[bright music]
[engine turns over]
[radio adjusting]
- This is Neal Spelce in Red Rover
on the University of Texas campus.
This is a warning to the citizens of Austin.
Stay away from the University area.
There is a sniper on the University Tower
firing at will.
[gunshot]
[soft piano music]
[gunshot]
- ♪ Bah da bah da da da ♪
♪ Bah da bah da da da ♪
- ♪ Monday, Monday ♪
- ♪ Bah da bah da da da ♪
- ♪ So good to me ♪
- ♪ Bah da bah da da da ♪
- We had taken an anthropology test
so we got out of class early that day.
My boyfriend Tom and I were drinking coffee
at the Chuck Wagon at the Student Union.
[people chattering]
- Hey, Claire.
[indistinct chattering]
- We knew that if we didn't go quickly
and put another nickel in the meter,
we'd get a pink slip
and we already had two.
I think if you had three,
you couldn't park on campus any longer.
- ♪ Sometimes it just turns out that way ♪
- ♪ Oh, Monday mornin' ♪
♪ You gave me no warnin' ♪
- We were kind of disagreeing.
Well, he was worried that I wasn't
getting enough nutrition for the baby.
And I said, "Well, Tom, I had orange juice this morning."
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
I just felt this...
This huge jolt.
[gunshot]
Like I'd stepped on a live wire.
Like I'd been electrocuted.
Tom said-- - Baby!
- And reached out for me, and then...
[gunshot]
[heavy breathing]
- What're you doing? Get up from there.
- Please call a doctor! - Get your books.
[gunshot]
- Please! Help us!
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Every other day ♪ - ♪ Every other day ♪
♪ Every other day ♪
♪ Every other day of the week is fine ♪
- I had a paper route around the University of Texas.
It was the biggest route in Austin
and everybody wanted to get that route.
I had my cousin with me.
Sometimes he would help me with my paper route.
I was not supposed to work that day.
The regular guy was supposed
to get back from vacation that day.
At about 10:00 that morning, the paper called me
and asked if I could do that route one more day.
- ♪ But Monday mornin' ♪
♪ Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee ♪
♪ That-- ♪ [radio adjusting]
[slow country music]
♪ ♪
- I was either filling out reports or...
just taking it easy a little bit.
Listening to my radio. On the Country Western.
[up-tempo country music]
I do remember one song that played that morning
was "Waterloo."
- ♪ Waterloo ♪
- I kinda felt that after that day...
Well, here's your Waterloo coming up for somebody.
- ♪ Every puppy has its day ♪
♪ Everybody has to pay ♪
♪ Everybody has to meet his Waterloo ♪
- It was hot that day.
It must've been 100 degrees.
[faint popping] I started making my deliveries
and I heard some sounds, like popping.
It sounded like firecrackers.
[pop]
[gunshot]
[KTBC Radio jingle plays]
- ♪ Austin, Texas ♪
- August 1st started out
as a typical summer day in Austin, Texas.
And it was a day that you sat around, frankly.
And we were trying to decide...
Okay, what do we cover today?
[spotty police dispatch]
- Main Tower... University of Texas...
- Then the radio called my number
and I was trying to make out what they were saying,
but it just wasn't coming through.
[static]
- I...I can't...I can't make out what you're saying.
You keep cutting out now.
- He said somethin' 'bout... - 44...108...
- Finally I decipher University of Texas.
So...I just said I was headed toward the University of Texas.
- We had police radios, of course,
throughout the newsroom.
- And then, within seconds...
- There's a guy on top of the Tower and he's shooting.
Shooting at people, and they're dispatching officers
as best they can to the scene.
- Police operator. - This is Michael Hall,
there's just been a gunshot right in front of the Tower.
[gunshot]
- I heard what I thought were two firecrackers.
And I thought, "Somebody still has
firecrackers from the Fourth of July."
- Police operator.
- Hi, this is the Department of English at the University.
Someone has been shot, we believe, outside.
Someone is shooting from the Tower.
- I was in Shakespeare class when it started.
And we all ran to the windows of the English Building.
[gunshot]
We just stood there peering out over each other's shoulders.
[gunshot]
- I realized that there was someone shooting from the Tower
and that if I could see him, he could see me.
- There are snipers. Somebody has shot
four different people. [gunshot]
- Yes, ma'am, it's been reported.
She says four people have been shot up there so far.
- As I ran behind the car, the shot from the rifle
sounded like it was almost in my ear,
and I could hear the bullet ricochet.
When I asked if anyone had been hit,
someone said five people,
including a little boy on a bicycle.
[gunshot]
- When I got shot, we both fell down.
[gunshot]
[ears ringing] - You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay, honey.
He's gonna be okay.
[faint gunshot]
- My God, what happened? - He's been shot.
[gunshot]
- I had been working at the University of Texas Co-Op
since 8:30 A.M.
I noticed across the street a small group.
- What's going on? - Looks like a fight.
[traffic bustling]
I got across the street and found
the boy had been shot.
All right, let's stop this bleeding here.
And so I tried to stop the flow of blood.
You okay?
You're gonna be all right.
[gunshots]
I heard reports that I recognized as gunshots
but I could not tell where they were coming from.
[gunshot]
- I didn't know what had happened at all.
[gunshot]
I thought that I felt the baby kind of...
fall to the side?
So I thought he probably wasn't alive any longer.
You know, by the eighth month your baby's moving a lot
and...after I got shot,
the baby never moved.
"Tom?" I called out to him.
Tom...
But Tom never said another word.
[cries]
[country Western music]
♪ ♪
- You know, I-I thought it was already over with.
Lawman gets there, and by then
it's usually over with, you know?
- ♪ Texas ♪
♪ You know that we love you ♪
♪ And we praise you ♪
♪ We want you to know ♪
[gunshot]
[radio clicks off]
- Then I-I finally realized something was happening
that I ain't ever seen before.
[loud gunshot]
I just thought--There's a thousand windows up there,
and a thousand Black Panthers.
A revolution. [gunshot]
And the hair just stood up on the back of my neck.
[gunshot]
And I must say I was scared.
It was bigger than me.
[Tower bell ringing]
- There's a guy on top of the Tower and he's shooting.
Shooting at people.
- I told the disc jockey on duty. I says,
"Give us some news intro music and throw it to me."
[news intro music]
And I'll take it from there.
I began my broadcast as I was driving up to the Tower.
"This is Neal Spelce in Red Rover
"on the University of Texas campus.
"This is a warning to the citizens of Austin.
"Stay away from the University area.
"There is a sniper on the University Tower
"firing at will." [gunshot]
- Well, I was just expecting another routine day.
I had dropped my daughters off at daycare,
my wife was at work,
and my shift didn't start until 3:00 P.M.
- ...Clean look to your carpets.
This Austin vacuum rebuilt Hoover beats as it sweeps--
- This is a KLRN news bulletin.
A sniper with a high-powered rifle
has taken up a position on the observation deck
of the Tower on the campus of the University of Texas.
- So I got on the telephone.
- Police operator. - Hey, this is Martinez.
Do they need anybody? - Pardon me?
- And I called the station.
This is Martinez. Do they need anybody?
- Captain Martinez is on. Do you want him to come out?
[gunshot] Uh, yes, Sir.
He'd, uh, he'd like you to come on out if you will.
- Okay, I'll be right over.
- Okay, that's at the University.
- Then I called my wife at work and I said,
"Dear, I'm gonna go there.
"But don't worry 'cause I'm gonna go work traffic."
- I couldn't get back across the street
because I figured I might get shot myself.
I moved on to the next building.
[gunshot]
I tried to find a telephone to call my wife.
My wife knew it was my lunch hour
and I knew that she would worry.
So... [gunshot]
I knew that if I could make it to the Tower
that I could make contact with the store...
[slow-mo gunshot]
And my wife.
[school bell rings]
- ♪ What a day for a daydream ♪
♪ What a day for a daydreaming boy ♪
- I went to high school at Austin High.
Graduated May of '66.
I wanted to get freshman English out of the way
so I started at the University of Texas in the summer.
- ♪ And even if time ain't really on my side ♪
♪ It's one of those days for taking a walk outside ♪
- We went to class that morning,
and then during the lunch break
I went over to play chess with James Love.
- ♪ And fall on my face ♪
♪ On somebody's new mowed lawn ♪
- James and I had graduated
from Austin High together in May.
And I went over to where he lived at the STAG Co-Op.
- ♪ Since I woke up today ♪
♪ It's starring me and my sweet dream ♪
- We were listening to the Top 40
and playing chess in his room.
[record scratches]
- We interrupt this program to bring you
a special bulletin from ABC Radio.
- They said somebody was on top of the Tower with an air rifle.
- Air rifle? [chuckles] - Shooting with an air rifle.
Didn't sound dangerous to us. Sounded exciting.
- You wanna go check it out? - Yeah, let's go.
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Things may go and things may stay ♪
- We were just walking down the middle of a road
and a guy waved at us.
"Get out," you know? "Get under cover."
[gunshot]
"Get out of the street."
[gunshot]
And that was the first sign we had
that things were "bad" wrong.
[faint gunshots]
By the time that James and I had walked onto campus...
I'm sure over a dozen people had been murdered...
and we didn't know it.
- This is a KLRN news bulletin.
A sniper with a high-powered rifle
is firing at persons within his range.
All Austin-area residents are warned
to stay away from the University of Texas area.
- It's an unbelievable sight.
The serene University of Texas campus,
a temperature approaching 100 degrees now,
and a madman located on top of the University Tower
firing and shooting at any movable target that he can see.
- The shot that hit me bypassed me
and ricocheted off the building.
Everybody was in a state of panic.
- Then what happened? - Then everybody ran.
- It's like a battle scene. It's like--There he goes!
And another shot. There are two different kinds of shots.
Apparently police are returning the fire now.
- I got lucky, considering what happened to other people.
- There's no report as to who this man may be,
or what he's doing up there,
or what prompted this apparent madness.
- We passed the steps to the Undergraduate Library.
As we were about to the corner, he shot.
[gunshots]
And I laid there for about...
Oh, probably 15 or 20 minutes.
- We didn't know who was being killed.
Students on campus were being shot.
People were dying. [gunshots]
- It was just chaos.
- I was looking through the binoculars
when all of a sudden I realized,
he's pointing that rifle right at me.
I couldn't believe how close I'd gotten to being shot.
- We can see the movement under the clock
on the south side of the University of Texas Tower,
and police are returning the fire.
- There's this guy who's shooting
at everyone he can see.
What is the matter with him?
- The man is located on the University Tower
observation deck.
Below the clock which now shows 12:25
and is shooting. He's shooting our direction.
- There was a lot of suffering,
and we were helpless to do anything about it.
[sirens wailing]
- I see all of this blood.
And I think...
"I didn't get a chance to say good-bye
to my mom and dad, or anything."
[soft piano music]
♪ ♪
The ambulance driver got a call.
Right around the corner, there was another person
that they wanted him to pick up.
Looking out that window, it was just a direct shot.
And of course I'm thinking,
"If we don't get out of here quick,
"I'm gonna get shot again."
- He knocked a boy off a bicycle.
He shot windows out of the Texas Union.
[gunshots]
More ambulances are screaming
up and down the University drag,
and the ambulances are apparently carrying
those persons who we had reported
as lying on the sidewalk
shot in front of the Varsity Theater
and other buildings along the University drag.
The University area has been cordoned off
and so far we've had reports of people being shuttled
to the hospital via ambulances
from practically all the funeral homes in the city.
- I didn't know at the time,
but I was losing a lot of blood.
I felt like I was melting.
[panting]
The heat was just deadly.
The pavement was so hot
that it was burning the backs of my legs.
- There was a bunch of students, and I just hollered out--
"Anybody got a rifle?"
Some old boy said he did.
[gunshot]
- Do you wanna? - Yeah.
I took the rifle first.
But, see, I've never shot a scope.
I was raised a poor boy,
and .22 the biggest thing I ever shot.
I was shaking.
And what it was is...
Well, it wasn't a nervous shake...
It was the wobble. Yeah, the wobble.
I just couldn't get the crosshairs
to center in on nothin'.
That boy said he could and... [chuckles]
Lord knows he had better eyes than I did.
- We were in Parlin Hall when Billy Speed was shot.
[gunshot]
My God, he hit the cop.
- Billy Speed. [sighs]
[gunshot] I glanced down
and I saw Billy get hit.
Billy!
- We have a man here, just came from the base of the Tower.
What's your name please, sir? - Leland Ammons.
- Better duck down a little bit here.
You were standing beside the policeman when he was shot?
- Yes. - Was there just one shot fired?
- Uh, well, he was-- He opened fire on us
when he saw the, uh, policeman
with a shotgun converging.
The policeman was walking, he shot him through
the, uh, support near the statue of Jefferson Davis.
- The shots came near you at the time, though?
- Oh, yes. There were shots all around.
- A couple of students crept out the back door
and made their way to him.
A girl had taken off her slip
and was using it to try to stanch the bleeding,
but he was bleeding a lot.
The guy that was with her had gotten a little tin cup
and had filled it with water.
It was just like the cowboy movies, right?
- We, uh, did all we could for him.
But whether he was still conscious when
they carried him off in the ambulance, we don't know.
Maybe it could be a superficial wound.
[gunshot] - Billy!
- I saw him get hit here.
So I-I thought he was gonna be all right, you know?
- That was the moment that separated
the brave people from the scared people.
I knew that there was no way
that I was going to go out there and help him.
I didn't wanna get shot.
That was a defining moment
because I realized I was a coward.
- I met up with Billy not a couple hours before that.
We just talked a little while.
Just a good ol' boy conversation.
- He was gonna quit. He said...
He was gonna work a couple more months
and then he was gonna quit and go back to college.
And that's just what he was gonna do.
And uh, you know, his wife just had a baby and everything.
[gunshot]
- If I see someone-- - He asked me. He said...
- Do I shoot him?
- And I said... [chuckles]
"You shoot the shit out of him."
[gunshot]
- Before I got into the Tower,
and this is not too nice, I took up a position
behind a column at the Academic Center.
[gunshot]
And I gave him the I-talian digit.
[gunshot]
He fired once at the column and hit it.
But he didn't do it again.
I waited until the individual started firing
on the east side of the Tower--
[gunshot]
And then ran across the street into the Tower Building.
[gunshot]
[gunshots]
- You could see the bodies lying on the campus.
On the Main Mall. [gunshot]
And we knew then that there was nothing
that could be done from that office.
So we were inextricably drawn closer.
We got up to the statue of Jefferson Davis.
People say that that statue should be taken down,
that that statue has no place being there
because of Jefferson Davis and all he represents.
But at least on that day, it gave me a little shelter.
Across from the Main Mall, there was about
a dozen students there as well,
all looking at the bodies laying there.
And it was frustrating, I guess.
Something has to be done, but if I go out there?
[gunshot] I might die.
[camera clicking]
- It was like a frozen snapshot.
[camera clicks]
Obviously some people were still alive
and hiding behind small things.
A couple people seemed really...dead.
I've never seen a dead body.
I didn't care if they bombed the Tower.
I just wanted a plane to come and take that guy out.
- What else did you see as you came through the campus?
Did you see any other injured persons?
- There's several people laying out on the Mall at this time.
Three of them may be shot,
and the others may just be laying there.
[gunshot]
- A woman was lying on her back on the Mall,
and she was obviously pregnant
and in obvious pain.
It was hard to watch her
and to know that no one could get to her
without being shot themselves.
- Under the base of the Tower,
there were a lot of people there.
And they were yelling.
They were saying,
"We've gotta help that pregnant woman!"
And then somebody else yelled out,
"No, we've gotta help the ones that there is still hope for."
So I thought...
Well...
I probably wasn't gonna get help.
- Has any effort been made to try to get those persons out?
[gunshots] Another shot. He's still firing
repeatedly from the University Tower.
- I was trying to figure out what was happening.
I didn't feel pain.
It felt more like something really heavy
was pressing down on me.
I thought it felt like an invasion from outer space
because I felt like I'd been shot
by some kind of antimatter gun.
It felt like that's what was happening.
[radio frequencies]
That I was just...dissolving.
[frequencies intensify]
[faint footsteps]
Then at some point a girl ran up.
- Please he... - Are you all right?
Let me help you. - She came up
and kind of knelt over me.
And her hair... It was red and coming down.
[gunshots]
- Go. Go.
[gunshots]
- Get down.
- What's your name?
- It's Claire.
- Claire?
I'm Rita.
I'm here with you now, okay?
- Her name was Rita.
[gunshot]
- I tried to call the store and my wife.
[busy signal] [sighs]
The lines were busy.
I saw Officer Day. He was alone.
[indistinct chatter]
I went up to him and I offered my help to him.
- Let's go this way. - All right.
- As it went on, I moved forward a little bit more.
Kind of inching around,
getting a little bit different viewpoint,
that sorta thing, as we kept broadcasting.
[gunshots]
I think it's kind of a natural instinct.
"Hey, I gotta get closer. I gotta see what's going on."
We are not sure that the police are returning the fire,
but we do hear the shots and we do...
But I wasn't, believe me... [gunshot]
I wasn't trying to put myself in harm's way.
Under the clock on the south side
of the University of Texas Tower,
and police are returning the fire.
[gunshot] - I saw this airplane.
circling the tower.
It was a single-engine small airplane.
But the drafts of the heat and the wind,
the airplane just couldn't get a steady shot of the sniper.
The Austin Police Department,
they didn't have weapons that would reach
from the ground to the top of the Tower.
[gunshot] - It was like a war.
There were gunshots coming from everywhere.
- At one point, I saw a civilian
carrying a deer rifle coming from behind me
and running toward the Tower.
- I don't know where these vigilantes came from,
but Parlin Hall was filled with civilians with huge guns
and they began to shoot back.
There was massive testosterone.
- This was an average citizen
who heard my report on the radio
and decided to come help.
We didn't know it at the time,
but what was happening was my radio broadcast...
The feeds were made to the radio networks
and to all the other news outlets around the country.
- At approximately 12:15, the phones at KTBC
began to ring with requests for phone reports
to radio stations all over the North American proper.
Reports were recorded for radio stations
in Anchorage, Alaska, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
San Diego, California, and even from Honolulu, Hawaii.
- Repeating--A sniper with a high-powered rifle
has taken up a position on the Tower
at the campus at the University of Texas.
- To bring you a special bulletin from KTBC...
- All over the United States,
radio stations were calling in to get a report
of what's going on in Austin.
- You are looking at the University of Texas Tower
in Austin live.
There is a sniper or more than one sniper
located on that ridge right there under the clock.
One boy was shot while sitting in the Union
through the window.
Two others have been reported shot on the drag,
Guadalupe Street.
There are people hiding behind trees
all over the University of Texas campus.
Several are pinned down behind retaining walls
in front of the main building.
People are warned to stay out
of the University of Texas area.
This is a live camera, coming to you
from KLRN Channel 9.
- I really didn't know what to expect.
- University Tower observation deck...
Below the--Below the clock, and is shooting.
He's shooting our direction.
We just saw a puff of smoke, he's firing again.
It's a battle now.
It's a battle between the sniper and the police.
- I could hear all the shooting.
[gunshots] [sirens wailing]
Hear the sirens.
I knew it was a disaster, so to speak,
because the only ones with sirens were ambulances.
[gunshot]
- I saw Officer Martinez there at 21st Street.
Martinez! Hey, Officer!
And I hollered out to him, but he didn't hear me.
[gunshot]
- I tried to keep myself from being able
to see the top of the Tower
because I knew if I could see the top of the Tower,
the sniper could see me.
I ran until I got to the South Mall
by the Jefferson Davis statue.
[gunshot]
There were wounded people...
and dead people,
people whose conditions I did not know,
lying there on the sidewalk. [gunshot]
[gunshots]
There was a pregnant woman that was twisting
and wilting in the hot sun.
My training in the army had taught me
you establish a command post right away.
Then your organize an assault team.
[gunshot]
I thought maybe I could go into the Tower
and assist the people that were going there.
[gunshots]
My mission was to get into the Tower.
- Don't worry.
- We're gonna be okay.
[gunshots]
- I'm tired.
- Yeah, it won't be much longer now.
Don't worry.
- We lay there and just talked...
[gunshot]
Which was kind of wonderful
because it kept me conscious.
And I don't know what would've happened
had I been unconscious.
- Where did--Where did you go to high school, Claire?
- I think we tried to talk about who I was
and who Tom was.
- Claire, what classes...
What classes are you taking this semester?
- I'm taking anthropology...
With Tom. - Tell me about Tom.
- Tom Eckman.
I met Tom Eckman, Thomas Frederick Eckman,
when I was beginning the sixth month of my pregnancy.
- ♪ Yellow is the color ♪
- And I was visibly, noticeably pregnant.
- ♪ In the morning ♪
- He was trying to figure out whether I was pregnant
or just chubby.
- ♪ When we rise ♪
- I thought he was beautiful.
- ♪ That's the time ♪ - ♪ That's the time ♪
- He was kind of amazing and wonderful.
I don't know, we were just...in love.
You know, just really, totally connected to each other.
He just talked to me about everything.
About his whole life.
- ♪ In the morning ♪
- He laughed a lot.
Played the banjo, which was really cool.
He wanted to be a poet.
- ♪ That's the time ♪ - ♪ That's the time ♪
- ♪ I love the best ♪
- And we were so happy.
We were just really, really happy.
- ♪ Blue is the color of the sky ♪
- We just couldn't stay apart,
so he moved in with us.
- ♪ In the morning ♪
♪ When we rise ♪
- I don't know, we just fell in love and...
As it turned out, we decided
to register for anthropology together.
- Claire, can you hear me? Just breathe.
Stay with me, Claire.
Hey.
Can you hear me? Stay with me, Claire.
Claire? - Yeah?
- Can you hear me? - Yeah.
- Yeah. That's a good girl. [gunshot]
[busy signal]
You're okay. [gunshot]
- I picked up the phone and dialed the first number.
I got a busy signal
because everything was jammed.
I just needed to get upstairs
and find out what the game plan was.
[elevator moving]
Oh, my God. I'm heartily sorry for having offended thee.
I detest all my sins because of thy just punishment,
most of all because they offend thee.
My God, you are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace
to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.
[elevator stopping]
[elevator dings]
[all sigh]
- What's going on, Jerry? - Hell, I don't know.
- It's good you're here.
- 90s, I need a unit
to meet the UT police at the Security Building.
- Yeah, this is McCoy. Go ahead.
- We need a unit to go to the UT Security Building
and they'll go with him to the 27th floor.
- Uh, okay, you said the campus security booth?
- I'm meeting other officers?
- 25 to statewide.
- 10-4, I'm headed that way now.
Here comes Connor, Shoquist, Sheppard, and Moe,
and they had teargas guns.
And I asked Phillip. I said, "Did you bring any shotguns?"
And he said no.
Wished he had.
- Claire? Claire?
Can you hear me still?
Look at me, Claire.
Look at me.
- She made sure to keep me talking
so I wouldn't lose consciousness.
- Don't worry. We're gonna be okay.
- But it was getting harder and harder for me to answer.
- Stay with me. [gunshot]
Claire, just look at me. - But she was persistent.
She kept asking me questions.
- It's okay, Claire.
- It was beautiful. [gunshot]
A selfless act.
- I know it hurts,
but just hold on a little longer.
[gunshot]
- You know, the sun was directly overhead.
[gunshots]
I was dressed in all black, like an idiot.
And I suddenly began to feel dizzy.
Nauseous.
I was sick to my stomach,
and I was losing my coordination.
She was so, so pregnant.
I could see her move. I knew she was shot and hurt.
I crawled underneath the hedges into the shade,
where it's a lot cooler and quieter.
- It was endless waiting. Endless terror.
[gunshot]
Disappointment and hopelessness
that you're not able to do anything to make it stop
or to help the people that are suffering.
- Every 15 minutes...
[Tower bell rings]
The bell would ring from the top of the UT Tower.
And I'd think, "That's 15 more minutes.
"15 more minutes they were out there on that hot concrete."
[gunshot]
- I think...
I just wanted to close my eyes.
I tried not to move.
- Stay still. It'll be okay, all right?
- I tried to just act like I was dead
so he wouldn't shoot me again.
The concrete was so hot that at some point
I just decided, "I can't take it anymore."
[gunshot]
- When I came out from under those hedges,
I knew something had to be done.
Someone had to go out there and get 'em.
- I just remember looking up at the sky.
It was so blue.
And just thinking...
"I guess this is it.
- "I guess this is the end."
- That's when I decided to go out there.
And we had to move fast. We knew that.
You can see there was a camera.
Time moved strangely. Slowly.
I grabbed Claire's feet. James grabbed Claire's arms.
- Tom! [crying]
Tom!
- I've never been more scared.
- [laughing] I've never been more scared.
And we ran 'em off.
We ran her into safety to behind the hedge
and set her down.
And other people took her where the ambulances were.
[gunshot]
There's a...
There's a cold spot
that I can feel on my back right now.
And when I think about it, it's about the size of a grape.
It's all the w-- Halfway up my spine.
It's halfway between my shoulder blades.
And it's the place I expected
the bullet to come in...
If I was hit.
As I went down the stairs,
the glasses slowly-- I was sweating like a pig.
The glasses slowly came off my face.
Everything was turning into a complete blur for me
without those glasses
and I couldn't see a thing.
I had to go back out, out from cover again,
to pick up my glasses.
Her boyfriend...
He was--He was also carried off.
- One of those who was out of breath now after
running out onto the mall rescuing those who'd been shot
is Brehan Ellison of Austin, who's been in Vietnam
and has been back for two years.
Brehan, how many have you gone out to rescue?
- Today, two.
- What did you have to do?
- Run hard and keep low.
- Did you have any trouble getting them up
or did any shots come close to you while you were out there?
- No shots came close to me. Just the last one, he was dead.
He was dead weight. He was a little hard to pick up.
Too limp, not like someone who's knocked out.
- How many have you seen that are dead today?
- Just one. I hope not any more.
[gunshots]
- I knew what I had to do.
Knowing I had to walk up those stairs was a lonely feeling.
- Where you going?
- Up.
- I'm going with you.
- When we reached the first landing
I could see the face of a young boy.
- Good Lord.
- His eyes were open and he was dead.
I quickly turned around the corner
and I saw a young woman,
a dead young woman, lying at his feet.
And there was another woman lying there,
and we...we turned her on her side
to keep her from drowning in her own blood.
There was a young man that was wounded.
Slumped against the wall, still conscious.
- The boy that was at the foot of the stairs saw us.
And Martinez and I asked him
how many people were shooting.
[clears throat] And he replied, "One."
- He said, "He's outside." [gunshot]
And he pointed upstairs.
[gunshots]
- So we playing for keeps?
- Damn right we are.
- I guess you better deputize me, then.
- I looked at him and...
I thought he was an officer from some other agency.
Consider yourself deputized.
All right, ready?
- I'll cover you.
We worked our way into the room...
And found a woman lying on her back behind the sofa.
- Gotta keep going. [gunshots]
The shooting outside sounded just like rolling thunder.
[gunshots]
You got me?
- I got you.
Martinez went to the door
and he had trouble getting the door open.
- Well, time's passing, but...
You don't feel like time's passing.
Do you understand that?
[gunshots]
- Let's go. You need to cover that corner.
If anyone comes around there, you shoot 'em.
[gunshots]
[gentle piano music]
[Debussy's "Clair de Lune"]
♪ ♪
- I'm going to cover this corner.
Your fellow officer went down this way.
- Crum said, "Are you going to go out
and help your fellow officer?"
Guess I--Guess I ain't got much choice now, do I?
- I turned and saw an officer I knew, Houston McCoy.
All I had was my .38, so that--that shotgun
looked pretty beautiful at that moment.
Get down.
[gunshot]
- The other two officers went this way.
I'll cover you. - Got it.
- A picture came to my mind.
My boys and my wife.
And immediately it went out of my mind.
I didn't have a fear
of being killed, I really didn't.
- There was no time to think about fear.
Now, I'd be a fool or I'd be a liar
if I were to say I was not scared.
I was scared.
But you put that behind you.
You cannot have fear in front of you and do your job.
- I just knew that I wasn't going to allow
anybody to make me dead.
- I heard the subject running on the walkway.
I fired one round in an attempt to stop him.
- What the hell? - I'm sorry!
I heard him run the other direction.
- It's going to take longer
to tell you than it did to do it.
- I emptied my gun.
- There was some firing,
and then it was all over.
[gunshots]
- By the time I had emptied my pistol...
- McCoy fired.
- McCoy was pretty close-- I grabbed that shotgun
from McCoy and I shot him
one more time as he was hitting the ground.
After that was done,
my knees felt like rubber.
I felt like I had been hit by a sledgehammer.
I mean all my energy left me.
And I was shaking. Rounds, bullets were still coming up.
And I said I had enough and I left.
- The campus, for all practical purposes,
has been cleared.
Police got to the Tower, and are keeping
all the persons in the University Tower,
and the main police are coming out
and walking across the campus.
The University area has been cordoned off.
- I waved my handkerchief to stop the firing
from down on the ground. [gunshots continue]
- Once that flag waved, I knew it was over then.
It was bam-bam-bam-bam. It was just...
'Cause we had-- You had dozens of gunmen
firing at the Tower from all directions.
And they slowly stopped.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we have this word
just into the newsroom.
The sniper has been seen waving a white flag
on the west side of the building.
According to reports just into our newsroom,
the sniper has been seen waving a white flag
on the west side of the building.
This is Neal Spelce with a bulletin
from the KTBC Radio newsroom.
The sniper is dead.
This is Neal Spelce with a bulletin
from the KTBC Radio newsroom.
The sniper is dead.
The firing has now stopped, and the time is 1:23.
[radio shuts off]
When I said, "The sniper is dead," it was like...
- It was like a big... [exhales]
Sigh of relief.
The sirens all of a sudden started getting silent.
The bullets stopped.
And it was quiet.
- Someone waved a flag.
And...I walked around.
There was blood everywhere.
People just surged out of the building.
- We all walked up the steps.
It seems like we filled the mall.
- It was a few people at first,
and then dozens, and then hundreds.
- I don't remember anyone
being articulate about what had happened.
You know, just shock and awe.
Kind of a blankness.
- They looked like they were mesmerized.
They-they weren't hugging each other.
They weren't talking to each other.
Most of them were just kind of milling,
walking around, as if dazed and wondering,
"What in the world has happened to my world?"
[camera clicking]
- They didn't know the names of the people who had died.
And we didn't know what had happened
until later that day.
It was a sad time, a very sad time.
Not only for the people who lost
or were losing their loved ones,
but for the whole campus, the whole town, and the state.
- It was not something
you would expect from our beautiful Tower.
- I just sat there and watched people gather.
It was something that I had been a part of
for an hour and a half.
It was done for me.
[sirens wailing]
- The Travis County Blood Bank
has asked to please come immediately.
There is an urgent need for these types of blood--
Type O-positive,
Type O-negative, Type A-positive.
- I was begging them not to cut off my dress
because it was the first day I'd worn it.
It was my first and only maternity dress.
It was very beautiful. Tom had helped me pick it out.
- My dad was working downtown in a shoe-repair shop,
and then somebody came up to him
and asked him if he knew what was going on.
My dad said no. And the guy said,
"Well, there's been a lot of shooting going on."
- He said, "Yeah, there's a lot of shooting going on.
"And, oh, by the way,
your son has been shot and he was killed."
He went home, picked up my mom, and the two of 'em
rushed over to the hospital.
He-he did not want to believe that...
until it was something that he-he could...
that could be confirmed.
Whereas my mother was responding...
I guess like a mother.
My parents didn't find out for several hours that I was okay.
- It's a madhouse here at Brackenridge Hospital.
At least 17 persons are here undergoing treatment.
We have had unconfirmed reports that two persons have died.
We have a list of the names.
These names were just given to us
by the hospital administrator.
The victims have been identified as Oscar Royuela,
Billy Speed, Robert Boyer,
Paul Sonntag, Roy Schmidt, Billy Snowden--
- Joe, hold it. Hold just a minute.
This is Paul over at the newsroom.
What was that list of names again, please?
- One of the people who came rushing
into our newsroom to help out was Paul Bolton.
He had gone into semi-retirement
and I had taken over his position
as the television news director.
Paul was working there in the newsroom
when Joe read the list of names.
And Paul reacted dramatically at that point.
- Roy Schmidt, Billy Snowden-- - Joe, hold it.
Hold just a minute.
This is Paul over at the newsroom.
Everyone is interested in that list of names.
I think you have my grandson on there.
Go over that list of names again, please.
- [sniffling]
"I think you have my..." [sniffles]
"I think you have my grandson.
I think you have my grandson on that list."
Uh...
And Joe said, "Okay. Okay, I'll do that."
And he went through the-- The list again.
And, yeah, it was his namesake grandson, Paul Bolton Sonntag.
Didn't know at the time if he'd been killed,
but he was.
Frankly, I just broke up now.
I think it's... [laughs]
I think it's because I have grandchildren.
- I was in intensive care for seven weeks.
Rita came to see me when I was in the hospital.
- How are you feeling?
- I'm...[clears throat]
I'm, uh...
I'm doing better now. - I made you something.
It's nothing much. I just...
- She came and brought me a painting she had done.
I was just, you know, incredibly touched
by her bringing that
and, um...I think that's the only time
we saw each other after that.
Only recently I've realized...
How really, amazingly brave that was of her.
- Are you all right? Let me help you.
We've heard from all sorts of people involved in this
how terrified they were.
And yet she came right up to me.
I mean, that was very selfless.
Why did you do that, you know?
What gave you the courage
to come out and do that?
And were you afraid?
Were you afraid that you were going to get killed?
- For a person to be so giving,
has to go lay down on hot concrete
on a 100 degree day.
- Somehow, you know, that situation
just pulled out that hero in her.
- There's a special place in Heaven for people like that.
She's a wonderful woman.
[office bustling]
- As our various reporters and photographers
were bringing the film back for processing,
we were getting their stories and their information.
As we got a fuller picture of where the damage was
and looked at the film,
it was even more horrifying...
Than you could imagine.
- KTBC Television News now presents
a special program on today's mass murder
in the capital city.
Here is KTBC Television News Editor, Neal Spelce.
- Good evening. One of history's
worst mass-murders occurred here in Austin today.
By official count tonight, 49 persons were hit by gunfire.
There are 16 dead and 33 injured.
It started last night, when a man reportedly
killed his wife and his mother.
That same man apparently rounded up an arsenal
and supplies this morning and then went
to the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower.
It was then that terror rained down from the Tower.
[gunfire] Charles J. Whitman
was shot down on the observation deck
by two city policemen.
The policemen were aided by an Austin man, Allen Crum.
The story of how they ended the 90 minutes of terror
was told this afternoon at a news conference
held by Austin Police Chief Bob Miles.
- Did you guys shoot as soon as you saw him?
- Did anybody ask him to surrender
or give up or anything before all the firing started?
- No. As I said just a moment ago,
Mr. Crum fired one shot into the west wall
When Officer Martinez looked around the corner,
Mr. Whitman had his gun leveled out and ready to shoot.
Officer Martinez had no way of knowing whether Officer Day
or Mr. Crum had already come out
and were in a position to be shot.
- At the news conference, of course it was McCoy,
Jerry Day, Allen Crum, and myself.
- If you don't mind,
I'll do the talking for the group.
And no. No. And if I'm wrong,
Mr. Martinez can stop me and, uh, correct me on it.
- The reporters asked questions
and Chief Miles answered all the questions.
We were just there for show and tell, so to speak,
because he handled it.
- The man here beside me is Allen Crum.
He was deputized to go up on the Tower
with the two policemen who ended the gun battle.
- You got me?
- I got you.
- Mr. Crum, could you tell us how you happened
to be in the Tower building in the first place?
- Well I, uh... [clears throat]
Became involved in this when I looked out
of the Co-Op window and saw a boy shot across the street.
I went across the street to investigate
because I thought it was a small fight.
And as I stepped out the door, I heard the sound of shots.
- And you actually went into the Tower?
- Yes, sir. I couldn't get back across the street
because of my fear that I might get shot myself.
So I went to the next building, and the next building.
I thought perhaps I could help them when I got over there
so I waited 'till he shot from the other side of the Tower
and then ran into it myself.
- Mr. Crum, I know that I speak
for all the citizens of Austin in expressing
our gratitude to you
and to the Austin police officers
who put an end to the reign of terror
on the University of Texas campus.
- I've never known braver men.
Their decisions were correct,
timely done,
and accomplished in an honorable manner.
If I had to do this over again with these men,
I certainly would.
The Chief of Police offered me a check
from the City of Austin
for one day's deputized citizen's pay.
I refused it, of course.
- Somehow, we ended up out on Airport Boulevard
in a vacant lot with a case of Lone Star beer.
Took off our weapons,
still dressed in our blues and everything like that but...
We wasn't policemen no more.
If I would have just gone in, if I had just gone
right up to that elevator,
pressed that button to the top floor...
Gone in and get him done.
- Go up and get him done,
then Billy Speed would still be alive.
- Billy!
- And a lot of other, I'm sure, but...
But-but-but... didn't happen that way.
- [sighs]
Shoulda-coulda. [chuckles]
But I didn't.
- Shoulda, coulda. Shoulda...
Shoulda, coulda. But didn't.
So...I don't know.
- Well, to say it hasn't affected me in my life,
it wouldn't be a truthful statement.
But I have, um...
tried.
I have tried to just forget it.
I hate to see people get hurt.
But, you know, you have to be realistic
and know that these things are gonna happen.
And so you have to have the way how to cope with it,
how to take care of the problems.
- If somebody were to ask how you feel,
well...
Well, I'd say no words.
It's something-- I've been asked that before,
How-how did it make you feel?
And then I kinda have to say, "Well...
"How would I describe the colors of a rainbow
to a person born blind?"
You can't, 'cause there ain't no words.
Uh, I don't know.
- This is the shirt that I was wearing.
And I must've weighed about 90 pounds when...
When this shooting happened.
See that little tear right there?
It's where the bullet just kinda pew.
[gunshot]
This is my cousin, Lee Zamora.
He was with me when I was riding the bicycle
and delivering newspapers at the University of Texas Tower.
- I was just thinking, you know,
I've never talked to anyone about this before.
[gunshot]
And I thought, you know,
maybe it'll help me, you know, do some good
to sit and talk about it to someone, you know, for once.
Maybe it's something I need to do.
- If you folks had not given us this opportunity,
I would not have seen this cousin of mine. I do now.
Been a long time. I mean, almost 50 years.
- It was just a whole different world.
Nobody ever talked about it.
- I didn't meet Claire
until, uh, a few months ago.
- I never knew who Artly was.
I finally decided maybe he was just an angel or something.
- I was 17. I'd never seen death.
I didn't know anything about guns.
It was nothing but a big, raw, gaping wound,
you know, in my psyche. In my memory.
There has been a passage of time, and...
[stuttering]
It's still raw, but it's not as raw as it once was.
A lotta times,
the worst days of your lives are...
personal and, uh, private.
Maybe that's why I've... I sort of...
[stutters]
Um, hid it inside.
I feel guilty because I didn't go out soon enough.
- Oh, Artly. - You know, that you were...
- Artly. [laughs]
- Yeah, it's just-- I think--I think guilt
comes with events like this. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Strange guilt.
UT was closed for one day. That was it.
They came in and cleaned up the blood.
I think the university should put up a memorial.
There's still lots of family and lots of friends
of people that were killed and injured.
- Paul Sonntag, Claudia Rutt,
Robert Boyer, Billy Speed,
Roy Schmidt, Edna Townsley,
Marguerite Lamport, Mark Gabour,
Thomas Eckman, Harry Walchuk,
Thomas Ashton, Thomas Karr,
Karen Griffith, David Gunby,
and my baby.
They said I could have babies, but I never got pregnant.
But I got to adopt my child.
I adopted my child Sirak.
He was born in Ethiopia
and I adopted him when he was four.
And he's now 27.
I mean, Sirak was a wonderful child.
And there are times, even though
his skin is brown and mine's white,
there are times when I absolutely cannot remember
that he didn't come out of me.
But the baby... I-I dreamed about him
from the beginning and I still have dreams
that I found him and I have him
and I'm so happy.
But then I'd look away or something and he's gone.
[gunshots]
- I remember looking at the Tower, of course, a lot.
And from the Main Mall, you can see
there's a biblical line from the Bible.
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."
[gunshot]
I've thought about it. [sniffles]
One of the truths I learned...
Is that there are monsters that walk among us.
[sirens wailing]
There are people out there that think unthinkable thoughts
and then do unthinkable things.
- Through the years, he remained
largely kind of wooden in my mind.
But the longer I've lived and the more I've seen,
these precious little children who grow up
and do sometimes horrible things,
the more I have come to think of him
as a very confused, very damaged young man.
He died at about 25.
There's a picture of him standing at three years old,
holding a rifle on either side on the beach.
I just think of him when he was that three-year-old
who would have been sitting in my lap, you know.
I'm a teacher, and I love that age.
So much promise and so much hope.
How can I hate somebody like that?
I can't hate him, in spite
of the incredible damage that he's done.
I can't hate him. I just can't do that.
- Do you forgive him? - I forgive him, yes.
How can I not forgive? I've been forgiven so much.
[slow rock music]
♪ ♪
- The horror of these, the sick among us,
must be found in the horror of our hyper civilization.
A strange pandering to violence, a disrespect for life
fostered in part by governments which,
in pursuit of the doctrine of self-defense,
teach their youth to kill and to maim.
A society in which the most popular
newspaper cartoon strips, television programs,
and movies are those that can invent
new means of perpetrating bodily harm.
A people who somehow can remain silent
while their own civilization seems to crumble
under the force of the caveman's philosophy--
That might makes right.
It seems likely that Charles Joseph Whitman's crime
was society's crime.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.
[soft rock music]
♪ ♪
- Somebody said to me,
"Why would I want to revisit any of this?
Why would I wanna dig it up?" That it would be so painful.
It was devastating. It was devastating.
You know, I still have that loss.
But what's painful is to just not have any sense
of the whole thing and not have other people
that knew about it, and that could talk
about what happened that day.
That's what was painful.
And so that's been very healing.
You know, just the little things
make a huge difference in a big thing like this.
[soft piano music]
[Debussy's "Clair de Lune"]
♪ ♪
[engine turns over]