later write: "The sniper would lean out over the parapet, bring the rifle to bear on a target, fire, tip the weapon up as he worked the action, then walk quickly to another point to do the same thing."
16
|
While the drama was unfolding, Whitman's movements slowed but never stopped. It was not until the very end of the event that the world knew, for sure, that there was only one sniper. At the University News and Information Service, Amy Jo Long received a call at 11:55
A.M.
from university employees at the Humanities Research Center. "Someone is shooting people from the Tower. There is blood all over the place. Don't come here. We have locked ourselves in." Only three minutes earlier, at 11:52
A.M.
, the Austin Police Department received their first call reporting trouble at the university. The complainant identified himself as Michael Hall and his location as the history building. He reported gunshots around the main plaza (South Mall) coming from the Tower. Only one minute later, at 11:53
A.M.
, an officer would be assigned to the case and dispatched to the scene. His name was Houston McCoy.
17
|
 | 1 Ramiro Martinez, interviewed by the author on 3 April 1995; Houston McCoy, interviewed by the author on 10 March 1995, both hereafter cited by name only; Time-Life, p. 35;
Austin American-Statesman
, 1 August 1976.
|
| 2 APD Files:
CAPOR
s by D. Kidd, E. Tramp, 1 August 1966;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 and 7 August 1966, 30 July 1967, Claire Wilson quoted in 1 August 1976; Fahrenthold and Rider,
Admissions
, pp. 80, 90, and 93. It is generally accepted that Whitman started his sniping on the south side of the deck and that Claire Wilson was his first victim. Her companion, Thomas Eckman, was almost certainly his second target. It is not possible to reconstruct perfectly the sequence of victims afterwards because of the rapidity of the shots and Whitman's ubiquitous tactics. The sequence I have chosen serves the purpose of logic and clarity.
|
| 3
Austin American-Statesman
, 1 August 1976; Norma Barger quoted in
Time
, 12 August 1966.
|
| 4 APD Files:
HOR
by E. Tramp, 1 August 1966;
Texas Observer
, 19 August 1966;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 and 7 August 1966.
|
| 5 APD Files:
HOR
by E. Tramp, 1 August 1966; Time-Life, p. 36.
|
| 6
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 August 1966.
|
| 7 Ibid., 7 August 1966; APD Files:
HOR
by E. Tramp, 1 August 1966; Fahrenthold and Rider,
Admissions
, p. 90.
|
| 8 APD Files:
CAPOR
by D. Kidd, 2 August 1966;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 August 1966;
Dallas Morning News
, 4 September 1966; Unidentified clipping in AHC.
|
|