A man known as the “Umbrella Man” supposedly got away with murdering president John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. The video I am researching was made by Carolyn Salvatelli and is making the claim that Louie Steven Witt, more commonly known as the Umbrella Man, is the true mastermind behind the assassination of President Kennedy. My argument on this video is that Louie Steven Witt did not have anything to do with the death of JFK and that he just wanted to make a statement in a slight protest towards the Kennedy family.

1. “[Louie Steven Witt] was caught in the Zapruder film raising [his umbrella] into the air as Kennedy’s car drove past.” (1:33)

One of the claims this video is making is that the exact time that Kennedy’s car rode by, the Umbrella Man rose his umbrella into the air above his head. Right when the Umbrella Man lifted the umbrella into the air, the shots killing the president were fired. This is a given fact about the story of the murder but to many people, the lifting of the umbrella can be seen as a signal for someone to shoot at the perfect moment. A solid fact about this story is that the timing of the shots fired did line up with the lifting of the umbrella but there is no real way to know if it was coincidental or part of a bigger plan.

After the murder, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations looked to the public for any information at all on who the Umbrella Man was and what his business of holding the umbrella was, finally after 15 years of the committee looking for information, Louie Steven Witt came out and claimed he was the Umbrella Man (Serena). Witt did agree that he brought his umbrella and did in fact raise it when Kennedy drove by, but he was only holding it with the intention to annoy the president(Serena). Witt explained his only intention that day was to wave the umbrella slightly in hopes Kennedy would see it and understand the significance of why he brought it (Serena). 

2. “[He] then spun the umbrella from east to west (clockwise) as the president passed by him.” (1:41)

Going along with the last claim, the Umbrella Man was also seen spinning his umbrella clockwise from east to west in the moments the president was passing him and after the president was shot, the Umbrella Man went to sit down by an unknown man on the sidewalk before getting up to walk towards the Texas School Book Depository. He spun the umbrella clockwise along with lifting it above his head as if he were signaling something. Along with sitting down to an unknown man, the Umbrella Man started walking towards the Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald had just supposedly shot president Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally. Whether it was a coincidence or not, it is clear that the opening and spinning of the umbrella lined up perfectly with the shots fired, killing JFK.

When Witt was brought in by the Committee, he testified against his involvement in the murder which made it quite clear that he had no knowledge of the attack plan and was just as shocked as the rest of the country (Serena). Witt said during the testimony that he did not even know about the conspiracy theories involving him and argued that the umbrella was a bad joke to get Kennedy’s attention that very poorly backfired against him (Miller).

This “bad joke” that Witt was talking about was actually based on John F. Kennedy’s father Joseph Kennedy (Miller). Going into the background story a little more, Joseph Kennedy was a supporter of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who was a Nazi- party appeaser (Serena). Kennedy had actually at one point visited Hitler’s private retreat in order to smooth things over himself (Serena). Some of the people who opposed Chamberlain’s work and disagreed with Kennedy’s support for him started carrying around Chamberlain’s signature accessory, being a black umbrella (Serena). As for Witt, his only intention the day JFK was killed was to show some symbolism on that topic as a protest in hopes that the president would see the umbrella and become annoyed just at the sight or even possibly try to explain the issue at some point from his role as president. 

3. “[T]here had to be a signal on when to shoot.” (2:40)

The next claim the narrator of my video says that there must have been some kind of a signal for Lee Harvey Oswald and possibly other assassins to shoot. It was extremely unlikely for Oswald to shoot from the angle he was at, at the exactly perfect time, with no way of knowing exactly where Kennedy’s head would be at the moment he shot. The Warren Commission did conclude that the shots that killed Kennedy were definitely fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository but obviously that does not rule out the possibility that the Umbrella Man was in fact signaling him to shoot (Assassination of John F. Kennedy).

Bringing in another smaller conspiracy theory revolving around the murder of JFK, some people say to have heard a total of four shots fired coming from three different directions (McDermott). There is always the thought that there could have been three assassins in total and one of them missed both the president and the Texas Governor John Connally, but it is very unlikely that there were multiple assassins and all evidence is pointing away from that thought. We do know for a fact that at least three bullets were fired, two hitting JFK and one hitting Connally. Kennedy’s autopsy report did show that the two bullets that struck him both definitely came from above and behind. As for the fourth supposed shot, there were no other bullets found anywhere around the crime scene which means evidence points away from the four shots idea.

There still is no completely concrete proof that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only person who knew about the attack but with the evidence that we do have, that idea is more than likely true meaning Oswald was the only assassin and the only person who came up with and knew of the idea. The evidence does as well point to Louie Steven Witt not being part of the planning or the actual attack on the president or governor Connally. 

4. The Umbrella Man should have been convicted and he might have gotten away with murder or at least conspiracy to murder. 

Some people believe that Louie Steven Witt got away with murder or at least conspiracy to murder. The information that has been presented to us does get our minds on a roll thinking about how there must have been a signal for Oswald to shoot and the way the information is set up does seem to point us in that direction. There are two main conspiracy theories that have evolved around the idea of Umbrella Man, the first one being he could have been positioned there as a signaler for an assassin for them to get perfect timing for the shots (Rawat). There is no real evidence that points away from this theory because of the storyline holes throughout the research of the topic, there was obviously nothing normal about the assassination but there is not enough evidence to prove the Umbrella Man guilty.

The second main theory about Witt is that he used a dart shooting system hidden in his umbrella in order to shoot and paralyze the president so it would be easier for Oswald to make the shot (Rawat). This theory can easily be disproved by Kennedy’s autopsy report, the people who conducted the autopsy did show that only two bullets hit the president, one of which caused the brain injury that officially killed the president (Altman). 

5. “[T]he ‘case closed’ story of Lee Harvey Oswald is defined, alone, as the killer” (3:01)

In the official “case closed” story, Lee Harvey Oswald is defined as the one and only assassin, although when you search up the JFK assassination, you will find many conspiracy theories attempting to disprove that. While officials try to ignore the conspiracy theories surrounding JFK’s death, the majority of Americans choose to believe there was nothing normal about the assassination.  In a 2003 ABC News poll, results showed that 70% of Americans thought the murder was part of an actual plot, not just the single act of a man killing the president, the majority of the poll also thought that plot included a second assassin (Rawat). In a 2017 FiveThirtyEight poll as well, studies showed that only 33% of Americans believed that Oswald acted alone (Assassination of John F. Kennedy). 61% of people believed that at least one other person was involved in the murder of President Kennedy (Assassination of John F. Kennedy). When JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald the suspected gunman was arrested, and then two days later, he was murdered by nightclub owner Jack Ruby (Assassination of John F. Kennedy). With everyone who knew or possibly knew of the assassination plan dead, including Louie Steven Witt, there is no way to know what the real story of the murder is.

Conclusion

The only way we could really know what the true story is if the president’s death was actually part of a bigger plot that will reveal itself later, or if somebody knows something about the assassination that they have not come out about. For now, the amount of evidence that we have supports that Oswald was in fact the only assassin and the only person who knew of the idea. This as well means that Louie Steven Witt did not know about any plan to kill the president and was just there in a form of protest that very poorly backfired on himself. “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 number 1 in that position, without even a close runner up.” – Louie Steven Witt

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