Excellent. A lot of archival footage I hadn't seen, plus interviews with survivors interspersed with some animation. I read Gary Lavergne's book several years ago and this doc is right up there with it.

I was in a gunstore in Beeville buying a pistol to take to school at Texas A&I that fall. I figured they would not let me keep a rifle in the dorm. The store owner was listening to the coverage of the shooting live on the radio.

I showed up in Kingsville a few weeks later and most of the guys checking in to Martin Hall had rifles or shotguns with them. Good old times.

Did the documentary mention that Whitman suffered a frontal lobe injury while serving with the Marines at Guantanamo? Jeep he was in flipped over

It didn't. Focused on many others involved, but very little about Whitman.

I believe Whitman had a brain tumor as well.

Kinky Friedman has a song about that.

Terata :

I think they decided in later years that Whitman's tumor would not have affected his behavior but at the time it was considered the chief motivator.


Spore:

So did Harry Chapin.

I have not seen this documentary, but would like to. sounds interesting!

I read a pretty good article of witness accounts a while back. One of the things that stuck out the most to me was that the Austin Police didn't have long rifles at the time, so they encouraged students to go back to their dorms and get their hunting rifles to provide cover fire (and hope for a lucky shot). This allowed them to occupy the shooter while they accessed roof of the tower.

Thanks, BQ.

It really is a good documentary presented in a very unique style with the cartoon animation. On the surface, that sounds like it won't work based on the subject matter, but it does.

terata said:

---

I believe Whitman had a brain tumor as well.

---

Meningioma I think so probably not related.

Fonzie Scheme said:

---

It didn't. Focused on many others involved, but very little about Whitman.

---

I believe they chose to focus on the victims and facts and not "glorify" anything about Whitman. I thought this piece was very well done and effective.

VanZandt92 said:

---

terata said:

---

I believe Whitman had a brain tumor as well.

---

Meningioma I think so probably not related.

---

This isn't right. Whitman's brain tumor was intraparenchymal (inside the brain), in the temporal lobe near the amygdala. The original autopsy pathologist labeled it an "astrocytoma", a relatively broad term that could encompass anything from indolent, low grade malignancy to highly fatal cancer.

However, there were apparently areas of necrosis in the tumor, which would be most suggestive of a high grade glioma. If accurate, this means that Whitman likely had no more than a year to live at the time of his rampage.

Whether this tumor had any impact on his actions is unknowable.

True story.

My Mom dated him a couple of times in Houston.

She said he was a little odd but certainly not a nut.

I saw this same documentary a number of months back. I'll agree it's pretty well done. Growing up in Austin in the 70's and 80's, I remember walking around campus with my folks and seeing some of the bullet pocks in the walls around the tower. Pretty sobering.

One thing I didn't know before watching this documentary is that while Neil Spelce was at the TV station reading off the names of the dead, the station manager or producer stopped him halfway through and asked him to repeat a few names.....sure enough, one of them was his own grandson. That was brutally heartbreaking.

I saw it when it was first released. A very effective way of telling the story of a very tragic event.

Between JFK and this the USA was very different after.

Channel 7 was showing the action live and you could see the shots hitting the tower and what appeared to be shots from Whitman.

I just looked on Nexflix and didnt find it. What is the name of the documentary?

It is just called "Tower." I just verified it is still on NetFlix.