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 (81 page)

Page 277

This is our position, Mr. Calderon. If you go ahead and film the movie and have Martinez's one shot with Houston's shotgun killing Whitman, either pay Houston the royalties or entirely delete Houston from the film and do not substitute any other character by a different name that even remotely resembles Houston McCoy in any manner or action. If you wish your movie to be a documentary that tells the truth about the sniper in the tower, Houston will be glad to remain in the movie and help you as a technical advisor. If you make the proposed script change, Houston will be glad to assist you. If you don't make the movie at all, that will be fine with Houston, too.
⁹

Antonio Calderon did not accept the changes. The University of Texas also refused to cooperate by disallowing filming on the campus. As a result, UT was not mentioned in the movie. Interim President Lorene Rogers issued this statement:


I did not want to bring back bad memories that are still vivid in the minds of many of our students, their families and the people of Austin. It would just be opening up old wounds, and I did not want the university to be a part of it. ¹⁰

Antonio Calderon, however, saw the
Deadly Tower
as more than just a movie. "The most positive aspect of this picture is that for the first time in the history of television, the subject and hero will be a Chicano."
¹¹

The production cost about $1 million and was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the grounds of the state capitol, which served as the Tower. Although the Louisiana State Capitol is considerably larger, the building and the surrounding sunken gardens bore some resemblance to the Tower and the South Mall. The production schedule ran from 16 June through 4 July 1975, a time of year in Baton Rouge that was hot.
Deadly Tower
very accurately portrayed the heat battled by the police and civilians, but that was about as far as accuracy went. The made-for-TV movie was first broadcast on Saturday, 18 October 1975 on NBC.

Page 278

Calderon never intended to make a documentary But immediately, major players in the real crime universally decried the movie as uninformed and inaccurate. The real-life hero of the film, Ramiro Martinez, became incensed at the portrayal of the Austin Police Department as racist and at his depiction as a victim of discrimination in the awarding of promotions. "This business about being passed over for a promotion is just a lot of malarky," he said. Ramiro was especially sensitive to that issue because he had fond memories of good friends he had made while an Austin policeman and good times his family had shared with the families of other policemen. Years later he would remember, "Oh, I'm sure some people may not have liked me because I was Hispanic, but some people don't like anybody."
¹²

Equally infuriating to Ramiro, and his wife Vernell, was how she was depicted. The movie portrayed her character as a nervous, pregnant, Hispanic housewife who immediately pleaded with her husband not to go to the campus, an action resulting in an argument. "Mrs. Martinez" is later overcome by an overwhelming need to go to the Tower just as Ramiro is being led out. In fact, Vernell is of proud German heritage and was a working professional at the time of the Tower shootings. Ramiro was at home alone when he heard Joe Roddy reporting the incident on television. Ramiro and Vernell Martinez sued MGM Studios, the NBC Television Network, and Antonio Calderon. Their original complaint detailed the major points of the suit: 1. The movie showed Ramiro having made the highest score on a competitive exam for a promotion and not having been promoted. It also depicted a vigorous objection by Ramiro and an argument over the issue with a superior (played by Pernell Roberts). In general,
Deadly Tower
depicted Ramiro Martinez as having a troubled relationship with the Austin Police Department and his fellow officers and that the cause was racial discrimination. 2. Ramiro repeatedly discussed inaccuracies with Antonio Calderon and other agents of MGM. 3. MGM and NBC advertised a film as historic fact but presented a film with substantial portions of fiction and, in the process, adversely affected the reputations of Ramiro and Vernell Martinez. 4. Ramiro and Vernell asked for an injunction on further broadcasts of the
Deadly Tower
. The couple later settled out of court, the terms of which have never been made public, but the film, which still airs

Page 279

occasionally on the TNT network, differs slightly from the original. One of the opening scenes informs viewers that "both the character and personality of Ramiro Martinez's wife and certain scenes about the Martinez family have been fictionalized for dramatic effect."

Years later, Houston McCoy sued Turner Broadcasting for airing
Deadly Tower
. He claimed that even though he was never mentioned by name, the character "C. T." could only have been him. The character, Houston alleged, was portrayed as a coward. "They made me look like Gomer Pyle." Houston maintained that he was unable to see the movie without "slipping into deep depression." He also admitted to having become an alcoholic. For Houston, however, the case was not settled but thrown out of court. His troubles were compounded when the judge ordered him to pay attorney's fees for Turner Broadcasting. "Can you believe it? I owe Ted Turner and Jane Fonda money," he later lamented.
¹³

III

Since 1 August 1966, the most enduring, and at times tragic, controversy involving the Tower incident involves Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy, and which of the men actually fired the fatal projectiles that killed Charles Whitman. For ten years after the tragedy, resentments would ferment. Some felt that Ramiro Martinez, who had received the bulk of the recognition for ending the siege, had not killed Whitman. There was a sense that, somehow, Houston McCoy had been overlooked and his role in bringing down Whitman had been unappreciated. The controversy hit the news on the 10th anniversary of the incident when Bob Miles, then the former Police Chief, was quoted in the
Daily Texan
. "The newspapers sort of took over, they didn't ask anybody They gave all the credit to Ramiro Martinez."
¹⁴

On the 10th anniversary of the shootings, Houston McCoy was in a hospital bed in West Texas, where a Dallas reporter found him and interviewed him whileHouston claimshe was under the influence of medication and not fully aware of what he was saying. A few days later in the
Daily Texan
article with the Miles statement, Houston was quoted. "All I can say is if he [Martinez] had been up there by himself, he'd be dead right now."
¹⁵

Page 280

Since 1976 nearly every anniversary and feature article involving the Whitman murders has included a section on "Who Killed Charles Whitman?" Some of the articles appear to be flagrant attempts by reporters to create and report controversy The 29 July 1994 issue of the
Los Angeles Times
headlined a story entitled "In TexasMassacre and MythWho Killed Charles Whitman?" The subtitle reads: "One man ended Charles Whitman's coldblooded Austin slaughter. Was it the hero of legend, or a second officer in the tower who says he fired the crucial shots?" The article compares the saga of Martinez and McCoy with John Ford's classic western movie
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
. In that movie Lee Marvin played Liberty Valance, a feared and despised thug; James Stewart played a mild-mannered lawyer who openly detested the violence of the West; John Wayne played a strong, moral pillar of manhood, the only decent person able to stand up to Liberty. The climax of the movie is an unavoidable gunfight between the characters played by Marvin and Stewart, in which, miraculously, Stewart guns down Marvin. Stewart is subsequently honored as "the man who shot Liberty Valance." The Stewart character moved on to enjoy a successful political career. Later, in a flashback, the truth emerges: Liberty Valance had really been shot by John Wayne from a position no one could see. The wrong man had been honored.
¹⁶

The comparison of the Tower incident and
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
is absurd. Even more absurd are connections made between fatal projectiles and bravery. "Whomever it is, the man who shot Charles Whitman was the bravest of them all." Such a statement assumes that Charles Whitman could only have been shot by one man, either Martinez or McCoy, and that only the fatal bullet defines the extent of bravery.

The controversy took a sad turn when Martinez became a Texas Ranger and it was later suggested by others that his induction into the elite group resulted from his role in bringing down Charles Whitman, a role which had been exaggerated because he was Hispanic. Bob Miles fanned the flames of controversy when he was quoted as saying:


I think Ramiro quit [the Austin Police Department] and went to work as manager of a cafe. He failed at that and

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