Jfk assassination video frame by frame

Abstract

U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in an open motorcade by a sniper in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. A civilian bystander, Mr. Abraham Zapruder, filmed the motorcade with a 8-mm home movie camera as it drove through Dealey Plaza, inadvertently recording an ≈8 second sequence of events that included a fatal gunshot wound to the President in the head. The accompanying backward motion of the President's head after impact appeared to support later “conspiracy theories” because it was claimed that this was proof of a shot from the front (in addition to one from behind). In this paper, simple one-dimensional dynamical models are uniquely applied to study in detail the fatal shot and the motion of the President's head observed in the film. Using known parameters from the crime scene, explicit force calculations are carried out for determining the projectile's retardation during tissue passage along with the resulting transfer of momentum and kinetic energy (KE). The computed instantaneous KE transfer within the soft tissue is found to be consistent with the formation of a temporary cavity associated with the observed explosion of the head, and subsequent quantitative examination of this phenomenon reveals two delayed forces at play in the backward motion of the President following impact. It is therefore found that the observed motions of President Kennedy in the film are physically consistent with a high-speed projectile impact from the rear of the motorcade, these resulting from an instantaneous forward impulse force, followed by delayed rearward recoil and neuromuscular forces.

Keywords: Physics, Mechanics

1. Introduction

U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in an open limousine within a motorcade through the city of Dallas, Texas on Friday, 22 November 1963. President Kennedy had appeared in countless such motorcades routinely during his presidency. The Dallas motorcade had proceeded without incid

Abraham Zapruder gave a television interview on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 describing what he saw through the viewfinder of his camera. That interview is part of the Museum's WFAA-TV collection. He rarely spoke publicly about the film after that weekend. Mr. Zapruder died in 1970. - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections

While the Zapruder family donated numerous copies of the Zapruder film and its copyright to The Sixth Floor Museum, the actual camera-original film is held by the National Archives and Records Administration. - Megan Bryant, Director of Collections & Intellectual Property

Object featured in special exhibition, Two Days in Texas, November 8, 2023 through September 28, 2024.

1963 film of the John F. Kennedy assassination

The Zapruder film is a silent 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howellhome-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. It unexpectedly captured the President's assassination.

Although it is not the only film of the shooting, the Zapruder film has been described as being the most complete, giving a relatively clear view from a somewhat elevated position on the side from which the president's fatal head wound is visible. It was an important piece of evidence before the Warren Commission hearings, and all subsequent investigations of the assassination. It is one of the most studied pieces of film in history, particularly footage of the final shot which helped spawn theories of whether Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.

In 1994, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Creation

See also: Abraham Zapruder

Abraham Zapruder stood on a concrete pedestal along Elm Street in Dealey Plaza holding a Model 414 PD Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Camera. He filmed from the time the presidential limousine turned onto Elm Street for a total of 26.6 seconds, exposing 486 frames of standard 8 mmKodachrome II safety film, running at an average of 18.3 frames/second.

After Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels promised Zapruder that the film would only be used for an official investigation, the two men sought to develop the footage as soon as possible. As television station WFAA's equipment was incompatible with the format, Eastman Kodak's Dallas film processing facility developed the film and Jamieson Film Company produced three copies. Zapruder gave two of the copies to Sorrels