At the top of the University of Texas Tower 35 years ago, Austin policemen Houston McCoy and Ramiro “Ray” Martinez risked all to end the killing spree of ex-Marine Charles Whitman. The press initially credited Martinez with taking Whitman down, but after the coroner’s report was issued, it seemed
Thirty years later, the legacy of Charles Whitman’s shooting spree at the University of Texas still towers above us.
A reminder that Charles Whitman’s shooting spree resonated far outside of Texas.
At 11:48 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman began firing his rifle from the top of the University of Texas Tower at anyone and everyone in his sights. At 1:24 p.m., he was gunned down himself. The lives of the people who witnessed the sniper’s spree firsthand would never
Fifty years after the Tower shooting, the University of Texas is finally honoring the victims. What took so long?
On a sweltering Monday in August 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower and began shooting pedestrians below, killing eleven people and forever altering the lives of many others. In this excerpt from her new novel, Elizabeth Crook reimagines the day that changed everything.
Nine years after the brutal murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop rocked the city of Austin, the police say they have finally caught the killers. But they have no evidence and no witnesses—only two confessions that the defendants say were coerced. Which is why, when the case
In “Parties Around a Punch Bowl,” Kimberly Schlegel Whitman offers a year’s worth of seasonal cocktail recipes.
Officials at an El Paso hospital are scrambling after exposing more than 700 babies to TB, and Charles Whitman's rifle is up for sale.
Senior editor Pamela Colloff talks about tracking down eyewitnesses and listening to their accounts of Charles Whitman’s shooting spree from atop the University of Texas Tower.
The element most conspicuously absent from our tour of the University of Texas Tower was any mention of sniper Charles Whitman.
Richard Linklater’s film belongs in the canon of great Texas cinema.
A massive box set reveals all the quirks and charms of a San Antonio–born genius.
Early in his career, Woody Harrelson couldn’t shake his reputation as the country rube from ‘Cheers.’ Here’s how that changed, starting 25 years ago.
Crispy beef tacos or duck leg confit? The menu at Tony Luhrman’s taqueria is full of surprises.
After the Sutherland Springs tragedy, he looked at his phone and saw strangers wishing he would die. But they had the wrong Devin.
Half a century after the 1966 UT tower massacre, mass shootings have only become more common.
Are the legendary lawmen necessary? Yes, but their inability to grapple with the modern world threatens to make them irrelevant.
Your guide to the Texas-based directors and plots appearing at this year's SXSW Film conference.
And what it tells us about the next generation of gun rights activists.
Blue Bell to return to North Texas and legislators back down on therapy cuts.
It was a year of avaricious Astros fans, brainless bank robbers, competence-free comptrollers, discourteous doctors, enraged exes, frisky Frisco-ites, greedy gram-toting grandmothers, hotheaded hand surgeons, ill-informed idiots, jammed-full Jaguars, knife-krazy Kimbroughs, lambasted Lufkinites, mean-spirited magazine articles, nervy narcotics users, obtuse O’Neals, profane pilots, quazy Quaids, romantically rejected receivers, surveilling Scientologists,
It was the most shocking crime of its day, 27 boys from the same part of town kidnapped, tortured, and killed by an affable neighbor named Dean Corll. Forty years later, it remains one of the least understood—or talked about—chapters in Houston's history.
Marc Ambinder, politics editor and blogger for The Atlantic, writes that the Democratic message for the fall elections is shaping up to be, “We may be incompetent but they’re crazy.” Good party messages are organic, and they are not announced. Fortunately for Democrats, theirs just sort of came
Senior editor Pamela Colloff on talking to the Texas Rangers.
“Management” has suggested that I use this blog to tout the many wonderful articles in our August issue, which is hot off the presses. At first, I was very huffy about this, but then I realized that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. I
And they most definitely conquered. The inside story of how a ragtag bunch of hippies made the wildest Texas movie ever (and spilled no more fake blood than was absolutely necessary).
Why has it taken so long for my sons to get married? Is it the wet towels mildewing on their apartment floors? The pocket change accumulating on every flat surface? Or is it that I've given them a skewed idea of what women expect?
In this corner, convicted rapist Tony Ayala of San Antonioonce a rising star of pro boxing, now an ex-convict on the road to redemption. And in this corner, his pastthe toughest opponent he's ever faced.
Before the 1996 election, George W. Bush’s presidential chances were just talk. Now they’re hot. Jack Kemp blew his opportunity to be the undisputed standard-bearer with a mediocre—and, some say, disloyal—performance as Bob Dole’s running mate. The next GOP nominee will almost surely be someone who hasn’t run for president
Primary color: Dole on a roll, a report card for the Religious Right, and other fallout from Election Day.
From Scott Joplin to ZZ Top, a comprehensive guide to the best Texas music on CD.
In a ninety-minute reign of terror, gunshots rang out that still echo in the history of Texas.
We give appropriate recognition to all the people and events that have put us in the state we’re in.
At the top of the University of Texas Tower 35 years ago, Austin policemen Houston McCoy and Ramiro “Ray” Martinez risked all to end the killing spree of ex-Marine Charles Whitman. The press initially credited Martinez with taking Whitman down, but after the coroner’s report was issued, it seemed
Thirty years later, the legacy of Charles Whitman’s shooting spree at the University of Texas still towers above us.
A reminder that Charles Whitman’s shooting spree resonated far outside of Texas.
At 11:48 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman began firing his rifle from the top of the University of Texas Tower at anyone and everyone in his sights. At 1:24 p.m., he was gunned down himself. The lives of the people who witnessed the sniper’s spree firsthand would never
Fifty years after the Tower shooting, the University of Texas is finally honoring the victims. What took so long?
On a sweltering Monday in August 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower and began shooting pedestrians below, killing eleven people and forever altering the lives of many others. In this excerpt from her new novel, Elizabeth Crook reimagines the day that changed everything.
Nine years after the brutal murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop rocked the city of Austin, the police say they have finally caught the killers. But they have no evidence and no witnesses—only two confessions that the defendants say were coerced. Which is why, when the case
In “Parties Around a Punch Bowl,” Kimberly Schlegel Whitman offers a year’s worth of seasonal cocktail recipes.
Officials at an El Paso hospital are scrambling after exposing more than 700 babies to TB, and Charles Whitman's rifle is up for sale.
Senior editor Pamela Colloff talks about tracking down eyewitnesses and listening to their accounts of Charles Whitman’s shooting spree from atop the University of Texas Tower.
The element most conspicuously absent from our tour of the University of Texas Tower was any mention of sniper Charles Whitman.
Richard Linklater’s film belongs in the canon of great Texas cinema.
A massive box set reveals all the quirks and charms of a San Antonio–born genius.
Early in his career, Woody Harrelson couldn’t shake his reputation as the country rube from ‘Cheers.’ Here’s how that changed, starting 25 years ago.
Crispy beef tacos or duck leg confit? The menu at Tony Luhrman’s taqueria is full of surprises.
After the Sutherland Springs tragedy, he looked at his phone and saw strangers wishing he would die. But they had the wrong Devin.
Half a century after the 1966 UT tower massacre, mass shootings have only become more common.
Are the legendary lawmen necessary? Yes, but their inability to grapple with the modern world threatens to make them irrelevant.
Your guide to the Texas-based directors and plots appearing at this year's SXSW Film conference.
And what it tells us about the next generation of gun rights activists.
Blue Bell to return to North Texas and legislators back down on therapy cuts.
It was a year of avaricious Astros fans, brainless bank robbers, competence-free comptrollers, discourteous doctors, enraged exes, frisky Frisco-ites, greedy gram-toting grandmothers, hotheaded hand surgeons, ill-informed idiots, jammed-full Jaguars, knife-krazy Kimbroughs, lambasted Lufkinites, mean-spirited magazine articles, nervy narcotics users, obtuse O’Neals, profane pilots, quazy Quaids, romantically rejected receivers, surveilling Scientologists,
It was the most shocking crime of its day, 27 boys from the same part of town kidnapped, tortured, and killed by an affable neighbor named Dean Corll. Forty years later, it remains one of the least understood—or talked about—chapters in Houston's history.
Marc Ambinder, politics editor and blogger for The Atlantic, writes that the Democratic message for the fall elections is shaping up to be, “We may be incompetent but they’re crazy.” Good party messages are organic, and they are not announced. Fortunately for Democrats, theirs just sort of came
Senior editor Pamela Colloff on talking to the Texas Rangers.
“Management” has suggested that I use this blog to tout the many wonderful articles in our August issue, which is hot off the presses. At first, I was very huffy about this, but then I realized that I wasn’t keeping up with the times. I
And they most definitely conquered. The inside story of how a ragtag bunch of hippies made the wildest Texas movie ever (and spilled no more fake blood than was absolutely necessary).
Why has it taken so long for my sons to get married? Is it the wet towels mildewing on their apartment floors? The pocket change accumulating on every flat surface? Or is it that I've given them a skewed idea of what women expect?
In this corner, convicted rapist Tony Ayala of San Antonioonce a rising star of pro boxing, now an ex-convict on the road to redemption. And in this corner, his pastthe toughest opponent he's ever faced.
Before the 1996 election, George W. Bush’s presidential chances were just talk. Now they’re hot. Jack Kemp blew his opportunity to be the undisputed standard-bearer with a mediocre—and, some say, disloyal—performance as Bob Dole’s running mate. The next GOP nominee will almost surely be someone who hasn’t run for president
Primary color: Dole on a roll, a report card for the Religious Right, and other fallout from Election Day.
From Scott Joplin to ZZ Top, a comprehensive guide to the best Texas music on CD.
In a ninety-minute reign of terror, gunshots rang out that still echo in the history of Texas.
We give appropriate recognition to all the people and events that have put us in the state we’re in.
