Gary M. Lavergne earned degrees from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and McNeese University. He divides his time between Cedar Park and Austin, Texas, where he is a Senior Assessment Associate for a major educational testing company. His articles have appeared in regional and national historical journals.
"In an era of seemingly ever larger public massacres and fiendish
acts of terrorism, Gary Lavergne masterfully investigates the first
such crime that seared the American conscience, Charles Whitman's
1966 rampage at the University of Texas. In Lavergne's skillful
hands, and backed up by meticulous research, Whitman's moment of
madness is chillingly recreated, and we come as close as possible
to understanding the 'why' of mass murder."--Gerald Posner, author
of Cased Closed and Citizen Perot "[A]n outstanding job of
chronicling one of the most significant cases in the annals of
American crime. . . . Lavergne skillfully researched, documented,
and analyzed a case that in many ways defined the concept of 'mass
murder.' . . . will likely become a classic in anyone's library of
true crime editions."--James Alan Fox, Dean of Criminal Justice,
Northeastern University "Whitman pioneered this country's
experience with the one-man public massacre. . . . He 'climbed his
tower' to die and take with him as many as he could, for reasons
both too logical and implausible to fit the usual notions of
insanity. . . . Only the passage of time and America's experience
with other mass murders has allowed Gary Lavergne to look back on
the Texas Tower sniper with a clearer sense of what Whitman was
about, and as an unusually gifted author he does so with a cool,
balanced, and yet vivid recounting of the gory mayhem that
occurred." --William J. Helmer, Former Contributing Editor, Playboy
"Now . . . we have the first scholarly research . . . on this
horrific American tragedy. Lavergne's investigative expertise, his
objectivity, and his scientific eye for evidence forms a truly
revealing picture of Charles Whitman, until now a fathomless
madman."--Neal Spelce, newsman who won national awards for his
coverage of the event
"Through painstaking research and exhaustive analysis, Lavergne
recreates the tragic and gripping circumstances that led
'all-American' 25-year-old Charles Whitman to gun down 45 people
from the University of Texas Tower in 1966."--Publishers Weekly "In
the summer of 1966, America lost its innocence when two mass
murders were committed. In Chicago Richard Speck murdered eight
student nurses, and 19 days later, on August 1, Charles Whitman
gunned down people from the tower at the University of Texas at
Austin, killing 16 and wounding 31. Lavergne, director of
admissions and guidance services of the College Board's Southwest
Regional Office, attempts to answer this question by writing the
first full historical analysis of the event. Using primary sources
and photographs, the author has done an excellent job of describing
Whitman's murdering rampage. Was it caused by his domineering
father, a brain tumor found during an autopsy, or both of the
above? Lavergne examines these explanations and others as to why
Whitman committed such a terrible deed. A good choice for
true-crime collections."--Library Journal "Lavergne brings a mass
killer into focus and in so doing delineates the beginning of many
of our nation's present societal fears."--Texas Books in Review
"In an era of seemingly ever larger public massacres and fiendish acts of terrorism, Gary Lavergne masterfully investigates the first such crime that seared the American conscience, Charles Whitman's 1966 rampage at the University of Texas. In Lavergne's skillful hands, and backed up by meticulous research, Whitman's moment of madness is chillingly recreated, and we come as close as possible to understanding the 'why' of mass murder."--Gerald Posner, author of Cased Closed and Citizen Perot
"[A]n outstanding job of chronicling one of the most significant cases in the annals of American crime. . . . Lavergne skillfully researched, documented, and analyzed a case that in many ways defined the concept of 'mass murder.' . . . will likely become a classic in anyone's library of true crime editions."--James Alan Fox, Dean of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University "Whitman pioneered this country's experience with the one-man public massacre. . . . He 'climbed his tower' to die and take with him as many as he could, for reasons both too logical and implausible to fit the usual notions of insanity. . . . Only the passage of time and America's experience with other mass murders has allowed Gary Lavergne to look back on the Texas Tower sniper with a clearer sense of what Whitman was about, and as an unusually gifted author he does so with a cool, balanced, and yet vivid recounting of the gory mayhem that occurred." --William J. Helmer, Former Contributing Editor, Playboy "Now . . . we have the first scholarly research . . . on this horrific American tragedy. Lavergne's investigative expertise, his objectivity, and his scientific eye for evidence forms a truly revealing picture of Charles Whitman, until now a fathomless madman."--Neal Spelce, newsman who won national awards for his coverage of the event
"In the summer of 1966, America lost its innocence when two mass murders were committed. In Chicago Richard Speck murdered eight student nurses, and 19 days later, on August 1, Charles Whitman gunned down people from the tower at the University of Texas at Austin, killing 16 and wounding 31. Lavergne, director of admissions and guidance services of the College Board's Southwest Regional Office, attempts to answer this question by writing the first full historical analysis of the event. Using primary sources and photographs, the author has done an excellent job of describing Whitman's murdering rampage. Was it caused by his domineering father, a brain tumor found during an autopsy, or both of the above? Lavergne examines these explanations and others as to why Whitman committed such a terrible deed. A good choice for true-crime collections."--Library Journal "Lavergne brings a mass killer into focus and in so doing delineates the beginning of many of our nation's present societal fears."--Texas Books in Review
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