William “Tex” Gross

Graduate Student, Downtown Austin

00:00 / 10:20
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William “Tex” Gross was 24 years old in August of 1966. He had graduated from UT-Austin in 1965 and was working toward a Master’s Degree that summer. He knew both Charles Whitman (the shooter) and Whitman’s wife Kathy.

Gross was in a band at the time. His band mate was best friends with Charles Whitman. Whitman would often go to the band’s shows. Kathy Whitman was Gross’s lab partner for a semester.

“I would never have suspected that he could preform the act that he did on Aug. 1, 1966,” Gross says. “Not in my wildest dreams as I knew him for a year or so before.”