v9.1 ’ AGENCY : RECORD NUMBER : RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : ORIGINATOR : FROM: TO: TITLE: DATE: PAGES: SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE: CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW: OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : Docld: 327766680 Page 1 JFK Assassination System Identification Form Agency Information HSCA 180-10116-10325 TRANSCRIPT OF EXECUTIVE SEESION HEARING Document Information HSCA BUSINESS MEETING - EXECUTIVE SESSION HEARINGS 06/16/1978 26 CONSPIRACY THEORIES, UMBRELLA MAN ENHANCEMENTS ZAPRUDER FILM PHOTOGRAPHS AND FILMS WC, METHODOLOGY HSCA, METHODOLOGY TRANSCRIPTS Unclassified Open in Full Redact 08/17/1993 Box 1. Folder title: Executive session business meeting. Date: 10/14/20
RCC 1 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 ; @ . 22 23 24 25 DoclId: 322766630 FP e EXECUTIVE SESSION EXECUTIVE SESSION. GLIE Coun i ITEE 1 cars i oT BUSENESS MEETING -3- (Bi )-Comons, JUNE 16, 1978 c ‘, House of Representatives, /¥) ———eEeEeEeEeEeaeeE—ouo oe eee Washington, D. unas? ef Gy The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:40 a.m., in oom B-236, Ypited Spates Capitol, Hon. Louis Stokes, (chairman) presiding. Present: Representatives Stokes, Preyer, Fauntroy, Burke Dodd, Edgar, Devine and McKinney. . G. Also present: R R.- Blakey, K. Klein, M. Goldsmith, J. Smith, E. Berning, G. Cornwell and S. Brady. $11 —-%, Chairman = pe Stokes. A quorum is now present. The committee will be in order. The Chair will recognize Professor Blakey. Mr.Blakey. Mr. Chairman, the matters that will be brough before the committee this morning deal with the substance of what procedure of investigationsit would be appropriate therefore that the meeting be in executive session. Chairman Mx. Stokes. The Chair will entertain a motion. Mr. Preyer. I so move, Mr. Chairman. Cha ipnean ; . ie, Stokes. It has been properly moved that the committee BXECUTIVE SESSIO¥ 2
2 1 go into executive session ‘7for reasons stated and the glerk 2 || will call the roll. 3 Y Ms. Berning. Mr. Stokes. @ 4 “a” Stokes. Aye. 5 Ms. Berning. Mr. Devine. 6 Mr. Devine. Aye. 7 Ms. Berning. Mr. Preyer. 8 Mr. Preyer. Aye. 9 Ms. Berning. Mr. McKinney. 10 Mr. McKinney. Aye. | 11 Ms. Berning. Mr. Fauntroy.. 12 Mr. Fauntroy. Aye. @ 13 Ms. Berning. Mr. Thone. 14 [v0 response. | 15 Ms. Berning. Mrs. Burke. 16 Mrs. Burke. Aye. 7 Ms. Berning. Mr. Sawyer. 18 [No response. } 19 Ms. Berning. Mr. Dodd. 20 [No response. | 94 Ms. Berning. Mr. Ford. [No response.) 22 @ 23 Ms. Berning. Mr. Fithian. oA [No response.) 95 Ms. Berning. Mr. Edgar. - DoclId: 322766630 Pape 3
18 1 and ffiabing it again. Then you lose the umbrella and you can 2 see the President. . . a ay) . ; ' ; 3 4H ie have photographs taken by other people immediately 4 after the shooting. ‘Everyone in the plaza is facing the 5 |l knoll, running in that direction, and the umbrella man and 6 his friend are the only two people standing facing the 7 complete opposite direction and then the umbrella man is 8 sitting down, which no one else is doing. That is why the 9 || critics have focused on him so much, though they have never 10 seen this particular photograph. Chai rma , ; . 1 . A Me. Stokes. Mr .Devine has offered a very good suggestion. 12 Mrs. Burke. Could I suggest a resolution that would ; 13 authorize the fhairman, in his discretion, to approve the . 14 press release, consistent with the dignity of the committee, © _ . 15 not involving the committee in an umbrella theory and consist- , : . j es ; 16 ent with Time-Life's permits. i ae 17 Mr. McKinney. I would so move. ga be: Chairman . - r AGL 18 »Mx Stokes. You have heard the resolution. Do you aeoy * ot ; 8 ia want a record vote?) a: 19 Oe . anv 20 Mr. Blakey. I don't think that is necessary. fy. . a 21 There are a couple of matters of information you should o% - 0 7 U co 22 be aware of. tO. a 23 The committee is going into court on Monday in Memphis oj “gf oA to examine the records of a hospital dealing with 25 |I' Docld: 322766680 ge 4
tn 10 12 14 reso HSCA (RG 47 { 18 : 19 Collection: 20 21 eference copy, JFK , J 24 25 DoclId: 322766630 22 - There are two other matters I would bring to your atten- tion. One is an outstanding issue. Former President Ford was a member of the Warren Commission. Some time in the _ next thigh’ ee spety days he probably ought to be talked | to and I would solicit your advice on the way in which that Se a occurs. If he is in town for another purpose, it might be appropriate to have an executive session in which he could x come in and talk about the Warren Commissio and his role on it. If he is going to be in Colorado for any period of age 5
17 18 19 20 21 r 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 iden‘t-ify the individuals? Gone 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: 322766630 Pape 6
V 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 e 22 23 24 25 11 it would require a committee resolution to make them public. Git thight add it might also require the permission of Time- Life, since they are their photographs. Mr. Dodd. Mr. Chairman. Chairman 7 t jit 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. F 4 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? at mr Splakey. 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 thevumbrella laying right here to the right of the light post. This is indeed an umbrella man. DoclId: 322766630 Page 7
14 15 17 18 19 20 21 @ 22 23 24 25 12 W ur. Fauntroy. The thing that has always puzzled me about this is, with all the attention focused upon this theory, we have. had no one to come forward (£rom 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 aboutfthe prospects. ur (pevine. He looks like he is 65 years old in that picture. That would make him 80 today. Mr JFauntroy. 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. Chaivman Poa Stokes. Mr .jEdgar-.! 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 if and this is one of the unanswered questions = I kind of agree with Walter, if we DoclId: 322766630 Page 6
11 12 14 16 17 18 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." Y It would have to be handled very well. vr Sokimney. 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 pléase come forward and tell us if they know him? The individual himself would be cragy 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 i" DoclId: 322766630 Page 9