UT Tower Shootings, 1966, by Sheila Jack Crabill
From MemoryArchive
Who: Sheila Jack Crabill What:UT Tower Shootings When:August 1st, 1966 Where:Univ. of Texas at Austin, Texas
Texas Monthly magazine did a fine writeup on the University of Texas's darkest day, that day 40 years ago when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the Texas Tower in Austin, Texas and started firing. (Aug 2006 magazine) The magazine article was written in the words of more than three dozen people who got shot, fired back, lost loved ones, saved lives by risking their own, and other wise witnessed the nation's first mass murder in a public place. I was a witness.
Reading with great interest how many of these people were eating lunch on campus or near the campus that experienced what I did as I sat in the Tea Room eating lunch with my work supervisor from NationalWestern Life Insurance Company. Peggy Newrocki's husband managed the Tea Room at that time, a flourishing eating establishment on the UT campus located just to the right of the Natural Science Museum off Speedway. As we were finishing up our meal a panicked screaming young lady ran in yelling "There's a sniper on the Tower and he is killing people!!!" Peggy and I thought that it was a sorority prank and walked out to return to our jobs at NationalWestern Life Insurance Company on Lavaca just a few blocks off campus.
The article stated that people eating as far away as Sholtz's Beer Garden heard the same thing from a young man that actually stood on top of a table there to address the patrons and get their attention. The reply from the crowd was "Let's drink to the Sniper!" No one believed any of these warnings as no one had ever taken the position of a mass killer in a public place in the US before. Charles Whitman was the first in US history.
As we drove back to work I was riding in the, pardon the expression, shotgun position of the Peggy's car. That would be the passenger's side front seat. We drove right by the large mustang horse fountain main entrance to the Tower. Thinking back I remember that it was a surreal landscape for the lunch hour on UT campass. No one was walking and it was literally a ghost town. By now the students were face down in the dirt after seeing other's being taken out by the bullets from the Tower.. I heard a shot and looked up and saw the smoke, which was actually dust being raised by Whitman's gun, coming from the Tower.
By the time we got back to the NationalWestern Life Insurance Company all the employees were gathered around small radios trying to hear and trying to understand what was happening. I called Chuck at home and woke him up. He had no idea what was going on. Later that day the police surrounded the Penthouse Apartment building next door to NationalWestern and carried out the body of Whitman's mother who he had killed after killing his wife and heading out for the UT Tower with an ammo box full of munitions to do what he had planned on doing for some six months.
There is so much more to this story but from my viewpoint, I feel lucky to be alive. I was within range, he was up there shooting in my direction as we drove by and somehow I am here to share this story with you all and so is our son Carl and our grandsons Christopher and Kevin. I was only 20 then, newly married and never thought much about it until I read the article in Texas Monthly, read the other's stories and knew that I have a story of my own to share. 43 people shot and fifteen dead. And it all took only 96 minutes, August the 1st, 1966 and I was there.
Sheila Jack Crabill 23329 NE 138th Way Woodinville, Wa. 98077 Sheila_Chuck@comcast.net
