A Towering Decision

The University of Texas decided Thursday to reopen the school’s landmark clock tower, site of one of the nation’s worst mass murders. The 231-foot tower on the school’s Austin campus, closed in 1975 after a series of suicide leaps from its observation deck, will be refurbished and a safety barrier will be added. It was from the observation deck, 28 stories up, that student Charles Whitman opened fire on Aug. 1, 1966. The 25-year-old former Marine, beset by personal problems and suffering from a brain tumor, already had killed his wife and mother. In all, he killed 16 people and wounded 31 that day before being shot to death by lawmen.