Book Review: A Sniper in the Tower

This will be the first of a few book reviews in a row as I've gotten a little behind!

A Sniper in the Tower: The Murders of Charles Whitman is about just what it sounds like! This book is pretty fascinating, well I guess if you're fascinated by that sort of thing! Especially if you know all the sights and locations discussed in this book as it goes through Charles Whitman's life and preparations to carry out the very first random mass murder in the country, this book is captivating from beginning to end.

Probably most fascinating was that everyone seemed to think Whitman was a pretty normal and nice guy. Even decades later, his friends would still say they thought he was a very nice guy. He did have a brain tumor (found during autopsy) and he was taking some drugs (though due to being immediately embalmed, they couldn't determine if he had taken them prior to the murders), but neither of these seemed to impact his actions. His murders were calculated and planned in advance. He started typing a letter explaining why he killed his wife and mother hours before carrying out those actions, while his wife was still at work.

If you're sickly fascinated by the unthinkable, from Austin, or went to UT, you should definitely read this book! I can't wait to watch the TV special and tour the campus again with Matt so we can recount all we learned from the book!