(heart beating)
(siren wailing)
- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved,
we cover the assassination
of John F. Kennedy,
a topic of controversy
for over five decades.
Was there actually a conspiracy?
What do you think?
I'm sure you are well-versed
in this one already.
- I know the broad strokes.
I haven't really gotten into details.
I figure I'll read like a
1,600-page book when I'm like 60.
- Yeah, you don't strike
me as a detail guy.
- I am a detail guy.
- Let's get into it.
- Okay.
(both laughing)
- On Friday, November 22nd, 1963,
President John F. Kennedy
was publicly assassinated
while sitting in a car in a
motorcade through Dallas, Texas.
Kennedy was struck by two bullets,
with the second being a fatal headshot.
Governor John B. Connally Jr.,
who was in the car with JFK,
was also hit in the
shooting, but survived.
Officially, there were three
bullets fired by the gunman.
The horrifying act was caught on film
by a man named Abraham Zapruder
with his eight-millimeter film camera.
The film, now referred
to as the Zapruder film,
would later go on to be
integral into the investigation
as it allowed for frame-by-frame analysis.
The shooting occurred from
the sixth floor window
at the southeast corner of the
Texas School Book Depository,
a building along the motorcade route.
The official ruling was that the gunman
was a man named Lee Harvey Oswald.
Two days after the assassination,
Oswald was killed by a man named Jack Ruby
at the Dallas Police Department.
In fact, that shooting was
broadcast on live television.
I gotta say, kudos to that
camera guy for holding that shot
'cause if a gunshot went
off, all bets are off for me.
- I would throw the camera at the
ceiling, scream, and just run.
- Oh, I wouldn't think about anything--
- I'd go (screams).
- [Ryan] Returning to JFK, there are many
who have criticized the motorcade route,
believing it to have an
unusual amount of turns,
which would have caused the
motorcade to have to slow down.
The route was chosen by
Secret Service agents,
Winston G. Lawson and Forrest V. Sorrels.
Secret Servicemen sent
in advance to check out
the route noted that there were
over 20,000 windows overlooking the route.
But since they didn't have enough men
to station at every window, they opted
to inspect none of the
windows along the route.
- [Shane] (laughs) Not a good alternative.
- [Ryan] (laughs) I know.
"Eh, there's far too many.
"Eh, fuck it.
(Shane laughs)
"You know what, just call it a day."
- [Shane] "We don't have enough guys
"to look at all these windows.
"What if we just don't do shit?"
(Ryan laughs)
"Eh, sounds like a good idea."
- [Ryan] "But, sir, the President's
"gonna be coming to town."
"Eh, he won't care."
- [Shane] "What are they
gonna do, shoot 'em?"
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] One week after the assassination,
newly sworn-in President
and former Vice President,
Lyndon B. Johnson, created
a commission to investigate
the circumstances of the JFK assassination
and subsequent killing
of Lee Harvey Oswald.
This commission was to be headed
by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren
and staffed with other esteemed officials,
And while the official findings
of the commission believes
there was only one shooter, it
does have one thing in common
with numerous conspiracy theories,
that the shooter was Lee Harvey Oswald.
And with that, let's get
into the main theory,
which is the official ruling
by the Warren Commission
that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated
JFK alone, with no conspiracy involved.
Let's get into the background
of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald had been in Russia in 1959
and had tried to renounce
his American citizenship.
Oswald had a history of
violence from a young age.
He once chased a
half-brother with a knife.
And while in the Marine Corps,
where he spent three years,
he became qualified as a
sharpshooter with the M-1 rifle.
Oswald, a Dallas resident, was actually
under active surveillance
by the FBI office in Dallas.
However, the local FBI
strangely did not inform
the Secret Service about Oswald.
This is especially shocking considering
the fact that Oswald was employed
at the Texas School Book Depository,
a location right along
the motorcade route,
from where Oswald would
eventually fire the fatal shots
from the southeast corner
of the sixth floor window.
However, to be fair, the
Secret Service did not inform
the local FBI office of
the motorcade route either.
So, this was a mishandling
on both of their parts.
They didn't clue the Secret Service in.
"Hey, there's kind of like a guy
"who's kind of crazy, hates America,
"sharpshooter, right along
where you're gonna be."
But then again, I guess
they wouldn't know that
because the Secret Service didn't let
the FBI know of the motorcade route,
which would be the first thing,
or one of the first things I would do.
- Communication is important
in all fields, right?
- Do you think I'm being too harsh--
- [Shane] No, I don't think so.
- In thinking that these were obvious
steps that should have been taken?
- I think if you were in
one of those departments,
Jack Kennedy would probably
still be alive today.
- Wow, that's that's high praise.
So you think I could've
saved the President?
- You know what, I'll give you it.
I think you could've saved him.
- [Ryan] Here are direct quotes
from the Warren Commission
in regards to evidence proving
Oswald was the shooter.
Quote, "The Mannlicher-Carcano
6.5-millimeter Italian rifle
"from which the shots
were fired was owned by
"and in the possession
of Oswald," end quote.
This was determined due to the fact
that there was a nearly
whole bullet recovered
from Governor Connally's stretcher,
and two bullet fragments in the
car that matched that rifle.
Quote, "To the exclusion of
all other weapons," end quote.
The rifle was found hidden
near the sixth floor window,
as well as three bullet cartridges
matching the three shots heard.
Continuing with the
commission's evidence, quote,
"Oswald had attempted to kill
Major General Edwin A. Walker
"on April 10th, 1963,
thereby demonstrating
"his disposition to take
human life," end quote.
So, this isn't his first big hit job.
- [Shane] No.
- [Ryan] The first one he missed.
Imagine he trained like a madman,
so that he wouldn't miss again.
- [Shane] Man, he's gotta
be good though, right?
- [Ryan] I mean, he hit two for three.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Furthermore,
Oswald unquestionably
also killed Dallas policeman
J. D. Tippit with a revolver
approximately 45 minutes
after the assassination.
This is backed up by eyewitness testimony
and also due to the cartridge cases found
at the scene belonging
to a revolver on Oswald
at the time of his arrest,
among other things as well.
So, he also killed somebody
right after the assassination.
- [Shane] At that point though, you know.
- [Ryan] I mean, you killed the President.
Everything else is below that.
- [Shane] Yeah, it's like,
when you eat a big meal
and then have a little snack afterward.
- [Ryan] Yeah, like if you
go eat Chipotle for lunch,
might as well have a muffin after.
- [Shane] Might as well have a muffin.
- [Ryan] You're already
doing damage to your body.
Might as well finish the job.
- Do you think he uttered
the phrase, "Might as well"?
- (laughs) As he did it?
With all that in mind, it seems
pretty clear that Oswald was the shooter.
However, many have wondered
if Oswald acted alone.
Unfortunately, due to
the fact that Oswald was
killed by Jack Ruby, we
may never know for sure.
And while it should be noted
that the Warren Commission
found no evidence that Ruby or Oswald
were part of a conspiracy
to kill the President,
it's natural to wonder if Ruby may
have killed Oswald to keep him quiet.
The Warren Commission also found, quote,
"No evidence that Oswald was involved
"with any person or group in a conspiracy
"to assassinate the President," end quote.
The Warren Commission
was firm in their belief
that Oswald was the sole shooter.
To examine that, let's take
a closer look at the scene
of the crime, and more
specifically, the bullets fired.
The Warren Commission believes
that there were only three bullets fired
with these three subsequent results.
The first bullet missed,
the second bullet hit JFK
in the neck and also
hit Governor Connally,
and the third bullet
was the fatal headshot.
The second bullet, in particular,
is the most controversial,
and that the Warren Commission
posits it hit both JFK and Connally.
This idea is referred to
as the magic bullet theory.
The Commission theorizes that
from the sixth floor window,
the bullet entered through
the back of JFK's neck,
exiting downward, then
entered through Connolly's
right side of his back,
exited below his right nipple,
then entered and exited
through Connolly's right wrist,
and, finally, ended in
Connolly's left thigh.
They even concluded that
the nearly full bullet found
in Connally's stretcher
was this second bullet.
However, this magic bullet,
as it's often referred
to online, has been met with
a fair share of skepticism.
The main point of contention
is that many believe
the trajectory from the sixth
floor window is impossible.
Yet, computer renderings of the event
have shown that it is indeed possible
when you consider that
Governor Connally was
sitting on a lower seat than Kennedy,
and also when you consider
their body positions.
That being said, I do
find it hard to believe
that this so-called magic
bullet would be nearly intact
after traveling through two bodies.
- That first one went through JFK's--
- Neck.
- Neck, oh!
- Out the front.
- Christ!
- Through Connolly's back, right here,
under his nipple, came out there.
It went through his right wrist
that was sitting like this.
- Boof!
- Went through that,
landed in his left thigh and stayed there.
- That's a lot for one bullet.
- And a lot for one bullet to stay intact.
- Yeah.
- [Ryan] Interestingly, the
Warren Commission claims
the magic bullet theory is not integral
to their theory that Oswald
was the sole shooter.
However, when you examine the
frames of the Zapruder film,
it shows that there was
not enough time for Oswald
to fire two shots within the time span
that JFK and Connally were first hit.
Basically, if the magic
bullet theory isn't true,
then there had to be two shooters.
Do you follow that?
- [Shane] Yeah.
- [Ryan] Makes sense, right?
- [Shane] Yeah, so I'm just gonna
guess it's a single bullet, then.
- I mean, now let me disprove
the single-bullet theory.
- Okay, I'll let you do that.
- (laughs) Okay.
Taking that into consideration,
let's attempt to disprove
the magic bullet theory.
Here is a quote from Governor Connally
in a 1966 interview with Life Magazine.
Quote, "There is my absolute
knowledge, and Nellie's too,
"that one bullet caused the
President's first wound,
"and that an entirely separate
shot struck me," end quote.
As stated before, if this is true,
then it had to be two shooters.
Let's also look at the
testimony of James T. Tague,
a spectator along the motorcade route
who claims that a stray bullet
hit the sidewalk near him
and a fragment of that bullet
struck him in the cheek.
There was in fact a mark
on the sidewalk that,
according to the Warren Commission report,
quote, "Could have originated from the
"lead core of a bullet," end quote.
This potential stray bullet is noteworthy
because Tague claims this
stray bullet was actually
the second shot and not the first shot,
which is particularly damning
to the magic bullet theory,
which posits that the magic
bullet was the second shot
and the missed bullet was the first.
So either Tague
misinterpreted the situation
or there were more than
three bullets fired.
And if you recall, there was
only three cartridges found
by Oswald's window in the
Texas School Book Depository,
so that would suggest
more than one shooter.
Furthermore, in the 1970s, a
new acoustic research technique
was used to analyze the
audio of the shooting,
which found six points
in the audio that could
contain echo patterns
similar to those of gunfire.
This further suggests that there may
have been more than one shooter.
There's even supposedly footage
of the JFK assassination
from an angle different
than the Zapruder film.
This alternate footage reportedly shows
a now infamous grassy
knoll in the background.
People who have seen the footage claim
to see anything from puffs of gun smoke
or a second shooter located
on the grassy knoll.
However, this footage has
supposedly gone missing.
- [Shane] (sighs) I know
people want to figure this out,
and that people wanted justice,
but this just seems like a lot of work.
- [Ryan] Have I not made
great points here, though?
- [Shane] Yeah, you have,
but it's like, I don't know.
It's not gonna bring him back to life.
It's not gonna put his head back together.
- [Ryan] Well, wouldn't you
like to know what happened?
Do you really want to go on
the rest of your life thinking
it was the sole actions of a madman
and not a larger part of a
conspiracy or a bigger thing?
- I'm content with that, I guess.
Here's the thing, if it was a conspiracy,
if it was a secretive group
operating, they did a great job.
I commend them.
- (laughs) No, this isn't--
- Hey, you fooled us.
Let's move on, you know?
- [Ryan] Cynthia Nix
Jackson, the granddaughter
of the person who took the film,
sued the US government for $10 million
in 2015 for the return of the film.
Apparently, this film has not been seen
since the House Select Committee
on Assassinations in 1978.
This committee, by the
way, was formed in 1976
to conduct an investigation
into the assassinations
of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr.
Why it was formed is
of particular interest.
The House Select Committee
on Assassinations was formed
after a Senate committee confirmed
that the CIA had purposefully
withheld information
from the Warren Commission investigation.
The information withheld involved
plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.
The House Select Committee
on Assassinations concluded
in 1978 that scientific
acoustical evidence established
a high probability that
two gunmen had shot at JFK.
Also, here's a direct quote
from the committee's findings.
Quote, "The committee
believes on the basis
"of the evidence available to it,
"that President John
F. Kennedy was probably
"assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.
"The committee is unable to
identify the other gunmen
"or the extent of the
conspiracy," end quote.
That's the government
concluding that, not me.
- [Shane] Yeah, again, I'm good with that.
- [Ryan] (laughs) You seem just so,
I don't know, I don't know what--
- [Shane] You know, I trust
whatever anybody says about it.
If the CIA is withholding information
that they don't want us
to know, great, you know?
- That's a major bomb just
being dropped right there
and you seem indifferent to it.
How is that not like, holy shit?
How are the gears not turning
in your brain now going,
"What else are they withholding?"
- JFK made a tonne of enemies.
That guy was shady as hell.
- Oh my god, what is this
gonna turn to, a character--
- I'm just saying, if you go around
doing shady shit, you know, that's not--
- I mean, I think every president
has had to do some shady shit.
- Well, for sure.
- [Ryan] When considering the conclusions
of this committee, the acoustic evidence,
the testimonies of Connolly and Tague,
and the shaky premise of
the magic bullet theory,
there is evidence to
suggest multiple shooters.
It seems quite likely that there is
more to this story than Lee Harvey Oswald
killing the President
with no clear motive.
That being said, let's
break out the tinfoil hat
and get into some conspiracy
theories, and trust me,
you're gonna want to stick
around for the last one.
The first theory is that Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson
had JFK assassinated for
political gain in power.
Before Kennedy was
elected, LBJ had attempted
to take the Democratic nomination from JFK
at the 1960 Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles.
According to the book
The Death of a President,
LBJ asked the President to continue doing
part of his old job as Texas Senator,
which basically meant LBJ
was bored and emasculated
by the showy office of Vice President
as opposed to the actual power he had held
while being the Majority
Leader of the Senate.
There were also rumors
that LBJ might be dropped
from the reelection
ticket the following year.
LBJ and JFK also apparently had words
the day before the assassination.
LBJ also played a big part in Kennedy
going to Dallas in the first place.
LBJ no longer had political
control of Texas, which was
an important swing state
necessary for JFK's reelection.
As a result, JFK
reluctantly went to Dallas
to try and solve the
Texas political crisis.
Texas was LBJ's home turf, and JFK felt
LBJ should have had it handled.
LBJ's right-hand man
had actually been warned
by a high-profile Texas
lawyer named Byron Skelton
that the political climate
in Dallas was not safe
and that he feared for
the President's safety
but the President was not informed,
though this information was also received
by other officials close to JFK,
including JFK's brother Robert Kennedy.
One incident that proponents
of this LBJ theory point to
involves a woman named Madeleine Brown,
who claimed to have an affair with LBJ.
Brown claimed that she
attended a party with LBJ,
Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover
the night before JFK's assassination.
She claimed that LBJ had
whispered into her ear, quote,
"After tomorrow, those Kennedys
"will never embarrass me again.
"That's no threat.
"That's a promise," end quote.
- [Shane] Jesus.
(Ryan chuckles)
That's compelling.
I guess that's a character
witness so you don't really know.
I get the vibe that LBJ, he was President
so obviously he's an intelligent man,
but he also just seems
like kind of a idiot.
(Ryan laughs)
He was always walking
around with his pants off.
- [Ryan] Yeah, that's true.
- [Shane] He doesn't seem
like the mastermind type.
- What stock do you
put into this admission
from her or this claim by her?
I'm curious.
- If I'm LBJ and I've got my
illicit arm-charm out for the evening
with Tricky Dick next to me
and old J. Edgar Hooves--
- (laughs) Tricky Dick.
- I'm not gonna whisper into her ear,
"Hey, the President's gonna die tomorrow."
- I can't get over you calling
Richard Nixon, Tricky Dick.
- That's what everybody called him.
- Is that what--
- Oh, Tricky Dick!
- Tricky Dick?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I will say the quote seems
a little on the nose for me.
- [Shane] Yeah.
- Why would someone say it so specifically
when they're trying to pull off
one of the biggest coups in history?
LBJ was on the Texas trip the night
before the assassination, where his
movements were heavily documented.
Therefore, it's not
possible that this exchange
with Madeleine Brown happened.
Furthermore, while there is evidence
that LBJ wasn't happiest as
VP, there is nothing to support
the theory that he had JFK assassinated.
He even helped form the Warren Commission.
- [Shane] LBJ seemed
like a cool, cool guy.
- [Ryan] Well, you just said
he seems like a dumb ass.
- [Shane] Yeah, he does,
but he's like a bro.
- [Ryan] (laughs) You could
knock a cold one back with him?
- Yeah.
- Play some pong?
- [Shane] Just 'cause you're
a bit of a, you know--
- He was probably a
meathead back in the day.
- A meathead, he's a meathead.
- He's a meathead.
- He's a jock.
- Yeah, he's a jock.
Okay, I'm good with that.
- I don't think any Vice President has
accomplished anything throughout history.
- In that respect, I don't think
he had the moxie to pull off this.
- No.
- [Ryan] The second theory
is that the Russians
were behind President
Kennedy's assassination.
Obviously, there was tension between
the two nations with the Cold War.
Lee Harvey Oswald had tried to defect
to the Soviet Union
before, and some theorize
that he could have been
acting as a KGB agent.
Oswald was also inexplicably
at the Russian Embassy
in Mexico City a few weeks
before the Kennedy assassination.
Though, it's worth mentioning that Oswald
would not be a smart option
for the Russians to use
since he would immediately
cast suspicions on Russia
due to his well-known Russian ties.
- [Shane] Unless they're
doin' a double bluff.
- [Ryan] I wouldn't do that.
- [Shane] Huh, huh, what about that?
- [Ryan] Well, I mean,
look at it logically.
- [Shane] "Why would we hire Oswald?"
- [Ryan] (laughs) "Why would we hire
"Oswald when he clearly likes us?"
- [Shane] (laughs) Yeah.
- From a logic perspective,
we're in this Cold War
with them for about 10 years now.
There's always the threat of nuclear war.
Why the fuck would they even chance hiring
a person with Russian ties
to assassinate the President
when they know the finger
would be pointed at them?
And then if someone were to find out
that Russia assassinated our
President, that's immediate--
- War, baby, yeah.
- Yeah, we all die.
- Yeah.
- That's not Vladimir Putin fucking
whispering sweet nothings
into Trump's ear.
That's him blowing someone's head off.
- [Shane] Right.
- [Ryan] The third theory is
that the mob assassinated Kennedy.
Three different mob
groups separately claimed
that they were responsible
for JFK's assassination:
the Chicago mob, the Miami
mob, and the New Orleans mob.
As Attorney General, Robert
Kennedy had made moves
against organized crime
possibly, possibly angering them.
Jack Ruby, the man who
killed Lee Harvey Oswald,
was a Dallas nightclub owner who some
theorize had Mafia connections.
Some even believe that the
mob was working in collusion
with the CIA to carry out the Kennedy hit.
In 2015, an imprisoned former Mafia hitman
named James Files claimed to have been
the second shooter in the assassination,
saying he was part of
a plot in collaboration
between the Mafia and the CIA.
However, there's no
evidence supporting this.
Perhaps the most compelling
aspect to the mob and CIA theory
comes from JFK's supposed
ties to Sam Giancana,
the head of the Chicago
Syndicate at the time.
JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, supposedly
worked with Sam Giancana
in the bootlegging
industry during the Prohibition.
There have also been rumors
that Giancana and the mob helped
JFK win the 1960 election
in the first place.
JFK and Giancana also
reportedly shared a mistress
at different times, named
Judith Campbell Exner.
In fact, in 1975, Giancana was supposed
to testify to a Senate committee
about his role in a CIA assassination plot
when he himself was assassinated.
It makes you wonder if someone
was trying to keep him quiet.
But why even claim it then?
- [Shane] Eh.
- [Ryan] Why would he even make that up?
Do you think maybe he was
just trying to up his cred,
like in prison, like,
"Yeah, I whacked Kennedy."
- [Shane] Yeah, this happens a lot,
people always just claiming--
- [Ryan] Yeah, but I feel like
if you're gonna claim something,
maybe claim you killed some dude
carrying groceries down the alleyway.
Don't just claim I killed JFK.
- [Shane] (laughs) Right?
- [Ryan] I feel like nothing
good could come of that.
- [Shane] Everyone just kinda
rolls their eyes at him.
- [Ryan] "How could I make my prison
"sentence a life sentence, huh?
- [Shane] "I killed God."
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] Speaking of the
CIA, let's move to our fourth
and final theory, that
the CIA was ultimately
behind the assassination of JFK.
Allen Dulles, the former head of the CIA,
was actually on the Warren Commission,
and, as mentioned before, the CIA
withheld information from that commission.
The CIA now refers to this as a,
quote, "Benign coverup," end quote.
There are plenty of
wild theories out there
for possible motives for the
CIA assassinating Kennedy.
Some feel that JFK may
have found out that the CIA
had a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro,
and the CIA felt threatened that Kennedy
might have a different
agenda or even disband them,
so they plotted to assassinate him.
Yeah, possible, I'm not gonna say
this one's out of the
realm of possibility.
- [Shane] There were a bunch of
attempts on Castro's life, right?
- [Ryan] Oh yeah.
- [Shane] Exploding cigar?
- [Ryan] There was also
the Bay of Pigs invasion.
- [Shane] Yeah, not great.
- [Ryan] We all know how that went.
Forensic historian Patrick
Nolan wrote a book entitled
CIA Rogues and the
Killing of the Kennedys,
in which he theorizes that
four high-level agents
not only planned the shooting,
but three of them fired four
shots during the assassination.
People also feel that the CIA could have
picked Oswald to carry out the hit,
as he was a known communist
and Russian sympathizer.
Another possible CIA motive was that,
after the failed Bay of
Pigs invasion into Cuba,
the CIA underwent personnel changes
at the hand of Kennedy,
which may have upset them.
Blaming something on
the CIA is essentially
pointing a finger at a shadow.
There's nothing we know about them,
and there's nothing we
ever will know about them.
- [Shane] We won't.
I think maybe that's
why I'm so comfortable
with just never knowing
on this and hanging it up
because there's just unknowables.
There's people who are good
at covering their tracks.
The CIA is very, very good at
operating in total secrecy.
- [Ryan] Yeah, the CIA
doesn't even leave tracks.
They're the boogeyman of the world.
- They probably control more of our
daily life than we'd ever know.
They're pulling strings,
it's all I'm saying.
- It's pointless to point the finger
at them is what I'm saying.
You could say it's anybody at that
point 'cause it doesn't matter.
You're making a baseless conclusion.
You could say it's fucking
Limecat or something.
- Limecat?
- You know, the cat that has a lime cut
in half and he wears it as a helmet.
He's the person who pulled
the trigger, or she.
I don't know if Limecat's--
- An internet photo?
- Yeah, yeah, Limecat killed JFK.
That's what I'm saying.
- Do people call that Limecat?
- [Ryan] Yeah, it's Limecat.
- Isn't it a cantaloupe or something--
- [Ryan] No, it's a lime.
- It's a lime?
- Oh, I don't know, is it Limecat?
I'm pretty sure it's Limecat.
- I've never heard someone
refer to this cat so casually.
- [Ryan] Also during that
Bay of Pigs invasion,
Kennedy refused to offer
additional US military support
despite the CIA offering an
umbrella of air protection.
The explicit use of the word umbrella
unlocks one controversial
wrinkle to this CIA theory.
This wrinkle, which is
popular in conspiracy circles,
is that Lee Harvey Oswald acted
with a potential CIA operative,
referred to as the Umbrella Man.
- [Shane] Whoa, I love names like that!
- [Ryan] Oh, it's not just a name.
It is very practical.
- [Shane] The Umbrella Man.
- [Ryan] There's no creative
input into this name.
It's all practical.
- [Shane] I fucking love that!
- [Ryan] Oh man, I can't wait--
- [Shane] The Umbrella Man?
- [Ryan] Oh, I love it, too.
I can't wait to tell you--
- [Shane] Oh, baby, the Umbrella Man!
- [Ryan] Don't call me baby, but yeah.
In the Zapruder film and other photos
taken at the time of the
shooting, you can see
one lone man holding an open
umbrella above his head.
At a glance, this may
seem fairly innocuous,
but there are two things
that make it unusual.
The first is that it wasn't raining,
and despite it raining in
Dallas the night before,
nobody in the crowd, as far as pictures
and media can tell, had an umbrella.
The second and more dubious
occurrence is the fact
that Kennedy is struck by the first bullet
at the moment his car passes
in front of this umbrella man.
Also in that moment, some
believe that the Umbrella Man
appears to lift his umbrella a foot or so.
Both of these things in conjunction
have led some to believe that the umbrella
was a signal to another gunman,
or that the umbrella itself
was a spy-like weapon
that could fire darts, perhaps explaining
the slight hole in JFK's neck.
- [Shane] He's like Oswald Cobblepot?
- [Ryan] Yeah, he's like James Bond
and this is a new weapon that M--
- [Shane] No, he's like the Penguin.
- [Ryan] Or the Penguin.
- [Shane] The Penguin
had a gun, a gun-brella.
(Ryan laughs)
I do want to ask, though.
The term, umbrella, in the previous
quote is what links that, why?
Is that just an innocuous link there?
Was that a segue from
you, or are people like,
"That proves that this is a--"
- [Ryan] It's a segue and it's
somewhat proof in conspiracy circles.
- [Shane] Okay, well, that's a grasp.
- [Ryan] If the CIA said they were gonna
offer an umbrella of air protection
and Kennedy said, "Nah, you ain't."
- [Shane] Mm-hm, okay, well, that--
- [Ryan] And then--
- [Shane] So that's very tenuous.
- [Ryan] And then they're like,
"All right, we're gonna kill
you with an umbrella, then."
- [Shane] Uh-huh.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Ryan] As outlandish as this may seem,
a Department of Defense weapons developer
named Charles Senseney
incredibly testified
to the Senate Intelligence Committee
that a form of this wacky umbrella weapon
exists because he designed it.
Senseney described an umbrella-like weapon
that could silently fire darts.
One JFK book author named Jim Marrs
also claimed that these darts were fired
through the umbrellas webbing when opened.
Furthermore, there are pictures that show
the umbrella closed before
and after the assassination.
But during the assassination,
the umbrella was clearly open
as Kennedy passed the Umbrella Man.
- [Shane] The Umbrella Man strikes.
Yeah, I don't think you have to
sell me any more on this, Ryan.
I was all-in once you mentioned
the words, Umbrella Man.
- [Ryan] What do you
think about the umbrella
only being able to fire
through the webbing of the--
- [Shane] Great, I'm on board.
- [Ryan] That's pretty
fucking cool, right?
- [Shane] Look, you could
convince me any of anything
in the world if you just
use the words, Umbrella Man.
If you say, "Amelia Earhart,
her plane was attacked
"by an Umbrella Man and
he took her to space,"
I'd say, "That sounds about right."
- [Ryan] Also suspicious is the fact
that, after the shooting,
while other spectators
fled the scene, this Umbrella Man,
along with another man,
sat down next to each other
on the curb, seemingly undisturbed.
However, a possible explanation came
from the purported Umbrella Man himself.
This man was a man
named Louie Steven Witt,
who came forward to the
Senate committee to testify,
even bringing the umbrella along with him.
He claimed that the umbrella
was a symbol of protest
to JFK's father Joseph Kennedy.
Witt was not a fan of Joseph Kennedy's
appeasement policies when
Joseph was ambassador
to the Court of St. James in 1938 to 1939.
So, as a symbol of protest,
Witt used an umbrella,
a reference to the signature accessory
of Neville Chamberlain, who promoted
appeasement as Prime Minister of England.
Witt also explains that he
only opened the umbrella
when he believed Kennedy could see it.
And as odd as this may
seem, throughout history,
many people, both in England and America,
have used umbrellas as
a symbol of protest.
Even the paranoid former President Nixon
banned his aides from having umbrellas
when he was Vice President to Eisenhower
for fear of having a visual link
to the unpopular policy of appeasement.
- [Shane] I'm fed up with this guy.
Also, oh, he shows up to court
and says, "No, this is the umbrella.
(Ryan laughs)
"I couldn't possibly have two umbrellas."
- [Ryan] By the way, no
follow up from this testimony,
none of them searching
his house, nobody's saying
and confirming that this
is the Umbrella Man.
It's just a guy saying
this flimsy little excuse
about some history
lesson that he probably,
I guess he couldn't Googled it,
but he he could have went to
the local history professor.
- [Shane] Absolutely shameful.
- [Ryan] I don't know.
I find it very weak.
The supposed Umbrella Man, Witt,
also claimed that the umbrella blocked
his view of Kennedy being assassinated,
thus explaining his
apparent state of calm,
or shock, as he described it, as he sat
on the curb after the shooting.
but some have claimed this
isn't proven in the footage
Perhaps Louis Stephen Witt
is in fact the umbrella man
and this is all a misunderstanding
or perhaps Witt is a puppet for
the CIA to cover its tracks.
Nobody can say definitively which is true.
- [Shane] Fucking Umbrella Man.
- [Ryan] Like I just can't
believe that that's his excuse
I couldn't see it I didn't
see it I heard the gunshots
I saw everyone running and I thought
oh it must be part of the parade
- [Shane] It was a very
parade I didn't see
the part where the president
got shot in the head.
- [Ryan] In the end people
continue to speculate
on what truly have been in Dallas that day
A 2003 ABC News poll conducted
years after JFK's assassinations
found that approximately
% of Americans believed
there was some sort of
plot behind the killings
Only 32% accepted the
Warren Commission's findings
And 51% believe there was
a second gunman involved
In 1973 LBJ told the Atlantic
quote, "I never believed
"that Oswald acted alone,
although I can accept
"that he pulled the trigger," end quote
I just can't believe
that one single douchebag
could assassinate a president
- Yeah he's not a very
good villain, right?
- No.
He doesn't even have a scary outfit.
- No he's got like a nice smart sweater
and he's got like trendy hair.
It's, like, perfectly greasy.
- Side note what do you think
Lee Harvey Oswald used his hair?
I gotta get some of that.
- Some good pomade.
- Some gentleman's pomade right there.
- Well I guess we'll never know
what happened in Dallas that day.
- Limecat.
- Limecat.
- [Ryan] Limecat.
Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone?
Was there other gunmen?
Perhaps the mysterious umbrella man?
And if there were, who
were they working for?
The horrific assassination
of John F Kennedy will remain unsolved.
