Charles Joseph Whitman was an American mass murderer who became infamous as the "Texas Tower Sniper." On August 1, 1966, he used knives in the slayings of his mother and his wife in their respective homes and then went to the University of Texas in Austin with multiple firearms and began shooting people. He fatally shot three people inside the university tower. He then went to the tower's 28th-floor observation deck, where he fired at random people for some 96 minutes, killing an additional 11 people and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy. A total of 17 people were killed; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.