The Zapruder Film Is Authentic One of the central arguments in the book Assassination Science is that the Zapruder film is not authentic. Various researchers argue that frames had been cut out for some conspiratorial motive. On pages 310 to 315 Dr. Mantik discusses the strange ghostlike images in the sprocket hole area. He does not know what caused them and suspects that they indicate tampering. Balderdash. Until the publication of my article on my web site, no one had correctly explained what those images are and how they were created. For many years I have puzzled over them and discussed them with other researchers, but never reached a firm conclusion due to the very poor quality of the Zapruder film versions we have had. In the summer of 1998 MPI released the original Zapruder film with the sprocket hole areas intact. Within 5 seconds of viewing this new videotape release of the Zapruder film, I knew instantly what the sprocket hole images are and exactly what caused them. This audience will be among the first people to learn the truth. Since the publication of this article this summer I have received positive feedback from Internet readers which has allowed me to figure out what more of the ghost images are. And in November of 1998 the National Archives released the Zavada report which authenticated the camera original film stored at the National Archives. I have revised and updated my article from this point to reflect the new information. The Zapruder film proves itself to be authentic. There is no possibility that any frames could have been cut out of the film. Every time a frame was exposed, part of the background scene was exposed onto the next frame and the previous frame in their sprocket hole areas. The ghostlike images in the sprocket hole area are double exposures. Real objects faintly visible. The cause is the particular design of the inner workings of the Bell & Howell camera. When a frame is being exposed, there is an aperture plate which covers the frames above and below the current frame so that they do not get accidentally exposed. Some 8 mm cameras leave open the sprocket hole area of the current frame, which allows information to be recorded there, but that area is normally not projected. Some 8 mm cameras have a notch in the top of the aperture plate where the claw finishes its stroke when pulling down the next frame. Bell & Howell designed the aperture plate to use a groove in the middle of the aperture plate instead of a notch at the top. Figure 1 shows what an aperture plate looks like with a typical notch. Figure 2 shows what the aperture plate would look like if the notch had been changed to a groove. This is not actually the aperture plate from Zapruder's Bell & Howell. This was just my impression of what it probably looks like in order to produce the double exposures. I also suspected that the corners are actually rounded instead of sharp. After exposure of the current frame, the claw grabs the current frame's sprocket hole and pulls the current frame down to bring in the next frame. Slide 1 is a photograph of the Bell & Howell aperture plate published in the Zavada report which was released by the National Archives on November 9, 1998. Mr. Zavada is the premiere Kodak authority on 8 mm film. He carefully studied the issue of the Zapruder film anomalies and found that the Zapruder film is authentic. The unique properties of the camera and the film used make it virtually impossible for anyone to have tampered with or faked the original film. The actual aperture plate is very close to the illustration which I had created. There is even a rounded corner as I had suspected. Slide 2 shows what area the aperture plate would expose. Slide 3 where the ghost images appear above and below the sprocket hole area. It is also fortunate that the lens was set on maximum telephoto when Zapruder was filming the motorcade. When Zapruder had earlier filmed his grandson playing in the back yard he set the camera on normal. Slide 4 shows a couple of frames from the family scenes and there are no double exposures in the sprocket hole area. Slide 5 shows the approximate areas exposed by light when the lens was set on wide angle versus when the lens was set on telephoto. This was confirmed by tests done by Roland Zavada on identical cameras from the same production run as Zapruder's camera. The inner ring shows the extent of the light hitting the frame with the normal lens setting. The outer ring shows the extent of the light hitting the frame when the lens is set to maximum telephoto. With a normal or wide angle setting the light barely reaches into the sprocket hole area. With the telephoto setting the light penetrates most of the sprocket hole area and partially into the tabs above and below the sprocket hole area. The actual size of the circle of light on Zapruder's camera set at maximum telephoto was so large that it easily exposed almost all of the sprocket hole area and double exposed most of the tab areas. On some cameras the circle of light is so wide that it fully double exposes the tab areas. Thus there is little or no double exposure with the normal lens setting, which is what Zapruder used to film the "home movie" sequences. However, when he changed the setting to maximum telephoto to film the motorcade, double exposures would take place in the sprocket hole area tabs. The Forces of Dark and Light Dr. Mantik is correct that the ghostlike images do not appear everywhere in the film consistently. But he is incorrect that they occur in only one or two places. The double exposures are in all sequences of the film, but not in every frame, or at least not easily visible in every frame. Just how clearly the ghostlike images appear is a battle between the forces of dark and light. During the exposure of the current frame, if the area being exposed in the next frame's upper sprocket hole area is very bright and the regular sprocket hole area of the next frame has a background which is very dark, then the ghostlike image will be very bright. For example, in many frames before, during. and after the head shot at Z-313, as Dr. Mantik has pointed out, the background in the upper sprocket hole area of the current frame is very dark, such as the infield grass while the image from the previous frame already exposed by the bleed around was very bright, such as Chaney's white front fender. Slide 6 is frame 313 from the Warren Commission exhibits. At the other extreme, when the information in the current frame's upper sprocket hole area is very bright, such as the cars behind the limousine seen in early frames, this swamps out the much darker earlier exposed sprocket hole image, such as the dark green grass on the north side of Elm Street or the road. A few ghostlike images are easily visible just above the lower sprocket hole. One of the few places where we can easily see ghostlike images just above the lower sprocket hole is when the Stemmons Freeway sign is in the current frame's sprocket hole area. So, what looks like ghost images projected onto the back of the Stemmons Freeway sign are actually the windows of the Dallas County Records building on Houston Street.When the two forces are roughly equal, the ghostlike images are faintly visible. For example, look at frame 183 from the MPI videotape which includes the sprocket hole. Notice the ghost image in the lower sprocket hole area just above the sprocket hole. This looks like some type of architectural feature projected onto the dark clothing of the spectators at the curb. In fact it is the front of one of the buildings on the north side of Elm Street in the 500 block. Now, when we look at earlier frames such as 120 we can see the areas which are above the normally projected area of frame 183. We can see the windows of the Purse building in the normally projected area of frame 162 which show up as ghost images in the sprocket hole area of frame 183. Showing what area is covered by the tabs might allow careful researchers to identify objects seen in that area in other films and photos. Slide 7 shows frames from a test film taken in Dealey Plaza in July of 1997 by Roland Zavada which shows the Purse building in the background. In the July 28, 1998 issue of the Globe weekly, several frames with the sprocket holes were published. Frame 225 shows the ghost image on the back of the Stemmons Freeway sign. This ghost image is actually the face of the Dallas County Records Building (DCRB). Compare the ghost image to the face of the DCRB in the Warren Commission's Exhibit No. 895 which includes a photograph from the reenactment and shows the areas above and below the Zapruder camera frame. Slide 8 is a photo of the DCRB which shows its characteristically narrow and tall windows. The group of researchers who argue that the Zapruder film is a fake have become known as the "alterationists." At the time that they were proposing their theories of the alteration of the Zapruder film, I had what none of them had. Examples of everyday, ordinary 8 mm home movies which also had ghost images in the sprocket hole area. The alterationists claimed that the Zapruder film motorcade sequence was the only film in the world which exhibited that phenomenon, so therefore this must have been a defect created in the Super Top Secret CIA photo lab where the CIA supposedly altered the film. But I had in my hands small snippets of 8 mm film which had similar ghost images. It was by sheer luck that I was the person who had them. My mother and her sister used to work in a film lab where their job was to cut damaged portions of customers' home movies and splice the good film back together. They would throw the damaged snippets into a big cardboard box. When my aunt died, I inherited her boxes of old film. A very small portion of these snippets have ghost images in the sprocket hole area. A couple of them were filmed under similar conditions, such as maximum telephoto, dark areas and grass in the background, and bright objects in the foreground. Studying my exemplars makes it quite apparent how the ghost images were created and proves that this is a natural phenomenon characteristic of one type of camera. Roland Zavada found that the Wollensak and Kodak Brownie also produced ghost images. I have brought my exemplars if you would like to examine them with a magnifying glass. I also have one on my web site which was digitized by a fellow "anti-alterationist" researcher who runs a web site called Attention to Details. So far, I have only dealt with elements of absolute proof which can be verified by physics and mechanics, and of course by examination of Zapruder's camera. Now we have to delve into areas where cueing can take place. Interpretation of what the ghostlike images could be. In some cases, they are rather obvious and can be easily confirmed by referring to other films, photos, and maps. But in some cases, I may see someone ONLY because I expect to see someone there. I have made a list of observations of what I think the ghost images are. When I am very sure what it is, I will just state the object. When I am not sure, I will qualify my observation appropriately. You are encouraged to view the newly released Zapruder film and be cued by my list of observations to see if you agree with me and then make your own observations. One word of caution however. Because MPI had the film rotoscoped in the computer to reduce the jitters, some objects will not move as expected. They may even appear to move backwards, as Zapruder jiggled the camera slightly. That is not an indication of doctoring the original film. It is an indication of doctoring the digitized version to make it more presentable to the public. Frames 164 to 189 - building in 500 block of Elm Street in the lower sprocket hole area. Frames 190 to 206 - bright object in the lower sprocket hole area. Frames 212 to 230 - face of DCRB in the lower sprocket hole area against the back of the Stemmons Freeway sign. Frames 255 to 264 - a north side (right lane) traffic line in the upper sprocket hole area. Frames 264 to 289 - wall "B" leading to North Peristyle in the lower sprocket hole area. Frames 302 to 309 - North Peristyle in the lower sprocket hole area. Frames 284 to 305 - motorcycle (Chaney's?) in the upper sprocket hole area. Frames 308 to 332 - motorcycle (probably Chaney's) in the upper sprocket hole area. Z-313: Notice that the ghost image of Chaney's cycle is NOT blurred vs. Hargis's blurred image Z-334? Frame 339 - a north side (right lane) traffic line in the upper sprocket hole area. Frame 355 - shadow on the road from limousine's right rear handhold in the upper sprocket hole area. Frame 418 - bushes and road in the upper sprocket hole area. Frame 434 - branches (much like those in Z-413) in the upper sprocket hole area. Frame 448 - branches, grass, and sidewalk in the upper sprocket hole area. Frame 479 - possibly part of a road sign in the upper sprocket hole area.. Now, what are the implications of this discovery about the Zapruder film? For one thing, it makes it extremely unlikely that anyone could have tampered with the film and reproduced the ghost images perfectly. When you consider that no one else, not even the best camera experts in the world, realized the mechanism which caused the ghostlike images for over 33 years, it seems highly unlikely that the conspirators would know about this characteristic of Zapruder's camera and be able to duplicate it within a few hours. If someone were to remove a frame or two here and there, the ghost images in the tabs would not line up properly with the new adjacent frames and would expose the alteration. It is time for everyone who has doubted the authenticity of the Zapruder film to realize that the Zapruder film is genuine and authentic, and now move on with their research.