It's a horrible incident, but the worst part is that the sniper, Charles Whitman, who's sniper attack was the subject of this song, cried out for help for years, because he knew something was wrong in his brain, but doctors just assured him that there was no problem.
Turns out, though, he had a tumor in his brain that may have affected his ability to control his emotions, affected his sleep, and even may have triggered some of his darker thoughts and impulses, that no doctor was even willing to begin to look for, instead writing him off as a hypochondriac.
This tumor was first found during his autopsy ( which he, himself, requested in his suicide note ), but the fact that it was pressing into his amygdalae and thus may have been responsible for his actions, was initially suppressed in an effort to save the reputation of the doctor that had told him for years that he was just imagining his problems, and only turned up when investigated by a private commission on orders from the Governor of Texas, who was basically just wanting to be thorough.
It's scary to think that a physical abnormality so completely outside of any man's ability to control might control any man so completely.
It's a horrible incident, but the worst part is that the sniper, Charles Whitman, who's sniper attack was the subject of this song, cried out for help for years, because he knew something was wrong in his brain, but doctors just assured him that there was no problem.
Turns out, though, he had a tumor in his brain that may have affected his ability to control his emotions, affected his sleep, and even may have triggered some of his darker thoughts and impulses, that no doctor was even willing to begin to look for, instead writing him off as a hypochondriac.
This tumor was first found during his autopsy ( which he, himself, requested in his suicide note ), but the fact that it was pressing into his amygdalae and thus may have been responsible for his actions, was initially suppressed in an effort to save the reputation of the doctor that had told him for years that he was just imagining his problems, and only turned up when investigated by a private commission on orders from the Governor of Texas, who was basically just wanting to be thorough.
It's scary to think that a physical abnormality so completely outside of any man's ability to control might control any man so completely.