In this episode, the conclusion of our three-part series on deaths that led to social change, I look at the 1966 clocktower shooting at the University of Texas in Austin, and the life of its perpetrator, Charles Whitman. One of the earliest mass shootings in America, it introduced a new kind of violence into American life. Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org and archive.org. 

Our primary source for this episode is "The Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders" but Gary Lavergne. Other sources:

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1016&context=cus_pubs

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

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In the second part of our three-part episode on deaths that caused larger social changes, I look at the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, and how the cultural fallout from the case led to new areas of psychological research and eventually the creation of the 911 system. But among the myths and political ramifications of the murder we find more than one tragic story.

Our primary source for this episode is "Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder" by Catherine Pelonero. 

Here are a couple of articles that also were used:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/nyregion/winston-moseley-81-killer-of-kitty-genovese-dies-in-prison.html

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/a-new-look-at-the-killing-of-kitty-genovese-the-science-of-false-confessions.html

All music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can follow the podcast on Twitter at SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the podcast on Patreon where for $5 a month you will receive access monthly bonus episodes.

In the next three episodes I'll be exploring deaths that led to larger social changes. Here in part one I take a look at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and how it became the catalyst for a major reform movement in worker's rights and building safety, but also how the path to those changes wasn't easy, or guaranteed. Our primary source for this episode is "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America" by David Von Drehle.

You can follow the podcast on Twitter at SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the podcast on Patreon where for $5 a month you will receive access monthly bonus episodes, which will start being released this month.

In this introductory episode I examine three stories: Phineas Gage, Pam Reynolds and Terri Schiavo. I'll be exploring the borderlands between life and death, looking at what actually makes us alive and how as a society we parse out the fine line between living and merely being alive. Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org.

Please support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you'll receive access to monthly bonus episodes.

Bibliography:

Phineas Gage:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114479/

Pam Reynolds:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104397005

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-science-of-near-death-experiences/386231/

Terri Schiavo:

"The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life" edited by Arthur L Caplan, James J. McCartney, and Dominic A. Sisti