Zapruder Film Discussion

[Jim Ostrowski]

Thom,Are you saying that LIFE Magazine AND Zapruder and cooperated with the government in the alteration of the film? If so, is there any shred of witness testimony or evidence to this effect? When do you think this co-operation took place?Josiah Thompson posts the timetable of events here.NOVEMBER 22, 19638:00 amAbraham Zapruder arrives at the offices of Jennifer Juniors. Marilyn Sitzman and Lillian Rogers persuade him to retrieve his 8 mm. movie camera from his home.11:30 amZapruder returns to his office after retrieving his camera.12:30 pmZapruder films the assassination from a pedestal in Dealey Plaza.12:45 pmZapruder returns to his office and locks the camera in his safe.1:30 pmReporter Harry McCormick takes Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels to Zapruder's office. Emotionally upset, Zapruder agrees to furnish Sorrels with a copy of his film - if Sorrels will agree that the copy is only for use by the Secret Service and that it would not be shown or given to any media. Sorrels agrees.1:45 pmTogether with Zapruder's partner, Irwin Schwartz, Sorrels, McCormick and Zapruder drive to Dallas Morning News. Since they can't process the film, they walk to WFAA-TV. Zapruder is interviewed live; Schwartz is photographed with the camera.2:15 pmA police car takes Sorrels, Schwartz, Zapruder and McCormick to the Kodak plant. Zapruder makes arrangements for the processing of the film. Phil Willis meets Sorrels at the Kodak plant and also agrees to furnish the Secret Service with copies of his 35 mm. slides. Sorrels gets a phone call and leaves for Dallas Police Headquarters.3:15 pm (est.)The processed film is shown to fifteen to eighteen people. To have copies made, Zapruder must take camera original to Jamieson Company.4:00 pm (est.)Zapruder has three (3) copies made by the Jamieson Company. He requests affidavit that no more copies were made.4:30 pm (est.)Zapruder returns to Kodak plant with the original and three (3) copies. He has the three (3) copies processed and requests affidavits from Kodak personnel that only three (3) copies were processed.AfternoonRichard Stolley and Tommy Thompson of LIFE fly in from Los Angeles. LIFE stringers Patsy Swank and Holland McCombs learn that Zapruder has film of the assassination. Forrest Sorrels receives two of the three first generation copies and assures Zapruder they will be used only for official purposes by the Secret Service.EveningStolley sets up offices in the Adolphus Hotel and begins calling Zapruder's home at fifteen minute intervals. Zapruder, shaken by the day's events, drives aimlessly around Dallas.9:55 pmSecret Service Agent Max Phillips sends one of the two copies to Secret Service Chief Rowley in Washington, D.C. In an accompanying note, Phillips says that "Mr. Zapruder is in custody of the 'master' film."11:00 pm Stolley reaches Zapruder at home and asks to come out and view the film. Zapruder declines. They agree to meet the next morning at 9:00am at Zapruder's office.NOVEMBER 23 8:00 amStolley is waiting at Zapruder's office when Zapruder arrives. The film is screened for Stolley. Stolley agrees that LIFE will pay Zapruder $50,000 in two installments for print rights to the film. Stolley leaves with the original and perhaps the remaining copy. The original is sent to Chicago where the LIFE editorial staff has assembled to prepare the new issue to be on the newsstands the following Tuesday, November 26th. During the preparation of black and white copies, the original is broken in several places by photo technicians. Splices are made.At some time this weekend, a copy of the film is sent to New York where it is viewed by C.D. Jackson, publisher of LIFE. Jackson decides to acquire all rights to the film and so instructs Stolley.EveningSince copies cannot be made in Dallas, Gordon Shanklin, FBI SAIC in Dallas, is instructed to send the copy the FBI obtained from Sorrels by commercial flight to Washington, D.C. Shanklin does so, at the same time requesting that the FBI Lab make three, second-generation copies, one for Washington and two for the Dallas Field Office.NOVEMBER 24Zapruder may have screened the film for Forrest Sorrels and other law enforcement agents.NOVEMBER 25 MorningStolley meets with Zapruder in the offices of Zapruder's lawyer. The negotiations end with LIFE purchasing world-wide rights to the film for $150,000.During these negotiations, Dan Rather is shown the film. He neglects to make an immediate bid but elects to check with New York first. During a radio broadcast with Richard C. Hottelet and Hughes Rudd, Rather describes the film which he has "just returned from seeing." Later that day, Rather describes his viewing of the film on the CBS Evening News. Rather could only have seen this film at this time if Zapruder had retained one copy and provided Stolley with only the original the previous Saturday.NOVEMBER 26 MorningLIFE begins newsstand distribution of the November 29th issue. At the same time, various LIFE editors order up prints of the film for viewing in their offices. I was shown one of these in October 1966. Since control was lax, bootleg copies began to circulate.What emerges from this chronology is a single important fact:At no time during this hectic weekend did the original of the film ever leave the custody and control of Abraham Zapruder and LIFE magazine.The opposition will say that if you have no positive evidence of this, then you are asking them to prove a negative (I.e. asking them to prove that Zapruder didn't co-operate at some specific time with the alteration of the master and all of the copies, which isn't a fair debating tactic, because no one can prove a negative. Jim

[ThomZajac]

Jim,I will get to the questions you've raised but for now I want to establish that the film has been altered. When the conspirators had the opportunity is a reasonable question, of course, but by first establishing PROOF that the film has been altered this task will take on a different light. (I will say now, however, that YES YES YES!! Life was under the control of the conspirators and that it was no accident that Life wound up in control of the film).For a point of reference, let me share you this.Two people are camping in the dessert when a UFO appears and lands close to their tent. A alien gets out and approaches them slowly. One man in scared out of this wits and the other is calm as a cucumber. The scared man asks the other how he could be so calm in a time like this and the man replies "The laws of physics make space travel impossible and so I know this in not what it appears to be."Well, the calm man is wrong; he has based his conclusion on a premise that is not true. So metamorphically speaking, before I suggest how beings could perhaps travel faster than the speed of light, allow me first the opportunity to establish that the creature who emerged from the craft and is standing in front of us is indeed an alien.

[Bob]

ThomZajac wrote:Jim,I will get to the questions you've raised but for now I want to establish that the film has been altered. When the conspirators had the opportunity is a reasonable question, of course, but by first establishing PROOF that the film has been altered this task will take on a different light. (I will say now, however, that YES YES YES!! Life was under the control of the conspirators and that it was no accident that Life wound up in control of the film).For a point of reference, let me share you this.Two people are camping in the dessert when a UFO appears and lands close to their tent. A alien gets out and approaches them slowly. One man in scared out of this wits and the other is calm as a cucumber. The scared man asks the other how he could be so calm in a time like this and the man replies "The laws of physics make space travel impossible and so I know this in not what it appears to be."Well, the calm man is wrong; he has based his conclusion on a premise that is not true. So metamorphically speaking, before I suggest how beings could perhaps travel faster than the speed of light, allow me first the opportunity to establish that the creature who emerged from the craft and is standing in front of us is indeed an alien.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghncnGk ... re=related

[ThomZajac]

More to come... may be a few days though.

[Bob]

I can't wait, because besides being a newspaper man, you are a researcher...not a doctor...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MULMbqQ9LJ8

[andries]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TljIfAjx ... ynext=1Bob : mind the film at 2.22 minWhat about that,a hell off a thing

[Bob]

andries wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TljIfAjx ... ynext=1Bob : mind the film at 2.22 minWhat about that,a hell off a thing Yes...that is very surreal and similar to the JFK murder. Oswald got "credit" for killing JFK, when it was really Files (and Nicoletti). In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) got credit for killing Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), when it was really Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) who really shot and killed Valance...in a very similar fashion to what Files did in Dealey Plaza. The movie came out in 1962 as well, a year before the assassination.

[andries]

Yes indeed and there,s pompey also on the scene .

[tom jeffers]

Martin Hinrichs wrote:kenmurray wrote:Zapruder film, Truth or Deception?The film is so blurry and to mask objects exactly out at that time is to me impossible.Martinmartin,the original film probably was not blurry like that, they used the blurry technique to mask their handywork. those blocking methods were used all the time during that era. today with digital and software, they could make it look like a movie.

[tom jeffers]

neab wrote:I thought it was altered when i watched it over a few times, but i dont buy the idea the conspirators wanted a film of the assassination as a trophy, nor do I feel zapruder was placed there specificly for this job. I always thought the footage was altered mostly cos the movements in the car didnt match the speed of the car among some other things that jack white's video presented.why else would they alter it, just for kicks? the cia confiscated everyones film in that area immediately, isn't it amazing that the most prominant photographer up on the pedastal, was missed by the confiscation team? they knew he was there and they would get that film. theyu got everyone elses film and made sure there were no major problems with the official story. some never got their films back and some only got part of their film back.