Free Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs

fascinating twist on this latter theory came from researcher Gary
Shaw, who said the two men may have been providing Kennedy with a
last-second sign of who was responsible for his death. Shaw recalled that
throughout the planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion, CIA officers had
promised an "umbrella" of air protection of the Cuban invaders. This
"umbrella" failed to materialize because Kennedy refused to authorize
U.S. military support for the invasion. According to Shaw's theory, the
man with the open umbrella symbolized the promise of an air-support
"umbrella" while the dark-complected man may have been one of the
anti-Castro Cuban leaders known to Kennedy. Thus, in the last seconds of
his life, Kennedy may have seen the open umbrella and the face of a
Cuban he knew was involved in the Bay of Pigs and realized who was
participating in his death.
    But this is all speculation. The existence of the "umbrella man" and the
dark-complected man is fact. Even their activities after the assassination
bear study. While virtually everyone in Dealey Plaza was moved to action
by the assassination-either falling to the ground for cover or moving
toward The Grassy Knoll-these two men sat down beside each other on
the north sidewalk of Elm Street.
    Here the dark-complected man appears to put a walkie-talkie to his
mouth. In a photograph taken by Jim Towner, what seems to be an
antenna can be seen jutting out from behind the man's head while his right
hand holds some object to his face.
    Several photos taken in the seconds following the assassination show
both of these men sitting together on the Elm Street sidewalk. Moments
later, the man with the umbrella gets up, takes one last look toward the
motorcade still passing under the Triple Underpass, and begins walking
east in the direction of the Depository. The dark-complected man saunters
toward the Triple Underpass passing people rushing up The Grassy Knoll.
He can been seen stuffing some object-the walkie-talkie?-into the back
of his pants.
    Despite the suspicious actions of these two men, there is no evidence
that the FBI or the Warren Commission made any effort to identify or
locate them. Offically they did not exist. Yet over the years, this pair
became the focal point of criticism by private researchers. Researchers
claimed the lack of investigation of these men was indicative of the
shallowness of the government's handling of the assassination.
    Once the House Select Committee on Assassinations was formed, researchers urged an investigation of both men. The Committee finally
released a photograph of the "umbrella man" to the news media and urged
anyone with knowledge of the man to come forward.
    Coincidentally-if it was a coincidence-the "umbrella man" suddenly
was identified in Dallas a few weeks after this national appeal. In August 1978, a telephone caller told researcher Penn Jones, Jr., that the man
with the umbrella was a former Dallas insurance salesman named Louis
Steven Witt. Jones contacted some local newsmen and together they
confronted Witt, who then was working as a warehouse manager. Witt
refused to talk with newsmen but acknowledged that he was in Dealey
Plaza on the day Kennedy was killed.

    Jones later wrote: "I felt the man had been coached. He would answer
no questions and pointedly invited us to leave. His only positive statement,
which seemed to come very quickly, was that he was willing to appear
before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in Washington."
    Witt indeed appeared before the Committee during its public testimony.
His story was comic relief compared to the intense scrutiny of witnesses
like Marina Oswald and Warren Commission critics. His story was facile
and improbable and when the umbrella that Witt claimed was the same one
he had had in Dealey Plaza in 1963 was displayed, it suddenly turned
wrong-side out, prompting one Committee member to quip: "I hope that's
not a weapon."
    Witt told the