Umbrella Man: Suspicious

[Jerry Freeman]

The HSCA testimony of Louie Steven Witt....
https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol4/html/HSCA_Vol4_0217a.htm

Witt stated that he was not aware that anyone was looking for an Umbrella Man for 15 years and then accidentally sees something about it in the papers. OK right  ... But the chances that someone [the only known one in Dallas] sets out with an umbrella to heckle... and winds up standing right next to the limo just as Kennedy gets his head blown off must be astounding. Then he just "drifts along" for years  with disinterest in the events of the man he had set off to heckle. Believe what you want.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

So you think that All CT's are followers of Garrison?    CT's are individuals, and not a gang of suckers who believe what ever the US Govt tells them.

As I wrote (again): "The "hobbyists" are one thing; the "true believers" are a another. It's this latter group - the followers of the disgraceful and deranged Jim Garrison - that can cause problems. The Stone movies, the movie about the Paines. People believe these falsehoods."

I specifically wrote and was referring to the "followers" of Garrison. Not all conspiracists just those that are followers and believers in Garrison. People like Oliver Stone and Jim DiEugenio.

There is no such thing as "the US govt." There are agencies and departments and divisions and thousands of different people often operating at odds with one another. That anyone thinks "the government" could pull this conspiracy off and then cover it up for decades is thinking things that are simply not possible. If you think these are all "cogs" or "things" and not real people with their own moral agency then, again, you are thinking things that are not possible.

The assassination has been investigated again and again and again. For more than 50 years. By multiple generations of Americans in "the government" and outside of it in the news media. If you think Republicans and Democrats  - who detest one another like religious sects - could get together and cover this up then you really don't know much American politics. It cannot be done. It wasn't done. And if you think the Washington Post and NY Times and CBS and NBC and PBS and others have also covered it up then....well, you're sounding a lot like Jim Garrison.

[Jerry Freeman]

Jim Garrison: "JFK was killed in a homosexual thrill kill by Lee Oswald, David Ferrie and Clay Shaw." If you think that's not evidence of derangement then I think you need to reconsider things.

Garrison was wrong about stuff. That doesn't necessarily mean that he was deranged [obcessed perhaps] He was convinced that the the truth had not been disclosed concerning the assassination.
I agree. Does that make me deranged? 

[Walt Cakebread]

No one ever takes you seriously.
You apparently are suspicious of nothing and not even very suspicious of that....
...and just passing gas time.
 What are you babbling about? How do we know you're not 'deranged'?

How do we know you're not 'deranged'?

I suspect that he may not be "quite right"....  He believes in fairy tales....

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Even if that was the guy's aim with the umbrella on Dealey Plaza, I can't see any credible relevance to the assassination.

I think he was just doing, as he said, some heckling of JFK.

This is from his testimony:

Mr. GENZMAN. Why were you carrying an umbrella that day?
Mr. WITT. Actually, I was going to use this umbrella to heckle the President's motorcade.
Mr. GENZMAN, How had you gotten this idea?
Mr. WITT. In a coffee break conversation someone had mentioned that the umbrella was a sore spot with the Kennedy family. Being a conservative-type fellow, I sort of placed him in the liberal camp and I was just going to kind of do a little heckling.
Mr. GENZMAN. Are you saying you were going to use the umbrella as a symbol for the purpose of heckling?
Mr. WITT. I think that would cover it.

The Kennedys - specifically Joe Sr. - were often accused of supporting the appeasement policies of Chamberlain. LBJ took a shot at them during his campaign. I think this was all that he was doing.

But too many conspiracists - not all - can't see any innocent acts in this. Everything for them has sinister purposes. It's a mindset, a worldview, a view of "the government" and "the CIA" and "the deep state" as being behind all sorts of things. Yes, sometimes that is true; but sometimes it's not.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

So a Democrat and Republican walk into a room.

Democrat to Republican: "You disgust me, you're a racist neo-Nazi who wants to create a fascist country. I can barely be in a room with you."

Republican to Democrat: "Yeah, well you hate America, you've always hated the country and are little more than godless communists. All you want is power over people and to destroy everything good about this country. I want out of here!"

Democrat: "Well, okay. How about joining up with me and covering up the murder of JFK? Forever. Not just now; but future generations? Let's do it."

Republican: "Okay, we hate the crooked bastard LBJ but we'll cover up for him. And we promise that all future generations of Republicans will cover up too. It's a deal."

So the Democrat and Republican shook hands, joined arms and lived together happily ever after.

Yes they did.

[Dan O'meara]

Here's one of the many ridiculous CT notions that will not die - Chamberlain was famous for his umbrella!
In the '30's a staggering amount of male, middle/upper class professionals carried an umbrella. The uniform of the "city gent" was a bowler hat and umbrella. Umbrellas were everywhere, it's like saying Chamberlain was famous for wearing trousers.

Well, I think yes and no. The umbrella became a political symbol of Chamberlain's appeasement. As I noted above, there was a very influential book written in 1940 - "Guilty Men" - that denounced 15 British noted figures for their support of the failed policy of appeasement of Hitler. Chamberlain was specifically called "Umbrella Man" in a chapter and elsewhere.

Here's an excerpt from the piece linked below: "Neville Chamberlain’s umbrella was ubiquitous during the Munich Crisis and in its aftermath, as material object, as commodity, and as political emblem that came to represent the temperament and character of the “Man of Peace” who had brought relief to the world by striking a “gentleman’s peace” with Hitler on 30 September, 1938. This culminated in the damning portrayal of the Prime Minister as the “Umbrella Man” in ‘Cato’s’ Guilty Men (1940).

Full piece here:  https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/101366/3/Chamberlain%27sUmbrellaArticle2ndRevisions.pdf

LBJ used the very phrase - "umbrella man" - in his campaign against JFK. He was referring to Joe Kennedy Sr. and his support of that policy.

I don't know how John Simkins, a British historian, couldn't know the history of the term. As I said above, the book "Guilty Men" was reportedly very influential during the period in question.

Hi Steve, I was unaware of the article you posted and, I have to say, it is most convincing. I can buy that the umbrella could be seen as a symbol of appeasement from an American angle. Simkin is correct from a British point of view, this connection with the umbrella had never really been made in Britain because nearly everyone has an umbrella. Chamberlain was far more famous for waving his piece of paper but, ultimately, we are talking about an American perspective on this.