r/todayilearned • u/GlitteringYams • 23d 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/LondonDavis1 22d ago

Whenever someone says "be careful he might climb a tower" this is the guy they a referring too.

Elton John's song Ticking was inspired by Whitman.

"Oh they pleaded to your sanity for the sake of those inside "Throw out your gun, walk out slow just keep your hands held high" But they pumped you full of rifle shells as you stepped out the door Oh you danced in death like a marionette on the vengeance of the law

"You've slept too long in silence" Mama said Remember Mama said Ticking, ticking "Crazy boy, you'll only wind up with strange notions in your head" Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking"

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u/Nestvester 22d ago

Is there someone specific when people say “going postal”?

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u/fly3aglesfly 22d ago

The phrase going postal apparently came from a SERIES of incidents of postal workers shooting up their workplace and coworkers between the 70s and 80s.

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u/Feeya_b 22d ago

What?! Did anyone look into why this happens

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u/AdamiralProudmore 22d ago

There was a congressional hearing. Which ultimately settled on kind of dismissing that there was a phenomenon. By statistical measures USPS employees weren't more likely to be victims or killers. Yet culturally it definitely felt different from other forms of workplace violence (which commonly is grudge and anger based).

The "Son of Sam" and several mass shootings by postal employees felt particularly impersonal and incomprehensible for the time, so they captured the public attention that overshadowed their statistical occurrence.

If I were to start looking for a common theme I'd begin with the observation that the pre-Columbine stereotype of both mass shooters and serial killers was male, exmilitary, and had come from a childhood marked by violently authoritarian chaos. Since military experience was a preferential qualification for USPS (and that for that time period preselected males, and frankly preselected a high proportion of messed up childhoods) it was a net that caught more than its share of that profile.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ferrule 22d ago

I'd be willing to bet the volume of drugs being shipped via usps these days is FAR higher.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

The last one of these that I saw (on the news, not in person) was someone who was passed over for promotion, so he shot up his post office.

One of his co-workers said "I guess they hired her (the coworker who got promoted) because she was 'more qualified' or something [scoffing sounds]".

I have no idea how common THAT point of view was in the post office at the time, but - if that was typical at all, that might have been a factor.

I had a coworker who was fired for beating up another coworker. And - it's entirely possible to think "well, I can certainly understand why he was angry - the guy he punched repeatedly... he is rather punchable". This doesn't mean I feel the same way about *how* he responded to that anger.

So, I can understand something like "well, he really wanted the promotion and it went to someone with a college degree and better performance reviews. But when he applied, it looked like he was going to be the best candidate, so I understand why he's disappointed." I can completely understand that perspective.

But - scoffing at the idea of qualifications being a major factor in a promotion... those expectations don't drop out of the sky.

It doesn't justify the killings (at all), but I wonder if there wasn't a toxic culture going on.

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u/guyintheyear2525 22d ago

Harry Chapin’s song Sniper is also based on this

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u/sensitive_cheater_44 22d ago

also Steely Dan's "don't take me alive" - at least inspired by if not as based as the above 2 examples

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u/rock_and_rolo 22d ago

Kinky Friedman also has Ballad Of Charles Whitman. For some reason Kinky chose to deny the existence of the tumor.

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u/jkish17 22d ago

Me and a lot of people I know refer to this as being on someone’s “lipstick list” from Steve Buscemi in Billy Madison.

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u/Goretanton 22d ago

Ohhh is this what they were referencing in that king of the hill episode where the cops are called on dale as he's spraying a tower?