In 1976 it was revealed that the Zapruder film was in the CIA National Photo Interpretation Center within days of the assassination, possibly on the night of the assassination. I consider the veracity of all those hospital workers more dependable than whatever comes out of the CIA photo lab. But that's just me. I'm sure some folks swear by the CIA photo lab.
We have a movie.
We do not necessarily have a movie of what happened.
We do not have a chain-of-custody for that movie.
What is your offer of proof that the movie is authentic and unaltered?
It should be noted that the Zapruder film not only disagrees with all those eyewitnesses, including hospital staff and autopsy doctors and witnesses, it also disagrees with other images of what should be identical scenes.
For example, frame Z-369 and the Nix film very closely coincide and each shows Jackie climbing out of the seat toward the rear of the limo. The people in the background appear different in quantity and attire. At least one film would appear to be phoney.
WHY are all the medically trained personnel at Dallas and Bethesda considered "notoriously undependable?"
If ALL the eyewitnesses, including the attending physicians, nurses, and hospital staff, as well as the people at the autopsy are notoriously undependable, WHY is the Z-film, after passing through the CIA photo lab, considered notoriously reliable?
The most reliable evidence is CE-399. No bullet ever smashed a bunch of bones and ended up looking like that one.
Why depend on a movie of dubious authenticity when we have PHYSICAL EVIDENCE less susceptible to tampering?
We have the aforementioned magic bullet.
We have the jacket which contained, per WR p.92, "a roughly circular hole approximately one fourth of an inch in diameter on the rear of the coat, 5 3/8 inches below the top of the collar and 1 3/4 inches to the right of the center back seam of the coat.
We have the shirt which, per WR p.92, "contained a hole on the back side 5 3/4 inches below the top of the collar and 1 1/8 inches to the right of the middle of the back of the shirt."
From Crossfire, by Jim Marrs, pp. 68-9.
The American public finally got the opportunity to view the Zapruder film only because of the Clay Shaw trial in New Orleans during 1967-69. During that turbulent trial (See THE GARRISON INVESTIGATION), New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison attempted to prove there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy and that New Orleans Trade Mart director Clay Shaw was a member of that conspiracy.
As part of Garrison's attempt to prove the existence of a conspiracy, he subpoenaed the Zapruder film from Time-Life Corp. Time-Life fought this subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally ruled that the corporation had to comply with the legal subpoena. Time-Life grudgingly turned over to Garrison a somewhat blurry, copy of the film - but that was enough. Soon, thanks to the copying efforts of Garrison's staff, bootleg Zapruder films were in the hands of several assassination researchers. Finally in March 1975, a copy of the film was aired nationally about midnight on ABC's "Goodnight America". At long last, the American public was able to see for themselves the assassination of their 35th President.
Within a few years clearer copies of the Zapruder film became available to the public. From the beginning, researchers have used the Zapruder film as the cornerstone of assassination evidence - a virtual time clock of the events in Dealey Plaza based on the known average camera speed of 18.3 frames per second. However, today the Zapruder film itself has been called into question.
In 1971, author David Lifton was permitted to view an exceptionally good quality copy of the Zapruder in Time-Life Los Angeles office. He said the rear of Kennedy's head in the critical moments following the head shot appeared to have been "blacked out" and he discovered "splices on the film which had never been mentioned by Time-Life."
His suspicion that the film may have been tampered with by persons with access to sophisticated photographic equipment was heightened in 1976 with the release of CIA item 450. This group of documents, pried from the Agency by a Freedom of Information suit, indicated the Zapruder film was at the CIA's National Photo Interpretation Center (NPIC) possibly on the night of the assassination and "certainly within days of the assassination". One of the documents tells of the existence of either a negative or a master positive of the film and calls for the production of four prints - one "test print" and three duplicates. Interestingly, this number of prints is exactly what existed in Dallas the day after the assassination - one original and three copies.
Lifton wrote:
"In my view, previously unreported CIA possession of the Zapruder film compromised the film's value as evidence: (1) the forward motion of Kennedy's head, for one frame preceding frame 313 might be the result of an altered film, and if that was so, it made the theory of a forward high-angle shot...completely unnecessary; (2) an altered film might also explain why the occipital area (of Kennedy's head), where the Dallas doctors saw a wound, appears suspiciously dark, whereas a large wound appears on the forward, right-hand side of the head, where the Dallas doctors saw no wound at all."
Photographic analyst and researcher Jack White concurs with Lifton, stating he detected evidence of photographic retouching in some Zapruder frames.
If the CIA indeed tampered with the Zapruder film after the assassination, this piece of evidence - long considered one of the best pieces of evidence - becomes less credible. And like so much else in the assassination case, it is the suppression and deception involved with the Zapruder film which may eventually reveal more than the film itself.