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Click here to view all obituariesSURF’S UP (PEANUTS) POSTCARD 1966
The original postcard was framed and sent to Roy Bates in 2020.
This postcard was sent to me on August 6, 1966. Michael Cullinan. Mr. Cullinan was my Sophomore English teacher in 1963-64 at Aldine High School in Houston, Texas. In our senior year we would go to his house in River Oaks and hang out in the building behind his house. The “we” included Roy Bates, Frank Rogerson, Jerry Chestnut and John Charrier.
Mr. Cullinan sent this postmark to my home address on August 6, 1966. He was in Austin for some type of school training. On the text on the back side of the postcard he mentioned that “things got rather exciting for a while. I wasn’t on campus (University of Texas at Austin) but knew many who were, and many who had people shot right in front of them!”.
On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman had climbed up to the top of the tower on campus and started shooting at people.
At approximately 11:35 a.m., Whitman arrived on the University of Texas at Austin campus. He falsely identified himself as a research assistant and told a security guard he was there to deliver equipment. He then climbed to the 28th floor of the UT tower, killing three people within the tower, and opened fire from the observation deck with a hunting rifle and other weapons.
Altogether, Whitman killed fourteen people and wounded thirty-one] in the 96 minutes before he was shot and killed by Austin police officers Sergeant Ramiro Martinez and Patrolman Houston McCoy. They had raced to the top of the tower to stop Whitman.
Mr. Ramiro “Ray” Martinez is still living and is my neighbor in New Braunfels, Texas and lives three houses down on the same side of my street.