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 (46 page)

Page 147

Above the base, a decorative metal structure engraved with symbols of the Southwestmostly cactitapered upwards, forming a cone from which rose the flagpole. The concrete and metal barely provided enough cover to shield the petite secretary, but she could not move without exposing herself to Whitman's deadly fire. The flagpole's central location in the open grassy area would have made any attempt to leave the area extraordinarily dangerous. Since Charlotte had not been wounded, and as such needed no help, her best option was to just stay still. And she wouldfor the next one and a half hoursin indescribable heat.

Charlotte Darenshori became as much a symbol of the unfolding tragedy as the Tower or Charles Whitman himself. Pictures and newsreel footage of a helpless young woman frozen in terror with her head pressed against the base of a hot flagpole and her legs tightly folded beneath her were immediately beamed around the world. While Charles Whitman became a symbol of evil, Charlotte Darenshori epitomized innocence and reassuring heroism in the midst of terror. From her hiding place behind the flagpole, she could see the man she had sought to help:

Charlotte Darenshori hiding behind a flagpole as a wounded man lies on the grass
nearby. UPI staffer Tom Lankes took the photo while the sniper's bullets were still
flying in the area. It was one of the first news pictures taken at the scene and the
most widely published on the story.
UPI/Corbis-Bettmann.

Page 148


He could see me when I was behind the flagpole. He kept trying to get my attention to come help him, but there was absolutely no way I could have done that. And he kept moving. I told him: "Just keep still." ¹⁰

Still, large numbers of people in the area failed to recognize the danger. Many did not know what rifle fire sounded like; to them it was just a series of strange noises. Others, like a student named William "Bill" Helmer, who knew gunfire when they heard it, and even saw the gun barrel, thought "some fool was going to get himself into a lot of trouble." Still others saw bodies lying on the pavement and in the grass. They saw Charlotte desperately hugging a flagpole and wondered what could possibly be going on. It had to be some kind of stunt, a frat prank, or maybe the drama department had sent out a bunch of flaky actors to do weird thingswho knows? There was not a whole lot that could surprise a seasoned Austiniteexcept mass murder. But the bodies kept falling, the blood was real, and the man on the deck, a consummate actor for a number of years, was no longer acting.

Only about seven minutes earlier Don Walden and Cheryl Botts had stepped off the elevator onto the first floor of the Tower. They had been on the deck and spoken to Charles Whitman. After reaching the first floor, they went to the registrar's office and completed forms for Don to receive a registration packet. Then they walked down the hallway of the Main Building, exited through the west doorway, crossed a driveway, and entered the Academic Center which formed a portion of the northern border of the West Mall. They noticed that flags strung up the tall stainless steel poles on the South Mall were waving at half mast, and they turned east to see if a notice at one of the flagpoles might explain why. When they reached the southwest corner of the Main Building, Cheryl stopped in mid-sentence when a strange noise rang out and a man fell to the ground. The noises were not strange to Don; he knew gunfire when he heard it. Don started to run to the man as Charlotte Darenshori fled to the safety of the base of the flagpole, then he grabbed Cheryl's hand and ran quickly into the history building. Once safely inside, Don asked someone to call the police. A woman said she already had.

Page 149

Cheryl used the phone to call her grandmother to tell her what was happening and not to worry.
¹¹For the second time in about fifteen minutes Don Walden and Cheryl Botts were the "luckiest couple in Austin."

The Chief of the University of Texas Traffic Control and Security, Allen R. Hamilton, first heard of trouble at the Tower at 11:48
A.M.
Calls came in from a number of persons in the Tower after Whitman opened fire on the Gabours and Marguerite Lamport. Immediately he arranged for two men to go to the Tower, including L. W. Gebert, a UT Policeman who had been preparing to leave the office. He took a motorcycle to the north and east side of the building and heard shooting. From there he went over to the west side and heard two more shots. The other officer, Jack O. Rodman, had just left the Speedway checkpoint where, only twenty-five minutes earlier, he had issued a forty-minute parking permit to Charles Whitman to unload supplies at the Experimental Science Building. From the Speedway checkpoint, Rodman had motored to the security office for lunch, but before he could begin eating, Captain J. E. Shuberg told him to go to the Main Building as soon as possible. Rodman motored to the west side of the building where he met Gebert and entered the building. When they reached the elevator doors, Vera Palmer told the officers to be extremely careful because others had already been killed. Rodman and Gebert entered the elevator and ascended to the twenty-seventh floor at 11:55
A.M.
Neither of the men was armed.

As UT Security policemen entered the Main Building, two young employees named Nancy Harvey and Ellen Evganides were leaving for a lunch break. Nancy majored in education and worked part time on the second floor of the Tower. She was also about four to five months pregnant. Her husband had taken on the task of building a crib for the expected arrival. As Nancy and Ellen exited the Main Building, Nancy heard three shots, but they seemed to stop. They asked a security guard if it was safe to go outside. Apparently believing the shots were being fired inside the Tower, the guard

Page 150

answered, "Sure." The young women then proceeded west towards the Drag. After walking about 100 yards down the West Mall, someone called out, "Hey, you shouldn't be out there!" Nancy and Ellen did not know why. They were out in the open, in public, in full view of hundreds of people. And then they heard another shot. Nancy felt a pain in her thigh; she had been hit in the hip. Her wound was frighteningly similar to that of the sniper's other pregnant victim, Claire Wilson. Whitman could very well have aimed for another unborn child. But Nancy was far more fortunate. She and Ellen, who had been wounded in the left leg and thigh by a ricochet, dashed to the safety of an area between the Academic Center and the Student Union. He did not know it at the time, but Charles Whitman had something in common with the pregnant coed he had just shot; Nancy Harvey was also from Lake Worth, Florida.
¹²

When the elevator doors opened and Gebert and Rodman entered the twenty-seventh floor, M. J. Gabour staggered towards the two men. His blue overalls were splattered with blood, and he was still clutching Mary's white shoes. "Give me a gun, he has killed my wife and family." The officers then ran to the stairs and discovered the pitiful family members lying in their own blood. They could hear Whitman shooting, and at times it sounded like it came from inside the building. They wisely decided to go downstairs to secure as much of the building as they could. Once back on the ground floor, they instructed Vera Palmer to shut off the elevators. Then they secured the exits. Shortly afterwards a rumor ran through the ground floor that the sniper was on the second floor; quickly the officers got as many people as possible behind closed doors.
¹³

Whitman's constant movement and ubiquitous activity convinced many on the ground that there had to be more than one sniper. Many people decided they could "see" an army up there and were afraid it might be the beginning of some kind of revolution. Many radical groups of the 60s had begun to preach of revolution against the "Establishment." Or maybe, as one of the wounded thought, it was an attempted coup. That so much violence and evil in such a short time could be caused by one person was inconceivable to most people. Only Mike Gabour knew better, but he had not yet been discovered.
¹⁴

Page 151

UPI diagram view of University of Texas campus showing the number of victims
shot at each spot. (Does not include all victims.)
UPI/Corbis-Bettmann.

During the first fifteen minutes, very few of Whitman's shots missed, even when he moved around to shoot. And Charles Whitman moved often. No one knew at any time where he was, unless of course, they could see him as he fired and then for some it was too late. Many others could only see the barrel of a rifle. Richard Embry, an eyewitness, told of how Whitman moved: ''There is this concrete and iron sort of barricade that he hides behind. Then he pops his head over to take another shot. You can see the gleam of the gun."
¹⁵

As Whitman moved he used the parapet to conceal his people felt safe. Many reports describe groups of people as far away as Memorial Stadium standing in the open to watch the tragedy unfold, telling one another they were safely out of range, only to scatter in an almost comic fashion as rifle fire landed near them. T. J. Rudolph, a witness who watched from a safe distance with a ten-power telescope, observed Whitman pop up, take aim and fire, but he also observed a sniper patient enough to pick out a target first. After shooting, Whitman always crouched and ran. As Bill Helmer would

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