Cool, Atom Eyes. Thanks for this.

I wrote an article about this a long time ago. If you have the time and the inclination, go to the Austin History Center and check out the newspaper articles and editorials from that time period. The editorials are a hoot. Austin had like 5 or 6 different newspapers at the time, and they competed by trying to out-purple each other's prose.

Whoa- I had no idea this was the reason for the moonlight towers, nor that they were that old.

mudpuppie: I actually learned about this from a friend who works at the Austin History Center. Between poring over these files and digging through the Charles Whitman papers, he was able to satisfy his appetite for curious/morbid tales for weeks on end.

Oh man, no doubt! What a cool job. I love that place. Have spent much time there.

To this day, the murders have remained unsolved, and their impact forever changed Austin.

I'm going to go out on a ledge here and suggest we will never know who killed those people. Although terrible, the breathless "their impact forever changed Austin."

Interesting story. I wish I had more time to spend at the Austin History Center.

At one point, they had a viable suspect. I can't remember who it was, but it was one of the inevitable pillar-of-the-community types. I'm thinking maybe a cop? Memory's hazy.