The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination

by David R. Wrone

Overview

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 frames—a mere six feet of celluloid—Abraham Zapruder's 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 Commission's 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 nation's foremost authorities on the assassination, re-examines Zapruder's film with a fresh eye and a deep knowledge of the forensic evidence. He traces the film's 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.

Wrone's major contribution, however, is to demonstrate how a close examination of the film itself necessarily refutes the Warren Commission's 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 evidence—including two key photos by Phil Willis and Ike Altgens—he 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 JFK's death was the result of a conspiracy, for the Commission's nonconspiracy conclusion requires a maximum of three shots and one gunman.

Wrone, however, does not speculate as to who actually shot JFK or why—or 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700612918
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	11/22/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

David R. Wrone is professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part I. The Film

1. Abraham Zapruder Films the Assassination

2. Development and Sale of the Film

3. The Film

Part II. The Film and Private Ownership of American History

4. Ownership, Copyright, and the Zapruder Film, 1963-1975

5. Control and Profits, 1975-1997

Part III. The Film and the Struggle for Access

6. Profits First: Time Inc. Sues Bernard Geis Associates for Theft and Misuse of Its Zapruder Frams

7. A Student, a Scholar, and the Zapruder Film: Gerard A. Selby Jr. and Harold Weisberg versus Henry G. Zapruder et al.

Part IV. Theorists and the Zapruder Film

8. Prisoners of Preconception: Conspiracy Theorists, Warren Commission Defenders, and the Zapruder Film

9. Altered Evidence, Altered States: An Introduction to Those Who Claim the Film Was Altered

Part V. The Film and the Evidentiary Base

10. Official Federal Policy: Do Not Investigate

11. The Man in the Doorway

12. The Head Shot and Zapruder Frams 337 and 338

13. Photographic Proof of Conspiracy: Zapruder Frame 202

14. A Command Appearance: Jim Garrison, Zapruder, and Zapruder’s Film

Part VI. The Film and the Single-Bullet Theory

15. Official Allegation: A Single Bullet Explains All Seven Nonfatal Wounds

16. Official Evidence: The Seven Nonfatal Wounds

Part Vii. The Struggle to Free the Film

17. Federal Purchase: The Government and the Zapruder Film, 1963-2000

Epilogue: The Zapruder Film and American History

Appendix: Documents

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

". . . clearly written and accessible to a wide audience. It will be useful to students of American society, particularly in the fields of criminology and law, sociology, political science, and history."—Critical Criminology

"Wrone has provided a stimulating, clearly written, and well-researched study of an issue that may never be satisfactorily resolved."—Journal of Southern History

"One of the most sober JFK assassination books of 2003 or any other year. . . . Wrone seems to be without an ideologically motivated agenda. He seems interested only in finding and presenting the evidence responsibly. . . . Of all the Zapruder film analyses I have read, Wrone’s is the most lucid for a nonexpert, and the calmest in tone."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Future assassination researchers will consult this fascinating history of the indelible Zapruder film. Strongly recommended."—Library Journal

“Wrone is neither a Warren Commission defender nor an outlandish conspiracy theorist but a careful historian who presents a strong case that the Warren Commission hastily and wrongly concluded that Oswald murdered Kennedy. . . . Strongly recommended.”—Library Journal

“A stimulating, clearly written, and well-researched study.”—Journal of Southern History

“An important, valuable, and compelling addition to the literature on the assassination that argues convincingly that the film is both authentic and contains evidence of a conspiracy.”—Michael L. Kurtz, author of The JFK Assassination Debates: Lone Gunman versus Conspiracy

“Wrone’s knowledge of the assassination’s complex and daunting evidentiary base is unparalleled.”—James H. Lesar, founder and president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center

“The vivid images captured by the Zapruder film are eminently recognizable, perhaps more so than any other film footage ever captured, so much so that anyone who reflects on JFK’s assassination quite likely does so from Abraham Zapruder’s vantage point.”—Walter E. Dellinger III, Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University and former Solicitor General of the United States

From the Publisher

The famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination lasts a grand total of 26 seconds. In this 400-page book, Wrone (professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point) dissects Zapruder's footage frame by frame, only to end up restating at length the well-worn argument, expressed much more succinctly in scores of other publications, that the film shows shots fired from three different angles, none of them correlating with Lee Harvey Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository. While Wrone's exhaustive consideration of the film itself quickly becomes tedious, he provides a few chapters that tell some intriguing stories, such as Zapruder's early actions in the initial hours after the assassination (when he first realized he possessed a valuable "property"), the several subsequent court fights over ownership in various sections of the film and the tangled history of the U.S. government's acquisition, decades after the event, of the film. Wrone also chronicles the various ways in which the film has been used and abused by both adherents and critics of the Warren Commission and summarizes the theory, advanced by the commission's more crackpot critics, that Zapruder's footage has been altered in order to eliminate the most damning evidence of conspiracy. Aside from these anecdotes, however, there is nothing new here, just reiteration of the scathing criticisms of the Warren Commission's conclusions. Wrone's book will appeal to only the most die-hard and detail-driven assassination buffs, though these findings by a sober historian may draw attention as we mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination. 40 photos, 22 in color. (Nov. 22) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The assassination of President Kennedy 40 years ago this month jolted Americans into the realization that their country would never be the same, says Wrone. This history of the 26-second Zapruder film and its role in the criminal investigation argues forcefully that Kennedy was shot by more than one person, none of whom was Lee Harvey Oswald. Wrone is neither a Warren Commission defender nor an outlandish conspiracy theorist but a careful historian who presents a strong case that the Warren Commission hastily and wrongly concluded that Oswald murdered Kennedy and that a single "magic bullet" shot both the President and Texas governor John Connally. Wrone calls Gerald Posner's influential 1993 Case Closed "one of the most error-ridden works on the assassination" but also condemns conspiracy enthusiasts like Oliver Stone for offering such shoddy speculations that the government and mainstream media often treat the work of serious assassination researchers as screeds bordering on the paranoid. Future assassination researchers will consult this fascinating history of the indelible Zapruder film. Strongly recommended for academic and most public libraries. While Lubin (art, Wake Forest Univ.) also makes some interesting comments about the Zapruder film, which he calls "a political thriller," his book offers only cursory comments about the assassination itself. Instead, he provides a series of provocative essays about how perceptions of the Kennedys have become part of our national memory. Lubin's spirited and gracefully written essays demonstrate that John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy became such dominant personalities because the public associated them with enduring themes of classical and popular culture. For example, the Kennedys, viewed as classic defenders of the poor, and The Beverly Hillbillies, the most popular TV show of 1963, were both known for poking fun at the rich. In addition, the macho image that Kennedy cultivated was enhanced by his reading Ian Fleming's best-selling James Bond novels. Following the death of the President, the Camelot myth of noble leadership and the protection of all subjects was readily accepted by a grieving nation. As Lubin shows, this myth was already ingrained in American culture, and he skillfully relates how Kennedy used it to stir the populace and create his own iconography. He also explains why these myths, reinforced by both ancient and contemporary images, remain vibrant. Strongly recommended for academic and larger public libraries. "Mr. President, you certainly can't say that Dallas doesn't love you!" These were the famously innocent last words that Nellie Connally, wife of the Texas governor, uttered to Kennedy seconds before he was killed. In a voice that is both forthright and personable, she presents her recollections of the momentous events of November 22, 1963, based on notes written shortly after the assassination but lost and not rediscovered until 1996. Nellie Connally is the last surviving dignitary who rode in that fateful presidential limo, and this memoir shows how the events of this national trauma personally affected her and the three Connally children. The reader shares her anger at seeing Lee Harvey Oswald receiving excellent medical treatment in the same hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead and where her husband almost died from an assassin's bullet. The three Connally children tell how they were pulled out of school that day, while rumors swirled that their wounded father was already dead. This unique account tells how Nellie Connally coped with the long recovery of her husband and how the Connally family lost its sense of security as a result of the assassination. This well-illustrated memoir by a witness to history is recommended for public libraries.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal