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 (5 page)

Page 12

phoned Kathy at her dorm two blocks away and told her to go to the window of her room. Immediately he ran out to his seventh-floor balcony and, hanging by one arm, dangled over the side. He then waved to her with his free arm.
³⁰

Kathy and Charlie had a brief and intense courtship. On 19 July 1962 her parents published the announcement of her engagement in the
Rosenberg Herald-Coaster
. The young couple chose 17 August 1962 as their wedding day Charlie's younger brother Patrick served as best man, and the entire Whitman family made the trip to Texas.

Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore an original gown of white peau de soie and imported lace. The fitted bodice was fashioned with bateau neckline formed by scuppoped [sic] alencon lace and butterfly sleeves. The back of the bell-shaped skirt was highlighted with self roses. Multiple tiers of tulle formed the short bridal veil which was held in place by a lace cabbage rose. She carried white carnations and English Ivy surrounding a purple-throated orchid.
³¹

They were married in Saint Michael's Catholic Church, a fairly large church for a predominately Protestant hamlet. Father Gileus LeDuc, a parish priest permanently assigned to the Houston area, performed the ceremony Years earlier, in June of 1955, Charlie had served as an altar boy for Father LeDuc's very first Mass as a priest. Of course, Needville's sense of community was evident. Leissner family friends generally approved of and were impressed with Charlie. "[A] real nice boy I understand he was what you call a brain," said a neighbor. Raymond Leissner seemed proud of the union. "He was just as normal as anyone I ever knew, and he worked awfully hard at his grades."
³²In reality, Charlie did not balance dating, marriage, and study very well. His grades were not good, and very soon he would lose the scholarship that had brought him to Austin.

The wedding of Kathy Leissner and Charlie Whitman and the reception that followed at the Leissner home should have been the beginning of a storybook marriage. The Whitman family traveled from Lake Worth to Needville for the union between a "real fine girl" and a "handsome young man." They were both intelligent and

Page 13

Newlywed Charles J. Whitman is
all smiles as he leaves St. Michael's
Catholic Church in Needville,
Texas, with his bride, Kathleen,
after their marriage August 17,
1962.
UPI/Corbis-Bettmann
.

hard-working. She emerged from small-town America surrounded by the love of her family and friends. He was once America's youngest Eagle Scout, a talented musician, and now a marine. They both came from devout religious households, and at ages nineteen and twenty-one, they were both young and beautiful. They drove away from Needville on the evening of 17 August 1962, heading for a honeymoon in New Orleans and continuing to Lake Worth to visit family and friends; it should have been the start of a union that would last happily for decades.

1
Lake Worth Herald,
26 May 1955.

2 FBI Files: A Summary Report provided to the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety by Special Agent J. Myers Cole (hereafter cited as "FBI Files:
Cole Report
," followed by date and page number). FBI Files: Statement by Father Gileus LeDuc, p. 2, (hereafter cited as "FBI Files: LeDuc Statement," and page number). Most of the FBI citations are part of the Texas Department of Public Safety Case File on Charles Whitman. Other FBI citations were made available to me by Daniel Barrera. C. A. Whitman, in a conversation with the author on

Page 14

26 January 1995 (hereafter cited by name only). Editors of Time-Life Books,
True Crime: Mass Murders
(Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1992), p. 40 (hereafter cited as "Time-Life").

3 Austin Police Department Files:
Autobiography of Charles Joseph Whitman
, 1 March 1956. (The Austin Police Department Files are hereafter cited as "APD Files" followed by a specific document citation. This particular document is hereafter cited as "
Autobiography
.") FBI Files:
Cole Report
, 17 August 1966, pp. 2122;
Newsweek
, 15 August 1966;
Report to the GovernorMedical AspectsCharles J. Whitman Catastrophe
, 8 September 1966 (hereafter cited as ''Connally Report").

4 Connally Report, p. 2; C. A. Whitman quoted in Time-Life, p. 40.

5 American Justice Series, Arts and Entertainment Network.
Mass Murder: An American Tragedy
, broadcast 29 December 1993 (hereafter cited as "AJS"); C. A. Whitman.

6 C. A. Whitman quoted in Time-Life, p. 42 and
Newsweek
, 15 August 1966.

7 C. A. Whitman;
Palm Beach Post
, 3 August 1966; FBI Files:
Cole Report
, 17 August 1966, pp. 1011.

8 APD Files:
Autobiography
, 1 March 1956; FBI Files:
Cole Report
, 17 August 1966, pp. 35, 12, LeDuc Statement, pp. 26;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 and 7 August 1966; Time-Life, p. 40.

9 APD Files:
Autobiography
, 1 March 1956; Palm Beach County Health Department,
Certificate of Birth
, Charles Joseph Whitman, 24 June 1941; FBI Files:
Cole Report
, 17 August 1966, p. 22; Connally Report, p. 1.

10 APD Files:
Autobiography
, 1 March 1956; Connally Report, p. 2; FBI Files:
Cole Report
, 17 August 1966, pp. 78, 28.

11 "This picture is in
Life
, 12 August 1966; C. A. Whitman quoted in
Time
, 12 August 1966; FBI Files: LeDuc Statement, p. 4;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 August 1966.

12 FBI Files: LeDuc Statement, pp. 23;
Lake Worth Herald
, 11 February 1954; Harold Doerr quoted in 4 August 1966; APD Files:
Autobiography
, 1 March 1956 and
Statement of Francis J. Schuck, Jr.
, 13 September 1966.

13 APD Files:
Autobiography
, 1 March 1956; Time-Life, p. 40;
Lake Worth Herald
, 28 April 1955;
Austin American-Statesman
, 2 August 1966; Connally Report, p. 2; AJS.

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