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On July 31, 1966, Charles Whitman murdered his mother, Margaret Whitman, at her home in Austin, Texas. The killing was deliberate and formed the first act in a sequence of violence that culminated in the University of Texas tower shooting the following day. Whitman later left a note indicating that he believed he was sparing her from future suffering, reflecting a disturbed and conflicted mental state.
Whitman stabbed his mother in her residence. The attack was controlled and carried out without immediate detection.
Investigators later connected the murder to Whitman’s broader plan leading into the mass shooting.