So, we have just started a book based on a very controversial event that I happen to have done a World Since Essay on last quarter. Since I know a bit about some of the many conspiracy theories surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination, I thought I would take some time to share my favorite on my blog.
The Umbrella Man theory.
After watching a home video made by Abraham Zapruder of the JFK assassination (the US government paid his kids $16 million in 1999 for the film), researchers noticed that despite the lovely weather in Dallas on November 22, 1963, there was a man holding a black umbrella. People thought maybe he was using the umbrella to signal to co-conspirators, or maybe the umbrella was the weapon after all.
As a researcher named Josiah Thompson (he also was the one who came up with the name "Umbrella Man" for the mysterious umbrella holder) said, "The only person under any umbrella in all of Dallas, standing right at the location where all the shots come into the limousine. Can anyone come up with a non-sinister explanation for this? Hmm? Hmm?" (Note: Oddly enough, I just noticed that he said this in a New York Times Op-Doc in 2011, and "Umbrella Man" had already come forward and explained himself in 1978. The timing seems a little weird there.)
Swiftly sweeping the legs out from under that conspiracy theory was Umbrella Man himself. He turned out to be a man named Louie Steven Witt who explained that the umbrella was a symbol of political protest. It was supposed to be against how Joseph P. Kennedy, JFK's father supported appeasing the Nazis. Joseph Kennedy was a supporter of British PM Neville Chamberlain, who regularly had an umbrella with him. So, the umbrella was merely an attempt to make a peaceful political statement.
This is definitely my favorite conspiracy theory, but there are definitely others that I won't delve too far into (because they are infinitely more complicated than this one) including theories about President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Cubans, the CIA or the FBI, and the weirder ones concerning Freemasons, Lee Harvey Oswald being addicted to refined sugar, a Secret Service agent accidentally firing and hitting JFK, the driver turning around and shooting him, baseball player Joe DiMaggio hiring someone to do it, JFK being killed because he was too interested in aliens, and Jackie Kennedy. To be honest, most of these I hadn't heard of until I decided to look up the weirdest conspiracy theories to write this blog post, but even the site I got them from admits that a lot of these don't have a lot of evidence to back them up.
At this point in Libra, it seems like DeLillo is planning to use a CIA theory. Though my initial research showed that most people believe that Oswald did have CIA connections, further research showed a lot of disparity. Some people said that Oswald had an actual connection, but the more recent articles specified very little direct connection, other than the fact that the CIA was monitoring Oswald prior to the assassination. This disparity is likely due to the relatively recent release of various documents from the time of the assassination investigations.
Nonetheless, it seems like DeLillo intends to create, in this novel, a narrative where a bunch of ex/semi-retired CIA agents recruit Oswald to assassinate JFK, suggesting a connection between Oswald and the CIA. It will be interesting to see how DeLillo addresses the introductions between Oswald and the agents Libra. I am not sure what I expect to happen at this point, but I am looking forward to finding out.
Anywho, is anyone else having trouble remembering that this is a fictional novel? I feel like I am continuously digesting the info in the novel without remembering that not all of it is necessarily legitimate, or at least proven to be.
Also, does anyone else have a favorite theory to share? Personally, I don't believe any theory could be better than the Umbrella Man, but, please! Prove me wrong!
(Other comments are of course welcomed and encouraged, you don't necessarily need to begin your response with a quirky theory, though those are highly recommended)
Sources:
This is where I got my weird theories.
This is where I learned originally about the Umbrella Man
Here is an interview with Lee Harvey Oswald’s daughter if you’re interested. There are also a bunch of YouTube videos interviewing her and his other daughter, but I haven’t looked at them so I can’t speak to their credibility or quality.
