June 24, 1941 - Charles Whitman

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people.

Whitman killed a total of seventeen people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack. He had developed several disturbing symptoms in the months preceding his murderous rampage, which included intense headaches, emotional turmoil and intrusive thoughts. In a confession-suicide note written the night before the violence (see excerpt below), he requested that an autopsy be conducted to determine whether there "is any visible physical disorder." The procedure was performed on August 2, where the neuropathologist found a small tumor deep in Whitman’s brain.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles Whitman under CC BY-SA 4.0.