JFK: The Final Hours

[Freddy Janes]

Watched a program yesterday on National Geographic channel "JFK:The Final Hours" lasted 2 hours, guess I missed it on the 50th anniversary blitz. Lots of footage that I don't remember seeing before...Dawned on me that its pretty strange that all that film taken that day, that none was taken of the Dealey Plaza visit with the exception of Zapruder and Nix. If it wasn't for them we would have no clue whatsoever as to what happened. A lot of footage shown looked professionally done, at different locations in Texas. Why no other filmers in Dealey?

[JDThomas]

Hi Freddy,an interesting question, replying to which requires some idle speculation.Of course, there are also the Towner,Couch Bell, Darnell and Hughes films in existence as well as the footage shot by SS man Dave Powers, so there were other films around, but the cameras were not in the right place at the right time to get good footage. Which makes you think, was Zapruder just very lucky to be in the right place at the right time or else..... am I getting too paranoid?We also have to contend with some observers claiming that their camera films were confiscated by government agents to the scene, or else men posing as government agents and their films/photos were never returned; if this is true then it would explain a reduction in available film evidence.I also place the question for others to answer - exactly how popular were film cameras with ordinary Dallas folk in 1963? From my own experience (and not from Dallas), we got our own film camera in the late 1960's, but we knew very few other people who had one. Also, filming could be awkward and expensive - we had to send the film away to be developed, which wasn't cheap or quick, neither was the home projector cheap, or reliable with a number of our home movies getting damaged when the projector jammed and by the early/mid 70's it was rarely used, even when Queen Elizabeth came by. Others may have very different experiences however, so don't rely on mine.I have always found it a bit odd that the Plaza had so few people there compared with other sections of the motorcade route where people often appeared to be packed like sardines along the roadside - the Plaza would seem to be an excellent vantage point, but perhaps it was too difficult or impractical for people to get to. For people in work I can guess it was highly likely that bosses told workers that they could pop outside when the motorcade came past, but to get straight back to work afterwards (I know that this practice is normal today), so getting to Dealey was a no no for many.As I said at the start, much of what I have written is idle speculation, but hopefully will spur others to give more information.

[Bob]

First, a couple of points. Guess who owns 67% of the National Geographic Channel? That would be Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. That should tell you something right there about the integrity of the once-great channel. Secondly, Bill Paxton, who narrates JFK: The Final Hours, is like his buddy Tom Hanks in terms of promoting the opinion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin. That's why I was skeptical from the very start about watching this program. While some of the work is outstanding, it all leads to the conclusion the LHO killed our beloved President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It's sort of like preparing a great meal that smells wonderful, only to drop it on the floor before you get it to the table. That's how I look at that "special". When the NGC screened this "special" initially, they held a reception at the Sixth Floor Museum. Again, that tells you a lot.Now in terms of all the film that was shown from Fort Worth in the morning prior to the assassination in the "special", compared to the killing scene in Dealey Plaza, it's simple. The CIA and FBI sanitized the scene of the crime in Dealey Plaza. Several people were ordered to give up their film and the cameras by authorities in the plaza. Let me remind you, that the CIA had their hands on the Zapruder film almost immediately afterwards and had meetings on both Saturday night and Sunday night in an attempt to "clean up" what the film really showed.Witnesses who were at those meetings say the film as we see it today looks nothing like the film they saw the weekend of the assassination. This is all described in Volume IV of Inside the ARRB by Doug Horne.

[Freddy Janes]

Yes the content and conclusion I pretty much ignored, just surprised by all the filming done in Texas, with almost no footage of "the deed". It would follow that Rupert would be pushing the LN theory, with all of his connections.