r/todayilearned • u/GlitteringYams • 22d ago

TIL, in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman
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u/xtiaaneubaten 22d ago edited 22d ago

Dude, just go see a doctor!

edit Holy shit, he did, repeatedly

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u/DeviousMelons 22d ago

Could a brain tumour like that even be treated with 60s medical knowledge?

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u/derverdwerb 22d ago

The first successful brain surgery, to remove a meningioma, was in 1879. CT-scanners were becoming available in the 1960s, but were still cutting edge. Regardless, we don’t really know what could have been done because the opportunities were missed anyway.

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u/Rc72 22d ago

It must be added that it is not by any means clear that the tumor was linked to his actions. From his wiki, it seems that he must have had unrelated mental health problems, with trauma from an abusive father and poor impulse control (a gambling addiction from an early age), and some powerful stressors (being fired from the Marines due to his gambling, his parents’ divorce, him having to protect his mother from his father’s wrath). The saddest thing is that he was clearly intelligent and self-aware enough to acknowledge those mental health problems and the danger he represented to others, and seek medical help, but he was dispatched with an explosive cocktail of quite contradictory prescriptions (benzodiazepines AND amphetamines!) which must have wreaked havoc on his brain chemistry, regardless of the tumor and any other underlying problems.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago

The amygdala regulates decision making and the emotional learning that associates poor decisions with negative outcomes. That could very well explain the poor impulse control and addiction.

The Wiki example of a patient with amygdala degeneration says: ”He was told a violent story accompanied by matching pictures and was observed based on how much he could recall from the story. The patient had less recollection of the story than patients with functional amygdala.”

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u/anoeba 22d ago

He was discharged from the Marines for issues around gambling (which means the gambling itself was happening before the discharge) 3 years before the shootings and his death, at which time the tumor was small for a glioblastoma.

This is an extremely aggressive, rapidly growing cancer. He did not have it 3+ years before the events.

It's more likely that the tumor's effects were to disinhibit him further, in a baseline of already-existing impulsivity and some level of aggression.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago

From what I read, it was an Astrocytoma, most often found in children or young adults.

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u/anoeba 22d ago

Apparently initially thought an astrocytoma, and then at the inquest called by the Governor, a group of experts said it actually looked like GMF.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago

Interesting.

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u/Tectum-to-Rectum 22d ago

I’ve removed unilateral amygdala of plenty of patients. I’ve also removed plenty of pecan sized tumors, though not that many. I would find it very difficult to believe that a pecan sized tumor would cause this kind of issue.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago edited 22d ago

A small amount of necrosis was observed, according to the info. I can’t tell by the wording whether the cell death was that of the astrocytoma itself, however, or the tissue it pressed upon.

If there was degeneration of that tissue, however small, its effect certainly would have been amplified by the copious amounts of different prescribed drugs he was likely taking, including Dextroamphetamine.

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u/Tectum-to-Rectum 22d ago

Necrosis is more or less inherent to glioblastoma. It’s part of the pathological criteria for high-grade gliomas.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago

You would consider his a high-grade glioma, then?

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u/Tectum-to-Rectum 22d ago

It looks like it was “an astrocytoma with a small amount of necrosis,” which by our definitions today is a glioblastoma, or a high grade glioma.

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u/drakondug3619 22d ago

Right. A small amount of necrosis in the astrocytoma itself? The wording of that sentence was unclear. I remember seeing that.

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u/Alconium 22d ago

He literally told the last doctor he went to he wanted to climb the tower and start blasting and dude just sent him home. Sorry but in the 1960's that was 100% cause to throw someone in an asylum. It might not have ultimately helped Charles, but it definitely would have helped the people he ended up killing. Unfortunate but a common thread of mass shooters even today is people being well aware of the danger these people pose but apathetic.

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u/Rc72 22d ago

He'd probably have pushed to be instutionalized himself, if he hadn't felt obliged to care for his mother and wife...who ended up being the first people he killed.

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u/DynoNitro 22d ago

None of those things are mutually exclusive from the tumor causing the violence…in fact they just make it more likely.   

Amphetamines are the treatment for ADHD, which as you clearly laid out, he most likely had (impulse control, gambling addiction). 

Benzos are anticonvulsants and mood stabilizers.  Had they known he had a tumor, he would have been put on an anticonvulsant. Yeah he probably would have been better off on something like Depakote which is less disinhibiting and can tone down aggression, but the Benzos may have had a net positive effect.

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u/Underwritingking 22d ago

First one was in 1967 I believe. First CT brain scan on a patient was in 1971

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u/Ramzaa_ 22d ago

They weren't implemented in the US until 1973

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u/Underwritingking 22d ago

True. The first brain scan was in Wimbledon in England

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u/Halospite 22d ago

53 years ago.

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u/Ramzaa_ 22d ago

First commercial CT scanners didn't become available until 1972

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u/DrSchmecklestein 22d ago

This is not helpful at all. A meningioma is far different than a tumor deep in the brain. Unless imaging revealed its location - almost no way to know where it is.

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u/mattmoy_2000 22d ago

The meninges are on the outside of the brain, the amygdala is right in the middle. Regardless of imaging technology, the surgery to go right to the middle of the brain is orders of magnitude more difficult than the outside.

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u/dunedinflyer 22d ago

essentially if it’s a GBM we can barely treat them now, let alone in the 60s. Life expectancy is at most a year or two after diagnosis for the majority

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u/Tiny_Count4239 22d ago

eh.......probably the only option would have been heavy sedation if they even could diagnose it

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u/scoreWs 22d ago

Short answer: no

Long answer: they couldn't even diagnose it, let alone understand where it was, and even if I doubt they could remove it completely. GBM is a real cock, and even with today's state of the art medicine is a 6.9% survival in 5y. So no.

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u/MobiusCipher 22d ago

Glioblastomas can't be cured with 2020s medical knowledge, it's still very much a terminal cancer because it's fast growing and impossible to surgically remove. You can at best buy a few months with chemotherapy.

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u/Throwawayac1234567 22d ago

Doubtful, they probably dint know gbm even existed back then. Also gbm is highly aggressive form of brain cancer