Paul Eichelberger was a journalism student at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, the day Charles Whitman began shooting people from the UT Tower.
He was at a nearby tea shop on the Drag when a woman came in with news of the shooting. As he went to the door and looked up the street, he saw another student on the ground unconscious.
“He wasn’t moving, so I knew he was seriously injured,” Eichelberger said. “I sort of thought, ‘I can’t let him lay there on that hot concrete.’”
Eichelberger made his way out to the student, got him to a nearby store and assisted on the ambulance ride to the hospital. As he previously shared with Texas Standard, he then stayed at the hospital to help with other incoming patients.
“When I was unloading ambulances, one of the nurses came out and said, you know, ‘that young man that came in, you were in his ambulance, he just passed away,’” Eichelberger said.
Now, Eichelberger is sharing a letter he received from the slain student’s mother – a letter he’s held onto for 58 years.
