![]() ![]() Leissner was Whitman's first serious girlfriend. In February 1962, 20-year-old Whitman met Kathleen Frances Leissner, an education major two years his junior. browsed in the bookstore in the main building of the University of Texas, Whitman remarked, "A person could stand off an army from atop of it before they got him." Marriage On one occasion in 1962, as Whitman and a fellow student named Francis Schuck Jr. Whitman earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements. Whitman was fined $100 ($800 in 2017) for the offense. The trio were butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory when they were arrested. Shortly after his enrollment at the university, Whitman and two friends were observed poaching a deer, with a passer-by noting his license plate number and reporting them to the police. His hobbies included karate, scuba diving, gambling, and hunting. He was initially a poor student with largely unimpressive grades. Whitman entered the mechanical engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin on September 15, 1961. Whitman earned high scores on the required examination, and the selection committee approved his enrollment at a preparatory school in Maryland, where he successfully completed courses in mathematics and physics before being approved to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin to study mechanical engineering. Navy and Marine Corps scholarship program, intending to complete college and become a commissioned officer. After completing his assignment, Whitman applied to a U.S. ![]() He achieved 215 of 250 possible points on marksmanship tests, doing well when shooting rapidly over long distances as well as at moving targets. Marine and college student ĭuring Whitman's initial 18-month service in 19, he earned a Sharpshooter's Badge, and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. Īs Whitman traveled toward Parris Island, his father learned of his action and telephoned a branch of the federal government, trying unsuccessfully to have his son's enlistment canceled. His father still did not know he had enlisted. Whitman left home on July 6, having been assigned an 18-month tour of duty with the Marines at Guantanamo Bay. Whitman told a family friend that the catalyst was an incident a month earlier, in which his father had beaten him and thrown him into the family swimming pool because Whitman had come home drunk. Whitman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps one month after his June 1959 graduation from high school, where he had graduated seventh in a class of 72 students. By the next month, he had saved enough money from his newspaper route to purchase a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he used on his route. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach, where he was regarded as a moderately popular student whose intelligence was noted by both his teachers and peers. On September 1, 1955, Whitman entered St. ![]() At around the same time, he undertook an extensive newspaper route. Whitman also became an accomplished pianist at the age of 12. His father said of him: "Charlie could plug the eye out of a squirrel by the time he was sixteen." Īt age 11, Whitman joined the Boy Scouts, becoming an Eagle Scout at 12 years three months-reportedly the youngest of any Eagle Scout up to that time. He regularly took them on hunting trips, and Charles became an avid hunter and accomplished marksman. was a firearms collector and enthusiast, who taught each of his sons from an early age how to shoot, clean, and maintain weapons. ![]() The Whitman brothers regularly attended Mass with their mother, and all three brothers served as altar boys at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. Margaret Whitman was a devout Roman Catholic who raised her sons in the same religion. Whitman's academic achievements were encouraged by his parents, yet any indication of failure or a lethargic attitude were met with discipline-often physical-from his father. He was extremely intelligent-an examination at the age of six revealed his IQ to be 139. Īs a boy, Whitman was described as a polite, well-mannered child who seldom lost his temper. He was known to physically and emotionally abuse his wife and children. The marriage of Whitman's parents was marred by domestic violence Whitman's father was an admitted authoritarian who provided for his family but demanded near perfection from all of them. In 1940, he married Margaret, then 17 years old. Whitman's father had been raised in an orphanage in Savannah, Georgia, and described himself as a self-made man. Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida, the eldest of three sons born to Margaret E. ![]()
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