Our radio news director, Joe Roddy, went to Brackenridge Hospital and read the names off the first list of casualties. As soon as he finished, Paul Bolton, who was back in the newsroom, grabbed the microphone and said, “Joe, hold it.” Bolton was the very first television news anchor in Austin, a good friend of LBJ’s. He was a gruff, hard-boiled newsman, but you could hear that his voice was wavering. He said, “I think you have my grandson on there. Go over that list of names again, please.” Well, his grandson was Paul Sonntag. His full name, we later found out, was Paul Bolton Sonntag—his namesake. Joe read through the list again, and Bolton pretty much broke down in the newsroom.
It’s three years old, but The Morning News directed me to a heartbreaking Texas Monthly story recounting the University of Texas tower massacre. Titled “96 Minutes,” it collects observations from a number of sources, including those who were shot and lived, those who attempted to rescue others and those who admitted they were too scared to do much of anything.