Kennedy’s Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light Read more: Kennedy’s Assassina

[Paul Rigby]

For many years now we have had several people come forward saying they have seen versions of the Zapruder film that shows the motorcade making the turn onto Elm Street which does not appear in the extant film we all know.

Here now is the man who purchased the film from Zapurder displaying with his hand gestures and saying in his own words on film:

""Turn it on and there was that familiar sequence, of the motorcade coming around the corner then turning abruptly left."

Nothing subjective about that comment at all in my opinion...

AJ.

Abraham Zapruder, WFAA-TV, circa 1400hrs CST, 22 November 1963:
"And I was [filming?] as the President was coming down from Houston Street making his turn…," Richard Trask, Pictures of the Pain (Danvers, Mass.: Yeoman Press, 1994), p.77

Dan Rather, CBS radio, 25 November 1963:
"Well let me tell you then, give you a word picture of the motion picture that we have just seen. The President's automobile which was proceeded by only one other car containing Secret Service Agents…the President's open black Lincoln limousine…made a turn, a left turn off of Houston Street in Dallas onto Elm Street…This left turn was made right below the window from which the shot was fired…as the car made the turn completed the turn…," Richard Trask, Pictures of the Pain (Danvers, Mass.: Yeoman Press, 1994), pp.86-87

Dan Rather, CBS Evening News (TV), 25 November 1963:
"The films we saw were taken by an amateur photographer…The films show President Kennedy's open, black limousine, making a left turn, off of Houston Street on to Elm Street…a left turn made just below the window in which the assassin was waiting," Richard Trask, Pictures of the Pain (Danvers, Mass.: Yeoman Press, 1994), p.87

Arthur J. Snider (of the Chicago Daily News, in syndicated piece), Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 November 1963, also described several scenes from the film:
"As the fateful car rounded the turn and moved into the curving parkway, the President rolled his head to the right, smiling and waving. At that instant. . .the sniper. . .fired his cheap rifle. . .the President clutched his throat for a bewildered instant, then began to sag. A second blast from the high-powered rifle ripped into the right rear of his head at about a 4 o 'clock position," Arthur J. Snider (Chicago Daily News syndicated piece), "Movies Reconstruct Tragedy," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, (Evening edition), November 27, 1963, section 2, p.1

Warren Report, September 1964:
"The position of President Kennedy's car when he was struck in the neck was determined with substantial precision from the films and onsite tests. The pictures or frames in the Zapruder film were marked by the agents, with the number 1' given to the first frame where the motorcycles leading the motorcade came into view on Houston Street. The numbers continue in sequence as Zapruder filmed the Presidential limousine as it came around the corner and proceeded down Elm," The Warren Report: The Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Associated Press, 1964), p.41.

Mark Lane. Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald (London: The Bodley Head Ltd., 1966), p.66, footnote 2:
The Commission explained the method it used to designate the individual frames of the film for purposes of reference: "The pictures or frames in the Zapruder film were marked by the agents, with the number 1' given to the first frame where the motorcycles leading the motorcade came into view on Houston Street. The numbers continue in sequence as Zapruder filmed the Presidential limousine as it came around the corner and proceeded down Elm," (223).

Note 223 to chapter 3 is to be found on p.423 it cites WCR at 98. On p.418, Lane explains that the version of the WCR he used was the one published by the "U.S. Government Printing Office (1964)."