The Zapruder Film Is Authentic
W. Anthony Marsh
10 Webster Ave. Apt. 1-2
Somerville, MA 02143-3332
E-mail: amarsh@quik.com
Web site: http://www.boston.quik.com/amarsh (The Puzzle Palace)
Prepared for the 1999 Providence Conference on the JFK Assassination:
From Evidence to Truth and Justice, April 16-18, 1999, University of Rhode Island
For over 35 years no one could explain the strange ghost-like faint images in the sprocket hole area of the Zapruder film motorcade sequence. The release of the camera original film by MPI on videotape and DVD in the summer of 1998 made it possible to understand what the ghost images are and what caused them. Immediately upon viewing the MPI videotape with the sprocket hole area intact, I realized that the ghost images are double exposures of real objects in the background, above and below the normal frame area. This natural effect explains most of the "anomalies" that some researchers have claimed as proof of alteration of the Zapruder film. The particular design characteristics of the Bell & Howell camera are responsible for these "anomalies."
The aperture plate has a groove in the sprocket hole area to allow the claw to advance the film. The groove extends above and below the normally projected frame area, thus allowing a double exposure in the sprocket hole area. Whether or not ghost images appear in one particular sprocket hole area is a function of the relative lightness or darkness of the contributing images. A fortunate benefit of this process is that each frame contains bits of the background from frames immediately before and after it. So, if a frame were removed, the ghost images would be out of sync. Additionally, the extent of the ghost images in the sprocket hole are a function of the lens setting, so the fact that the ghost images extent so far into the sprocket hole area verifies that Zapruder's camera was set on maximum telephoto. Even a well planned conspiracy could not have known about these details of the Zapruder camera mechanics and duplicated them perfectly to edit the film within hours of the JFK assassination.
The ARRB commissioned Kodak to analyze the Zapruder film stored at the National Archives. Their expert on 8 mm film, Roland Zavada, determined that the film is authentic. Yes, there is damage to the film which was done by LIFE magazine, but it is the authentic camera original.