Abraham Zapruder Biography

Filmmaker

Abraham Zapruder is the bystander who filmed the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy at the moment that Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald on 22 November 1963. It happened in Dallas, Texas; Zapruder owned a clothing company with offices near Dealey Plaza, and took his home movie camera with him to film JFK's motorcade as it passed. His 26 seconds of footage turned out to be the best visual record of the assassination. As such, it was studied in great detail by the Secret Service, the police and the Warren Commission investigating Kennedy's death. It has since been analyzed frame by frame by experts and amateurs as they argue about Kennedy's killing. Zapruder sold the rights to his film to Life magazine for $150,000; later the film was taken over by the National Archives, and in 1999 the federal government agreed to pay $16 million to Zapruder's heirs for the film.

Extra credit: Zapruder's camera was a "Bell & Howell Model 414PD Zoomatic Director Series camera with a Varamat 9-27mm f1.8 zoom lens, set for full close-up," according to the Sixth Floor Museum website... Frame 313 of the film -- the gruesome moment when the fatal bullet struck Kennedy's head -- was removed from the Zapruder film for many years, as it was thought to be too graphic for public viewing.

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