Umbrella Man (JFK assassination)

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The eyewitness to the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, referred to as "Umbrella Man", can be seen in this picture sitting on the right in the dark jacket.

Umbrella Man was the name of an initially unknown eyewitness to the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy , who can be seen in the Zapruder film as well as in other films and in photos. The man wore a black umbrella (English: Umbrella ), he opened it and waved over his head as the limousine of the President approached, shortly before the fatal shots were fired.

Speculation

It has been speculated that the Umbrella Man gave the signal to shoot with the umbrella. This theory was taken up in the movie JFK - Tatort Dallas by Oliver Stone (1991), as well as in the episode "Thoughts of the Mysterious Smoker" (1996) of the TV series The X-Files - The FBI's Scary Cases (Season 4, Episode 7).

Another theory suggested that the Umbrella Man fired a tranquilizer arrow at Kennedy to make the shots an easier, immobile target.

ID

After a call by the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), Louie Steven Witt (born October 20, 1924 in Rockwall , Texas ; † November 17, 2014 in Dallas , Texas) got in touch in 1978 and stated that the "Umbrella Man " to be. He did not know that he was wanted. He still has the umbrella.

With the umbrella he wanted to demonstrate against Kennedy, whose father Joseph was a supporter of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1937-1940), who for his part had pursued a policy of appeasement ( policy of appeasement) against National Socialist Germany before the Second World War . Chamberlain was nicknamed "Umbrella Man" because he often carried an umbrella and was always shown with an umbrella in cartoons.

Kennedy must have known the umbrella as a symbol of Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, as his thesis at Harvard dealt with this topic. The White House had also already received umbrellas as a token of protest against Kennedy.

When asked before the HSCA, Witt said, “I think if the Guinness Book of Records had a category for people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and did the wrong thing, then I would be number 1 in that category, far before the runner-up. "( 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. )

In 2011 Errol Morris shot a short documentary about Witt called "The Umbrella Man" for the New York Times .

Witt died in 2014 at the age of 90.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e The JFK 100: The Umbrella Man (English)
  2. ^ A b Margaret Gentry: 'Umbrella Man' Theory Destroyed . The Times , September 26, 1978 (English)
  3. ↑ Why England Slept . John F. Kennedy, New York, 1940 (English)
  4. ↑ The Umbrella Man (2011) by Errol Morris on YouTube (English)
personal data
SURNAME Umbrella Man
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witt, Louie Steven (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American protester, eyewitness to the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Rockwall , Texas
DATE OF DEATH 17th November 2014
Place of death Dallas , Texas