0:00

When you download the Kroger app, you

0:02

have easy access to savings every

0:04

day. Get the most out of weekly sales

0:06

and receive personalized coupons to save on your

0:08

favorite items, all while earning one fuel

0:10

point for every dollar spent. Kroger

0:12

makes it easy to save while you shop, whether

0:15

it's in-store or online, so you get

0:17

the most value out of every trip, every

0:19

time. Download the Kroger app now to

0:21

save big on your next purchase. Kroger.

0:24

Fresh for everyone. Must have a digital account

0:26

to redeem offers? Restrictions may apply. See site

0:28

for details.

0:30

Welcome to BreezeLine, where reliable, fast

0:32

internet is great for studying, but even

0:34

better for gaming. Score big with 200

0:37

megabits per second internet for just $19.99

0:39

a month for two years. You could save even more

0:41

money if you or a roommate have a Pell Grant.

0:44

Plus get free Wi-Fi your way home

0:46

for powerful Wi-Fi in every room. There's

0:48

no data caps, contracts, or hidden fees,

0:50

and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Now

0:53

go get that score up. I mean, GPA.

0:55

Go to BreezeLine.com slash OSU

0:57

to learn more. Service subject to availability. New customers

0:59

only. Terms and conditions

1:00

apply. You're listening

1:02

to The Drag.

1:09

This podcast contains strong language,

1:11

references, and descriptions of domestic

1:14

abuse, violence, and suicide.

1:17

It also has graphic descriptions of gun

1:19

violence in schools.

1:22

Mental health is an important part of this story,

1:25

so please take care while listening.

1:29

Previously on This Season of Darkness. All

1:32

of a sudden I felt like I had stepped

1:35

on, like I was being electrocuted.

1:38

We have a report of shooting at the University

1:40

of Texas tower.

1:41

I got a man with a 24th and Leo brand. What do

1:43

you need? I need about 2310 Gauntlet. Somebody

1:47

is shooting from the tower, which

1:49

had the immediate effect of making us all run

1:51

to the windows and see what was happening.

1:54

And that was when we saw people lying

1:57

on the mall. Monday

2:03

I met Drummond for lunch and

2:06

he was coming back from someplace

2:08

I hadn't eaten. In the summer of 1966, Bob

2:12

Higgly was working for University of Texas'

2:15

student body president, Cliff Drummond.

2:17

Cliff had sent him to meetings in his place and

2:20

Bob had planned to catch him up over lunch. He

2:22

came in and was stoked up.

2:25

Sounds to me like there's somebody up in the tower. He

2:28

said, let's go out and see what's happening.

2:30

So

2:32

we went down the back stairs

2:35

to the Student Union building. Neil

2:38

Spelsa's KTBC radio broadcast

2:40

had alerted most Austinites about

2:42

the campus shooting.

2:44

But Bob hadn't seen what was going

2:47

on for himself yet. Bob

2:50

and Cliff walked out the back of the Union, which

2:52

lets out onto Guadalupe Street. Or

2:54

as students call it, the drag. The

2:58

drag divides the University from West Campus,

3:01

a student neighborhood.

3:02

Stores and restaurants catering to

3:05

the students have lined the street nearly since

3:07

the University opened in the 1880s.

3:10

Bob saw something on the drag that didn't

3:12

seem quite right. We looked across

3:15

the street and here was this male

3:17

student propped up against

3:20

a meter pole. And

3:22

he's not moving. But there

3:24

doesn't appear to be anything wrong with him. And the students

3:26

around us said he's not moving. We've been calling

3:29

to him, but he doesn't call back. Drummond

3:32

looks at me. I look at Drummond. We're off.

3:40

I'm Sarah Kinney and this is season

3:42

four of darkness. You're listening

3:44

to episode three. In the last

3:47

episode, we focused on the stories of

3:49

those on campus that day. In

3:51

this episode, we're going to rewind a little

3:53

bit back to the start of the shooting and focus

3:56

on the stories of the people who were on the drag

3:58

that day.

4:01

Alec Hernandez rode his bike along

4:03

the edge of campus. He pedaled

4:05

across the street from the University Co-op,

4:08

which is a store on the drag that sells books and

4:10

university gear. 17-year-old

4:13

Alec was delivering the city's newspaper to

4:15

nearby homes and businesses. On

4:18

the morning of August 1st, his younger

4:20

cousin was on the bike with him as they traveled

4:22

down the drag. Suddenly,

4:26

Alec crashed onto his side. He'd

4:28

been shot. Moments

4:31

earlier, the sniper had shot Claire Wilson,

4:34

who was eight months pregnant, and her boyfriend

4:36

Thomas Ekman in front of the tower.

4:39

This was before Neil's radio broadcast,

4:42

so few people on the drag at this point were

4:44

aware of the shooting on campus.

4:47

Inside the University Co-op building,

4:50

which is about 150 yards from the tower,

4:53

Alan Crum saw a crowd gathering on the other

4:55

side of the road.

4:57

Crum was a 40-year-old employee of the co-op

4:59

and a retired Air Force Master Sergeant.

5:02

KTBC later interviewed him, and the

5:04

following recordings are from that broadcast.

5:07

When I looked out of the co-op windows and saw a boy,

5:09

I shot across the street. I

5:12

went across the street to investigate because I thought it was a small

5:15

fight, and as I stepped out the door, I heard the sound

5:17

of shots.

5:18

He ran outside and saw the paperboy Alec

5:21

on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot

5:23

wound to his leg. While

5:26

Crum tried to stop the bleeding, he heard

5:28

more gunshots overhead. It

5:30

seemed like they were coming from blowing across the street because

5:33

they were so loud, but as I got

5:35

out into the center of the street,

5:37

I could tell they were coming from the tower. He

5:43

originally thought the shots were coming from the student

5:45

union, which was between him and

5:47

the tower. Crum

5:50

later said in his report to police that he called

5:52

over one of the students who had gathered nearby.

5:56

He told the student to move the newspaperboy

5:58

Alec under some nearby bushes

5:59

and gave him instructions on how to stop

6:02

the bleeding. Alex's cousin

6:04

stayed with him. Crumb ran back

6:06

across the street and into the co-op, leaving

6:09

the two boys and the student. He

6:11

told someone inside to move customers away

6:14

from the windows and toward the back of the store.

6:17

Outside the co-op windows, traffic

6:19

passed by as usual. Most

6:22

of the drivers were unaware of the danger unfolding

6:24

around them.

6:25

And then noticed down the street that

6:28

students were trying to get people to stop their cars

6:30

to keep them from getting in the

6:31

line of fire. Crumb went outside

6:33

again, instructing cars to get away

6:36

from the area. In the midst of directing

6:38

traffic, he ended up on the opposite

6:40

side of the drag and found himself on the

6:42

University of Texas campus.

6:45

And an eyesight of the tower. A

6:48

few buildings over, Forest Priest wrapped

6:50

up lunch at Rexall Drugstore with his

6:52

Longhorn band friends. The group

6:55

went to the front of the store to pay for their meals.

6:58

The lady at the check stand said, you guys better not

7:00

go out there. Somebody's shooting a gun. We're

7:02

like, oh yeah, right, give me a break. So

7:05

the only thing we could possibly surmise

7:08

from that was that there

7:10

used to be a bank down at the south end of the drag,

7:13

close to, it was now MLK, okay? And

7:15

we thought, oh, the cops are supposed

7:17

to be chasing somebody that's held up the bank. That's

7:20

the only thing we could possibly think of, they'd involve a gun.

7:23

So we just trooped right outside, stood outside

7:25

the drugstore, you know. This is 1966,

7:27

this stuff didn't happen back then, man.

7:30

And when Forest looked outside,

7:32

he didn't see anything strange.

7:34

Nobody's running around, I looked down the south

7:37

in front of the co-op, I blocked down south in front of the co-op.

7:40

There were a few people standing around, but nobody

7:42

was really panicking or running or anything. Why?

7:45

Why should we be concerned

7:48

about a gun? Directly outside the drugstore

7:50

was a small newspaper stand, displaying

7:53

the day's paper along with various magazines.

7:56

The tower could be seen a few blocks in the distance.

8:00

People continued to walk by as usual. Then

8:02

all of a sudden, off of the distance towards

8:04

the main mall we could hear, some pops

8:07

went off like, like

8:09

that. But Forrest and his friends

8:11

didn't believe it was gunfire. We

8:13

saw some fools got some firecrackers

8:16

left over from the 4th of July or something

8:18

like that. Man, that guy's going to get in a lot

8:20

of trouble. He's throwing firecrackers on the mall. So

8:25

in our infinite wisdom, we decided, well, that must be

8:27

it. The group

8:29

decided to split up. They all

8:31

walked north on the drag except for Forrest,

8:34

who turned south. We all said, oh, I'll

8:36

see you tomorrow, guys. Okay. And

8:38

I turned around. I took one

8:40

step and my body quit. He

8:43

hadn't been shot. But for some

8:45

reason, he couldn't move. I've

8:48

never had a feeling like that in my life and

8:50

I'm not making this up. Okay. I'm

8:52

not making this up. This is that. My body just

8:55

shut down. Like somehow

8:58

I had some subconscious whatever.

9:01

It fenced slashed existence or whatever. But

9:04

maybe I had actually seen the gunman up there. He didn't

9:06

register or something. But

9:08

my body quit. I just could not move any further

9:11

south.

9:11

His friends had also stopped in their

9:14

tracks. And I turned around. Whatever

9:16

it was, they felt it too. David and Tom felt something weird too.

9:18

They quit moving.

9:21

We all just stood there for about 10 seconds.

9:24

38-year-old Harry Wahlchuk stood

9:26

just behind Forrest and his friends. He

9:29

was on his lunch break when he stopped to look at the newsstands

9:31

magazines before picking up food. Harry

9:35

had begun working on his PhD earlier

9:37

that year. He had previously

9:39

graduated from the university with his bachelor's

9:41

degree in 1954. He

9:44

was a Navy veteran from Minnesota, but

9:47

now lived in Austin with his wife Marilyn and

9:49

their six children.

9:50

Forrest and his friends

9:52

didn't notice Harry standing behind them at the

9:54

newsstand. Then all of a sudden a

9:57

high powered rifle bullet went past my right ear.

10:00

I know that's the one that hit Mr. Hairy

10:02

Wauchuck, who was standing about four

10:04

feet to my right. The bullets struck

10:06

Hairy in the stomach. Of

10:09

course, at that point, we all ran back inside the drugstore.

10:13

And then somebody

10:16

had a sense, they had a bunch of little transistor

10:18

radios inside the drugstore. Somebody

10:20

turned one on. And by this point, we'd figured

10:23

they were saying on the radio what was going on. And we

10:25

knew, okay, there's somebody on top of the tower

10:27

shooting a gun.

10:33

On campus, Jim Brice walked

10:35

to meet Sandra Wilson for lunch, just

10:38

as they had planned the night before on top of Mount Benel.

10:41

Jim waited for Sandra in the student union,

10:44

watching the TVs overhead. The

10:46

noon soap operas were just about to start.

10:50

And there were some popping. You could hear pop, pop.

10:53

We didn't think anything about it because there

10:55

was construction all the time. Jim was at

10:57

a table on the union's ground floor. The

11:00

student union is two buildings west of the

11:02

tower. Students went to the union

11:05

to study, eat lunch, or catch up with

11:07

friends, just like they do today. In

11:09

parts of the building, floor-to-ceiling windows

11:12

that face the tower overlook an outside patio.

11:15

That day, Jim watched the TV as

11:17

it grew closer to noon. All of a sudden,

11:20

the black and white television changed,

11:23

and there were a bunch of us sitting in, you know, maybe

11:25

a dozen or more chairs here, looking at a TV

11:27

that's up maybe 10, 6 or 8 feet off

11:29

the floor, whatever it was.

11:33

The TV changes from the network feed

11:35

that was a soap opera to

11:39

an announcer here. A

11:41

sniper with a high-powered rifle has

11:43

taken up a position on the observation

11:46

deck of the tower on the campus

11:48

of the University of Texas.

11:50

The breaking news broadcast that was heard

11:52

through radios and televisions across Austin

11:55

now filled the student union.

11:56

the

12:00

tower. So everybody stay away from the university

12:03

and everybody close to it take cover. Well

12:06

at that point, well, look at each other

12:10

and sort

12:12

of immediately realize we had to stop

12:15

people from going outside. So all

12:17

of us started to try to keep people

12:19

from going outside and those of us like me who grew

12:21

up with firearms, you know, deer hunting

12:23

and all that, knew what you could do with a rifle real quick.

12:25

Jim said most people listen to the warnings

12:28

as the live broadcast continued overhead.

12:31

Most of them didn't go out.

12:34

A few did out that south door. I

12:37

had a distinct recollection of one person who

12:41

was in there and we said

12:44

don't go out and

12:47

don't

12:47

look through windows. If you can see him,

12:49

he can see you. The union's

12:51

many windows and proximity to the tower

12:54

put those inside at risk. One

12:56

student, 18 year old John Scott

12:59

Allen, wanted to get a look at the tower.

13:01

That person walked up the steps

13:05

in the union that would go up to the second floor of the

13:07

ballroom is and was looking out

13:09

a window. He was not

13:11

killed but he did get shot in the arm.

13:13

Jim continued to try to keep

13:15

people inside and away from the windows.

13:17

I mean we just sat there

13:19

transfixed

13:24

and we would

13:26

see the smoke, we'd hear the

13:28

fire, the shot and

13:31

then we'd hear it again on the TV. I

13:33

guess there was that kind of delay but they had a camera

13:35

all the time which was a life saver.

13:38

I want to emphasize that it was a life saver

13:41

that the TV people got cameras on

13:43

the tower to really bring it home.

13:45

Jim stayed in the union as the shooting continued

13:48

outside. It's just

13:50

so terrifying to me because normally I would have been

13:52

crossing that mall at that

13:54

time I was just a few minutes behind.

13:59

While Jim and the other students hid in the Union,

14:02

student body president Cliff Drummond and

14:05

his assistant Bob Higgly were just outside

14:07

on the drag. They

14:09

were trying to figure out how to help an injured

14:11

man across the street without getting shot

14:14

themselves.

14:14

There's shooter in some

14:17

area over the top of us that's high

14:19

up. I didn't know where he was. We didn't know how

14:21

many there were. We didn't know anything.

14:24

We didn't know if there was someone down Guadalupe on the

14:26

north, on the south, shooting north, someone

14:28

on the north shooting south, east or west. We

14:30

didn't know if there's a concerted effort. We

14:34

didn't know anything. And from

14:36

the report of the rifle, you

14:40

couldn't tell because the sound resounded

14:43

off the buildings.

14:45

And the heat of the August day didn't

14:47

help. The ground's hot, but

14:49

we're gonna be going across asphalt. Asphalt

14:51

is not only hot, it's sticky. It's

14:55

sort of a very sticky napalm.

14:58

If it gets on you, it's gonna burn you, and you

15:00

don't want it to get on you.

15:01

Cliff's shoes stuck to the ground. Drummond

15:04

then looks down, and he has

15:09

no shoes that he can run in. He's

15:12

got a pair of Mexican,

15:15

we had a name for them. They were cheap

15:18

leather top, cheap leather bottom, one

15:21

thin sole. So going

15:23

across that street in these sandals,

15:28

thin, cheap sandals, is gonna

15:30

limit his mobility. And if

15:33

the shooter picks up on him, that's not

15:35

good news, that's bad news.

15:38

Bob realized Cliff couldn't run in his

15:40

sandals. So I had a bright idea,

15:43

first bright idea of the day.

15:46

I said, I got an idea. Take

15:50

my socks, and I peeled

15:52

off what I was wearing, which were what

15:55

we call desert boots. They were pigskin,

15:58

came up to the ankle. and

16:01

they had a rubber sole. And

16:04

I wouldn't give him my

16:06

shoes. I'm an army brat. I

16:09

don't give up my shoes. I'd go

16:11

on barefoot. And

16:13

he was, I stripped off my shoes,

16:16

gave him my socks. He got his socks on

16:18

first. So he took off across

16:21

Waterloo.

16:22

Cliff ran away from the side of the Union and

16:24

toward the drag. And the second

16:27

that he broke the cover of the Union

16:29

building, the shooter picked up

16:31

on him and followed him,

16:34

trailed him all the way down, shooting

16:36

at him as he went. Cliff

16:38

ran toward the street as Bob Higgly

16:40

laced up his shoes. Shots rained down behind

16:42

Cliff. Drummond dropped

16:44

in to this notch between these two

16:46

cars

16:48

and moved to the left,

16:51

got behind a car. Well, by that

16:53

time, I had my shoes on and

16:56

I came out at a different angle. The

16:58

shooter picked me up. And

17:01

as you ran, and I was swifter

17:04

than I am now,

17:06

you noticed that where you were leaving the

17:08

shadow where you were leaving, you were

17:10

getting activity over there. So you were there a moment

17:12

before, but you're not there now, but there's the bullet.

17:15

So he's just a step

17:18

behind you. He's

17:20

going to account for that.

17:21

Cliff crouched behind a car parked on the

17:23

drag, hiding him from the sniper's view.

17:26

Bob followed Cliff's trail. Bob worried

17:28

he would be hit since the sniper could

17:30

see the path he was taking. Suddenly,

17:33

the shot stopped.

17:34

Second great idea of the day, probably

17:36

saved my life. I thought, okay,

17:38

be the guy in the tower. What's he up against?

17:41

He's got a moving target, and he watched Drummond

17:43

go through the notch.

17:44

Ah,

17:47

he's quit shooting. He's not reloading.

17:50

He's aiming at the notch. He's going to let me fill the notch

17:52

for him and when he does, he's

17:55

going to plunk me. He's

17:57

going to plant me right there. I'm

17:59

not doing it. than that.

18:01

I'll get this. I'm

18:03

gonna have Foxy. So as I got

18:05

to the notch, I faked to the left

18:08

towards the notch and then

18:10

picked up speed and belly

18:12

landed on top of the hood of the car.

18:14

Bob slid over the top of the car,

18:17

swinging his legs around and landing on the pavement

18:19

below. Cliff came up behind

18:21

him and the pair ducked behind the same parked

18:23

car.

18:24

And as I get there, all of a

18:26

sudden the shooter unloads.

18:29

What was left, I suppose, in his clip.

18:33

Farther north on the drag, Sandra

18:35

Wilson headed to the Student Union to meet

18:37

Jim for lunch, unaware of the shooting.

18:39

And I heard noises. I heard

18:42

like, firecrackers. Suddenly,

18:44

she felt like something slammed into her. It

18:47

was like a tank. She fell to the ground.

18:50

She had no idea what had happened to her. After

18:53

I got knocked down, I didn't know

18:56

what it was. Something that came from

18:58

the sky and I thought, you

19:00

know, some kind of outer space. I

19:02

didn't know what it was.

19:03

Something had knocked me down and paralyzed

19:06

me and at that time I couldn't move at all.

19:09

The bullet hit Sandra's arm and went into her

19:11

chest, grazing her spinal cord.

19:14

You know, but then after a few minutes I realized

19:16

I've been shot

19:17

and I remember praying and asking

19:20

God to let me live. She fought to stay

19:22

conscious. Just the night before,

19:25

she had talked with her friend Jim on Mount Benel. She

19:27

had told him her doubts about the police. But

19:30

as she laid on the hot cement, Sandra

19:33

asked for the police's help. You

19:36

know, after that, I guess I

19:38

was conscious and then not conscious.

19:40

I don't know, it's hard to say

19:43

for sure, but I remember a lot of, you know,

19:45

waiting and I remember

19:47

saying, call the cops.

19:59

you cover your home and your ride.

20:02

Discover how we're helping members save at

20:05

usaa.com slash bundle.

20:07

USAA. Restrictions apply.

20:10

Earlier that day, Paul Bolton-Sontag

20:12

and Claudia Rett were shopping at the stores along

20:14

the drag. They

20:16

were both 18 years old and recent high

20:19

school graduates, and they were dating.

20:22

Claudia wore both of their class rings on a

20:24

necklace. They lived in Austin,

20:26

but both planned to move away to attend college

20:29

that fall. Paul

20:31

planned to go to Colorado University while

20:33

Claudia had committed to Texas Christian University.

20:36

That summer, Paul

20:38

had worked as a lifeguard, as he had

20:40

for the past two summers. He

20:42

had just picked up his paycheck before going

20:44

to meet Claudia. The two

20:47

parked across the street from Snyder's Chenard's,

20:49

a clothing store near the co-op bookstore. Out

20:52

front, construction barriers partially

20:55

blocked the walkway. The

20:57

couple started to cross the street. They

20:59

ran into their former high school classmate, Carla

21:02

Sue Wheeler. The three

21:04

stopped to talk. The Austin

21:06

American newspaper later reported what happened

21:09

with the trio. The

21:11

couple, Paul and Claudia, and their

21:13

former classmate, Carla, heard

21:15

a loud noise, but they disagreed

21:18

on where it came from.

21:20

Paul thought it was a car backfire, while

21:23

Carla thought it was a gunshot. They

21:25

didn't know what was happening at the tower. A

21:29

stranger told them to take cover as a bullet

21:31

passed by them.

21:33

They hid behind the construction barricades. Moments

21:37

later, Paul stuck his head out.

21:41

He told his friend Carla that he could see the sniper.

21:44

Just then, he fell backward. A

21:47

bullet had gone through his mouth. Claudia

21:50

reached out for her boyfriend, Paul. Carla

21:53

tried to hold her back behind the barricade, wrapping

21:56

an arm around her chest.

21:59

shot rang out. The

22:02

bullet went through Carla's left hand and into

22:04

Claudia's chest. On

22:11

campus, KTBC News

22:13

reporter Neil Spels continued his broadcast

22:16

as he watched the scene unfold around him.

22:20

He would walk around all four sides

22:22

of the tower with a high-powered rifle

22:25

with a sniper scope and

22:27

look down over the top of the tower, pick his

22:29

target, boom and fire, and then

22:32

go around and find another one and shoot and

22:34

start hitting. I don't think there was any obstruction

22:37

except buildings and trees.

22:38

The sniper could see everyone below since

22:40

there was little covering and

22:43

those on the ground could also see him.

22:45

So the police officers, several

22:49

of them, went home and

22:51

got their deer rifles with sniper

22:54

scopes on them to accurately

22:57

reach and see the several

23:01

citizens. I was standing

23:03

there broadcasting, you know, shots going on

23:05

everywhere around, and I looked

23:08

kind of off to the side to my shoulder and I see

23:10

this guy running up beside me dressed

23:12

in a khaki shirt and jeans and he's

23:15

carrying

23:15

a rifle. This is Texas,

23:18

so plenty of students owned guns. Many

23:21

didn't have to go farther than their dorms or apartments

23:24

to arm themselves.

23:25

And it turns out it was some

23:27

guy who brought his deer rifle

23:30

from home and came in, average

23:32

citizen, and started shooting at the tower.

23:35

Once that happened, maybe 12-20, 12-25, somewhere

23:39

along in there, when they started firing

23:41

back, it's like a battle scene.

23:44

It's like, there's another shot and another shot. There are

23:46

two

23:46

different kinds of shots. Apparently police are returning

23:48

to fire now, which means there's a danger

23:51

of ricocheting bullets off the university tower.

23:53

But we heard two different reports. One, a heavy

23:56

caliber sounding weapon, which apparently was a rifle,

23:59

and then another, a lighter, caliber sound, which could

24:01

be police returning fire. We are not sure

24:03

that the police are returning the fire, but we

24:05

do hear the shots, and we do hear the two

24:07

different reports.

24:09

The sniper moved around the tower,

24:12

seeking targets.

24:14

We now have a report. He is definitely

24:16

under the clock on the south side. Yes, we can see

24:18

the movement. Under the clock on the south side of the

24:20

University of Texas tower, and police

24:23

are returning the fire. There's no report

24:25

as to who this man may be, or what he's

24:27

doing up there, or what prompted this apparent madness.

24:30

But the man is located on the University

24:32

of Tower observation deck, below

24:34

the clock, which now

24:37

shows 1225, and is shooting. He's

24:40

shooting our direction. We just saw a puff of

24:42

smoke. He fired again.

24:44

If you watch video footage from that day, you

24:46

can see what looks like puffs of smoke. The

24:49

tower was built with limestone, which is

24:51

a very soft rock. When

24:53

people fired back at the sniper, their

24:55

bullets hit the limestone, and the limestone

24:58

would break, causing the appearance of

25:00

smoke. The

25:01

clock now shows 1232, and he's

25:04

cruelly and calmly sitting up there, firing away.

25:06

Quick shots fired, and police are returning

25:09

the gunfire, but of course this is a tricky situation.

25:12

He's hidden. The balustrades of the University

25:14

tower are such that he is able

25:16

to sit back and just lean up,

25:18

just exposing a small portion of his body,

25:21

lay his rifle over the edge and fire. The

25:23

shots were fired, again with large

25:25

puffs of smoke preceding the sound. The

25:28

distance I'd say from where we're broadcasting is about

25:30

a block. Another shot was just fired. A heavy report.

25:32

Neil kept his eyes on the sniper. We're

25:35

standing here in an alley located

25:37

just south

25:38

of the tower, where we can see the

25:40

area from which he's moving now. We can see him moving.

25:42

He's bending over and crouching and moving around

25:44

toward the west side of the building.

25:46

On the other side of the drag, Forrest Preece

25:48

hid in the drugstore with his Longhorn band friends.

25:52

Soon his friends decided to run onto campus.

25:54

They ran across the street to the student union. I was not

25:56

getting outside the drugstore. a

26:00

gun, it's people on the drag, there's no way I'm

26:02

getting outside this drug store, okay? That's

26:04

where I stayed. Forrest watched

26:07

his friends cross the drag.

26:09

At one point, I really need to use the restroom, okay,

26:11

so that coke was going through me, so I

26:14

asked the druggist if I could, they had a little

26:16

restroom behind the,

26:18

in the pharmacy section there, he said, oh

26:20

sure. At the back of the store was a door

26:22

that led to a parking lot. As I'm

26:24

going past to the restroom, he

26:27

had the back door open, I could see

26:29

a couple of guys, look 30-something

26:32

guys, when kind of office garb,

26:35

I mean white shirts and ties, they

26:37

both had rifles strapped to them and they're running across

26:39

the porch of the Pi-Fi house over there, you

26:42

know, somebody's yelling at them, stay down

26:45

guys, stay down like that, yeah, but

26:49

that's a whole nother story, is that a lot of

26:51

people, guys especially,

26:53

around town that had deer rifles, a lot

26:55

of students had deer rifles in their dorm rooms back

26:57

then, this all got them out of

26:59

story firing back.

27:01

The students and others who came to campus

27:03

continued to fire back at the sniper. After

27:06

he started getting return gunfire, he wasn't nearly

27:08

as effective, he got most of his kills the

27:10

first 10-15 minutes,

27:13

after that he was having to use the drain pipes

27:16

to shoot through. When he was unopposed

27:19

by return gunfire, he's able to get right up over

27:21

the top of the observation deck, he

27:24

had all the time he needed to aim, you know,

27:29

after they kept him down,

27:31

at least he was not as effective. Back

27:34

on the drag, Bob and Cliff crouched

27:36

against a parked car. The

27:38

bullets flew over their heads, striking

27:41

a stack of bricks.

27:43

Across the street, the pair could see Snyder

27:46

Chouinards, that's the clothing store

27:48

where the young couple Paul and Claudia had been

27:50

shot when Paul peeked around a construction

27:52

barricade. At the time,

27:54

Bob

27:55

and Cliff didn't know who the young man leaning

27:58

against a construction pole was. But

28:01

Bob later learned his name.

28:27

Before I continue on to the next quote, I'd

28:29

like to warn you that what you're about to hear is graphic.

28:33

It's a part of this episode because I want

28:35

you to understand that what happened was real life

28:38

and it's important to share how the horror of that

28:41

day continues to impact the people who

28:43

experienced it. Please

28:45

skip ahead a minute if you'd prefer not to

28:47

listen to a detailed description of the

28:49

scene at the construction site.

28:51

And when I pulled him down, his

28:54

head came forward

28:56

and he crated right, literally

29:00

right in front of my face, like right here.

29:03

And his mouth fell open and

29:05

it was a

29:07

gruesome scene. And it produced

29:10

the heat, produced a ball

29:13

of liquid,

29:17

you can fill in the blank, right

29:19

in front of us, sort of like those jellyfish

29:22

you see on the beach, stranded on the beach.

29:26

And Drummond said,

29:29

his hands are cyanotic. Paul's

29:31

fingertips had turned blue due to a lack

29:33

of oxygen.

29:35

Which meant that the body, the

29:37

blood was all running back into the core of the body,

29:40

try to keep it alive. And

29:42

if you get cold, your body returns to the center.

29:50

had

30:00

been moved into one of the nearby shops. Bob

30:03

and Cliff stayed with Paul. We're

30:07

now stuck with a wounded,

30:09

mortally wounded

30:10

Paul Sondhaug.

30:14

And what do we do next? At

30:16

that moment, this hearse

30:20

pulls onto the, is

30:23

driving, apparently driving on the

30:27

sidewalk. He runs right as

30:30

close as he can to the parked car, jumps

30:33

the curb, comes over to

30:35

the wrong side of Guadalupe, where he

30:37

can gain protection, some protection, from

30:40

the overhang of the Union building,

30:44

and stops.

30:45

On the other side of the street, the

30:47

man who drove the hearse pulled an expandable gurney

30:49

out of the back.

30:50

I'd never seen a gurney before,

30:53

but it was a gurney. You know a gurney. So

30:56

out comes a gurney, pops open, wheels

30:58

it over to us. So we

31:02

pick up this

31:05

body and start trying to

31:07

move it. Well, all

31:09

the blood has run to,

31:12

he's sitting up, so

31:14

it's run to his bottom or his legs. So

31:18

he is literally dead weight.

31:20

And it's like trying to move 180-pound

31:22

gunny sack

31:27

of wet sand. Cliff

31:29

and Bob struggled to carry Paul across the street.

31:32

They knew they were out in the open. It's very,

31:36

very difficult. You get no help.

31:39

He's totally relaxed. So

31:42

we're struggling, trying

31:45

to keep him, trying

31:47

to avoid dropping him, because

31:50

it's slowing us down. Every minute we're out there, we're

31:52

totally exposed, and we're not

31:54

moving. We're standing targets.

31:57

The hearse

31:57

driver saw the pair struggling and pushed the ground.

32:00

the gurney closer to them. Now he

32:02

too was in the sniper's sight. We

32:04

put him on the gurney, we take him back to the back

32:06

of the hearse, gout him the door, we

32:08

push it in, we close the door, and

32:10

he screams down Gwadalook, never see us again.

32:13

Don't know who he was.

32:15

Cliff and Bob were now on the campus side of the

32:17

drag again. They

32:19

sheltered by the student union. Drummond

32:22

and I now are trapped back where we started,

32:25

literally within yards

32:27

of where we started.

32:28

From them, students continued

32:30

to fire back at the tower. That

32:32

meant more people could now help those who had been

32:35

hit.

32:36

In the safety of Rexall Drugstore across

32:38

the street, Forest Priest could

32:40

see all this outside the store's windows.

32:44

This big,

32:45

kind of bulky

32:46

dude in a black outfit

32:49

came running across from the student union west

32:52

across the drag, rolled up behind

32:54

some

32:54

parked cars, and he's

32:57

just wild with fright because he's afraid he's going to get shot. God

32:59

bless him for doing what he did. But

33:01

he's waving at somebody

33:03

inside the newsstand. Of course it dawns on

33:05

me then, I said, oh my God, somebody got shot inside the

33:07

newsstand. I didn't know he'd gotten shot. All

33:10

I did was hear the bullet

33:12

go past my ear.

33:13

He watched as the men outside

33:16

approached where he had been standing just 30 minutes

33:18

earlier. And here came two

33:21

guys in white jackets running with a

33:23

stretcher. We had Mr. Walchuck on the way. And

33:25

an ambulance pulled right up and got him on the

33:27

thing, got him out of there. Of course now I'm feeling

33:29

like a total

33:31

jerk for not helping.

33:32

Forest stayed, sheltering with

33:34

the other people inside the drugstore. All

33:37

I could do is keep him quiet. I mean, there's not much you can

33:39

do, but you sure can't

33:41

do compression or anything on an abdominal

33:44

wound. That's going to make things

33:46

worse.

33:47

Forest watched people running out into the street.

33:50

That's another thing that really sticks with me, how brave

33:52

those people were to get out there. In 1966,

33:57

911 didn't exist. There wasn't a

33:59

national emergency. number people could call.

34:02

If you needed help back then, you had to call

34:04

the local police operator, the fire station,

34:06

or the hospital through their own individual

34:09

numbers. Or you could dial zero and

34:11

ask the operator to connect to.

34:13

The number you had to call was like 478-4375 or something

34:17

like that. It wasn't even really a memorable number.

34:21

Really, I mean, you know, 911 you can remember. But

34:23

this was just random numbers. I mean, it wasn't even,

34:25

you know, it could at least have been 222 or

34:28

something, you know, that you could instantly

34:31

think of. Luckily, they usually put that on the

34:33

very front of the

34:34

yellow pages or the phone book.

34:37

In case of emergency call, this number, five

34:40

people wanted to bet 90% of the people in Austin

34:43

back then wouldn't know that number off the top

34:45

of their head without looking at something, you know. That's

34:48

how you got an ambulance back then.

34:54

Across the street, Bob and Cliff

34:56

figured out their next plan. They

34:58

saw people hiding behind the cars parked along

35:00

the drag and decided to help them.

35:02

We cut back across Guadalupe

35:06

and start working our way down and

35:09

picking largely girls

35:12

who have sought cover behind cars

35:15

to see how they are. Are you getting any water? Where

35:18

are you? And there's,

35:23

some are incoherent, some

35:25

are weeping,

35:26

some are, you can just look at them and see how scared

35:29

they are. They're not here. They're not

35:31

here.

35:32

But they're here. And

35:35

we don't know how long they've been out there. So

35:37

we start moving them back in to

35:40

cover. Some people wanted to

35:42

be moved, others didn't. Cliff

35:45

and Bob moved some of them into the shops across

35:47

the street as they worked their way along the trail

35:49

of parked cars. Those

35:51

in safer areas rolled water bottles

35:54

across the drag toward the people behind

35:56

the cars. Bullets weren't

35:58

striking the path directly behind the cars.

35:59

them anymore. Bob realized that people

36:02

had started firing back at the tower. Our

36:05

shooters, our marksmen, our

36:07

rifle team, who are returning

36:10

fire. They've gone back to the attorney

36:12

house. They've gone to their pickups. They've gone to their cars

36:15

and they've gotten their deer rifles and they

36:17

pick up a box of shells and

36:20

they are returning fire and they've got scopes.

36:22

They take their iron sights and just pick

36:25

a drain pipe, pick anything that moves

36:28

and shoot it.

36:29

Bob and Cliff figured out a system

36:31

for when to run out onto the street. They

36:34

waited to hear the guns firing back at the tower.

36:36

So

36:38

when it's

36:41

noisy, it's a no, don't

36:43

go. When it's quiet,

36:46

just after it's been noisy, we move

36:48

the girls from where they are into the

36:50

kiddo and drop them off. They are no

36:52

longer in

36:54

need of our team. We

36:57

clean that up as best we can.

37:00

And some that are out there just

37:02

waiting till it's over. They

37:04

don't know how long it's going to last, but they're not leaving. But

37:08

there's not that 2000 yard

37:10

stare that you don't want

37:12

to see. The two

37:14

dropped off another person in a store. This

37:17

time they decided to go out the back door

37:19

of the shop instead of the front.

37:21

We dropped down behind the kiddo.

37:23

I've remember, as you recall, I've got on rubber

37:26

sold shoes and Drummond has

37:30

socks. But you know what's in the alley

37:32

behind

37:33

the co-op and all of those

37:37

stores along the drag between 24th and the co-op.

37:42

Broken glass. Drummond

37:44

takes one step and lets out a

37:46

scream. The glass pierced

37:48

through Cliff's socks. So

37:51

he steps on glass and I mean not

37:53

a little shard of glass. He steps

37:55

on a broken beer bottle.

37:56

Since Cliff had no shoes, Bob

37:59

had another idea. Yeah.

38:01

Jump up. Can you jump up? No,

38:04

I can't rest on this foot. Fine.

38:07

When I lean down, you get

38:09

all get up. Where are we going? I said,

38:11

just get up. So he got,

38:13

I got him up. He grabs hold.

38:16

It's piggyback. Bob

38:18

carried Cliff and set him on top of a concrete

38:21

barrier. And I set him on a wall

38:24

in the back and I take the shards class out

38:27

of his feet and now he's got blood in his feet. While

38:30

Cliff pulled the remaining glass shards out

38:32

of his feet, Bob decided

38:34

to wander a bit. He

38:36

saw a few people near the shops returning fire

38:38

at the tower. Relief

38:40

flooded through him. They, they,

38:43

they have weighed in and

38:48

I'm so happy I can hardly stand it. A

38:50

news truck came down one of the alleys behind him

38:53

and a reporter stepped out. And

38:55

a guy sticks a microphone

38:57

in my face. Said, we've been watching you dodge

39:00

bullets out there. What's it like? Tell

39:03

us. And I'd

39:09

like to rewind this

39:11

part of my

39:14

conduct on that day. And I thought, I thought

39:18

if you, if you've been watching what we're doing,

39:21

just report it. Don't ask me what it's like. Feelings

39:24

are not facts. I got to get through with this and

39:27

you're slowing me down. This is ridiculous.

39:30

You're selling air time and I'm doing

39:32

something that I think could be really important to somebody.

39:35

I didn't say that to him. Didn't lecture it, but I was

39:37

not happy. With

39:39

the microphone in his face, Bob

39:41

told the reporter his name.

39:44

The reporter asked again, what it was like out there.

39:47

Just so we're clear, I don't know who that reporter

39:50

was and I haven't seen this footage. And

39:53

I told him, I said, it's a little slice

39:55

of hair. Yeah. Out there.

39:59

Of course he's. His eyes got about as

40:01

big as 50 cent pieces, and he

40:03

looks at the guy that's managing it, and the guy shrugs

40:05

his shoulder like, it's already

40:07

gone now. But you're not supposed to talk like

40:09

that on the radio. Okay? You're

40:12

not in that day and age. You should talk like that. Bob

40:15

left the reporter and returned to Cliff. The

40:18

two looked out onto the track. They

40:21

saw people still huddled under the protection

40:23

of cars. But Bob

40:25

knew they weren't going to move until the shooting had stopped.

40:29

I'm emboldened at that point. So

40:33

where do we go next? So I go

40:35

back, and Roman says, well, we

40:37

came to put an end to this.

40:40

My word's not his. Let's

40:44

go up to the tower. But

40:47

by the time the pair made it to the tower, the

40:49

shooting had stopped.

41:00

Next time on Season 4 of Darkness.

41:04

It's a bizarre scene. It's a rare

41:06

sight. A campus that earlier today was filled

41:08

with the normal students, shirtsleeves,

41:11

going to the summer school classes in the morning, and

41:14

now there are students and their shirtsleeves lying

41:16

prostrate on the ground in the grass on the sidewalks,

41:19

dead or seriously wounded, unable

41:21

to move and no help able to get to them. And

41:23

the man came out, and

41:27

he had a pair of white women's shoes,

41:30

and they were bloody. And he

41:32

said, let

41:33

me have your gun, and I'll go shoot that SOB.

41:36

He has killed my whole family. In

41:46

this episode, I focused on the lives

41:49

of the people on the drag that day in 1966. I

41:53

can't fit every story in, but want to

41:55

recognize and remember those lost

41:57

in this tragedy.

42:01

So here is a list of everyone else injured

42:03

or killed that day and what I do know about

42:06

them. Carla Sue

42:08

Wheeler, the high school graduate who was

42:10

shot while hiding with Paul Bolton's sontag

42:12

and Claudia Rhett on the drag, was taken

42:15

to the hospital.

42:16

She had lacerations on the middle three

42:18

fingers of her left hand, but she recovered.

42:22

Thomas Ray Carr was a 24-year-old

42:24

Arlington State College honors student.

42:27

He was originally from Fort Worth.

42:30

He'd spent a few years in the Army stationed

42:32

in Taiwan. In 1966,

42:35

he planned to transfer to the University of Texas

42:38

in the fall. He wanted to major

42:40

in Latin American Studies, which wasn't

42:42

offered at his current university. In

42:45

order to get ahead, he had enrolled in classes

42:47

at the University of Texas that summer. He

42:50

wanted to join the State Department and move

42:52

to South America after he graduated. On

42:56

August 1st, he had finished his

42:58

Spanish quiz early and decided to head home.

43:01

As he walked on the drag, he found

43:03

Karen Joan Griffith injured and

43:05

lying near Chef Doll's jewelry store. Karen

43:08

was a 17-year-old high school student. A

43:11

bullet had gone through her right arm and into her

43:13

chest, hitting both of her lungs.

43:16

As Thomas went to help Karen, he

43:19

too was shot. The bullet

43:21

struck the left side of his back, leaving

43:23

him and Karen lying on the drag.

43:25

They were both eventually

43:27

driven to the hospital. Thomas

43:30

died in the ICU that afternoon, while

43:32

Karen survived surgery that day, but

43:34

struggled to breathe afterward. Her

43:37

right lung needed to be removed during surgery,

43:39

and her left lung was damaged. She

43:42

died in the ICU a week after the

43:44

shooting. 23-year-old

43:47

David Mattson, 21-year-old

43:49

Roland Elke, and their friend Tom

43:52

Herman, whose age is unknown, were

43:54

also Peace Corps volunteers.

43:56

Like Thomas Ashton, they were headed

43:58

to the Student Union for

43:59

lunch that day with the other Peace Corps

44:02

volunteers.

44:03

The university was hosting 76 volunteers

44:06

before they headed off to Iran in the fall

44:09

to teach English.

44:10

David was from Minneapolis, Minnesota

44:12

while Roland was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

44:15

While walking in front of Chef Doll's

44:17

jewelry store on the drag, David

44:20

checked the time on his watch. Suddenly,

44:22

a bullet went through his right wrist.

44:25

The bullet's shrapnel hit Roland in the arm

44:27

and legs since he was walking beside David.

44:30

Then, a second bullet came their way

44:32

and cut through Roland's other arm.

44:35

Tom Herman was also injured at this

44:37

time. Inside Chef Doll's

44:39

jewelry store, the

44:41

64-year-old manager, Homer J. Kelly,

44:44

saw that they were injured. He

44:46

went out to help the trio and bring them inside

44:48

the shop. Once they were inside,

44:51

a bullet shattered the store's front

44:53

window. Homer's

44:55

leg was injured in the commotion, either

44:57

from glass or the bullet. All

44:59

four later recovered. 21-year-old

45:03

Lana Kay Phillips was a music major

45:05

at the University of Texas and a member

45:08

of the Longhorn Singers Choir Group. That

45:11

summer, she worked at a dress shop on

45:13

the drag.

45:14

On August 1st, she was

45:16

standing just outside the store when she

45:18

was shot in her right shoulder. After

45:21

she was shot, she had difficulties

45:23

playing the organ, which had been the center

45:26

of her studies at the University.

45:28

So she began studying music education

45:31

instead. After years

45:33

of teaching, she eventually founded

45:35

a children's singing group called the Austin

45:37

Children's Repertoire Company in 1985. 35-year-old

45:40

Billy Snowden taught

45:44

at the Texas School for the Deaf and was

45:46

the school's head basketball coach. He

45:49

went to get a haircut at a shop on the drag.

45:51

He was shot in his left shoulder

45:54

while standing in the barbershop doorway. He

45:57

later recovered. Homan

46:00

managed the Hilton Manor Funeral Home.

46:03

During the shooting, he helped move one

46:05

victim on campus to the hospital successfully

46:07

before going out to help others.

46:10

He parked along the drag near the co-op and

46:12

went to help another victim when he was shot

46:14

in his right leg. He

46:17

spent three weeks in the hospital, with part

46:19

of that stay in the ICU due to the large

46:21

amount of blood he lost.

46:24

He ultimately recovered.

46:26

Delores Ortega was a 30-year-old

46:28

elementary education graduate student.

46:31

She was originally from San Antonio. During

46:35

the shooting, she was injured when broken

46:37

glass cut the back of her head. Marina

46:40

Martinez and her daughter Della Martinez

46:43

had traveled to Austin from Monterey, Mexico.

46:46

Both were injured when they were hit by shell fragments,

46:49

but later recovered.

46:50

Student Robert Fried from Kansas City,

46:53

Missouri was shot and treated at the hospital.

46:56

Austin resident F.L. Foster

46:58

was shot and treated at the hospital. 25-year-old

47:02

Miguel Solis was treated at the hospital

47:05

for unknown injuries. C.A.

47:08

Stewart was from Baytown, Texas and

47:10

was treated at the hospital for unknown injuries.

47:14

Billy Bedford was taken to the hospital,

47:16

but left before being treated. This

47:26

season of darkness

47:26

is reported, written, and

47:29

hosted

47:29

by me, Sarah Kinney. Heather

47:32

Stewart is this season's producer, sound

47:35

designer, and editor. Katie

47:37

Panchuk-Outka and Robert quickly are

47:39

the executive producers. This

47:42

podcast is presented by the Drag

47:44

Audio Production House, which is part of

47:46

Texas student media at the University

47:48

of Texas at Austin's Moody College

47:50

of Communication. The associate

47:52

producers are Jade Emerson, Liv

47:55

Gamble, Cameron Grieser, Mackenzie

47:58

Matwick, Ashley Miznazzi, and

47:59

Marissa Green, M.J.

48:02

Tilton, Guido Palufo, Liam

48:04

Quigley, Aurora Berry, and

48:07

Jeannie Sanchez. The cover art

48:09

was created by Alexa Georgelos. Sophia

48:12

Vargas-Karam is the drag's marketing

48:14

and communications manager. Thank

48:17

you to the Austin History Center, Neal

48:19

Spelce, and the LBJ Presidential

48:21

Library for help with the archival audio

48:23

tapes. Special thanks to

48:26

the University of Texas School of Journalism

48:28

and Media and Texas Student Media.

48:31

Also to Jay Bernhardt, Rachel Davis-Mercy,

48:34

David Reif, and Gerald Johnson.

48:37

A huge thanks to Leslie Schrock for

48:40

all her support and guidance. The

48:42

Drag is a non-profit educational

48:44

organization that is made possible

48:46

by individual donations. Please

48:49

support our work by going to thedragaudio.com

48:52

slash donate.

48:55

Every dollar goes directly to producing

48:57

more content like this, while giving

48:59

students an amazing educational experience.

49:03

Thank you.

49:16

When you drive the most dependable mass market

49:18

brand, you can stop thinking about what

49:20

you can't do and start doing what you never

49:22

thought possible. Visit your local Kia dealer

49:25

today to see yourself behind the wheel of the number one

49:27

most dependable mass market brand three years in

49:29

a row by JD Power. Kia, movement

49:31

that inspires. Call 800-333-4KIA for details. Always

49:35

drive safely. Kia received the fewest reported problems among

49:37

mass market brands in the JD Power 2021 to 2023

49:39

US Vehicle Dependability

49:40

Studies. 2023 study based on 2020

49:42

models. See jdpower.com slash awards

49:44

for 2023 details.