The Umbrella Man and Other Stories: What We Talk About When We Talk About the JFK Assassination

by Martin Fitzgerald

Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be downtown, on Main Street. News footage shows office workers leaning out of windows, peering at the motorcade through a blizzard of ticker tape. On the sidewalks, the crowds are fifty deep, a wall of noise and celebration. Everyone thinks this is the place to be.

A few blocks away, in Dealey Plaza, the air is different. There is no ticker tape here. The crowds are thin. The only person filming is a dressmaker balanced on a concrete plinth. In this quiet corner, there's a man opening an umbrella even though it isn't raining, a construction worker in a hard hat who claims he was sent here by God, three tramps who stand on the verge of becoming suspects, an unidentified witness known only as the Babushka Lady, and many more.

This is not a book about conspiracies or a lone gunman. This is a book about memory, about how we construct our shared history, and about what happens when your life is defined by a single, fleeting moment. It's about a group of real people who opted out of the main event before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, only to find themselves accidental witnesses to the most scrutinised six seconds of the twentieth century.

Genres: Nonfiction

322 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2026

Reviews

[Theresa Bladon]

I heard about this book on a podcast the author was talking about it

What makes this book special is how real it feels. It doesn’t read like a typical history book. Instead, it shares honest memories from people who were actually there. The stories feel natural—sometimes emotional, sometimes even a bit funny. You don’t just read about the past, you feel like you’re hearing it from the people who lived it.

One of the best things about the book is its tone. It’s interesting and easy to read, with some warm and even funny moments. The humour doesn’t take away from the serious event—it just makes the people and their stories feel more real. They remember small, strange, and sometimes awkward details, which makes everything feel genuine.

The Umbrella Man and Other Stories isn’t just about the assassination—it’s about how people remember it and how it stayed with them. How being there at that moment then shaped their life. It’s a simple, engaging, and refreshing read

[William Connelly]

It is noted in one of the other reviews that this book is reminiscent of Craig Brown’s book on The Beatles - or Brown’s book on The Queen, for that matter. It is a way of telling a familiar story in a new way, speaking to the various characters, the side stories, the small incidentals until you eventually you form a larger picture, a new way of looking at it.

You don’t have to know anything about the JFK assassination to read this book. In fact, having tried a few JFK books and getting bogged down in various theories quite early on, this is a great foundation to the story and the assassination event itself. Enjoyable to both novice and expert. Well written with no agenda either way. Firmly agnostic.

[Nic]

Martin has done a wonderful thing with this book which is to guide the reader through a niche.. sub culture? Community? and simultaneously manages to not talk down to you or make it too complex. Just a perfect book about people, how we live and the impact of a moment.

[Graham Faulkner]

Absolutely outstanding and highly recommended. Not a subject where you’d expect a smile a page, but the ratio can’t be that far off. Loved it.

[Nia]

I’ve read many assassination books over the years but this is up there with my favorite. Such a different take on the “event”, very identifiable.

[Adrian Mackinder]

This is a sensational read. I literally could not put it down. Martin Fitzgerald has perfectly and eloquently tapped into a completely fresh take on the events in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Gone are the hackneyed investigations into who killed JKF, why and from which location. These questions are of little interest to the author, despite being a self confessed enthusiast on the subject who attends conventions in random stately homes. Martin knows, just like anyone with even the slightest interest in the Kennedy assassination, that these questions and potential answers are dull, repetitive and ultimately unanswerable.

Instead, this book brilliantly focuses on the lives of the random individuals who eschewed the main parade on Main Street and found themselves unwittingly a part of history by heading down to Dealey Plaza on that fateful day. This is their story. They had their unique reasons to be there, away from the throng, with some subsequently becoming key players in the many conspiracy theories, while others disappearing altogether. Who were they, what became of them, and what do their stories tell us about memory, trauma and lived experience?

This book is fascinating, accessible, funny, frequently surprising, deeply personal and at times moving account of the author's relationship with that most mercurial of tragedies which helped shape the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. If you're a JFK nut, passing enthusiast or know absolutely nothing about this other than a bloke got shot, this book is a must read. Get it now, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Pol Ó Muireadhaigh]

Hard to believe that given the sheer volume of books that have been written about the Assassination of JFK that 63 years after the event a completely unique and fresh take on the events in Dealy Plaza on 22nd November 1963 should surface. Martin Fitzgerald looks beyond the testimonies, grainy photos and home movies to tell the stories of those who witnessed the most pivotal 6 seconds of the 20th century. A book not so much about the assassination as it is about those who's lives were impacted by their completely chance proximity to the event. Some of the stories are heartbreaking others are heart warming some bizarre and even a few down right hilarious. People who before now were just names in the endless tomes of assassination literature or faces in grainy black and white photos leap fully formed and in vivid colour from the pages of this incredible book.

[Sandra]

This was an interesting and well written book. It is different to other assassination books I have read as it doesn't try to persuade you whether the assassination was carried out as a result of a conspiracy or solely through the actions of Lee Harvey Oswald. Instead the author examines, meets or tells the story of those who happened to be in the 'wrong place at the wrong' time i.e. Dealey Plaza when the shots were fired. He also meets people involved in researching the assassination or with some involvement with museums relating to the assassination.

I enjoyed it very much. Each chapter deals with a different meeting or witness. Easy to read and informative. Definitely recommend.

[Paul McFadyen]

It feels very wrong to describe a book built around the (first) Kennedy assassination as “lovely” but that’s probably the single most appropriate description - if you like warmth, humour, curiosity and an open hearted enthusiasm for a topic, then throw away any preconceptions about what sort of book this *could* have been and immerse yourself in this world.

Having been familiar with the author’s style going back to his Album Club blogging days, I can only say that this is a big step forward - highly recommended.

[Matthew Ingate]

Ostensibly a book about the JFK Assassination but actually much more than that. Charming, surprising, funny and thought-provoking, this is, at it's core, a very affirming book about human stories; individually and collectively, on a very short timescale (say, six seconds) or on a much longer one (for instance, sixty-three years).

Equally enjoyable if you have got your mind made up about who-dunnit already, if you don't care one way or the other, or if, like me, if you just want to read about a man with an umbrella, another one who forgot to take his camera to work, a woman dressed in lots of layers and a girl dressed in blue, or three (wait, make that four) bums all dressed in rags.

[Gary Fitzpatrick]

1963 and the Kennedy assassination has bamboozled many over the years. No one knows. Martin with his easy wit and effortless charm leads us through Dealey Plaza that morning and narrates a cast of many, coincidences and strangeness abound, unanswered questions become more complex, heads are scratched and I'm all in. Great book, brilliant writer - keeps it simple, tells the story in such an enjoyable way. His obsession is loaned to us and I'll happily get involved. Great stuff.

[Ross Jeffery]

Easily one of the best books around the JFK assassination.

Told in a way that doesn’t glorify the event or the conspiracies, but instead highlights the lives changed in those few seconds - how people were at the heart of this tragedy, and how people carried on, healed, moved forwards as a life (lives) were extinguished.

Utterly beguiling, insightful and full of passion - The Umbrella Man and Other Stories is a must read for all JFK and assassination / conspiracy theory enthusiasts.

[Terry]

An excellent book that doesn't as much give answers as lot of questions. The stories of those who where there on the day and wittnessed history and the investigation of those who were thereabout remains silent is fascinating. Fitzgerald leaves no stone unturned in this fascinating read. If you thought the film JFK was an eyeopen, this book is an amazing jaw dropper! Highly recommended!

[iCod]

I loved this book, could not stop reading it and had to ration myself towards the end because I was enjoying it so much. If you're looking for a book about who shot Kennedy you will be disappointed, however simultaneously delighted in the stories about witnesses of the Kennedy assassination. told with sincerity wit and conciseness, this is a fabulous book of the year so far for me.

[Louise]

I have read a lot of books about the JFK assassination. This one feels unique, a look at all the bit players in the assassination. I think it dragged a liitle with the present day latter half, but it was fun.

[Graham Dew]

Fantastic book, would highly recommend.

[Stella Savage]

Excellent book. A well written collection of stories that circle an event that we thought we had heard everything about. Written with humour, this really captured my interest.

[Alex McGuinness]

Loved it