The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination

About this book

It is the most famous home movie of all time the most closely analyzed 26 seconds of film ever shot the most disturbing visual record of what many have called "the crime of the century." In 486 framesa mere six feet of celluloidAbraham Zapruders iconic film captures from beginning to end the murder of President John F. Kennedy in broad daylight. An essential piece of evidence the film has become nearly synonymous with the assassination itself and has generated decades of debate among conspiracy theorists and defenders of the Warren Commissions official report. Until now however no scholar has produced a comprehensive book-length study of the film and its relation to the tragic events of November 22 1963. David Wrone one of our nations foremost authorities on the assassination re-examines Zapruders film with a fresh eye and a deep knowledge of the forensic evidence. He traces the films history from its creation on the "grassy knoll" by Dallas dressmaker Zapruder through its initial sale to Life magazine and early reproductions and its analysis by the Warren Commission and countless assassination researchers licensing by the Zapruder family legal battles over bootleg copies and sale to the federal government for sixteen million dollars. Wrones major contribution however is to demonstrate how a close examination of the film itself necessarily refutes the Warren Commissions lone-gunman and single-bullet theories. The film as he reminds us provides a scientifically precise timeline of events as well as crucial clues regarding the timing number origins and impact of the shots fired that day. Analyzing the film frame-by-frame in relation to other evidenceincluding two key photos by Phil Willis and Ike Altgenshe builds a convincing case against the official findings. Without fanfare he concludes that more than three gunshots were fired from more than one direction and that most likely none were fired by alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. If true then JFKs death was the result of a conspiracy for the Commissions nonconspiracy conclusion requires a maximum of three shots and one gunman. Wrone however does not speculate as to who actually shot JFK or whyor even if Oswald was a part of the conspiracy. In fact he is no fan of conspiracy-think and is just as critical of the legion of conspiracy theorists as he is of the Warren Commission (which he reveals crushed dissent within its own ranks). Doggedly pursuing the evidence wherever it leads Wrone has produced a meticulous clear-eyed and provocative new reading of this remarkable cinematic Rosetta Stone.