The Unknown Gunman

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June 24, 1941, Charles Joseph Whitman is born in Lake Worth, Fla., to Margaret and Charles A. Whitman. He's the eldest of three sons, becomes an Eagle Scout at 12 and graduates from St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach in 1959. He's an all-around gifted child -- smart, athletic and an exceptional pianist (Charles Whitman Chronology). Why then did this seemingly ordinary, albeit gifted, child age into a man who would brutally murder 13 people and injure 31 more (The Madman In the Tower 20)? The simple answer is that Charles Whitman no longer existed. His brain had been altered, not by drugs or any other means that he could control. Charles Whitman had a brain tumor. The person that was Charles Whitman struggled and lost a battle that he had no chance of winning.

After being killed by Austin Police Forces, Whitman’s autopsy revealed that he had a small tumor the about the size of a small marble “In the middle part of the brain…in the white matter below the gray center thalamus” (McCoy 2). This tumor was not only affecting the thalamus, which acts a relay between various subcortical areas as well as the cerebral cortex, but it was also causing an increase in the amount of pressure placed on the amygdala, the portion of the brain that controls aggression and anger (Eagleman). This increased pressure could have swayed the mental capacities of Charles Whitman away from his rational being into a more feral representation of a human being. The tumor very well could have stripped from Charles Whitman one of the main things that defines what it means to be human, his rationality (Eagleman 523).

Charles Whitman had a fairly rough childhood, which is often seen as the “mark of the serial killer.” His father was—and is—an authoritarian,...

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...gy. n.d. Web. 5 March 2012. .

Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper. n.d. Web. 5 March 2012. .

Eagleman, David. "Is blameworthiness the right question." Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. Edinburgh, Great Britain: Canongate Books Ltd., 2011. 513-523 on electronic reader. Book.

McCoy, H. Autopsy Protocol. Autopsy. Austin, Texas: Cook Funeral Home, 1966. web.

"The Madman In the Tower." Time 12 August 1966: 20. web.

Lavergne, Gary M. A Sniper In The Tower : The Charles Whitman Murders / Gary M. Lavergne. Denton : University of North Texas Press, 1997., 1997. UNIV OF OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES's Catalog. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

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