Mental health issues Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several UT Austin physicians in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him. Whitman had seen at least five doctors between the fall and winter of 1965 before he visited a psychiatrist from whom he received no prescription. At some other time he was prescribed
Valium by Jan Cochrum, who recommended he visit the campus psychiatrist. He did not have a pre-existing diagnosis of mental illness. Whitman met with Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966. He referred to his visit with Heatly in his final suicide note, writing: "I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail." University of Texas Staff psychiatrist Heatly's notes on the visit said, "This massive, muscular youth seemed to be oozing with hostility [...] that something seemed to be happening to him and that he didn't seem to be himself." "He readily admits having overwhelming periods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation. Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to 'thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people. In the 2024 publication,
Cause of Death: Ballistic Trauma, the author (a retired medical oncologist) evaluated Whitman's personality and behaviours using established criteria from the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It was concluded that Whitman did not meet criteria for any recognized psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia or paranoia, or a personality disorder which might be associated with violence. The contention that Whitman, as some believed, was a sociopath is not supported by the observations that, 1) he had exemplary childhood conduct and achievements, 2) received the Good Conduct medal as a Marine, 3) was gregarious and well-liked on campus and, 4) had a long term (four-year) monogamous relationship with his wife. It has been speculated that Whitman may have had an acute psychotic breakdown in the hours just before committing the mass murder as indicated by some bizarre acts. One is the fact his siege supplies contained inexplicable amounts of food (including 12 cans and 2 jars), three and a half gallons of gasoline, and numerous items of uncertain intended use (an alarm clock, a pipe wrench, an extension cord, a compass and a snake bite kit). All of these items, in addition to seven firearms (3 rifles, 1 shot gun, 3 handguns) and plenty of ammunition, were carted up a few flights of stairs onto the observation deck level, but not surprisingly, only the weapons were utilized. A second 'bizarre' act occurred when Whitman committed matricide (killed his mother). In a section of
Cause of Death: Ballistic Trauma devoted to this topic, it is explained that matricide is an extremely uncommon crime (<1% of homicides committed each year in the U.S.), and that studies indicate that the majority of perpetrators (up to 100%) were experiencing, or had previously experienced, a psychotic disorder (eg. schizophrenia, delusions, drug-induced psychosis).
Autopsy Although Whitman had been prescribed drugs and was in possession of
Dexedrine at the time of his death, the
toxicology examination was delayed because his corpse was
embalmed on August 1, after it was delivered to the Cook Funeral Home in Austin; however, the autopsy that Whitman had requested in his suicide notes was authorized by his father. On August 2, Coleman de Chenar, a
neuropathologist at
Austin State Hospital, realized the autopsy at the funeral home; Whitman's urine and blood were tested for amphetamines and other drugs. During the autopsy, de Chenar reported that he discovered a pecan-sized
brain tumor, above the
red nucleus, in the white matter below the gray center
thalamus, which he identified as an
astrocytoma with slight
necrosis. De Chenar also noted that, "The skull is unusually thin, 2 to 4 mm," but did not elaborate on the significance of that finding. When that information is combined with the pathological finding of The Connally Commission review (see below) reporting "flattening of the cerebral convolutions, slight", and consider the location of the tumor, it has been proposed that collectively this is good evidence that Whitman had developed obstructive hydrocephalus. This complication of the tumor would certainly explain why Whitman suffered from chronic "tremendous" headaches. Hydrocephalus was not reported by de Chenar, but that anomaly (enlarged cerebral ventricles) could have easily been obscured by the extensive ballistic trauma inflicted by the fatal shotgun blast.
Connally Commission John Connally, then
governor of Texas, commissioned a task force to examine the autopsy findings and material related to Whitman's actions and motives. The commission was composed of
neurosurgeons,
psychiatrists,
pathologists, and
psychologists, and included the University of Texas Health Center Directors, John White and Maurice Heatly. The commission's toxicology tests revealed nothing significant. They examined Chenar's
paraffin blocks of the brain tumor, stained specimens of it and Whitman's other brain tissue, in addition to the remainder of the autopsy specimens available. Following a three-hour hearing on August 5, the commission concluded that Chenar's diagnosis of astrocytoma with a small amount of
necrosis had been in error. The panel instead found that the tumor had features of a
glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), with widespread areas of necrosis,
palisading of cells, and a "remarkable vascular component" described as having "the nature of a small
congenital vascular malformation". GBM is a relatively uncommon type of tumor, and associated with average age at the time of diagnosis being 64 years. These two facts, the development of an uncommon tumor type at a young age (25 years), suggest that it may have arisen as a consequence of carcinogenic exposure. Chapter 27 in
Cause of Death: Ballistic Trauma is devoted to explaining how Whitman's service at Camp Lejeune, with the well-publicized disclosure of the contamination the drinking water supply with neurotoxic and carcinogenic volatile organic compounds, may have resulted in him developing this cancer. Psychiatric contributors to the report concluded that "the relationship between the brain tumor and [...] Whitman's actions [...] cannot be established with clarity. However, the [...] tumor conceivably could have contributed to his inability to control his emotions and actions". The neurologists and neuropathologists were more circumspect, concluding that, "[t]he application of existing knowledge of organic brain function does not enable us to explain the actions of Whitman on August first." Forensic investigators have theorized that the tumor pressed against Whitman's
amygdala, a part of the brain related to
anxiety and
fight-or-flight responses among numerous other functions. In
Cause of Death: Ballistic Trauma, an alternative mechanism of pathophysiology is postulated involving temporal lobe seizures. The location of Whitman's tumor in, or adjacent to, his right temporal lobe makes this a definite possibility. One common subtype of temporal lobe seizure is referred to as 'focal awareness', which does not necessarily generalize to cause loss of consciousness or whole body convulsions. This subtype can result the sudden onset of emotional alterations in affected individuals manifesting as fear, panic, anger, anxiety, sense of deja vu or sense of jamais vu. The substantial evidence that Whitman was indeed suffering from recurrent temporal lobe focal awareness seizures is carefully examined in four different chapters. It is known that long-term temporal lobe seizures can result in "a wide range of cognitive, psychiatric, and behavioural problems ..." Because Whitman never underwent the definitive test for detecting seizure activity, an electroencephalogram (EEG), this pathophysiological mechanism remains speculative, but certainly represents a credible 'clinical diagnosis'. This novel mechanism, which is associated with an expanded potential for detrimental effects on an individual’s behaviour, including violence and poor judgement, strongly supports the belief that Whitman was suffering from 'organic brain disease'. Irritation of the amygdala and the effects of temporal lobe seizures are not mutually exclusive pathophysiological mechanisms. ==Funeral==