fore No, ((6--10326 RG: 233 . TAB #: | ENTRY: / / COPIES/ PPS. /CLASS. BOX: ACCESS RESTRICTED The item identified below has been withdrawn from this file: File Designation Date From TO In the review of this file this item was removed because access to it is restricted, Restrictions on records in the National Archives are stated in general and specific record group restriction statements which are ‘ available for examination. The item identified above has been withdrawn because it contains: JJILON TVNVUGHLIN [J Security-Classified Information [x]. Otherwise Restricted Information - WEIL pi AALS be HSA a Authority . Date Withdrawn by NSCA_ John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-526) NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION NA FORM 14000 (1-86) Docld: 32
> Sceald ne >", HSCA (RG 2Ans 7 18 arty 2 ae 19 ‘oO Eo 20 ao | = 21 Oo vo oe 22 > Oo XN a 23 o 25 Docld: 32266681 ge Let me raise with the committee a’ second question. You have had passed’ to you copies of photographs. The source. was from Time-Life. ‘They are enlarged. The individual you see sitting on the curb there is the so-called "umbrella man," with a front view of him. It would be possible if you knew him, I suppose, to identify him. These pictures came into our possession in this form only a week or so ago and the issue I present to you. for your resolution is,
ry s . Tw ‘ 34 |. peproduced from the holdings of the National Archives HSCA (RG 233) i 10 "1 12 13 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 would it be advisable for the committee, with due dignity, to release these to the press with an effort being made to solicit anyone who could identify the individuals? The umbrella man is in no sense a central figure in the committee's investigation. He is a central figure in the critical literature. The argument is made that he had an umbrella on a sunny day and that the umbrella was raised just before the assassination and was somehow a signal relating to the assassination. If it were possible to identify him and have him come forward, it might be one way which that aspect of the critical literature could be explained. Our ability to identify him simply by showing this photograph to people in Dallas is limited. If we release it to the press, they could obviously give it nation-wide circulation. There are plusses and minuses if we did this. It might appear to some credible people we are pursuing the umbrella man theory, which lacks a certain credibility. On the other hand, if these are printed and we indicate we don't know who the person is, I suppose one of the first things that will be raised is, "Why didn't you give it to the press earlier? We could have identified-him at any time." I don’t know that there is an easy answer either way. I also don't know that this is a terribly important issue, — but if we were to do it, it probably ought to be done now and DoclId:322766631 Pape 6
|. Reproduced from the holdings of the National Archives HSCA (RG 233) & 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 DoclId: 322766631 FP e 7 li it would require a committee resolution to make them public. I might add it might also require the permission of Time- Life, since they are their photographs. Mr. Dodd. Mr. Chairman. Mr.Stokes. Mr.Dodd. Mr.Dodd. I have read that one "Thirty Seconds in Dallas." In fact, they even have it that there is a gun in there; that you open it up and it fires. I just wonder how many theories there are. I know the Signal theory and I know about you opening it up and somehow there is a triggering mechanism in the top of the thing. Those are basically the two. Mr. Blakey. Yes. Mr. Dodd. The former having a lot more support, I presume even among the critics, than the latter. Mr.Blakey. He is one of the mystery figures. It is the kind of thing people want explained. Why would a man have an umbrella up on a sunny day? Mr. Edgar. Do we have that picture with us? Mr.Blakey. No, we don’t. It is part of the Zapruder film. You can see right below where the’ President is. It actually raises just before the assassination. These are separate pictures. You can see the umbrella laying right here to the right of the light post. This is indeed an umbrella man.
i the National Archi HSCA (RG 223) § Reproduced from the holdings of ' : € ives HSCA (F a 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 Mr. Fauntroy. The thing that hes always puzzled me about ‘this is, with all the attention focused upon this theory, we have had no one to come forward erom Day One to say "I am he." With respect, therefore, to the question, shall we publish this in the hope of Finding the person, I tend rather to be pessimistic aboutthe prospects. Mr.Devine. He looks like he is 65 years old in that picture. That would make him 80 today. | Mr.Fauntroy. No, that is not the man. ~The question is, what public relations value is there to feeling that we are pursuing every lead? I just don't think it will be productive. If people have been talking about the umbrella man and he hasn't come forward -- Mr. Dodd. If that is our only public pronouncement, I think it is going to focus an awful lot of attention on this one single aspect of the thing. It makes it look as though we place a lot of credibility in that. | Mr. Stokes. Mr .Edgar. Mr. Edgar. One of the suggestions I would have on a public pronouncement would be to make, on the first or second day of public hearings, a major emphasis on this photograph. That way you would have major TV coverage with a statement that at the beginning of our hearings _- and this is one of the unanswered questions -- I kind of agree with Walter, if we DoclId: 322766631 Pape 6
Be Bt , ‘ the National Archi A RG 233 h {i Reproduced from the holdings of ne iona: re ives HSCA (R 2 ) ‘ 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 13 go out to thepublic now on this one picture, people will pick that up and say, "Oh, they are only pursuing that idea and that thought." | It would have to be handled very well. . Mr.McKinney. Obviously if I were "the umbrella man" and all of a sudden people were writing about me, I would be the last person to come forward. A president has been shot and who wants the FBI, Secret Service and everybody else pouring over them because they were sitting there with an umbrella. | This is the first time we have seen this man's face and I think we should say many of the critics have mentioned this umbrella man and we have found no vast importance to it, but here is his face and would someone please come forward and tell us if they know him? The individual himself would be cracy to come forward. Mr. Blakey. This is the first time there has been a picture of him: from the front. In the past it has always been a person from behind. If the background was given to the newspaper people -and the statement was made, "This is only one among a number of things being pursued by the committee and it is not of central importance to us, but is a question raised by the critics and it is a matter of some interest that he be identified --" DoclId: 322766631 Pape 9
4 % ae £. 8, 1 6 2 “a, m:- xa A x = 6 o _£- pe) wa 7 i a g 8 od a 2 9 £ » 10 5 Hy ™ V1 ia 6) o 3 9 12° +) = 13 14 rs ‘ 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 14 Mr. Devine... Have we other photographs we-could have identified at the same time to lessen the focus on this one? Mrs. Burke. I suspect there are other photographs. Mr. Stokes. When you release this photo and ask the press to find out for you who he is, doesn't this lend credence then to precisely what the press is saying? "See there, I told you; they haven't found out anything." I think you just invite that reaction from the press. Mrs. Burke. Of course, we could indicate we have found a photograph of the umbrella man, which nobody else has until now. Mr. Devine. But we would want to talk to him as a witness rather than as a suspect. Mr. Fauntroy. It would be nice to clear that up one way or the other. Mr. McKinney. One thing the critics will say is that they didn't follow up the umbrella man. Mr. Dodd. They are going to be. saying things for the next hundred years. If we go into this thing with that in mind, we will be basket cases. Mr. Fauntroy. The idea of a fellow having an umbrella on a sunny day that is opened up just as the President is coming by -- Mrs. Burke. This photograph is after the shooting. He is calmly sitting there on the curb. Docld: 322766681 Page 10
fe a he ‘| peproduced from the holdings of the National Archives HSCA (RG 223) i 10 11 12 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 15 Mr. Fauntroy. This photograph is after the shooting. ’ Mr. Stokes. Yes. Mr.McKinney. He is probably lifting his black umbrella to indicate some protest. Mr. Fauntroy. After he is shot he sits down and says “well, let's wait here." Mr. Devine. Do you know what was the temperature that day? Mrs. Burke. About 65. ' Mr. Devine. Some people have an umbrella to shield themselves from the hot sun on a hot day, but 65 in November wouldn't apply. Mr. Preyer. Mr. Chairman, would it be possible for Mr. Blakey to draw up. the proposed press release they would propose to use to release this and see whether it would meet with your approval? I agree that how it is presented is crucial. Of course, it could be misinterpreted regardless of how it is presented. We are going to be a loser on this one any way we go... | It does have the thrust of a new photograph and if it is presented in the right light so it does not appear we have bought the umbrella man theory, it might indicate the committee's desire to be thorough and follow up all leads. Otherwise, we could be accused of not following up an obvious step. DoclId:322766631 Page 11
‘ae o 2 mi. ei) cel o . & 4 i a § 5 eet py s * 6 ig. pe) w 7 m § 8 a: 2 9 a 3 _ 10 0 a © 11 eo o 3 3 12 SI sory Fe a 13 14 ca 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 Mr. Devine. Must he be identified with the umbrella? Mrs. Burke. We could say this was a man whose photo- graph we have and we have not been able to identify him and if anybody knows him, will they please write us. Mr.McKinney. Are there any modern photography techniques that will upgrade those pictures? Mrs. Burke. No. This is about the size of a pinhead in an eight by ten. It has already been enlarged and en- hanced and the grain is caused by the lack of information. There is no information there. If you saw the original 8 by 10, this is maybe just a one-inch -- the umbrella man may be one inch by one inch and the photograph is eight by ten. Mr. Dodd. If you use anything like that, you are going to get confusion over which one you are talking about. Mr.Stokes. Time-Life has never printed this picture? It is just something that was in their files? Mr. Hlakey. Yes. Mr. Stokes. How do you establish the fact, Micky, that it was a photograph taken after? Mr. Goldsmith. If you saw the rest of the picture, you would see in the background people running around, up the grassy knoll. There was a series of seven photographs. This is one of the seven. You can see people running in the background. It is just mass confusion. The photographs before DoclId: 322766631 Page 12
“ i Las ‘’ neprosuced from the holdings of the National Archives HSCA (RG 233) “I 10 11 12 13. o4 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 DoclId: 322766631 FP e 17 the assassination, people are standing there watching. Mr. Devine. How many seconds per frame would you estimate? Mr. Goldsmith. I couldn't say that. Mr.Devine. Each frame is supposed to be in a second segment. Is this sust a straight photo and not part of a ‘motion picture? Mr.Goldsmith. That is right. Mr.Stokes. What does Zapruder show the umbrella man - doing? Mr. Goldsmith. YOu can only see the umbrella. You can see it opening up, being raised, lowered, raised again, Simultaneous with the shooting. When Caputo pans in you see the umbrella go up and down but you then continue watching the President.and you lose the umbrella. Mr.Stokes. What is the proximity of the umbrella man to the President's car? Mr.Goldsmith. He is standing on the edge of the curb. I don't think he shot the President. Mr. Stokes. We have this man sitting down while you say people are running around all behind him with the President having just been shot. He is raising his umbrella and then calmly sits down? Mr. Goldsmith. He was raising and lowering the umbrella 13