Still from the New York Times, Who Was the Umbrella Man (2:54).
the conspiracy
The umbrella man is the man circled in red, his umbrella laying on the ground next to him.
Attribution: Umbrella Man by Richard Oscar Bothun, November 22, 1963. Public domain. |
Still from the New York Times, Who Was the Umbrella Man (2:44).
On that fateful day, the Umbrella Man was standing by himself in Dealey Plaza wearing a suit and carrying an open black umbrella, despite it being a sunny day. He opened the umbrella right when the motorcade passed by him -- and right before the first shots happened. Later, even after the assassination occurred, he was seen to still be sitting by the road.
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The person to bring umbrella man into the public consciousness was academic Josiah "Tink" Thompson. In his 1967 book Six Seconds in Dallas, he intensely studied the famous Zapruder film that captured JFK's assassination, along with photographs from the event. He was the one who noticed the man's anomalous behavior and coined the term "Umbrella Man." Though Thompson was the one who pointed out the Umbrella Man's seemingly sinister presence, he himself did not posit any specific theories.
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This video by Erol Morris of the New York Times includes an interview with Josiah Thompson himself, the grandfather of the umbrella man conspiracies.
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Though some criticized the Umbrella Man theory as drawing big conclusions from a minuscule piece of somewhat odd evidence, it still gained popularity after Thompson's analysis. Some theorize that opening the umbrella was a signal to other assassins, either alerting them to shoot at JFK or that JFK had been shot.
1:12 in this clip from hit 1991 movie JFK (directed by Oliver Stone) shows the Umbrella Man opening his umbrella to signal to other assassins to fire. This movie has had a role in further cementing Umbrella Man's part in the assassination. |
Another common conspiracy theory that arose from Thompson's analysis is that the umbrella was actually some sort of weapon in disguise. Some people think that the umbrella shot out a paralyzing poison dart or held a hidden gun. Assassinations critic Robert Cutler drew two diagrams of potential weapons that discharged when the umbrella opened: one that shot rockets and one that shot flechettes (i.e. darts).
This is a defense of Cutler's theory that the umbrella could've been a flechette shooter. The comments on the video are quite derisive.
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The umbrella system diagrams designed by Cutler were even included in the reports of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Attribution: The Piece. 1979. Retrieved from History Matters. Physical rights retained and granted by Robert B. Cutler. Used under fair use. |
The "Umbrella Man" seems quite exasperated testifying to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Still from The New York Times, Who Was the Umbrella Man (4:12).
the truth behind the real umbrella man
Mr. Genzman: "Has exhibit 405 ever contained a gun or weapon of any sort?" |
The afternoon of September 25, 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations brought in the real Umbrella Man -- and the actual umbrella itself -- to testify. The "Umbrella Man" was the unsuspecting Louie Steven Witt, who was totally unaware of all the Umbrella Man conspiracies up until that July; his interview essentially disproved the Umbrella Man theory. Witt said that the umbrella was never used as a signal nor a weapon, but simply a toll meant to "heckle" JFK.
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A coworker had told Witt that the symbol of the black umbrella was a "sore spot with the Kennedy family" (Select Committee on Assassinations, 1979, p. 431). It was a reference to JFK's dad, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was a foreign ambassador to England in 1938-1939. He worked with the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was known for his appeasement policies with Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. He was also known for always carrying around a black umbrella, which became a symbol for appeasement.
These appeasement policies led to criticism of Chamberlain and Joseph Kennedy being Nazi sympathizers or pro-Nazi, which Witt simply wanted to joke about in order to annoy JFK. Here, Chamberlain is with a German foreign minister -- and his signature black umbrella -- after a meeting with Hitler.
Attribution: Vorbereitung Münchener Abkommen, Chamberlain auf dem Flugplatz Oberwiesenfeld by German Federal Archive under CC-BY-SA 3.0. |
Witt denied knowing the exact motorcade route ahead of time. He said that he only chose Dealey Plaza because there were fewer crowds, and he thought it would better help him get JFK's attention if he opened the umbrella in an empty space right as the motorcade passed. After the assassination, he sat down because although he could tell something bad had happened based on the commotion, the gunshots had sounded like firecrackers to him. It wasn't until when he went back to work a few minutes later that he learned that JFK had been killed.
Because of Witt's testimony to the HSCA and the general unnecessary hyper-fixation on such sparse "evidence," the Umbrella Man conspiracy has essentially been disproved. Most conspiracy theorists don't believe that the Umbrella Man had anything to do with JFK's assassination. Regardless, there are still some that believe in it, especially that his "signaling" is part of a bigger conspiracy. However, it seems that many of these people have not done a deeper analysis and are simply unaware of Witt's testimony, don't trust the government's records, or are only going off of the popular 1991 film JFK. The superficial malevolence of the "Umbrella Man" had already been so deeply propagated in popular culture before the 1978 testimony. This can serve as a lesson in the staying power of conspiracy theories.
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"The only other thing that I would care to say is that I think if the Guinness Book of World Records had a category for people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing, I would be No. 1 in that position, without even a close runner-up." |
bibliography
Cutler, R. B. (1979). Investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives Ninety-fifth Congress second session, volume IV. https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol4/html/HSCA_Vol4_0221a.htm
Miller, M. E. (2017, October 29). JFK assassination conspiracy theories: The grassy knoll, Umbrella Man, LBJ, and Ted Cruz's dad. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/24/jfk-assassination-conspiracy-theories-the-grassy-knoll-umbrella-man-lbj-and-ted-cruzs-dad/
The New York Times. (2013, November 20). Who was the Umbrella Man? | JFK assassination documentary | The New York Times [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yznRGS9f-jI
Select Committee on Assassination. (1979). Investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives Ninety-fifth Congress second session, volume IV. https://history-matters.com/archive/contents/hsca/contents_hsca_vol4.htm
Updike, J. (1967, December 2). Comment. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/12/09/comment-5149
Miller, M. E. (2017, October 29). JFK assassination conspiracy theories: The grassy knoll, Umbrella Man, LBJ, and Ted Cruz's dad. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/24/jfk-assassination-conspiracy-theories-the-grassy-knoll-umbrella-man-lbj-and-ted-cruzs-dad/
The New York Times. (2013, November 20). Who was the Umbrella Man? | JFK assassination documentary | The New York Times [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yznRGS9f-jI
Select Committee on Assassination. (1979). Investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives Ninety-fifth Congress second session, volume IV. https://history-matters.com/archive/contents/hsca/contents_hsca_vol4.htm
Updike, J. (1967, December 2). Comment. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/12/09/comment-5149