Umbrella Man revisited . . .

[Leslie Sharp]

3 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

If I remember correctly it was Jack White who surfaced Witt - who did not himself "come forward" per se or even voluntarily.  Jack was teaching a course on the assassination at a local college and one of his students mentioned that a fellow he worked with would tell stories, among other things talking about being on Elm street with an umbrella during the assassination.  Jack, being Jack, got a couple of folks together and confronted Witt at work on the story.  Witt was reticent at first but Jack essentially backed him into a corner and Witt began to repeat the story he had been telling and Jack began to repeat it and things went from there.  Gary Shaw was likely involved with this ...surely some of the real "old timers" her recall this better than I do although most are not longer posting on the Ed Forum.  In any event I don't think it was a matter of Witt suddenly coming out on his own and offering information...

Thank you for that background, Larry.  I'll confirm with Gary.

Unless there's more to the story, doesn't this indicate Witt was Umbrella Man?



 

[Joe Bauer]

Most of the crowd people closest to the shooting scene were confronted by local police and other security agency people and even photographers and press people. Asking them questions, taking their cameras, etc.

The Newmans, Charles Brehm, Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, James Tague, Zapruder and others.

So, here you have two eyewitness guys Witt and the DCM ( odd looking to boot ) who were within feet of JFK and the limo when he is first hit...and who then stick around sitting right down hand holding close where they were standing for several minutes...and neither of them are approached by anyone for questions?

Didn't the authorities look at all the film and photos of the crowd who were closest to the limo when JFK was hit and try to identify everyone in those photo's?

I would think those eyewitnesses just feet from the limo during the shooting would be of highest priority in that regards.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Larry Hancock]

Hopefully Gary will remember the details, I think he may have been helping Jack with the course or vice versa.  Of course another take is that Witt had made up the story - being something of a braggart apparently - and just got caught up in it as things evolved, not being willing to admit he had made up parts or all of it on his own.  The folks who contacted him in Dallas would have the best take since I'm doing this off third party exchanges from many years ago.  Actually this all may have been written up in Jerry Rose's Third/Fourth Decade journals which are on MFF now.  I'm pretty sure I recall seeing at least some of it written up in research articles.

[David Boylan]

Some previous essays on the topic:

https://www.jfk-assassination.eu/articles/umbrella.php

Forum member Ron Ecker:

http://www.ronaldecker.com/umbrella.html

Russ Baker:

https://whowhatwhy.org/video/jfk-umbrella-man-more-doubts/

Fourth Decade:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=48682#relPageId=19

[Larry Hancock]

Good job David!,  so the gossip came to Penn who just collected up Jack among others to help make the call on Witt...makes perfect sense given how much information came Penn's way one way or the other, his columns had made him something of a clearing house for such JFK related information. 

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, David Boylan said:

Some previous essays on the topic:

https://www.jfk-assassination.eu/articles/umbrella.php

Forum member Ron Ecker:

http://www.ronaldecker.com/umbrella.html

Russ Baker:

https://whowhatwhy.org/video/jfk-umbrella-man-more-doubts/

Fourth Decade:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=48682#relPageId=19

Russ didn't know at the time that former head of Texas Border Patrol Harlon B. Carter was the SW Region Commissioner of INS in 1963 and would have been in and out of the Field St. Rio Grande Building; nor did he know that Carter had been a close buddy for years of fellow border patrol and renowned sharpshooter Charles Askins.

Russ was very familiar with Al Ulmer but he hadn't focused on Ulmer's post in Madrid at the same time Col. Askins was serving as Army Attaché in the US embassy. In that role, Askins was tasked with keeping his superiors informed about the activities of Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny. Ulmer would have at the very least known of Otto and Ilse Skorzeny, and defintely would have interacted with his good friend Win Scott who at the time was Western European Office of Special Operations; government records confirm that Scott signed off on reports related to Otto Skorzeny yet that fact seems to have evaded those who purport to be experts on Winston Scott.  Where are his personal records for his postings in Europe?

Some ten years later, only months after his official retirement from the agency, Al Ulmer (who had planned to go into business with Win Scott in a private intel concern DiCoSe) was with George and Barbara Bush in Tyler visiting his brother Dan; Russ and I almost simultaneously uncovered that the "Zeppo" in Barbara's recollection of the day was Joe Zeppa, cofounder of Delta Drilling in Tyler, and that Zeppa flew the Bush couple to Love Field to catch a flight home to Houston.  Their flight was delayed waiting on AF Two to depart.

Madrid is rapidly being recognized as pivotal locale for international intrigue as the plot to assassinate Kennedy in Dallas in November began to take shape; Joe Zeppa, along with Jack Crichton of Empire Trust and the 488th in Dallas — with the mandate of intelligence gathering for the petroleum industry — had been integral to the Algur H. Meadows —Otto Skorzeny oil scheme on behalf of Franco's reconstruction plans for fascist Spain in the early 1950s.  The man on the ground for the deGolyer-MacNaughton engineering firm's contribution to the Spanish scheme was none other than Declan Ford.

While in Spain, Col. Askins — fellow border patrolman with the future INS commissioner Harlon Carter — had been responsible for informing his superiors on the activities of Madrid-based SS Commando Skorzeny who inexplicably avoided serious conviction as a Nazi officer. Skorzeny was then recruited for contract work on behalf of the Dulles/Donovan/Stephenson World Commerce Corporation.  Prior to his attaining the freedom for such pursuits, Skorzeny met with Col. Robert G. Storey, future Dallas luminary in international law focused on the petroleum industry. 

Fast forward to Louis Steven Witt, Rio Grande National Life Ins. and RW Baxter's tenant, the INS, and one is compelled to consider the  implications beyond mere propinquity.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

5 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Most of the crowd people closest to the shooting scene were confronted by local police and other security agency people and even photographers and press people. Asking them questions, taking their cameras, etc.

The Newmans, Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, James Tague, Zapruder and others.

So, here you have two eyewitness guys Witt and the DCM ( odd looking to boot ) who were within feet of JFK when he is first hit...and who then stick around sitting right down hand holding close where they were standing for several minutes...and neither of them are approached by anyone for questions?

Didn't the authorities look at all the film and photos of the crowd who were closest to the limo when JFK was hit and try to identify everyone in those photo's?

I would think those eyewitnesses just feet from the limo during the shooting would be of highest priority in that regards.

Great points, Joe.  And why wasn't that film confiscated?  Or was it, and doctored?

Why did they sit down on the curb when they could have easily sauntered off into the sunset? Then again, why didn't they track down authorities in the vicinity and tell them exactly what they saw and heard? 

[Robert Reeves]

The image below was produced by Tom Wilson (above), who notably appeared in one of The Men Who Killed Kennedy episodes.

Taken from the UM profile image below, One of the Bothun photos

I found these images in Jack White's baylor collection https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/explore-the-collections/list/collections/43?returning=true

Jack White discussed this image analysis in some other documents also posted at the baylor collection. Apparently Tom Wilson used his photo analysis software to create the UM image.

[Robert Reeves]

BTW, The Dark Complected guy did speak to someone before exiting the scene forever.

We know DCM was last seen walking across the grass, below from WFAA-TV footage (not sure who found this)

In this photo below DCM was spotted talking to two males. 

I don't think it was Jim Featherstone (he was taking witnesses statements on that area). It's worth trying to find out all the other journalist names who were talking to people on the grass that day.

It doesn't look like either of them is Jim Featherstone. below

Someone could have in their notebook from the day of the assassination a quote, or description of what he saw, maybe even the name of DCM. Ridiculous really, that this is still a 60 year old mystery.

Edited April 1 by Robert Reeves