Before Columbine. Before Sandy Hook. Before Virginia Tech.  There was the Sniper in the Tower at the University of Texas. America’s first mass murder and school shooting unfolded on live television in Austin, Texas more than a half-century ago. Since then the question has lingered, “Why did he do it?” Gary Lavergne, the author of A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders, addresses the whys and the myths about the why. In this True Crime Reporter™, Confidential investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston take listeners back to 1966 when a student cut down fifty people in 96 minutes. We have placed links in the show notes to black and white film footage from the shooting and a video of Gary Lavergne following the sniper’s trail to the top of the UT Tower We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen. Join our true crime community and follow us here.  True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.