The Whitman TBI Research Project

August 1st marked the 60th anniversary of the first active school shooting, by Charles J. Whitman, in the United States. A few months before the tragedy, he sought help. Finding none, he tried to control the escalating aggression and violent thoughts himself. Just after murdering his mother and wife and before heading to the University of Texas at Austin campus where he killed and wounded numerous individuals, he wrote a note asking for any insurance money to be donated anonymously for mental health research to help prevent any future similar events. That never happened.

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Since then, many individuals who had similar pasts full of numerous traumatic brain injuries (and often childhood abuse) have unleashed violence on themselves and others. With advancing TBI research and the clues left behind from Whitman's original investigation, there may be an opportunity to turn the tragedy into a way to help TBI sufferers (and the communities they affect) around the world.