Original subtitles

As the president was coming down from Houston Street making his turn, it was

about halfway down there, I heard a shot.

Then I heard another shot or two. I couldn't say what it was one or two.

People were screaming.

It was out of air.

Everybody was laying flat on the ground on the wall.

It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route.

repeat, has happened in the motorcade route.

Three shots were heard to ring out.

Mrs. Kennedy was heard by reporters nearby to scream, Oh, no.

Mrs. DePruder, certainly no one had a better view of the assassination than

did. Abe DePruder got it from the beginning to end, this middle -aged...

garment manufacturer who got the only filmed evidence of the assassination

and not one of those world -famous photographers back there in the press

A gentleman just walked in our studio that I am meeting for the first time as

well as you. This is WFATV in Dallas, Texas. May I have your name, please,

My name is Abraham Zapruder.

Mr. Zapruder?

Zapruder, yes, sir. Zapruder. And would you tell us your story, please, sir?

I'm telling you right straight out that if you are at all sensitive, if you're

at all queasy, then don't watch this film.

President Kennedy went to Texas to take his program to the people.

He had carried the state by only a narrow margin in the 1960 election.

Traveling with the presidential party are Vice President Lyndon Johnson and

Johnson and Texas Governor John Connolly and Mrs. Nellie Connolly.

We thought John Kennedy was a handsome, heroic figure.

We all thought we loved the Kennedys.

She was the royalty that our country had never had.

She was very glamorous, very attractive, beautifully dressed.

I loved that man. My family loved that man. There were millions, I'm sure, who

loved that man.

He was an inspiration to the youth of America.

I believe it's the first time that in this country we had a president as young

as Kennedy was.

My grandfather had been taking home movies since the mid -1930s.

He loved taking home movies, and he took them of everything.

When he was looking to buy a camera, he came in, said his name was Dave

Sapruder, and he said he was looking for a camera and pulled off the camera of

the shelf. It was an 8mm, and it was a Bell & Howell.

So he bought the camera from me.

I guess the price was right.

Thursday evening.

Beautiful.

President Kennedy speaks the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Then, to ensure that his words will be understood by all, he calls on Mrs.

Kennedy to address the League in Spanish.

She spoke crisp Spanish, very simple little speech, but got a big hand for

I remember the president in the background looking a little lost and out

place.

The crowd there was, I'm sure, overcapacity.

When he walked into our banquet, everybody went wild, hollering, Viva

Viva Kennedy.

My grandfather was very determined to be an American.

He was born in 1905 in imperial Russia.

They followed the pattern of many East European Jews of that time.

You know, he came here at 15 years old. He had no education. He had never

studied in school.

He learned English right away in night school.

And then he did very much what Jews did then. He went to work on 7th Avenue in

the garment industry.

My grandmother fell in love with my grandfather immediately.

He fell in love with her too, and you can see it in the pictures of them

together.

And then they had an opportunity to go to Dallas.

He got Jennifer Jr.'s off -the -ground undress company.

I think it was a pretty good working environment.

Everybody called him Mr. Z.

My grandfather and grandmother were big fans of John F. Kennedy.

Our family really believed that President Kennedy could make the world a

place.

Friday morning, November 22nd.

It's 8 .45 and the weather is misty.

In spite of the weather, a large and exuberant crowd turns out to see and

the President.

The President was in the parking lot that morning without Mrs. Kennedy. There

was some obvious disappointment in the crowd, and he made a nice remark.

There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth, and I appreciate your being here this

morning.

Mrs. Kennedy is organizing herself.

It takes longer.

But, of course, she looks better than we do when she doesn't.

But we appreciate your welcome.

Here comes the President.

And that's Mrs. Kennedy coming in.

And for the ladies in the audience, she's wearing a pink outfit trimmed in

black.

A few years ago, I introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man who

had accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Paris. I'm getting somewhat that same sensation

as I travel around Texas.

wonders what Lyndon and I wear.

Friday morning.

The presidential jet leaves Fort Worth with a short flight to Dallas, where the

president has a scheduled luncheon address.

I didn't have a camera with me at all that morning.

I never believed I'd be able to see the president.

So it was very surprising that he didn't bring his camera.

He said, you know, I'm too short. I won't be able to see anything.

He was sort of reserved.

He didn't have a lot of confidence, partly because he didn't have a lot of

education. And so he wasn't always very comfortable taking a risk or putting

himself out there. Even though he was very bright and very clever, very funny,

very smart, he was hesitant in a way.

And so I think he just sort of decided not to gamble on it somehow.

And it was Lillian Rogers, his assistant, who said, you're the one

taking home movies for 30 years. You know, you have to go home and get your

camera.

I believe I wouldn't have had the pictures at all if it wasn't for my

Mrs. Rogers, who made me go home and get the camera.

And it really is kind of a remarkable close call because the history would be

completely different if we didn't have that film.

Friday morning.

The president's jet lands at the Dallas airport.

Love, Bill.

Several thousand enthusiastic Texans are on hand to give the president and Mrs.

Kennedy a warm welcome.

I can remember the sky being so blue and then these beautiful people get off the

plane. People like I'd never seen. I'd never seen anybody in a tailored suit.

or any woman that had a high fashion, or makeup. I remember the makeup.

It was so pristine.

Mrs. Kennedy is making one of her first public appearances in several months.

It's unusual that Mrs. Kennedy was along at all, because she didn't ordinarily

make this kind of trip with him.

Mrs. Kennedy, in August of 1963, was pregnant.

And we were up on Cape Cod, and she all of a sudden began having labor pains

when the baby was born. She named him Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.

And then it was discovered that he had a medical problem.

Unfortunately, he died about another day later.

And they had a funeral service in Boston, and he was buried in Boston.

We felt we had lost a member of our family.

She remained in a very saddened, depressed state

for a long time.

Gradually, she decided that she would accompany her husband on his trip into

Texas to help him with his reelection bid for 1964.

Although the President is running behind schedule, he pauses momentarily to

shake a few hands.

What surprised me a little bit was that Mrs. Kennedy followed right along.

She's always a little bit shy and didn't usually go into a crowd like that, but

in this occasion she did.

My aunt and her best friend went down to Love Field to greet the President and

the First Lady when they arrived.

My aunt remembers everyone pushing to see the president, and she just was

stunned by how handsome and charming he was.

And my Uncle Myron, who was watching the motorcade from his office overlooking

Main Street.

My grandfather was at Jennifer Jr.'s. It was just across the way from Dealey

Plaza.

Pretty much the whole factory, and went down to see the president.

They closed the office at lunch, and everyone went down.

The whole family was wrapped up in this exciting moment.

Friday, ten minutes before noon.

The motorcade begins the 11 -mile ride to the Dallas Trademark, where the

president is to deliver a major address.

Governor and Mrs. Connolly ride in the presidential limousine.

After coming back with my camera from my house, I went downstairs.

I was around 12.

And I was looking for a place where it would be good enough to take pictures.

I've changed the place three times.

One place I couldn't stand very erect.

Another place a tree was in my way.

And finally I...

It's the very spot I stopped at.

And we decided that would be the best place. We said, you can get up here,

you'll be above everybody.

No matter how many people are down here, you won't have anybody blocking your

view.

He had vertigo, though.

If he got up there, he'd get dizzy.

So he said, you'll have to stand behind me and hold on to me. I said, it's no

problem at all.

So we both got up there, and I stood behind him, and I held on to him.

I told her to watch me while I take those pictures because using a zoom

you kind of get dizzy and it says I might have to have somebody to hold on

So we were kind of joking.

It had been raining, flight driven.

And because of that, the supervisor called to see what the weather was like

to make a determination about whether or not we would leave the bubble top in

the car.

Now, the bubble top is simply a piece of glass.

It was decided that because the weather was clearing up, the bubble top would be

off.

Any time you were in an open car, we were very concerned because we all knew

vulnerability whenever you were in an open car.

The president always felt that if the people were good enough to come out and

see him, he was good enough to sit there in the open car and let them see him.

They routed us right through the heart of the town.

Dallas has sort of canyon streets. They're quite narrow, and the building's

fairly tall. I mean, 10 -story building.

The crowd spilled out over the sidewalk, so you really only had a lane of

traffic down the hill.

And we heard people saying, they're coming, they're coming.

And the motorcade, it just seemed like a lot of motorcycles, a lot of cars.

passing by, and the motorcade slowed

down. So I got this straight -on view of President and Mrs. Kennedy.

And my impression at the moment was that they were just gorgeous people, big,

like bigger, bigger, bigger than life.

And they seemed very relaxed and happy.

He started to accelerate, just barely.

About 50, 60 feet down Elm Street, I was looking to my left to a grassy area.

There were very few people in that area. Some people there taking pictures.

And then I watched.

For the arrival of the cars, I saw the motorcycles, and then the car

As they turned, I started shooting the pictures.

And he says, okay, here we go.

That's when I remember we started actually doing the filming.

And I was shooting as they were coming along, and Jacqueline and the president

were waving.

And as they came in line with my camera, I heard a shot.

I heard an explosive noise to my right rear.

And I saw the president grab at his throat and lurch to his left.

I took the picture, and the shots were still being fired.

She did scream. She says, my God, he's been shot.

I saw the president looming over to Jacqueline.

I didn't realize what had happened.

Then the second shot came, and then I realized I

saw his head open up,

and I started yelling, they killed him, they killed him.

I just looked straight up ahead of me because that's the direction the sound

came from.

And I saw two black men leaning out of the window of the fifth floor, looking

directly up above them. My eyes went on up to the next floor and there was a

rifle. I could see the rifle in the part of the stock and it being drawn in the

window.

When that bullet hit his head, the plume went up.

And I went through that plume. It was all over me and all over my helmet and

glass and everything.

So I knew something was wrong. Something had happened.

So I jumped from the car and ran toward the presidential vehicle.

Mrs. Kennedy was coming out on the trunk.

I helped her as best I could to get back into the back seat of the car.

I turned to Gail and I said, that's it, hit the ground.

And we turned and threw our kids down on the ground and covered them up.

People were screaming and, I mean, it was utter chaos by that time.

Everybody was laying flat on the ground almost.

All the focus was on the car.

The furthest thing was running up to the car. And the motorcycle and the

policemen were, you know, flying up.

Certainly the first lady on the back of the car, that was.

Pretty startling.

Many of the people came running down the hill, and it was pretty frantic.

A lot of the policemen then had their guns out.

Motorcycle policemen were up on the grass.

People were running.

Then I got off the concrete block, and I was walking back to my office.

I was still screaming, they killed him, they killed him.

The people in the front kept on asking what had happened, what had happened.

But I just kept on yelling.

They killed him.

I turned, I gave the thumbs down to the follow -up car crew to let them know

that this was a dire situation.

The car accelerated.

I got up on top of the back of the car as best I could to place myself in a

position to cover both Mrs. Kennedy and the president.

If they were going to shoot in the car, they were going to have to hit me.

I guess we were traveling maybe as fast as 80 miles an hour as we went to a

hospital.

Mr. Zapruder apparently went directly back to the office.

I ran down the slope.

There were three men in suits running up, and that's who I met.

And I said, they killed him, they killed him.

And my boss has it on film.

When I was in a state of shock when I got back, I was kicking and banging at

desk. I couldn't understand how a thing like this could happen.

I personally have never seen anybody killed in my life.

And to see something like this shooting a man down like a dog, I just couldn't

believe.

And my secretary kept on trying to pacify me. She asked me if I wanted a

I thought she was crazy. I was, what are you talking about? Who wants a drink

now?

I was interviewing anybody I could find. And one of them I was interviewing

said, well, our boss has film of it. I said, really? You know, where is he? And

it turned out he's in the very next building from me.

where the shots had been fired.

He was a dress manufacturer.

I said, take me to him.

His camera was right on top of a filing cabinet.

And I told him, we'll take it to the Times -Herald and develop the film.

No, he said, I want to give it to the FBI or the Secret Service.

On television, they were saying, Kennedy has been wounded, perhaps fatally.

In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in

Dealey Plaza.

The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by

shooting.

The breeder said, no, no, he's dead. I know he's dead.

I was watching through the viewfinder, and I saw his head explode like a

firecracker.

I called the office, and I hear screaming and turmoil.

And I said, what's going on?

She said, oh, Mr. Schwartz, the police are here with shotguns.

I said, what are you talking about?

And she said,

oh, Mr. Z has the films, and they want the films. And he picked up the phone,

and he said, Erwin, it was terrible. I saw his head come off.

I said, I'll be right there.

When I got off the elevator, there were two policemen there with shotguns.

I said, what's going on?

And they said, we came to get the film.

The Secret Service says, well, let's see if we can't get it developed.

I bet Channel 8 can do it.

And they put Zapruder on television.

A gentleman just walked in our studio that I am meeting for the first time as

well as you. This is WFAA -TV in Dallas, Texas. May I have your name, please,

sir? My name is Abraham Zapruder.

Mr. Zapruder?

Zapruder, yes, sir. Zapruder. And would you tell us your story, please, sir?

I got out about a half hour earlier and got to a good spot to shoot some

pictures.

And I found a spot, one of these concrete blocks that I have down near

near the underpass.

And I got on top there. There was another girl from my office. She was

behind me.

And as I was shooting, as the president was coming down from Houston Street and

making his turn, it was about halfway down there, I heard a shot.

And he slumped to the side.

Like this.

Then I had another shot or two. I couldn't say what it was, one or two.

And I saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything.

And I kept on drinking.

That's about all. I'm doing six again.

I think that pretty well expresses the entire feelings of the whole world.

One of the nurses had just got a call from the police dispatcher, and the

president had been shot.

He was on his way to the hospital.

Mrs. Kennedy was kind of standing by the door. There were two men in the room,

and I assume they were the driver or secret service people.

They very rapidly...

stepped aside when we came in. He said, Ms. Kennedy stood by the door for a long

time.

A priest walked out and he said, at 1 p .m. the president

died. And I just, I couldn't believe it. It was like, God, no, please, no, no,

no, no, no.

I didn't even know my picture had been taken until the next day.

All I remember is crying.

I'm in my office in the L .A. Bureau, and I suddenly got the shot. Dick

Kennedy's been shot in Dallas, and New York said, how fast can you get to

Dallas?

I went into the Adolphus Hotel to set up an office, and I got a phone call from

a colleague that a local businessman had photographed the assassination from

beginning to end with an 8mm home movie camera, and she...

phonetically pronounced his name. She said, Zapruder.

And I picked up the Dallas phone book and ran my finger down the Zs, and there

it was, Zapruder Abraham.

I called him.

No answer.

I called every 15 minutes for the next five hours.

You have the film in your camera. Yes, I brought it on the studio. We'll try to

get that processed and have it as soon as possible.

They were trying to develop those pictures, but they couldn't develop them

because they were colored pictures.

And we had to go to Eastman.

The FBI said, we want you to shut your machines down and process the film we

have here.

It took quite a few hours until we got those pictures developed. It was about 9

.30 that night.

And that's the first time I saw these pictures.

Then Zapruder's film came on.

And number one, it was needle sharp. Two, the color was beautiful.

The focus was locked in perfect.

All during the movies, there's not a sound, not a sound except the projector.

And when the projector was turned off, it had to have been three, four, or five

seconds like this. Nothing.

When one voice said, my God.

I had three copies made, plus the original.

One was given to Secret Service in Dallas.

One copy I brought to the FBI.

And the third copy I had for myself.

And Zapruder had found something, and he left.

And Zapruder and I walked out in the street. We said, what a night.

And he went home, and I went home.

At 11 o 'clock, this weary voice answered.

Mr. Sapruder had been contacted by other reporters, and he'd asked them to come

to his office at 9, and I got there at 8.

He said, I'm about to show the film to two secret service agents. So the three

of us went into this tiny whitewashed room, and this old rickety 8 -millimeter

projector.

He turned to us and he said, are you ready?

Turn it on.

And there was the motorcade coming around the corner, and then the

limousine disappears behind a huge road sign.

When it comes out, the president has both of his fists jammed up underneath

chin.

He had been hit by the first bullet to hit him.

And suddenly, we get to what we now know is the infamous frame 313,

where the whole top of the president's head just explodes up into the air.

When that happened, the three of us all reacted with, It was as if

we had been simultaneously gut -punched.

Once I saw that film, I thought, There is no way in hell that Life magazine

is not going to wind up with that film.

I said, that's an amazing piece of film, Mrs. Perter.

I think it belongs in Life magazine.

We might even pay five, ten, maybe even $15 ,000 for that.

And I finally got to $50 ,000, and I said, if we have to go any higher than

that, I'm going to have to call New York.

He looked up at me, and he said, let's do it.

So I sat down at his typewriter, typed out a nine -line contract,

and I walked out the back door.

with what turned out to be the most famous home movie in American history.

It was then determined that Vice President Johnson needed to take the

office.

I received a message.

Mrs. Kennedy wanted to see me, and she simply reached out her hand and took my

hand and said, What's going to happen to you now, Mr. Hill?

And I told her that I would be okay.

It was rather strange that she should think of me at this particular time when

she was so concerned about what was really happening with her husband.

But it was very, very nice, very thoughtful.

I guess the real legacy will be that I tried but I failed in attempting to

intervene between the president and the assassin.

Across the world, there's shock and grief at the assassination of President

Kennedy. A national day of mourning is declared by President Johnson.

President Kennedy's body lay in state in the rotunda of the U .S. Capitol

building. One million people lined the funeral route before President John F.

Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

That week's issue of Life was already on press when the president was shot.

They made black and white copies because it was too late to do color at that

point.

Out of deference to the grieving Kennedy family, they did not publish the

headshot, frame 313.

The copy of the film that went to New York was then seen by corporate

executives, not only editors.

They were so stunned they decided they wanted to buy all rights.

I called Abe Subruder about getting the additional rights. It was a total of

$150 ,000 for all rights.

It's in a police car. Number 10.

At the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, a 24 -year -old man

suspected of the assassination of the president has been arrested.

Lee Harvey Oswald is also accused of shooting dead a Dallas police officer, J

.D. Tippett, while making his getaway.

Mr. Zapruder wanted to avoid public criticism for selling this film.

His lawyer finally said, I have a suggestion.

You know, there's a funding set up for all the Tippett family.

I would suggest that you give that first $25 ,000 to

the Tippett family.

And Mr. Zapruder agreed instantly.

The Warren Commission has today concluded that the assassination of

John F. Kennedy was the work of lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

No evidence was found of a conspiracy to kill the president, nor was there

evidence of a conspiracy behind Oswald's murder two days later by nightclub

owner Jack Ruby, who fired the fatal shot inside the precincts of a Dallas

police station.

The Warren Commission noted Mr. Abraham Zapruder's home movie as being most

helpful in establishing what happened when the president was killed.

When President Kennedy was assassinated here in Dallas, Abraham Zapruder was

standing on this concrete parapet with an 8mm camera.

And with that camera, he recorded the tragedy.

Mr. Zapruder, certainly no one had a...

better view of the assassination than you did.

Did you then and do you now agree with the findings of the Warren Commission?

Yes, I absolutely do.

In fact, I'm more convinced now because of these controversial publications

coming out.

I took more of a little interest to read it more carefully, and I find that the

findings of the Warren Commission are more substantial than they are doubt.

They have no fact, no reason to believe that there was

somebody else. They're just spicking, or rather looking at the hole instead of

the donut.

Despite the Warren Commission finding, conspiracy theories continue.

Critics claim Life magazine's refusal to publicly release the Zapruder film is

part of a high -level cover -up.

I think for my grandfather, it was largely a matter of feeling that he

trust Life magazine to handle the film with care and with responsibility and

that it would be protected and it wouldn't be exploited, which was a very

fear of his.

But then gradually, bootleg copies started to get out. They started to

circulate.

It was 12 years from 1963.

until 1975 when the film was shown for the first time on national television.

The very idea that something of this magnitude could be kept from the

public for 12 years is astonishing.

I'm telling you right straight out that if you are at all sensitive, if you're

at all queasy, then don't watch this film.

put on the uh the late night movie uh because this is uh very heavy it's the

film shot by the dallas dress manufacturer abraham uh zapruda and it's

execution of president kennedy and now at the bottom of the screen

the headshot that's the shot that blew up his head it's the most horrifying

thing i've ever seen in the movies now the warren commission said that All of

the shots were fired from behind by Lee Harvey Oswald, and as you can see,

clearly, the head is thrown violently backwards, completely consistent with

shot from the front.

I had this treasure.

I was going to share it. I was going to get people to believe what I believed,

and we were going to rewrite history together.

The next day, we get the ratings, and the ratings went through the roof.

I'd like to know, Mr. Zapruder, your 8mm film lends support to several theories

and is the basis for the present controversy surrounding the

The shots came from someplace other than a book depository building.

No, as a matter of fact, I heard some comments about this and I went back to

place where I stood when I shot these pictures.

I believe I would have heard a different sound, a shot coming from my right ear.

The shots would have...

sounded much different.

I did not hear any different shots.

They have no substantial evidence of any second party being involved or

conspirators being involved, yet they're right about it.

Sensational literature.

That's what I think.

And after weeks and if not months of our own probe and talking to everybody,

I came reluctantly to the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald alone, acting

killed John Kennedy, you know, the greatest man on earth.

Legally, we couldn't give the film to the National Archives. We had to give

Zapruder family an opportunity to buy it.

And in the end, we decided to return it to the family for $1.

Later, the arbitration between the federal government and the Sepurita

took place.

And then one day, I opened the paper and I see the family has just gotten $16

million for the film.

The financial outcome was perfectly fine.

There was no celebration.

This is what the arbitrators had decided.

It seemed fair.

Over time, that film became less and less ours and more and more belonged to

American public.

The film speaks to the total frailty of human life.

Everything changes.

And then it could happen to them.

You know, the most beautiful, powerful couple in the world, smiling and waving,

and she's incredibly gorgeous, and he's so handsome, and then he...

gone, he's dead, and she's sprawled on the back of the car.

People say that the 1950s ended when Kennedy was assassinated, that these

editors at Life magazine, these white guys and their ties, that they were the

ones who were deciding what the American people should and shouldn't see.

But by 1975, you know, that was over.

That was over.

Abe Zapruder was stunned by what had happened. You have to keep remembering,

have all seen the film.

Abe Zapruder saw the president being murdered.

And, I mean, in many ways, I don't think he ever quite got over that experience.

Mr. Zapruder, have you taken any more movies since that fateful day here?

No, I'm sorry to say I used to be an art and movie taker, and after that

tragedy, somehow I lost, I don't know what it's called, an appetite or a

to take pictures. I'm sorry. I have a beautiful grandchildren growing up. I'd

love to take some movies of them, but somehow I'll have to get back to them.

somehow I just didn't have the desire to do so.

The loss was great. It was an inspiration to the youth.

And I believe that our country wasn't what it is.

Strong.

But it could withstand a shock like this. Would this be in another country

they have a one -man government?

A terrible tragedy could be to the whole country if they weren't as strong as we

are. That's, I agree, the loss I think was to this country.