what happened to the zapruder film

But the Z-film record still stands. But Jackson, Nix's granddaughter and author of 2014's Orville Nix: The Missing JFK Assassination Film, wants the long-lost original last believed to be in the possession of the House . Here are a few examples: Emmett Hudson, Dealey Plaza groundskeeper: He associates the second shot he heard with the head wound. For years we were deceived about the chain of custody of the Zapruder film. William Newman and his family were the closest to Kennedy when he was shot. Maybe someone blocked out the rear of JFK's head with black on some frames. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. It looks like the limo slows, then accelerates. For some reason, though, they never discussed their mutual involvement in the events of November 22, 1963. Despite the film's pro-Stones bias, Selvin notes that the . Keep in mind that this film was never intended to be released to the public. This claim is significant, because if the limo had stopped AFTER the shooting sequence, it could be argued that it stopped because Jackie was on the trunk or to give agents on the followup car a chance to reach the limo. The vagaries of eyewitness testimony are well known. Reymond also claimed that he had seen the version through a friend of his who was a member of a right wing group in France called ETEC. Ive always had the objection that the film clearly shows the back and to the left movement. Z-381, Z-382, Z-383, Z-384, Z-385, Z-386, Z-387, Z-388, Z-389, Z-390, Z-391, Z-392, Z-393, Z-394, Z-395, Z-396. Governor Connally was also shot, though he made a full recovery. I recall one researcher saying that the Elsie Dorman was the worst photographer ever. She said, As I snapped the picture I heard a shot ring out Then I heard another shot ring out and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up in the car I heard three or four shots in all., Sheriff William Decker, who was in the lead car, which was so far to the west it was almost at the underpass, said, As the Motorcade was proceeding down Elm Street, I distinctly remember hearing 2 shots. In 1994, the footage was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". McCormick had been at the Trade Mart waiting for the president to arrive when he heard of the shooting. Only one person filmed from start to finish the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred in a matter of seconds at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963 on Elm Street in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, TX. He didn't start filming again until he could see the president and the first lady coming toward him in the car. Kennedys limousine was surrounded by nine motorcycle policemen: five in front, and four more close behind two on each side putt-putting away. The first opportunity Americans had to see it was on Mar. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, 20th Century American History, JFK assassination. There have been many people who have claimed to have seen an unaltered complete filming of the assassination. Abe Zapruder had no idea when he took his 8-millimeter camera down to Dealey Plaza that he would record President Kennedy's assassination. Soon after, Hill was asked, Was there anything back there that you observed, that she might have been reaching for? His response: I thought I saw something come off the back, too, but I cannot say that there was. Whatever went on, it does seem we have missing images, the Elm turn and the limo stop and the obvious conclusion being dark arts were being practiced. Zapruder was one of at least 32 people in Dealey Plaza known to have made film or still photographs at or around the time of the shooting. Erin Blakemore is a journalist from Boulder, Colorado. I dont know if you have ever laid down close to the ground when you heard the reports coming, but its a whole lot plainer than it is when you are standing up in the air. The latter suggestive that there was Secret Service complicity in the assassination of President Kennedy. For more on this, go here.). You may be wondering at this point: How could anyone with normal hearing not have heard that first loud bang? As I heard the first retort [sic], I looked back over my shoulder and saw what appeared to me to be a spray of water come out of the rear seat of the Presidents car.. I suspect a more complex film simulation could be created to simulate the sequence I describe. Ergo, a lone gunman with a single-shot bolt action rifle could not have accomplished both shots. The Truth Behind JFK's Assassination. There is another, more sinister explanation for the confusion and discrepancies when it comes to the number and location of shots. And to orient yourself even more, check out the view in real time from the alleged snipers nest in the Texas Book Depository Building: Earthcam of Dealey Plaza. These are physical even visceral connections he makes with the time JFKs head came apart. Zapruder recovered eventually, and the two talked periodically. Zapruder, armed with his Super Eight camera, filmed what would be the only movie footage of the assassination. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. 6, 1975, when a bootleg copy of the film was broadcast on nationwide TV on ABCs Goodnight America show, hosted by Geraldo Rivera. But a film can also be altered by simply deleting frames. Another piece of evidence is that we know the limo braked (brake lights came on) at the right time. [4][5] In a 2015 interview on Opie with Jim Norton, Rather stated that the story was a myth.[6]. According to an undated, unpublished transcript of an interview he had with the Dallas Times-Herald, Hargis told repeated:I felt blood hit me in the face, and the presidential car stopped immediately after that and stayed stopped about half a second, then took off at a high rate of speed. The people in the p. limo have been painted or blacked out. I heard a noise from my right rear, which to me seemed to be a firecracker. Pleased with the results, they asked for a 35 mm internegative to be made. I then copied the video and edited out the 2 second stop. I suspect the Presidents bodily movements make more sense as a function of braking and acceleration (with removed frames inbetween). Holland and Rush suggest that the pause could have had great significance for the interpretation of the assassination. A far cry from his original observation of a large gaping wound in the right rear.. Zapruder died in 1970, but Life Magazine later sold the film back to his family in 1975 for the token sum of $1.00. Have you ever wondered why no one on Houston Street or on Elm Street, except Abe Zapruder, filmed the p. limo from the passenger side? The film being "lost in the processing plant" destroys its chain-of-possession. He re-cranked the mechanism of the camera to "full wind" so that it would run for the maximum amount of time. Only one person filmed from start to finish the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred in a matter of seconds at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963 on Elm Street in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, TX. everybody was laying flat on the ground almost. I couldnt reconcile those differences. [20], Before the 1969 trial of Clay Shaw, a businessman from New Orleans, for conspiracy in connection with the assassination, a copy of the film made several generations from the original was subpoenaed from Time Inc. in 1967 by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison for use at Shaw's grand jury hearing. The camera had a governor control, so its speed was constant. For example, he said the bullet entered the back of the head [gestures to area low in the back of the head] and came out the front, causing a piece of bone to flip out, although it adhered to the scalp. There might have been one or two people still standing but I would say that ninety-eight percent of the people were still laying flat on the side of the hill.". Sitzman said that,"He ( Zapruder ) started filming.just before they came around the corner.". John Costella said the film was technically perfect except for small, technical changes in the film. The Russian-born Zapruder was a clothing manufacturer whose office sat across the street from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. JFK-MLK-RFK Assassinations. Based on the Elsie Dorman film, heres what I think really happened in the alteration of the Z film. "Some people were screaming," she said. . As a result, the Justice Department awarded the Zapruder family $16 million for the original print in 1999. But I think the top 3 prime suspects involved in JFK's death being set up were Jack Ruby and his organized crime, The Zapruder Film Mystery, the CIA, and the United States Government. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! A study suggests the 'grassy knoll' JFK assassination theory is bogus. Maybe someone blocked out the rear of JFK's head with black on some frames. Throw out 20% of the witnesses because they said something different. One other thing to be aware of is the position of the photographers, relative to each other and to the street. One can choose to believe the top piece of evidence convincing people there was a conspiracy was actually faked to suggest no conspiracy, or that people's memories are often in error. The model then calculated how the bullet would have acted when it entered President Kennedys skull if it came from behind. Apparently the team that worked on the second examination was given 16mm film and made up another, and possibly larger, series of frame prints, and that another set of briefing boards was also created. One of those officers who spoke to Baker was motorcycle officer James Chaney who told him thatfrom the time the first shot rang out, the car stopped completely, pulled to the left, and stopped. ( ibid. ) They killed him!' Many witness stories suggest JFK was hit more than once in the head in a flurry of shots fired close together. Plagued by nightmares of the films gruesome content, Zapruder only allowed the magazine to publish photos of the assassination footage on the condition that it remove frame 313the moment in which Kennedy is shot in the head. Chart from Military Armament Corporation. Re:R. Andrew Kiel-you are " Spot On ". One of the first-generation Secret Service copies was loaned to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Washington, D.C., which made a second-generation copy. This movement of the limousine is verified by witness Roy Truly, who testified that,"I saw the President's car swerve to the left and stop." In the following excerpts from Hills testimony before the Warren Commission, you will find specific reference points that seem to nail down the exact moment he heard the headshot. A lone nut! I thank Pamela Brown, a flautist and JFK assassination researcher, for her help in understanding certain aspects of Kennedys limousine. [36][37] The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza denies that the Zapruder film has been altered, or that any of the frames are missing from the film. b.) The 26-second Zapruder film of Kennedy's assassination marked the pre-dawn of the viral video . The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. "And then I realized," Abe said. It just couldn't be done. I believe that this experiment proves that the stop could have been edited out and the resulting film would show that the vehicle had only slowed down when it completely stopped.More evidence of editing: missing frames I found this very interesting, especially the frame that appeared to be split. --Michael J. Briggs , former editor-in-chief University Press of Kansas, publisher of The Zapruder Film and Breach of Trust "An impressive and staggering piece of investigative journalism. A small number of witnesses said shooting happened there. [30] Holland and Rush have pointed out that Zapruder temporarily stopped filming at around frame 132, when only police motorcycles were visible. XVIII. I combined the two versions: This editing out of the stop resulted in my finger looking like it just slowed down. And that moment does not show on the Zapruder film. The next part of the sequence always feels agonizingly long to me, even though it took place in seconds. There IS evidence that other films of the assassination have been tampered with as well. Asked about the origin of the second shot he heard: It was right, but I cannot say for sure that it was rear, because when I mounted the car it was it had a different sound than the first sound that I heard. I sometimes wonder if the original film had images of JFK being hit from the front PRIOR to disappearing behind the Stemmons sign, and 'jumping up' as some witnesses described. When theWarren Commission issued its report on the assassination in 1964, it concluded that Oswald had shot the president from behind. To the west of Willis, about three seconds later, Associated Press photographer James W. Altgens also took a photo of the motorcade. When dressmaker Abraham Zapruder brought his camera to see President John F. Kennedys motorcade pass through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, he could never have suspected that hed witness anassassinationor that his home movie would become one of the most watched and examined movies of all time. While serving as chief analyst of military records at the Assassination Records Review Board in 1997, Douglas Horne discovered that the Zapruder Film was exa. Frames were also published in color in the December 6, 1963 special "John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition", and in issues dated October 2, 1964 (a special article on the film and the Warren Commission report), November 25, 1966, and November 24, 1967. That person was a 58-year old Dallas dress manufacturer, Abraham Zapruder, who died in 1970. At first glance, the notion that the Zapruder film might have been tampered with seems far-fetched. A small number of those witnesses said shooting occurred on Main Street and Houston Street. To see a slow motion of the sequence showing Jackie on the trunk, please go here. I believe most folks would agree with that. I proved that. Josiah Thompson, author of Six Seconds in Dallas, said in his book, The present study seeks to make proper use of the photographs inasmuch as they constitute the only inviolable form of evidence. The last view of the passenger side of the p. limo was Jay Skaggs at the intersection of Houston and Main. [24], In April 1975, in settlement of a royalties suit between Time Inc. and Zapruder's heirs that arose from the ABC showing, Time Inc. sold the film's initial rendition and its copyright back to the Zapruder family for the token sum of $1. I'm thinking an independent team of nominal Secret Service agents (actually CIA?) Some years ago, the late JFK researcher/author Jim Marrs interviewed a man named William Reymond, a JFK author/researcher from France who claimed to have seen another version of the Zapruder film. This missing part of the film, the frames between Z 132 and Z 133, could contain frames for 21 seconds. James Norwood, a retired professor of Humanities, University of Minnesota, was perhaps the first to point out what seems to be a definitive discrepancy: In the Zapruder film of the assassination, Jackie goes only just beyond the middle of the trunk before retreating. This is why the images don't line up in the frame and why the edges of the frame don't line up when the images do. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Updated: March 18, 2019 | Original: April 26, 2018. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Abe answered that he would not speak about the film with anyone but the federal authorities. When the work was complete, Dino Brugioni reviewed the briefing boards and notes with his superior, Arthur Lundahl, whom he had called and requested come to the facility. Also, if pains were taken to set up alternate photographers shooting from Zapruder's POV, then there would already be a plan as to where to do the composite work after the film(s) left Dallas. 1960's. So, that's quite a conundrum. A U.S. District Court ruled in 1968 that the Time Inc. copyright of the Zapruder film was not violated by invoking the doctrine of fair use. The Zapruder film, the only continuous chronological visual record of the assassination, is the best available photographic evidence of the number and timing of the shots that struck the occupants of the Presidential limousine. OBTW, that's plenty of time for a limo stop. This is crudely done since I am not a film editor. There was a risk, however: He would need to set the telephoto lens on full zoom in order to get a clear view of them, and he worried that he would get dizzy standing up on the ledge while following them through the lens as they passed by. J.W. But he testified that he did so immediately after hearing the first shot. Again, why Elsie Dorman? The committee . Amateur films by Abraham Zapruder and Orville Nix do not agree with each other in at least one obvious way. Another spot was blocked by a tree. I believe the top half is the limo stopped and the bottom half when they get going. [35] Brugioni then stated the Zapruder film in the National Archives today, and available to the public, specifically frame 313, is an altered version of the film he saw and worked with on November 2324, the earlier of the two versions handled by the NPIC. But, there are other things to consider. Gil, Doug Horne's 5 volume set 'Inside the A.R.R.B.' [His secretary] Lillian remembered that "Everybody was going nuts, turning on the television. Since he suffered from vertigo, this was a real possibility. counts among the top reads on the JFKA & Vol.IV contains his work on Zapruder's film over the assassination weekend. Time Inc. filed a lawsuit against Thompson and his publishing company for copyright infringement. Statements by Zapruder and Marilyn Sitzman, the woman who assisted him while he operated his camera, suggested that he DID film the turn onto Elm Street. On Nov. 22, 1963, Zapruder, the co-owner of a women's clothing company, created one of history's most famous, and expensive, pieces of film, and forever linked his name with a great national . For decades, the Warrennati have cried out that the Zapruder film could not have been altered because it synchronizes with the Nix and Muchmore films. [32], The authenticity of the image in frame 313 was challenged by Douglas Horne, Senior Analyst for the Assassination Records Review Board and Dino Brugioni of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC). Consider the distance between Jackies right hand and the left handhold grasped by Clint Hill. The Zapruders went on to license the footage to several other sources, including filmmaker Oliver Stone, who used it in his 1991 film JFK. Stones film helped lead to the creation of the Assassination Records Review Board, which would later decide that the U.S. government should own all footage related to the Kennedy assassination. (From this version of the film.). Bystander Phillip L. Willis said, The shot caused me to squeeze the camera shutter, and I got a picture of the President as he was hit with the first shot. Officer B.J. Dallas, Texas November 22, 1963. Weitzman set up his own optical house and motion-picture postproduction facility later that year. Mary Moorman and James Altgens, their cameras loaded with black-and-white film, were positioned near the curb across the street from where Abe was standing. As I said earlier, this alteration method is based on the Elsie Dorman film. However, the chance of a leaked version ever seeing the light of day showing images of the limousine stopping during the assassination would have been infinitely more devastating to the Secret Service and would have been proof of SS complicity. The stories I find the most convincing are those involving a reference point associated with the sound of the shot, as shown in the case of Clint Hill. The Zapruder film, silent but in color, shows a motorcade led by two open-top limousines proceeding at a stately pace through a street lined with people. Hunt, the Dallas oil man. I. Her work has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, TIME, Smithsonian and more. There would be a difference between the viewers desired and the viewers who could conceivably see the composite. Additionally, Brugioni was certain that the set of briefing boards available to the public in the National Archives is not the set that he and his team produced on November 2324, 1963. How did they know that the first shot was fired at Frame 210 when frame 210 isn't in the film ?If the Zapruder film was altered, why for example, does it still show a headshot throwing JFK to the left and backward, indicating the shot came from the right front ? For an instant, the back of a freeway sign obscures the limousine, and then the Kennedys reappear. For an instant, Abe and Marilyn stood stunned on the concrete stump, paralyzed by what had just happened. And he associates a third shot with the way it sounded as he lay on the ground. Based on his model, Nalli also thinks that the theory of a second shooter and that of the president being shot by hollow-point or soft-point bullets are also unlikely. ". The film was used as evidence in the case against Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot Kennedy from a sixth-floor window at the Texas School Book Depository. That person was a 58-year old Dallas dress manufacturer, Abraham Zapruder, who died in 1970. Such a possibility may explain why those frames were removed. So instantaneous the crowd hadnt had time to react.. The fact that Brugioni got the original points toward some error made in releasing the film to him prematurely. Gil Jesus has created a simple simulation to show the effect of frame removal. Whereas witness reports can be in error.. Get a copy of the film, use good software, and look at each frame of the film. Photo credit: Ike Altgens / AP / Wikimedia. Zapruder was an active member of two CIA proprietary organizations, The Dallas Council On World Affairs, and The Crusade For A Free Europe. The first researcher to call attention to the possibility of a limousine stop was Mark Lane, who in his book A Citizens Dissent (1968) wrote:A considerable body of testimony before the [Warren] Commission indicated that the limousine slowed abruptly and then accelerated rapidly when the shots were fired. Simply the scene content of the inside of the p. limo. But it does provide perspective and landmarks in the background. To a large extent, the non-technical aspects of that discussion revolve around the questions of when and where any substitution or . Abraham Zapruder (May 15, 1905 - August 30, 1970) was a Ukrainian-born American clothing manufacturer who witnessed the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.He unexpectedly captured the shooting in a home movie while filming the presidential limousine and motorcade as it traveled through Dealey Plaza. If it is a small number of people as versus a large number, then folks are apt to go with the larger number using things like what is said above. JFK is hit in the head before he reaches the car, or so it appears on that badly damaged film. " Jackie recoils, her mouth open in horror, and suddenly she is climbing out of the open- top car, scrambling on the back hood of the limousine, met by Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who pushes her back down into the seat. [23], On March 6, 1975, on the ABC late-night television show Good Night America (hosted by Geraldo Rivera), assassination researchers Robert Groden and Dick Gregory presented the first-ever US network television showing of the Zapruder film. In recent interviews (here, here, here, and here), Hill revised what he reported in his sworn testimony. Rear wheel contact on Webb's back. If the film was edited, the last step in the editing process, reducing it back from 16mm to 8mm, could only have been done at one of the commerical venues or, more likely, at the "Hawkeye Works" lab at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY. Astudy published in the journal Helios corroborates that conclusion. Based upon the jotted-down notations found in the 1963 Datebook of an amoral clandestine government henchman, we now know the identities of some of the . "Life To Release Today Part of Kennedy Film", JFK Assassination Zapruder Stabilized Motion Panorama HD plus SloMo 50th anniversary, JFK Assassination Stabilized Motion Panorama HD Nix v Zapruder 50th anniversary (HD), National Archives and Records Administration, President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, Learn how and when to remove this template message, National Photographic Interpretation Center, List of photographs considered the most important, "The Other Shooter: The Saddest and Most Expensive 26 Seconds of Amateur Film Ever Made", "Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light", "World's Oldest Cub Reporter: Hewitt's Half Century at CBS", Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, Vol. On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson directed the Warren Commission to . Orville Nix stood across the lawn on the south side of Main Street, but we have no picture of him at the time. Zapruder gave two of the copies to Sorrels and they were sent to Washington. But the first thing I remember is after that bottle hit and I looked down . and told them that"I could see the President's car and another one and they looked like the cars were stopped. The muzzle blast spread from a suppressed [i.e., silenced] weapon shows deception and confusion resulting from attempts to locate sound origin from a weak fixed source at various angles from the source. He combined that information with the shutter speed of the film that documented the shooting. Foster testified before the Warren Commission but was never asked about what he told the FBI. 20 ) I proved that. The processed film then was taken by Zapruder to the Jamieson labs so that 3 optical print copies could be made. These witnesses directly contradict the Zapruder Film and all of the frames past Z 133. Was that an unslit 16mm/8mm, or a 16mm single strip? But then suddenly Governor Connally was yelling . She came upon a diagram, printed in 1963 showing a circle surrounding three snipers in a triangle. It can be found in an article by attorney and JFK researcher Carol Hewett that is just stunning, rich in insight and very hard-to-get information. Filmed by Abraham Zapruder. And he mixed in the claims of the official story, as if they were his own observations. Can you visually identify anyone in the p. limo? Even further west, Mary Moorman took a Polaroid picture of JFK as he was being shot in the head. When we contemplate the possibility the Zapruder film was altered, we tend to think first of the type of alteration accomplished by replacing authentic frames with forged or composite frames. Foster was a Dallas policeman stationed on the railroad overpass at the corner of Elm, Main and Commerce Streets. All the banks had been closed because of the president's visit, so she gave up and walked back to the plaza, where she encountered Abe taking some test shots of his payroll clerk Beatrice Hester and her husband, Charles, sitting on the pergola at the back of the plaza. Her book, The Heroine's Bookshelf (Harper), won the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction. Abraham Zapruder was known by everyone around him as someone who loved making these home movies and films. [10][11], Brugioni said he was not aware of a second examination of the film at NPIC, the night of Sunday 24 November and the early morning of Monday 25 November, by a completely different team. Oil painting, Wood working, Genealogy, Collecting and cutting semi-precious stones, Collecting fossils and artifacts, and JFKA. The Nix film shows far less detail because it was taken at a distance. Mo Weitzman made several internegatives in 1968, giving the best to Life and retaining the test copies. And in real life, as demonstrated by the chart from the Military Armament Corporation, there are also manifold opportunities for fabrication and distortion. It is one of the most studied pieces of film in history. Dino indicated in the interview that he was positive that they had the original film, and that when they projected it for the two members of the Secret Service, it was the first time they had viewed the film. Connally: I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. Now everywhere you read about it, you never read about the car stopping. Where are the Zapruder film equivalents to these frames? There's no telling who possessed it or for how long and leaves open the possibility that this film was indeed tampered with.

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what happened to the zapruder film