A Sniper in the Tower (63 page)

Read A Sniper in the Tower Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #History, #United States, #General, #State & Local, #Southwest (AZ; NM; OK; TX), #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: A Sniper in the Tower
2.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
Page 219
reported that Martinez appeared exhausted. He had been running and for the first time in quite a while he realized that it was damn hot. Morgan brought him to the west entrance of the Main Building. There, John Pope, a somewhat large man, placed his arm around Martinez and assisted him to a squad car. Many onlookers assumed that he had been wounded; he had blood on his shirt from moving the Gabours and he needed Pope's assistance. Neal Spelce remembered that Martinez's eyes were glazed and his legs were like jelly. Once back at the police station, he suffered from "dry heaves" for about thirty minutes. His stomach was empty. Back home the "piece of meat" he had started to cook for lunch was still in the oven.
16
Finally, the ground fire ended and officials on the deck could walk erect. Nearly everyone looked at the contents of Whitman's pockets, including a small container of pills which police immediately assumed were illicit drugs of some sort. Whitman's pockets also contained a poll tax receipt dated 19 October 1965 which listed his address as 1001 Shelley Avenue. Soon, police, reporters and curious spectators converged on the address.
As time passed, the crowd on the South Mall grew. Throngs of Austinites, many of whom were relatives of someone in the university family, joined employees, students, and faculty. Cries of "kill" and "lynch" could be heard, but for the most part and despite their huge numbers, the emotional crowd stayed under control. When the time came to bring ambulances to the Main Building, officers had to movesometimes shovepeople away. Removing bodies from the building proved to be even more difficult than expected. The narrow halls and stairways and the small elevators prohibited the normal use of stretchers and gurneys; turning corners was nearly impossible. Some of the victims had to be carried on blankets until they reached the first floor. The sheet-covered body of Mark Gabour was carried out to the South Mall to an ambulance on Inner Campus Drive. As the crew walked down the steps where Dr. Robert Boyer had been shot and near the spot where Billy Speed had been mortally wounded, Mark's foot fell over the edge of the stretcher and jiggled with the bounce of each step. The shoe that was once on his foot had been placed on the stretcher. M. J. Gabour, laboring to make his way through the crowd cried, "That's my boy."
17
 
Page 220
The crowd fell silent as Marguerite Lamport's body, covered except for her blood-streaked legs, was taken to a vehicle. And then the horror of Mary and Mike Gabour's bullet-ridden bodies and Edna Townsley's twisted, beaten face paraded past the crowds. Shortly afterwards, at Brackenridge Hospital, Harold Moe would see a dazed William Lamport still clutching Marguerite's purse. Clearly in a state of shock, Lamport explained that he was looking for Marguerite but he could not find her. According to Moe, Lamport had "believed her to be dead." Officials on the deck, where Whitman's body still lay on the floor, wisely decided to call for an ambulance to park on the north side of the building. Much of the crowd wanted a glimpse of the body of the sniper. Concerns about the reaction of the crowd were valid. Many civilians with guns were part of the crowd.
Larry Fuess went to the north side of the Tower and saw two ambulance attendants and three policemen carry Whitman's blanket-covered body out of the building. Earlier, while in the elevator, Cook Funeral Home attendants had had to stand the stretcher with Whitman's body upright. Additional wrapping covered his head, but the blood still soaked through.
18
At the Austin Police Department, Ramiro Martinez recovered. After assuring Vernell by phone that he was all right, he wrote his report. He then retreated to his brother's home in Austin, away from the rush of news reporters demanding to speak to him. There he drank an entire bottle of gin. It did not phase him.
Houston McCoy was one of the last officers to leave the Tower. He walked back to his squad car and drove himself to the station. While checking in his vehicle, he noticed the clothes and shoes he had collected near Lake Austin when he had first received the call to report to the University of Texas. In his pocket he still had the Social Security card of an Hispanic male. "Oh, hell," he thought, and threw the clothes in the trash. (The body of an Hispanic male, about six feet tall and weighing about 175 pounds, was discovered in the river on Wednesday, 3 August 1966.)
After writing his reports, McCoy accompanied a few police friends, including Jerry Day and Phillip Conner, to a vacant lot near Interstate 35. Still dressed in blues, they were off duty and had a couple of beerseven the usually abstemious Phillip Conner. It was finally time to go home. On the way, the tough West Texan broke
 
Page 221
down and allowed himself to cry for a second or two. He was all right by the time he got home, and like Martinez, he drank more and even got a little drunk. Only then would Ruth McCoy learn of Houston's heroics. On the next day, he reported for work as usual.
19
It would be anything but a usual day.
1 Houston McCoy; Ramiro Martinez; APD Files:
SOR
s by J. Day, R. Martinez, Houston McCoy, 1 August 1966,
Allen Crum, 2 August 1966, McCoy Statement
, n.d.
2 Houston McCoy; Ramiro Martinez.
3 Allen Crum; APD Files:
SOR
s by J. Day, P. Conner, R. Martinez, and H. McCoy, 1 August 1966; Phillip Conner.
4 Ramiro Martinez; Houston McCoy; APD Files:
SOR
by Nolan Meinardus, 2 August 1966.
5 Ramiro Martinez; Houston McCoy.
6 Ibid.; The shotgun Houston McCoy carried onto the deck is on display in a showcase in the Austin Police Department Headquarters.
7 Houston McCoy; Ramiro Martinez; APD Files:
SOR
s by H. McCoy and R. Martinez, 1 August 1966 and
McCoy Statement
, n.d.;
Autopsy Protocol,
Charles Joseph Whitman, Case #MLS-62-1966, 2 August 1966, in Austin History Center files (hereafter cited as
Autopsy Protocol
); The APD Files also have pictures of Charles Whitman at Cook's Funeral Home with his clothes removed. The wound on his left arm inflicted by Martinez's shotgun blast is only slightly larger than a silver dollar. Thus, Martinez had to have fired from near point-blank range.
8 Houston McCoy; Ramiro Martinez.
9 Ibid.; APD Files:
SOR
s by J. Day, P. Conner, G. Shepard, H. Moe, M. Shoquist, 1 August 1966; Texas DPS Files:
Interoffice Memorandum
by W. A. Cowan, 2 August 1966.
10 APD Files:
SOR
s by J. Day, P. Conner, G. Shepard, H. Moe, M. Shoquist, 1 August 1966.
11 APD Files:
SOR
by H. McCoy, 1 August 1966 and
McCoy Statement
, n.d.; Houston McCoy; Phillip Conner; Houston McCoy quoted in
Dallas Morning News
, 1 August 1986.
12 Houston McCoy; APD Files:
McCoy Statement
, n.d. A copy of the contents of Charles Whitman's billfold are part of the Austin Police Department Files.

Other books

The Secret of Pirates' Hill by Franklin W. Dixon
Tinder Stricken by Heidi C. Vlach
Cupcakes & Chardonnay by Gabriel, Julia
Burn by Sarah Fine
Borne On Wings of Steel by Tony Chandler