{"id":597,"date":"2018-12-31T13:01:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:01:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:01:31","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

7.24.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tower sniper terrorized UT fifty years ago<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>Shortly before noon on Monday, Aug. 1, 1966, <\/span>twenty-five-year-old Charles Whitman carried a footlocker full of weapons and ammunition to the top of the thirty-story Tower at the University of Texas and opened fire on the unsuspecting pedestrians below.<\/p>\n

The slaughter \u2014 14 dead, 32 injured \u2014 continued for nearly an hour and a half until Whitman was himself killed by Austin police.<\/p>\n

Whitman\u2019s death toll reached seventeen, including his wife and mother whom he murdered before taking over the tower\u2019s observation deck. One of the thirty-two injured would die years later, ruled a homicide dating back to the wound Whitman inflicted.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive new book by an Austin father and son team, Monte Akers<\/span> and Nathan Akers,<\/span> retraces the full story leading up to the mass murders and the resulting aftermath.<\/p>\n

Tower Sniper: The Terror of America\u2019s First Active Shooter on Campus<\/span><\/a><\/span> (John M. Hardy Publishing, $24.95 hardcover) comes out this week in conjunction with the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the sniper attack. A trade paperback edition ($14.95) will be available in a few weeks, the publisher said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Roger Friedman,<\/span> a clinical psychologist, wrote the foreword and a chapter reflecting on the traumatic legacy of the Whitman massacre. One of Friedman\u2019s closest childhood friends was killed that day. In spite of the tragic loss of life, the authors write, the Tower story also brought out the best in people who reacted courageously and unselfishly. \u201cIt is the story of people who did not look or walk away when they saw strangers in need,\u201d they conclude. \u201cIt is a story of humans at their finest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Upbeat stories:<\/span> My brother Charlie Dromgoole, <\/span>who lives in College Station, has penned a collection of stories laughing about and reflecting on his forty-two-year career as a chamber of commerce executive.<\/p>\n

Chamber Stories That I Can Tell (and some that I probably shouldn\u2019t!)<\/span> is not a how-to book about chamber management, but rather a personal, often humorous, look at situations and personalities he encountered along the way.<\/p>\n

The forty-five pieces deal with his experiences in nine communities, including eight in Texas \u2014 Jasper, Brenham, Port Arthur, Sherman, Abilene, Round Rock, Lufkin, and Humble-Kingwood.<\/p>\n

One of the funniest stories \u2014 \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have to Be a History Buff to Be a Chamber Buff\u201d \u2014 concerns a community effort to bring the Magna Carta to Sherman. On a more serious note, he reflects on Abilene\u2019s successful campaign to be named an All-America City in 1990. The book ($11.95 paperback) is available online at texasstartrading.com or contact the author at charliedromgoole@gmail.com.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is More Civility, Please. <\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 7.24.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tower sniper terrorized UT fifty years ago Shortly before noon on Monday, Aug. 1, 1966, twenty-five-year-old Charles Whitman carried a footlocker full of weapons and ammunition to the top of the thirty-story Tower at the University of Texas and opened fire on the unsuspecting pedestrians below. The slaughter \u2014 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}