When he was 12, Charles J. Whitman became the youngest eagle scout in America. when he was 13 he was an accomplished pianist. when he was 16, he was considered the ‘finest shot’ in Austin, Texas. upon high-school graduation, Whitman enlisted and was accepted into the United States Marin Corps. when he was 25, after brutally stabbing to death his mother and wife, with rifle and ammunition in tow, Charles J. Whitman traveled to the top of the University of Texas Tower and proceeded to shoot dead 13 people and wounding 32 others in what at the time was the worst mass murder in American history.