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 (34 page)

Page 99

In April of 1966 Charlie and Kathy Whitman moved to 906 Jewell Street in south
Austin. At the time, the tree in the front yard was a struggling sapling. Directly
behind the tree is the front bedroom used by the Whitmans, where Charles murdered
Kathy on 1 August 1966. The garage to the right and behind the house is
where Charlie stored "a whole lot of military stuff."
Gary Lavergne.

which led to a small dining room and finally to a kitchen facing the back yard. On the east side of the house were two small bedrooms and a bath. The back bedroom served as Charlie's study, and on its wall Charlie hung a sign: "Strength Has No Quarter." Charlie and Kathy used the front bedroom.
¹

The neat little house did not hold many possessions. As Whitman's father-in-law later recalled, "there wasn't much; they were just kids."
²Resources went to pay for their college educations.

Much like everything else about Kathy Whitman, her home was orderly. The Whitmans universally impressed their neighbors, who considered them a model couple: smart, beautiful, and hardworking. Kathy portrayed an innocent, small-town disposition and was both physically feminine and intellectually tough. She combined the best of two very different places: Needville and Austin. After her graduation and entrance into the teaching profession it became obvious that she supported the household. Whitman, a "massive muscular youth," worked hard, but towards nothing specific. Casual acquaintances considered him articulate and impressive, never seeing his

Page 100

lack of direction. More-than-casual friends knew of his ineptitude in dealing with personal and other pressures, some of which he placed on himself. Most people thought him uncomplicated and nice. No one remotely believed him to be dangerousnot even Kathy.

And so, on 31 July 1966, shortly after her shift ended at 9:30
P.M.
, Kathy stood at an "employees only" entrance to the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Building at 120 9th Street, turned to Kay Pearce, smiled and said, "Bye." Then she walked along a sloping sidewalk towards a new black Chevrolet Impala parked nearby. She entered the car and made herself comfortable for a drive home with her husband.

Charles and Kathy arrived home around 9:45
P.M.
Kathy had spread a full day's work over a thirteen-hour period and was scheduled to report back at 8:30 the next morning. But she was still awake at about 10:15
P.M.
when her close friend and colleague from Lanier High School, a typing teacher named Eva Bayne, called to invite her to a party later in the week. Bayne remembered having a pleasant conversation with Kathy, who seemed in good spirits. Kathy accepted the invitation and the conversation ended between 10:30 and 10:45
P.M.
It was Bayne's second attempt to reach Kathy that evening. She had called earlier at about 9:30
P.M.
and caught Whitman just before he left to pick up his wife. When Bayne suggested that she would call back in the morning, Whitman insisted that she call again later in the evening because Kathy would be at work the next morning. Bayne detected nothing unusual in Whitman's voice. Shortly before (or after) Bayne's call, Charlie and Kathy called the Leissners in Needville.
³

At 9:15
P.M.
, Margaret Whitman's shift at Wyatt's Cafeteria ended, and she accepted an invitation to the home of Goldie Harris. At the Harris home Margaret enjoyed the company of a new friend as they sat, talked, and ate ice cream. During the afternoon Austin had reached a record high temperature for all of 1966101 degrees. About 10:30
P.M.
Margaret called her son at home to let him know her whereabouts. Whitman asked if he and Kathy could go to her air-conditioned apartment to study and "cool off before going to bed." Margaret then rushed home to meet him.
⁴

Shortly after separating from her husband and moving to Austin, Margaret had moved into Apartment 505 of the "Penthouse."

Page 101

Known in Austin as "swank" apartments, they were located at 1212 Guadalupe Street, on the corner of 13th, about ten blocks south of the section of Guadalupe called the Drag. Due east, the state capitol dominated the urban scenery. Shortly after sunrise on clear days, its shadow nearly reached The Penthouse. Not surprisingly, the eldest Whitman son spent a lot of time with his mother. Margaret designated him as next of kin on her new resident information sheet. She doted on him enough to hurt the feelings of her other son Patrick, making him feel neglected. She stocked an unhealthy supply of junk food that attracted Charles, and he ate enough of it to concern Kathy.

Whitman left his Jewell Street home for the Penthouse at or slightly before midnight. Kathy took off her wedding band and placed it with her gold watch and a dinner ring on her bedroom dresser. Her purse contained her driver's license and $2.08. She took off her clothes and went to bed nude; it was hot. She was probably asleep when her husband left.
⁵

The Penthouse Apartments,
located on the corner
of 13th and Guadalupe
Street, just south of
the "Drag" and within the
shadow of the Texas State
Capitol. Margaret Whitman
moved into apartment
505 here shortly after
separating from C. A.
Whitman in March of
1966.
Gary Lavergne.

The midnight hour arrived, and only a couple of minutes into 1 August 1966, Margaret Whitman, dressed in pajamas and a robe, walked down to the lobby of the Penthouse and waited for her son to arrive. She walked over to the door and greeted Charles only a few minutes later and introduced him to the night watchman, a UT

Page 102

student named Richard "Dick" Thommassen. The observant guard noticed that Whitman carried a black attaché. Earlier, Margaret had told Thommassen that her son intended to study, so his having an attaché did not seem unusual. "This is my Charlie," she said to the watchman, and then mother and son went up to her apartment.
⁶

Margaret and her son reached the door of Apartment 505 between 12:15 and 12:25
A.M.
He wasted no time. He followed her into the south bedroom, and in front and to the left of one of her twin beds he attacked his mother. Exactly how he killed her, i.e., what he did first, will never be known. On the next day a five-foot rubber hose was found in the black attaché Most likely, he used the hose to strangle her from behind until she collapsed, unconscious, which would explain why no one heard any screams or sounds of a struggle. Given their relative size and strength, Whitman could easily have kept his mother still until she died.

Whitman also did something to the back of her head. Due to his fondness for and mastery of firearms, the massive damage to her skull was commonly interpreted to be a gunshot wound. But no autopsy was performed on Margaret and those reports cannot be positively confirmed. Compelling reasons to question whether Whitman shot her also exist. Neighbors directly below Margaret claimed they could easily hear virtually anything dropped on the floor above. The walls of apartments such as the Penthouse were relatively thin. If Whitman had shot his mother, or if a significant struggle had occurred, someone in the Penthouse should have heard something. Rather than shooting her, Whitman quite possibly bashed in her head with a heavy object.

He also hit her left hand so viciously that her fingers were nearly crushed, the diamond in her engagement ring popped out, and the wedding band was deeply embedded in her flesh. The wound on her fingers had a straight edge, leading to a popular explanation that she suspected danger, tried to escape the attack of her predator-son, and got her hand caught in a door. Again, it is inconceivable that Margaret would have had time to acknowledge danger and have her hand crushed during a life-and-death struggle without anyone hearing anything. Surely she would have screamed loudly enough for neighbors to hear, if not in fear then in pain, as her fingers were being crushed. During the investigation into Margaret's death the Austin

Page 103

Police Department did not know of allegations that C. A. Whitman had tried unsuccessfully to remove Margaret's rings before she left him. If Charles Whitman knew of such a struggle, the destruction of her rings would almost certainly represent a determination not to let his father retrieve them. The wounds on her left hand were almost certainly inflicted post-mortem.
⁷

Whitman inflicted one more wound on his mother; he used a large hunting knife to stab her in the chest. In all probability, Margaret Whitman never actually saw her son strike the fatal blow. He did it quickly and in a way that did not allow her to make any noise. He avoided attracting attention. He had more killing to do.

While Charles Whitman was still in his mother's apartment, two men named Steven Foster and Scott Smith stepped off the elevator on the fifth floor and headed towards apartment 511. They later reported hearing what they described as a child crying and whimpering. Charles Whitman had just killed his mother.
⁸

Given the nature of his mother's fatal wounds, he probably washed his hands and the hunting knife before he sat down with a blue ink pen and a lined, yellow legal pad to write.

Monday, 8-1-66, 12:30
A.M.
To Whom It May Concern:
I have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset over having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven she is definitely there now. And if there is no life after, I have relieved her of her suffering here on Earth. The intense hatred I feel for my father is beyond description. My mother gave that man the 25 best years of her life and because she finally took enough of his beatings, humiliation, degradation, and tribulations that I am sure no one but she will ever knowto leave him. He has chosen to treat her like a slut that you would bed down with, accept her favors and then throw a pittance in return. I am truly sorry that this is the only way I could see to relieve her suffering but I think it was best. Let there be no doubt in your mind that I loved the woman with all my heart. If there exists a God, let him understand my actions and judge me accordingly.
⁹

Other books

The Secret Liaison by Marie, Jessie

Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters by Green, Myunique C.

Just for the Summer (Chasing Carolina #0.5) by Danielle Jamie

The Sacred Hunt Duology by Michelle West

Animal Instincts by Desiree Holt

Mahashweta by Sudha Murty

Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase

Harrison Investigations 1 Haunted by Heather Graham

Dragon Storm (Dawn of the Dragon Queen Book 2) by Tara West

Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) by P.S. Bartlett