On the afternoon of Aug. 1, 1966, a 25-year-old engineering student named Charles Whitman ran a few errands: He cashed a check, left some film to be developed, and wrote a suicide note. He had just murdered his wife and mother. A few hours later, the former marine climbed the 307-foot tower at the University of Texas-Austin with a small arsenal of rifles and began pulling the trigger. For 80 minutes, bullets rained down on armed police officers and bystanders alike. Before police fatally shot him in a barrage of their own, Whitman had killed 15 people and wounded 31 more. Read the rest of this entry »

When an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed last week that financial aid officers at several of the country’s top colleges received stock or consulting fees and other perks from a company that provides student loans, it seemed it might be merely a case of a few individuals’ disregard for conflicts of interest. Read the rest of this entry »

The massacre at Virginia Tech may be the largest single shooting spree at a school in the nation’s history, but it is far from the first. In fact, the number, frequency, and death toll for shootings at schools has increased dramatically since the attack at Colorado’s Columbine High School eight years ago this Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

Aug. 1, 1966: Charles Whitman climbs atop the observation deck at the University of Texas–Austin, killing 16 people and wounding 31 during a 96-minute rampage. Read the rest of this entry »