Umbrella Man revisited . . .

[Leslie Sharp]

2 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Who knows? A joke? His moment of fame? I knew of a handful of Texans who would do that and they were also practicing attorneys! Not only that, Gordon McLendon and Clint Murchison Jr. also shared that kind of stupid humor (but they were not the Texans I was referring to.) I mean that I know, for a fact that some Texans engaged in this kind of behavior.

Most of us who grew up in Texas knew some real characters. However, Witt doesn't seem to match the profile you suggest; he does however come across as malleable.  

[Mervyn Hagger]

3 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I seriously doubt that.

Leslie I KNOW these people and they way they think. I don't mean that I read about it in a book, I know this because I lived with people who engaged in that kind of 'entertainment'.

[Mervyn Hagger]

Why anyone in Washington DC would even believe this ridiculous story goes to show how ridiculous the people in Washington DC are, or, they too like this kind of humor. I am not suggesting that the 1963 event did not happen. It obviously did. What I am separating out is the stupid explanation that was delivered eons later.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Mervyn Hagger
Addition to clarify

[Leslie Sharp]

17 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

without tipping my hand, I worked for one attorney who asked me to create Dallas newspaper ads for him. I did and one of them read "GRASSY KNOWL TERRORIST? Call *********" It was a one and half inch box ad that immediately solicited a call from the news staff wanting to know if the attorney has some inside information. It was a low-cost ad and a joke that worked!

I appreciate the bs that Texans in particular are infamous for; however, what does this have to do with Witt's testimony?

Can you address the following:

Witt wasn't Umbrella Man but years later he was persuaded to claim that he was.

By whom? For what purpose?

Umbrella Man and Radio Guy appear to be acting in league in some capacity, in contradiction to Witt's testimony?

Radio Guy has been identified as non-Caucasian by many researchers ... but you speculate he may not have been.

If he wasn't, does that change the dynamic between him and UM?

If he was, does that somehow support a "direct capacity" role of Cubans in Dealey?

Could Radio Guy have been French or Algerian? Does his clothing suggest Cuban or European?

If Witt wasn't Umbrella Man, who was?

[Leslie Sharp]

17 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Leslie I KNOW these people and they way they think. I don't mean that I read about it in a book, I know this because I lived with people who engaged in that kind of 'entertainment'.

Excuse me, Mervyn? I also KNOW these people having lived and worked around bankers, attorneys, real estate developers and oilmen in the region. 

Witt's testimony falls far short of what I would expect from the entertaining characters I encountered during my seventy-odd years in Texas and the SW.

[Mervyn Hagger]

1 minute ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I appreciate the bs that Texans in particular are infamous for; however, what does this have to do with Witt's testimony?

Can you address the following:

Witt wasn't Umbrella Man but years later he was persuaded to claim that he was.

By whom? For what purpose?

Umbrella Man and Radio Guy appear to be acting in league in some capacity, in contradiction to Witt's testimony?

Radio Guy has been identified as non-Caucasian by many researchers ... but you speculate he may not have been.

If he wasn't, does that change the dynamic between him and UM?

If he was, does that somehow support a "direct capacity" role of Cubans in Dealey?

Could Radio Guy have been French or Algerian? Does his clothing suggest Cuban or European?

If Witt wasn't Umbrella Man, who was?

Leslie, I modified my comment to address this issue. The 'real' umbrella man and radio man were real. Their motivation was real - whatever it was. But no one would have to 'motivate' Witt. Some Texans think that this is funny as in ha! ha! funny. You may not think it funny and neither do I, but I lived and worked with people who created this kind of event because to them it made their day and that of their friends. The strange thing is that these were successful and professional people. Now what did Witt have to lose? Who was going to contradict him? The "real" umbrella man? I don't think so. It was a joke.

[Mervyn Hagger]

6 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

 

Excuse me, Mervyn? I also KNOW these people having lived and worked around bankers, attorneys, real estate developers and oilmen in the region. 

Witt's testimony falls far short of what I would expect from the entertaining characters I encountered during my seventy-odd years in Texas and the SW.

Well, you have your life experiences and I have mine. Obviously what I know and you know are two different things but neither one is untrue.

[Leslie Sharp]

Two-three degrees of separation that speaks to the pervading business and political ethos of Dallas and the South in the 1970s as the HSCA convened:

Robert W. Baxter's Rio Grande National Life was sold to a Cape Girardeau MO concern that has since morphed beyond recognition.

Cape G was the birthplace of rabid-conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh who filled the airwaves with outrageously racist, homophobic, far right rhetoric for decades.

On the question of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Limbaugh said:
 

RUSH: You know how many people have died from socialism? Try a hundred million. A conservative estimate. Socialism, communism, totalitarianism, tyranny, you name it. A hundred million easy. But you know, folks, this guy, Roger from Pennsylvania and Maria Svart from the Democratic Socialists of America? If anybody in this country’s been brainwashed, it’s the American left. Sadly, not just the American left. In fact, quite a lot of America was brainwashed. Have you heard…? Do you remember on this program the times…?

If you don’t, I’m gonna tell you. There have been many times that people have called here and asked me, “When did this current liberalism start? Was it Woodrow Wilson?” they ask. “Was it earlier than that? Was it Civil Rights? When did this stuff all happen? When did it start? Was it the sixties? The Students for Democrat Society and the Vietnam War?” And remember my answer has always shocked people. Snerdley, you will remember. My answer is the incarnation of the modern left as you and I know it today is a direct result of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 

And I remember the first time I mentioned this, people could not believe that I was thinking straight. “You mean to tell me, Rush, you think the modern era of liberalism began with the assassination of JFK?” Yes, it did. I’ll give you a brief summary of why. We know — the evidence is conclusive — that JFK was killed by a communist, Lee Harvey Oswald. He was not killed by the right wing. He was not killed by extremists in Dallas or in the South or anywhere else in this country. He was killed by a communist with ties to Cuba. Lee Harvey Oswald was an avowed socialist and communist. (emphasis added.)

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/10/19/how_the_jfk_assassination_ushered_in_the_era_of_modern_liberalism/

Lesser known is that Limbaugh trained at Elkins Institute in Dallas, learning his trade in the same political climate that made Dallas the perfect scene of the crime less than a decade earlier. 
 

The KBOX tower site and transmitter building were located approximately 100 yards up a hill from the studio location at 9900 McCree.  Because the station was directional 24 hours a day, engineers were required to be on duty around the clock, seven days a week.  A mandate from the FCC required this, with fines in the thousands for violators.

Former KBOX PD Bill Ward remembered the complicated antenna patterns and the critical need for perfect alignment.  He recalled attending a class to receive his Radiotelephone Operator’s Permit at the Elkins Institute of Radio in Dallas.  The school was legendary for training men and women of all ages who were pursuing careers in broadcasting, whether on the technical side or programming side or both.  Rusty “Rush” Limbaugh was one of Elkins’ most notable graduates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh#/media/File:President_Trump_at_the_Trump_International_Golf_Club_(47625293592).jpg

[Leslie Sharp]

45 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Well, you have your life experiences and I have mine. Obviously what I know and you know are two different things but neither one is untrue.

I don't know how you could know with any certainty that Witt's testimony was meant as a Texas-style joke, but setting the excuse aside for the moment, are you interested in pursuing answers to the following specifics related to Umbrella Man and Radio guy?

 

Witt wasn't Umbrella Man but years later he was persuaded to claim that he was?

By whom? For what purpose?

Umbrella Man and Radio Guy appear to be acting in league in some capacity, in contradiction to Witt's testimony?

Radio Guy has been identified as non-Caucasian by many researchers ... but you speculate he may not have been.

If he wasn't, does that change the dynamic between him and UM?

If he was, does that somehow support a "direct capacity" role of Cubans in Dealey?

Could Radio Guy have been French or Algerian? Does his clothing suggest Cuban or European?

If Witt wasn't Umbrella Man, who was?

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Witt wasn't Umbrella Man but years later he was persuaded to claim that he was.

So was 10-year old Rosemary Willis “in” on the plot?  

[Leslie Sharp]

13 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

So was 10-year old Rosemary Willis “in” on the plot?  

Precisely.

So, working with the assumption Rosemary wasn't in on the plot, don't we still need to ask why Witt waited years to come forward?  

Edited August 10, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Precisely!

And what was UM’s role?  Shooter?  Spotter?  Why would a perp sit down at the scene of the crime of instead of getting out of there ASAP?

If you’re going to bash a witness as important as Rosemary Willis shouldn’t you have a cogent argument for her involvement?

[Mervyn Hagger]

Cliff, please read what I have written, not what you think I have written. My comments have a lot of questions supported by pictures that I took the time to assemble about the 1963 event.

I have not 'bashed' anyone except a Johnny-come-lately prankster who claimed to be the person who was in the 1963 photograph. I believe that the pranksters explanation to be so ridiculous as not worthy of considered.

The prankster and the two individuals sitting together, one with an umbrella and one with a walkie-talkie are two people who it would be interesting to hear from,

The prankster is not the person in the 1963 picture.

Please read what I have now explained several times but you question has chosen to ignore my comments. That is your right of course. As to who the real umbrella man was I have no idea and neither do you.

He was not the prankster.

[Mervyn Hagger]

26 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Precisely.

So, working with the assumption Rosemary wasn't in on the plot, don't we still need to ask why Witt waited years to come forward?  

My explanation is that Witt is a prankster who had nothing to do with 1963 event.

[Mervyn Hagger]

29 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

So was 10-year old Rosemary Willis “in” on the plot?  

Cliff please read what I have written and don't invent something that I have not even addressed. There was no 'plot', there was a prankster who came forward years later who had nothing to do with the original event.