. . . . It seems like we can鈥檛 go more than a few days without a violent event somewhere in the world. While it鈥檚 true these attacks are happening for very different and very complicated reasons 鈥� they keep happening. It鈥檚 almost hard to remember a time when they didn鈥檛.But when a shooter took aim at the University of Texas of Austin campus from the top of the UT tower on August 1, 1966, no one had any reference point for such an attack. The Texas Standard spoke to people who were there that day as part of a documentary that will air Monday.
Summer school was in session. While the campus wasn鈥檛 as full as it would be in the fall or spring, it was still teeming with life.
Judy Brooks had come to participate in a summer orientation right before her freshman year.
Gary Gibbs worked part time at what was then Capital National Bank. 鈥淵ou had to carry a full load so your draft board wouldn鈥檛 come after you for the Army while you were in school,鈥� Gibbs says. 鈥淚 was able to provide enough hours a year by working part time, but I would also go to both sessions of summer school.鈥�
Linda Adkins was working for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the time, which was located on the 24th floor of the tower.
Cheryl Dickerson was walking around campus. 鈥淚 struck up a conversation with the ticket agent and he asked me if I had ever seen the campus and I said 鈥楴o,鈥� I had not,鈥� she says. 鈥淗e asked me if he could give me a tour of the campus the next morning and I said 鈥楽ure.鈥� And the tower was the first stop on the tour.鈥�
Just a little before noon, a man began shooting from the tower at the campus below. Many people heard the sounds, but not many realized they were gunshots.
鈥淎ll of a sudden I heard this noise that sounded like 鈥� back then we had Coke bottles 鈥� so it sounded like cases of Coke bottles being placed on top of each other,鈥� Jeanette Lawrence says.
鈥淚 kept hearing what sounded like lumber dropping,鈥� Bob Matjeka says. 鈥淚t was like a clapping sound.鈥�
鈥淛ust by chance, that was the day that Scholz鈥檚 Beer Garten was going to have some sort of celebration,鈥� Sid Lawrence says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember what they were celebrating, but we commented 鈥� a couple of the students 鈥� to each other,鈥橭h, Scholz鈥檚 is starting a little early.鈥欌��
But a few people recognized the sounds of the shots, including then associate professor Michael Hall. He called 911 to report the gunfire.
鈥淗ello, this is Michael Hall at the History Department from the university campus,鈥� he said in the 9-1-1 recording. 鈥淭here has just been a gunshot on the main plaza outside the main building and at least one person wounded.鈥�
Hall says it was his war experience that helped put the sounds in context.
鈥淚 had been in World War II, and although that ended in 1945, I was still quite conscious of airplanes flying close by overhead, of the possibility of explosions,鈥� he says.
Besides war experiences, few had any context for a mass shooting like this.
鈥淭hat was a foreign concept back then. People didn鈥檛 shoot each other like now,鈥� Dale Dorsey says.
鈥淎nd it was just so abnormal,鈥� Jan Klinck says.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no reference point. There鈥檚 no, 鈥極h this is like such and such,鈥欌�� Sue Wiseman says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just nothing there.鈥�
It came from out of the blue.
鈥溾�� is Texas Standard鈥檚 oral history on the anniversary of the first public mass shooting of its kind. We鈥檒l bring you these stories and many more in a special edition of our show Monday.
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