Note: there are a few JFK assassination critics who truly believe that the Zapruder film is a false record of the murder. It is clear to me that two or three people have an agenda to attack the most important photographic record of the assassination. They have mis-represented several points and have convinced others that the film is not genuine. Several well-meaning researchers (who I will not name) have been convinced by believable misinterpretations, and they mean well, but are wrong in their conclusion. Below is a case for the defense of the true record of the assassination, the Zapruder film. It is not by any means an attack on the several well-meaning researchers who have been misled. I hope that this will open their eyes and minds. It is difficult to allow yourself to admit that you have been misled, but it's very important to history that this issue must be cleared up. Please read this with an open mind.

The Zapruder Film

There are those who use classic circular reasoning in one matter. For whatever motive, three or four people think that the President’s car stopped to allow a coverup of some kind at the exact moment of the fatal head shot. Since the Zapruder film shows that the car never stopped in Dealey Plaza, they have made themselves believe that the film must be a fake, false, a hoax, altered, whatever. And since, in their minds, the film is a false record of the events, the car must have stopped! In fact, the Zapruder film is genuine and unaltered and the car never stopped in Dealey Plaza!

Many have been misled, into believing that the Zapruder film has been faked, or altered, that it is a hoax. It has NOT and is NOT! This is an explanation of how so many have been conned by a few people using a false rumor into believing that the single most important piece of evidence in the study of the assassination of President Kennedy cannot be trusted. We do have a massive true conspiracy in the Kennedy case, we don’t need a false one on top of it to muddy the water any further. Of the supporters of the theory that the Zapruder film we have now seen is a forgery, only one states reasonable arguments to support the belief. This belief is made based on what I believe to be false assumptions.

There have been several false assumptions made by several people through the past few years. Before the film was slit by Life, the original film was used to make a duplicate unslit 8mm black and white copy negative (most probably in the Sunshine lab in Chicago) which was used to create the black and white Zapruder frames, which were published in Life magazine’s November 29th issue, still before the camera original was slit! This black and white printing in a color magazine lead many people to believe the film was shot in black and white, instead of on the color Kodachrome II reversal film, which it was.

First - It is stated by the purveyors of the myth, that an alleged ‘false’ replacement copy of the Zapruder film was made using a contact printer. Original films all are what is known in the film industry as ‘B-wind’, that is it ‘reads’ through the film base. Photographic film is really two essential layers. A celluloid base layer, and an emulsion layer. The emulsion is the light sensitive chemical layer which is what captures the image on the film. Contact prints are ‘A-wind’ and read through the emulsion side of the film.  When viewed through the base, it appears as a mirror image. ‘B-wind’ reading means that left is on the left and right is on the right, just like the original Zapruder film does. If the film in the National Archives was a fake, it would have to read through the emulsion side of the film, which it does not!

Second – Although the assassination sequence of the Z-film is only a fraction over six feet long, the physical Zapruder film is a 50-foot reel of Kodachrome II film (from the end of the assassination footage to the end of the reel, it was unexposed, black with no image). Kodachrome II is probably the finest film ever created to shoot original, well lighted images. However, in deep, contrasty shadows, it tends to ’block up’. Blocking up means that in deep shadows, what should be medium to dark, will become very dark black. Because of this, Kodachrome II is a very poor choice to make a duplicate copy of a film. Again, the Zapruder film is on Kodachrome II film!

It is claimed that you can not see any detail in the back of President Kennedy’s head.  Well, everyone’s head is in deep shadow, since the car is driving toward the bright sun to the west. The automatic electric eye in Zapruder’s camera was reading the brightness of the background and reduced, or darkened, the exposure and reduced the brightness in the foreground images. Although all of the heads in the car are in deep shadow, Governor Connally’s hair was light grey, much lighter than JFK’s, so Connally’s is not quite as dark on the film and shows more detail.

In the last part of the Z-film, the back of President Kennedy’s head is in deep shadow and we see the blocking effect. We lose detail in the back of JFK’s head, because there is no direct sunlight on the back of his head against the contrast of the very bright background and therefore, there is no detail of the damage shown on film of the damage in the back of JFK’s head.

Third - It is claimed that the Zapruder film is a fake because when the limousine turns onto Elm Street from Houston Street (Well before any of the shots) this turn does not appear on the film. The reason for this is clear. Abraham Zapruder did not know what position in the motorcade the president’s car was located. When the beginning motorcycles approached the Elm Street corner, he began shooting his movie. Zapruder’s camera was not a battery powered motorized unit. It was a Bell & Howell 414PD, Directors Series, hand cranked manual wind camera and the spring wind was running down before the Lincoln limousine came into view. Even fully wound, his camera could only run for about 65 seconds. We have no way of knowing if the camera was fully wound when the motorcade sequence began. Since Zapruder filmed two segments prior to the motorcade footage, it is possible that he did not re-wind the camera. This might well have reduced the maximum filming time for the historic scene. We can never know. The winding of the spring in the camera would have run out before the President came into view on Elm Street. (And, by the way, if this had happened, Zapruder would have missed the assassination completely).

Zapruder stopped filming and lowered his hands to rewind his camera by turning the crank, which takes about 25 seconds, and by the time he began to film again, the car had completed the turn onto Elm Street and Zapruder brought the camera back up to his eye and he began to shoot. That’s all there is to it! There is no conceivable reason for anyone to remove a section of the film this far before the fatal head shot, but nearly everyone who has spread the false rumor of film forgery mentions it.

Fourth, (and perhaps the strangest) - It is stated by the most delusional of the rumor mongers that in the moment of the fatal shot at frame number 313, there is a two second, or more, cut in the film to hide a stopping of the Presidential limousine, for heaven knows what purpose. Even if there had been only a two second cut, there would be an entire 36 film frames or more removed and everyone inside and outside the car would have jumped forward (changed positions) considerably. The background would have changed. The photographic angle of everyone in the car would have changed violently. None of this happens! There was no cut at frame 313! The only two cuts in the film are where a Life magazine employee damaged (or removed) some frames from the film earlier on in the footage at two points between frames 154 and 157 as well as frames 207 to 212. Frames 155, 156, 208, 209, 210 and 211 are no longer on the film and frames 154, 157, 207 and 212 are damaged by the physical splices.

It has been stated that about 50 witnesses said that the presidential car stopped on elm street. This statement is simply not true! Of the “50” nearly all of them said that the car slowed down, which it did, and nearly came to a stop, not that it stopped. Of the others, most were not able to see if it had actually stopped but saw the brake lights come on and had the impression that the car had stopped. Most of them were too far away to tell if there were movement or not.  Of the half dozen or so that remain, they were simply wrong.

The physical splices are on the camera original film, but historically, the missing frames are no longer missing. I have published all six of the ‘missing’ frames and the four damaged frames in both my book, JFK: Absolute Proof and my Dealey Plaza magazine JFK: The Case for Conspiracy. My copies of the missing and damaged frames came from one of the three Dallas duplicates.

Fifth - we have three more films of the assassination. The Nix film, the Muchmore film and the Bronson film. The frame sequences of all three match the Zapruder film perfectly. To fake the Zapruder film (whoever allegedly did this fakery) would have to have faked the other three films as well, all in the same way.

Sixth and last - The official fiction has always been that all the shots came from behind. If anyone had faked the film, they would have made President Kennedy’s head be shown to be thrown violently forward and not to the rear as the film shows it does. Since Time-Life had already removed frames of the film in two other spots, what would stop them from doing it again at the head shot at frame 313?

A Reader's Response:

Robert: Thank you for taking the time to write this detailed explanation. It reiterates what you said in your presentation at the 2017 Conference in Dallas. I hope people will take the opportunity to purchase the DVD's of that conference as soon as they are available, so that they can see the camera and your power point presentation. I think that, as you say, some people are misled and sincere in their exploration of the subject. What they often do, is judge the film by 2018 standards. They assume digital "magic" was done! They do not have the background and knowledge as you do of the way film was processed in 1963. Others have more dubious reasons to espouse fakery. I think the research community owes you a big debt of gratitude for "accessing" a copy of the film and having the courage to share it with the world. It would have been easier, not to mention safer, for you to put it away and go on with your life. Thank you for that and all the rest of your hard work.  J.H.

Oct 28, 2017

A message from Robert Groden to all who care, relating to the "document release":

"After 54 years of waiting for all the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy, we have once again been put on hold by the very people who kept us from knowing the truth in the first place.  I have been warning for many months now that we would not be allowed to see "everything" when the mandated release would happen just days ago, and I was right.

We were promised that these documents would not be redacted and that they would be released in full.  This turns out to be untrue.  The partial release of the JFK documents was hand-picked and many of the documents which we have known to exist have not been released by those in charge of the secrets.

We have always known that many of the autopsy materials, the income tax records of people such as the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald and others would not be released.  It would have been naïve of us to believe that any "smoking gun documents"would ever see the light of day within our lifetime.

The major news media have allowed us to hear the words of only the worst of the Warren Commission defenders for the last few days and all the real students of the assassination have been kept silent.  Every one of the "lone-nutters" repeatedly states that Oswald shot the President, which he did not.  They state that there was only one assassin, which was provably a massive lie.  They will ask the question, "Did Oswald have help", always assuming his guilt.

People who have had nothing to do with the release of the materials are openly taking credit for their release, and this is infuriating.  Those who made any of the release possible were the members of the Assassination Records Review Board, twenty-five years ago.

 We are only allowed to see documents which promote the lone assassin lies and are inundated with a massive amount of material, much of the which has absolutely nothing to do with the assassination.

The cover-up spin doctors  can now point to the new materials and say, "See, there was nothing there."

Some of the audio files are in foreign languages, reportedly with no translation.

What are still missing are the audio tapes recorded by the CIA of the man claiming to be Lee Oswald in Mexico City, and countless other vitally important materials.

There is much more to say, but I will stop for now.  I can only plead that none of the you will fall for this continuing cover-up.

May ALL the truth be known, NOW.

Robert J Groden

Our friends at the CAPA have issued a good read regarding the "Release" of the JFK files!

http://capa-us.org/trump-backs-off-promise-release-suppressed-jfk-documents-today-permits-partial-release/