Posted on 12/27/2012 2:25:21 PM PST by bgill
Houston McCoy, who as an Austin police officer in 1966 climbed up the staircase of the University Tower to help kill Charles Whitman and end what at the time was the nation's largest mass murder, died Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at kxan.com ...
I wish people would post smaller ones so that one doesn't have to actually scroll down or left to right to actually view it.........
LOL....you and me both. Oh for the days of investigative journalism. I wanted so badly to be an investigative journalist.
......went back and researched it, 5 studley men got themselves on the 27th floor with Whitman about an hour and fifteen minutes after the shooting started. The Tower Observation Deck is a perfect square about 30’ x 30’ in the form of a narrow walkway that looks down over a chest high parapet onto Austin and the campus below. I have been on it many times. They all had to be really careful as rounds were impacting the building all around them from shooters (good guys) below. There is one door in and one door out onto the parapet and it faces the south side. Whitman was on the northwest corner when 4 of the five went out the south door. McCoy and Martinez went up the east side. Crum (a civilian) and Day headed along the south side west with Crum in the lead. Crum heard Whitman running toward him and fired a round into the wall in front of him (Crum). Whitman then reversed and ran back to the Northeast corner. When he rounded the corner, McCoy fired hitting him in the head. Martinez then grabbed McCoy’s gun and ran over and fired rounds into Whitman as he lay in the corner. There has always been much discussion on the need for this since Whitman had been shot in the head. My opinion is that Martinez deserved all the accolades he got, period. But, God only knows if Whitman was dead when Martinez shot him.
Interesting. From what I understand his brains spilled out of his skull when they opened it.
I don’t doubt it at all. That Wiki entry referred to him taking 1-2 headshots w/ .00 buck (”my brain is Jell-O”), but they found the tumor down on the brainstem. That pic looks like part of his brains are laying out on the bricks, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whitmandeck.jpg
I actually saw two autopsy photos of JFK on Yahoo and one of them showed his brains oozing out of his skull. The other one showed a picture of his face and his eyes were wide open. *shudder*
The same here. The incident still brings back memories of that tragic day. I wasn't too far away at the time. I was only in my mid-teens> but I recall it well.
My recollection was that the "civilian" was an off duty police officer or he hadn't SO'd just yet and rushed to the scene just prior to reporting for duty or something like that. I could be wrong but that was what I recalled hearing and reading from the tragic day.
That is only because "guns" were not involved.
There are many dozens of the autopsy pics, on numerous sites, here:
Each time I Google the subject, I find add’l ones I hadn’t seen in previous years.
When mob/CIA did close-execution headshots, the autopsies usually recovered small cal bullet, which entered skull, and bounced/ricocheted around like a jet-propelled tennis ball in zero gravity, turning the brain into Jell-O. Usually stayed inside skull and was recovered. .22short or .25cal was preferred round, IINM.
Hi-Po round like Kennedy’s brain shot took-off a large chunk of skull and underlying brainmatter and caused widespread internal skull/remaining brain damage. Exceptions like Rep Gabby Giffords headshot are extremely rare; it’s usually quite fatal. Whitman’s 12ga .00 buckshot sent multiple balls into skull cavity, and did what it did.
Here’s the 2006 video of McCoy and other LE who were at the tower. They tell who shot when and they say it was McCoy, not Martinez, who took Whitman out. McCoy demonstrates where he was and that he shot Whitman twice in the head. Nothing about Martinez taking anyone’s gun.
Here’s a video of McCoy and other LE who say it was McCoy.
He was buried with full military honors? Seriously?
Me too. I pull-over/stop to help at accidents. Have seen some very awful stuff at some of those.
Apparently so; he was entitled for his service.
I remember reading at the time that Martinez emptied his handgun into Whitman. For some reason that particular detail really got to me.
I would imagine so.
You’d think that his actions would have rendered a military burial null and void.
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