and take another look >>> more shots being fired at the tower. >> reporter: it is august, 1966. >> austin, texas, was held in the grip of a terror which began in killing and ended in killing. >> reporter: american television is riveted on a college student former marine charles whitman. the son of an abusive father. he climbs to the top of the university of texas tower, shoots and kills 14 people, wounding 32 others before he is taken down. it is hard to believe, after whitman, it would be another 30 years before a school shooting with such a high death toll. especially since after stream of assaults. law enforcement says 50 rampage school shootings and abc news has estimated at least 79 thwarted plots, more than half of them mentioning columbine. >> columbine was a new kind of shooting.

something fun to do this weekend? ev >> reporter: the weekend before the massacre at columbine, dylan klebold gives a kind of gift to his mom who has urged

again, arm himself and go to the ou autopsy says, by suicide. april 20th. >> we all got up very early. i hear him bounding down the stairs, past our bedroom door, and really going quickly and heavily out the door, as if he were late and i yell, "dyl," and he yelled, "bye," and then sort of slammed the door. >> reporter: you said it was edgy, nasty -- >> it was. >> yeah, it was, "bye." >> reporter: her husband tom says he's going to talk to dylan when dylan comes home. >> columbine high school. >> a community in shock. >> media attention from around the country. >> bloodbath. >> dylan klebold. >> reporter: the klebolds flee their house, living, she says, despairing. the surreal agony of cremating her son. days i was worried about losing my sanity. back to the state community college system. >> i'd turn on a radio and