston and had required a transfusion, he donated blood to the Travis County Medical Society Blood Bank six times
 
Page 70
within a ten-month period. On all but one occasion his blood pressure was measured, and none of the measurements was high.
13
With frequent calls from C. A. constantly reminding him of how much he hated his father, and at the same time how much he was
like
him, Charlie successfully maintained the nice facade through, as the
National Observer
later wrote, his "fierce will power to suppress his strains and vices."
14
Kathy must have been encouraged when he finally succumbed to her pleas and sought professional help at the University of Texas Health Center. On 29 March 1966, about three weeks after Charlie had moved his mother from Florida to Texas, he saw Dr. Jan D. Cochrum, a general practitioner who had been on staff for only a year and a half. Dr. Cochrum prescribed Valium, a mild sedative, and referred him to a staff psychiatrist. Cochrum described the visit as routine and unremarkable. He remembered treating Charlie only after seeing a picture of him four months later, when he commented that Charlie was "every bit as nice a guy as he looked in the picture."
15
Dr. Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University Student Health Center, was generally well-regarded. He came from a prominent family; his brother served as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the state legislature. Dr. Heatly engaged in a number of volunteer and part-time activities.
16
However, Heatly's style and manner did not impress all of his patients. One former student, Bill Helmer, wrote of visiting Heatly for marital problems and depression. Helmer described how he sat and listened to the doctor talk on the telephone to a driller engaged in the installation of a well on the Heatly ranch. Heatly's treatment reportedly consisted of a prescription for Librium.
17
Before seeing Dr. Heatly, Charlie completed an information sheet. He neatly printed his curt answers. When asked about his chief problem, he answered, "That's why I'm here." When asked if college work was hard, he replied, "Some of it." He also replied to a question about hobbies and interests by listing hunting, karate, and scuba diving, but he also added, "Main interest [is] how to make money."
18
Heatly's first impression was that Charlie was a "massive, muscular youth" who "seemed to be oozing with hostility." He later characterized Charlie in a way that would haunt him and the University of Texas for decades: "There was something about him that

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