Read Online Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs - Free Book Online Page B

Book Depository when the shots were fired. She stated: "The first impression I had was that the shots came from my right." To her right was the
Grassy Knoll.
    Also near the Stemmons Freeway sign were two of the most suspicious
characters in Dealey Plaza that day. Despite their activities and the fact
that both were captured in several photographs made at the time, this pair
was never mentioned publicly until the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation in the late 1970s.
     
Two Suspicious Men
    About the time that Kennedy was first hit by a bullet, two men standing
near each other on the north sidewalk of Elm Street acted most strangelyone began pumping a black umbrella while the other waved his right arm
high in the air. These and subsequent actions by this pair aroused the suspicions of researchers over the years, yet the initial federal investigation
ignored both men. Their activities are known only through analysis of
assassination photographs.

    As Kennedy's limousine began the gentle descent into Dealey Plaza, a
man can be seen standing near the street-side edge of the Stemmons
Freeway sign holding an open umbrella. He holds the umbrella in a normal
fashion and the top of the umbrella almost reaches the bottom of the sign.
    In photos taken minutes before Kennedy's arrival, the umbrella is closed
and, immediately after the shooting, pictures show the umbrella was
closed again. The man's umbrella was only open during the shooting
sequence. Furthermore, as seen in the Zapruder film, once Kennedy is
exactly opposite the man with the umbrella, it was pumped almost two feet
into the air and then lowered.
    At the same time, the second man-in photos he appears to be dark complected, perhaps a black man or Hispanic-raised his right hand into the
air possibly making a fist. This man was located on the outer edge of the
Elm Street sidewalk opposite the umbrella man, who was on the inner edge.
    The man with the open umbrella was the only person in Dealey Plaza
with an open umbrella. Under the warm Texas sun, there was no reason to
carry an open umbrella at that time.
    Two main theories have emerged concerning the "umbrella man" and
his activities that day. Assassination researcher Robert Cutler has long
maintained that the umbrella may have been a sophisticated weapon that
fired a dart or "flechette" filled with a paralyzing agent. Cutler's theory is
supported by the 1975 testimony of a CIA weapons developer who told the
Senate Intelligence Committee that just such an umbrella weapon was in
the hands of the spy agency in 1963.
    Charles Senseney, who developed weaponry for the CIA at Fort Detrick,
Maryland, described a dart-firing weapon he developed as looking like an
umbrella. He said the dart gun was silent in operation and fired through the
webbing when the umbrella was open. Senseney said the CIA had ordered
about fifty such dart weapons and that they were operational in 1963.
    Cutler theorized that the umbrella was used to fire a paralyzing dart into
Kennedy immobilizing him for marksmen with rifles. He claims this
theory accounts for the small puncture wound in Kennedy's throat described by Dallas doctors, but which was altered by the time of the
Bethesda autopsy. According to Cutler, this dart explains Kennedy's lack
of motion during the shooting sequence. Since such a weapon existed and
since both the actions of Kennedy and the "umbrella man" were consistent with the operation of such a weapon, Cutler's theory cannot be
completely dismissed.
    However, most assassination researchers prefer the alternative theory
that both of these suspicious men may have been providing visual signals
to hidden gunmen. This theory suggests that Kennedy was killed by a
crossfire coordinated by radiomen. The two men, who were among the closest bystanders to the President when he was first struck, gave signals
indicating that he was not fatally hit and therefore more shots were needed.

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