A Sniper in the Tower: the Charles Whitman Murders

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
On August 1, 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman ascended the University of Texas Tower and committed what was then the largest simultaneous mass murder in American history. He gunned down forty-five people inside and around the Tower before he was killed by two Austin police officers. During the previous evening he had killed his wife and mother, bringing the total to sixteen people dead and at least thirty-one wounded. The murders spawned debates over issues which still plague America today: domestic violence, child abuse, drug abuse, military indoctrination, the insanity defense, and the delicate balance between civil liberties and public safety. "An outstanding job of chronicling one of the most significant cases in the annals of American crime. . . . Lavergne skillfully researched, documented, and analyzed a case that in many ways defined the concept of ‘mass murder’ . . . will likely become a classic in anyone’s library of true crime editions."--James Alan Fox, Dean of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, and an authority on mass murder
Date: March 15, 1997
Creator: Lavergne, Gary M.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Bounty of Texas (open access)

The Bounty of Texas

This volume of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society contains a miscellany of Texas, Mexican and Spanish folklore, including information about hunting, canning, cooking, and other folklore. The index begins on page 225.
Date: 1990
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Larry McMurtry and the West: An Ambivalent Relationship

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This is the first major single-authored book in almost twenty years to examine the life and work of Texas' foremost novelist and to develop coherent patterns of theme, structure, symbol, imagery, and influence in Larry McMurtry's work. The study focuses on the novelist's relationship to the Southwest, theorizing that his writing exhibits a deep ambivalence toward his home territory. The course of his career demonstrates shifting attitudes that have led him toward, away from, and then back again to his home place and the "cowboy god" that dominates its mythology. The book utilizes original materials from five library special collections, as well as interviews with McMurtry, his family and his friends such as Ken Kesey.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Busby, Mark
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Texas Folklore Society: Volume 2, 1943-1971 (open access)

The Texas Folklore Society: Volume 2, 1943-1971

Book describing the Texas Folklore Society "includes the publishing history of the TFS books, anecdotes about the gatherings of the Society [...] and the emphasis on singing beginning at Society gatherings" (inside the front cover). The index begins on page 311.
Date: 1994
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Corners of Texas (open access)

Corners of Texas

This volume contains popular folklore of Texas, including information about folk music, folk arts and crafts, history of Texas, prominent Texas writers, and other miscellaneous folklore. The index begins on page 285.
Date: 1993
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Texas Folklore Society: Volume 1, 1909-1943 (open access)

The Texas Folklore Society: Volume 1, 1909-1943

Book describing the history and publications of the Texas Folklore Society between the years of 1909 and 1943. It includes information about "public songs and ballads; superstitions, signs and omens; cures and peculiar customs; legends; dialects; games, plays and dances; riddles and proverbs" (inside front cover). The index begins on page 317.
Date: 1992
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
El Rancho in South Texas: Continuity and Change From 1750 (open access)

El Rancho in South Texas: Continuity and Change From 1750

This book discusses the history of ranching in South Texas, illustrated with photographs that were part of "the first major exhibit to examine the private cattle ranch in South Texas, held in 1994 in the John E. Connor Museum in Kingsville, Texas" (p. ix). Index starts on page 117.
Date: 1994
Creator: Graham, Joe S.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston (open access)

Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston

This biography of Sam and Margaret Houston draws on surviving personal letters and writings to describe their lives together. The book roughly covers the time from their meeting to their deaths in 1863 and 1867, respectively. Index starts on page 419.
Date: 1993
Creator: Roberts, Madge Thornall, 1929-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Roy Bedichek Family Letters (open access)

The Roy Bedichek Family Letters

This book is a collection of letters written by Roy Bedichek and letters written to him from other family members. Annotations and notes about the letters have been added as footnotes. Biographical information based on interviews of family members as well as genealogical charts of the Bedichek and Greer families are also included. Index starts on page 447.
Date: 1998
Creator: Bedichek, Jane Gracy, 1918- & Bedichek, Roy, 1878-1959
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
D. H. Lawrence: Future Primitive (open access)

D. H. Lawrence: Future Primitive

This book will change the way you think about D.H. Lawrence. Critics have tried to define him as a Georgian poet, an imagist, a vitalist, a follower of the French symbolists, a romantic or a transcendentalist, but none of the usual labels fit. The same theme runs through all his work, beginning with his very first novel, The White Peacock, and ending with the last line of his final book, Apocalypse. Always it is nature. He said this over and over again, and no one - especially those who feared the "old ways" of harmonious and balanced living on the earth - understood him.
Date: 1996
Creator: LaChapelle, Dolores
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Cowgirls

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
An important chapter in the history and folklore of the West is how women on the cattle frontier took their place as equal partners with men. The cowboy may be our most authentic folk hero, but the cowgirl is right on his heels. This Spur Award winning book fills a void in the history of the cowgirl. While Susan B. Anthony and her hoop-skirted friends were declaring that females too were created equal, Sally Skull was already riding and roping and marking cattle with her Circle S brand on the frontier of Texas. Wearing rawhide bloomers and riding astride, she thought nothing of crossing the border into Mexico, unchaperoned, to pursue her career as a horse trader. In Colorado, Cassie Redwine rounded up her cowboys and ambushed a group of desperadoes; Ann Bassett, also of Colorado, backed down a group of men who tried to force her off the open range. In Montana, Susan Haughian took on the United States government in a dispute over some grazing rights, and the government got the short end of the stick. Susan McSween carried on an armed dispute between ranchers in New Mexico and the U.S. Army, and other interested citizens; and in …
Date: January 15, 1990
Creator: Roach, Joyce Gibson
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Theoria, Volume 6, 1992 (open access)

Theoria, Volume 6, 1992

Annual journal containing essays, studies, book reviews, and other articles related to the history of Western Music Theory, methods of analysis, and analytical discussions of musical compositions.
Date: 1992
Creator: Covach, John
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library