Sorry, conspiracy theorists
Long-lost JFK film fills gaps, but no revelations
May 28, 1996
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EDTWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Long-lost footage of President Kennedy, filmed less than an hour before his assassination, was released Tuesday by the National Archives, more than 30 years after a Dallas photographer fished it out of the trash at the Dallas television station where he worked.
The salvaged footage, 45 minutes of silent, black-and-white 16-mm film, does not include the infamous pictures of the motorcade as it came under rifle fire in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Instead, it captures a poignant moment between John and Jacqueline Kennedy at the Dallas airport. They hold hands in a rare public show of affection before getting into the limousine that would take them on that fateful ride through the city center.
It also shows the chaos in Dealey Plaza; the immediate police search for the shooter in an adjacent railyard; and the police taking their first suspects into custody.
Lee Harvey Oswald is on the film, sitting at the Dallas police station after his arrest. His killer, Jack Ruby, is shown at a news conference with Oswald the night of the assassination, two days before he shot Oswald to death.
The film also provides the only known pictures of Vice President Lyndon Johnson as he left Parkland Memorial Hospital after Kennedy was officially pronounced dead.
Salvaged from the trash
The film went through an odyssey, starting in 1963. KTVT television station photographer Roy Cooper Jr. rescued it from the trashbin a few days after the assassination. A few years later, he and friend Eli Sturges spliced it together. Sturges then hid it under his house.
The two did try to sell it a number of times through the years, but found only one taker. A British program bought two minutes of it in 1988.
Both men have since died, but the film remained buried under Sturges' house until last year, when a house fire almost destroyed it. Sturges' stepdaughter decided to give it to the Assassinations Records Review board in Washington after learning that the review board could use it.
The board transferred the footage to videotape last week at the National Archives, where researchers and the public will be able to view it as part of the JFK Collection.
At first glance, experts seem to think this film offers no encouragement to conspiracy theorists. However, the clips do close historical gaps. Their true value will only become evident after close and scholarly analysis, which could take years to complete.
Correspondent Louise Schiavone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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