Posted on 02/19/2007 5:52:35 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
New footage of JFK in Dallas released
By Ed Stoddard
Mon Feb 19, 4:52 PM ET
DALLAS (Reuters) - Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy's fateful motorcade in Dallas moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped the United States for four decades.
The silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy close up in vivid color waving to the crowd.
A group of excited bystanders -- women sporting big 1960s hairstyles -- waves to the cameraman shortly before the motorcade sweeps past.
The president's coat is clearly if briefly seen bunched up on his back -- a detail that will be scrutinized by conspiracy theorists who see evidence of a plot in, among other things, the fact the bullet wounds on his jacket and body did not appear to match.
The film was donated to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas by amateur photographer George Jefferies and his son-in-law, Wayne Graham. It was released to coincide with the Presidents Day federal holiday.
Museum curator Gary Mack said he was not surprised Jefferies took so long to come forward.
"Everyone who captured the motorcade before the assassination thinks their pictures are unimportant. But to historians, all photos and home movies are important to possibly answer questions that will be asked in the future," he said.
Located in the former Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a sixth-floor window on November 22, 1963, the museum is devoted to Kennedy's presidency and the events surrounding his assassination.
The footage was taken less than 90 seconds before the fatal shots were fired. The 40-second film also shows the scene of the crime the following day.
The footage is sure to be new fodder for conspiracy buffs who have long maintained Kennedy was the victim of a sinister plot orchestrated by shadowy elements in either the government, the "military-industrial complex," the Mafia or communist Cuba.
"I've already seen the footage on a conspiracy Web site -- it's interesting for the conspiracy researchers to study Kennedy's coat which appears to be bunched up on his back," Mack said.
He said since Kennedy's jacket was riding high on his back, the entry wound in his body did not match the expected position in his coat -- grist for the conspiracy mill that charges more than three shots were fired.
Investigators maintain the shooting was carried out by Oswald acting alone. The most complete and best-known film of the Kennedy assassination to come to light was taken by bystander Abraham Zapruder.
Mack said the new footage offered the best view of Mrs. Kennedy in the motorcade he had ever seen.
I knew I was forgetting someone--much too late for my brain to still be functioning--LOL! Thanks!
ping to photo....
So she married Onassis and moved the kids well out of the Kennedy influence. Notice that except for a Kennedy style airplane crash, you never heard of any scandals surrounding John or Caroline. Jackie defended John Kennedy's reputation, and never went public about the reportedly hundreds of extramarital affairs he had. I've always wondered how she felt sitting next to John Kennedy, most likely knowing he had screwed Marilyn Monroe, while Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to him. My mother would have climbed up on that stage and beat the everloving cr@p out of her.
Not to mention how she ever recovered from sitting next to her husband and seeing his head blown off, with parts of his brains splattering onto her. In the Zapruder film, you see her trying to climb out of the back of the car. At the time, the broadcasters said she was trying to help a secret service agent into the car. After watching the film dozens of times, it's obvious that part of Kennedy's skull was blown backwards out of the car. She was climbing back trying to get that part of his head. I heard on one news report a couple of days after the assassination that part of his head was found in the street.
I think she displayed class throughout her life. I understand what you think about Onassis, as I think he was creepy also, but I can't imagine anyone handling all the stuff life threw at her better than she did.
About half of those over 25 to about 90% of those over 40.
Because the government had not yet grown to the level that it feared its own people. Before 1900, you could go up to the White House door and knock on it. There was no fence.
Sung to the tune of "I Fought The Law"
Waiting in Dallas with my gun
I got shot by Ruby and the conspiracy won
I missed my target but they all hit one
I got shot by Ruby and the conspiracy won!
I got shot by Rudy and the conspiracy won!
I wanted to make history
But the mafia might have done it for me
They always said I acted alone
But they had J. Edgar Hoover on the phone
Well I never saw them on the grassy knoll
But there must have been one
I missed my mark but the CIA got one
I got shot by Ruby and the conspiracy won!
My band was going to use that Photoshop gem for our album "Blues Conspiracy" but we found out that both the photographer of the original crime photo as well as the producer of the altered version will sue your a$$ off. By mutual agreement, they won't release this artwork for ANY profitable use. It's copywrited forwards and back! Even just posting it here is "iffy"!
Cartoonist Steve Benson won the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' "Golden Spike" award (cartoons rejected by an editor) one year for a 'toon about an auction of Jackie's things being held on behalf of her estate. It showed that famous scene with her reaching out to the back of the limo. The caption in the thought balloon above her was "This should fetch a handsome sum at auction!" LOL!
I was 2 years old in 1963. I always find it strange to realize I was born when women still wore hats.
That is the best pic I have ever seen of Jackie. Wow.
"I don't even know what that is but I believe it without question."
I think it comes from a phrase used by President Eisenhower in his farewell address.
The conspiracy kooks love to use it whenever they can.
I remember a FReeper named Michael Rivera (or something like that) who was real heavy in the conspiracy theories.
He'd he all over this thread today.
I remember that guy.
I agree. Great smile, plus the picture just exudes movement. For some reason she took a lot of pictures with a stone-face expression.
"...I know it was different times back then, but why in the **** did they have the POTUS riding thru a city in an open limo like that?..."
I've read in a few books about That Day in Dallas the the SS asked President Kennedy about the bubble top. Should they put it on or leave it off. Kennedy told them to leave it off. It was a nice day and it would obscure their viw of the crowds and the crowds view of them. I saw President Johnson when he came to Memphis in 1964 or 1965 and he had the bubble top on. I believe it was the same car, too. I would have to do some digging to confirm that, though.
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