WHERE ARE THE LARGE FORMAT LIFE MAGAZINE TRANSPARENCIES

OF THE ZAPRUDER FILM?

by Douglas P. Horne, author of Inside the ARRB

Inside the ARRB Sheds New Light on the

Kennedy Assassination

Douglas Horne served on the Assassination Records Review Board formed by the U.S. government in response to
the public outcry that occurred after Oliver Stone’s movie JFK shocked millions. It was clear that much important
evidence had been kept from the public or destroyed, and that Lee Harvey Oswald could be innocent.

Horne served as the Board’s Chief Analyst for Military Records of the ARRB. His five-volume series, Inside the
ARRB, provides proof that President Kennedy’s autopsy was grossly mishandled and that evidence of a shot from
the front – exonerating Lee Harvey Oswald as having fired the bullet that killed the President--was deliberately
covered up. Limited because it was only “…empowered to locate and release the records,” the ARRB was not
authorized to publish any conclusions. But Horne’s unique position made it possible for him to do so. He has
examined virtually everything handled by the ARRB, and he has presented us with important conclusions based on
witness testimonies, suppressed evidence, and new evidence, for which we should all be forever grateful.

But even five full volumes could not cover everything of importance concerning suppressed or destroyed evidence.
In “Where Are the Large Format…Transparencies of the Zapruder Film?” Horne presents the story of his
search for an important piece of history—and where it led him.

(The article below was published to SCRIBD by permission of the author, Douglas P. Horne, by Judyth Vary Baker.
Copyright 2011 by Douglas P. Horne, all rights reserved.)
Where Are the Large Format LIFE Magazine Transparencies
of the Zapruder Film?
By Douglas P. Horne

SUMMARY: In April of 1997 I personally located the large format LIFE

magazine transparencies of individual Zapruder film frames---the
transparencies that had featured so prominently in Josiah Thompson's
1967 book "Six Seconds in Dallas"---in the office of attorney Jamie
Silverberg, who at that time was representing the film's owners, the LMH
Company. At the time I was a Senior Analyst on the ARRB staff, and was
conducting an official ARRB examination of the LMH company's holdings.

On December 30, 1999 the LMH Company transferred both the copyright to
the Zapruder film, and reportedly, all of its film holdings, to the
Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. (After obtaining a windfall profit of 16
million dollars, plus interest, from the U.S. government---in just
compensation for the taking of the film by the Review Board---the LMH
company had decided it was time to get rid of the troublesome political
albatross around its neck.) On January 26, 2000 the Dallas Morning News
published an article about the LMH Company's donation to the Museum,
which indicated all of the associated film items had been physically
transferred to the museum "nine days ago," and which further stated:
"Gary Mack, the Museum's Archivist, was all but whistling Tuesday as he
examined what may be the gem of the bunch---oversized transparencies of
each Zapruder film frame believed to have been made in 1963 or 1964."

It seems reasonable to conclude that this statement by the article's author

can only have referred to the same LIFE magazine transparencies which I
had discovered in the office of Jamie Silverberg on April 10, 1997. In
November of 2010, in response to a question about the whereabouts of the
LIFE magazine transparencies made by a visiting researcher, Megan
Bryant---the Sixth Floor Museum's Director of Collections and
Intellectual Property---said that the Museum did NOT POSSESS the LIFE
magazine transparencies. When she was asked a follow-on question by the
same person about the January 2000 article in the Dallas Morning News,
she stated that the article had been in error. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? I
present the details of this mystery below.

DETAILS:

(1) I visited the Washington, D.C. offices of Jamie Silverberg, ESQ., on

April 10, 1997 to examine the LMH company's Zapruder film holdings at
the request of my boss, Jeremy Gunn (who was General Counsel and head of
the research staff for the Assassination Records Review Board).

Silverberg was wary of my visit, for he no doubt suspected that the

Review Board might engage in a legal taking of any items we found worthy
of preservation. (Indeed, the ARRB effectuated a formal "taking" of the
so-called "original" Zapruder film---on storage in the National
Archives---on April 24, 1997, just 14 days after my visit. To my regret
at the time---now my profound regret---the Review Board's taking did not
include the LIFE magazine transparencies.) The first time I showed up at
his office a few days previous to this---by appointment---I had been
rebuffed by one of Silverberg's secretaries; I was told he was too busy
and that he would be unable to meet with me, in spite of the fact that I
was appearing at a specified time set up by an appointment engineered
with him by Jeremy Gunn. Jeremy registered his displeasure over this
rebuff, and Silverberg did indeed meet with me the second time I
appeared, on April 10, 1997. During the course of this long visit, I
made two significant discoveries. First, I discovered that the LMH
Company possessed the (at that time) missing first-generation copy of
the Z film: the third of three first-generation copies known to exist.
Second, I discovered that Silverberg possessed the famous LIFE magazine
large format (4" x 5") color positive transparencies, which Josiah
Thompson had written about so extensively in his book, Six Seconds in
Dallas. Not only were these transparencies crucial for study of the
behavior and reactions of the occupants of the limousine during the
assassination, but they were of historical interest because they were
clearly the source material used to generate the beautifully clear color
picture spreads of the Zapruder film in LIFE magazine in late 1963 (the
Memorial Issue), and in 1964 and 1966 editions, as well. Silverberg did
not readily produce the large format transparencies; as I now vividly
recall, they were not on his typed inventory list, and he produced them
as the very last item he removed from his safe, and did so only after
repeated and persistent inquiries on my part. I recall thinking that
this was odd behavior. On April 11, 1997 I wrote a memo detailing the
items I discovered during the inspection the day before in his office.

That memo is now on file at the National Archives, and was also
published by Rollie Zavada in the Appendices to his report on the
Zapruder film. By this time I was accustomed to looking at 4 x 5 inch
transparencies, because the color positive transparencies of the JFK
autopsy were also of this size. The transparencies of the Zapruder film
that I saw in Silverberg's office were of an identical size. I do not
recall whether they were Ektachrome or Kodachrome---I believe I failed
to make this determination at the time. But they were definitely 4 x 5
inch color positive transparencies of a very high quality, and they were
made from frames of the Zapruder film. I still vividly recall looking at
the image content in many of the transparencies---and that image content
was consistent with the sketches in Josiah Thompson's book (i.e., I
recall frames of the limousine close to the Stemmons Freeway Sign). As I
now recall, there were scores of transparencies---too many for me to
count, at the end of a long day with an unfriendly attorney. (I now wish
I had counted them, and had recorded the type of film used.)

(2) On January 26, 2000 the Dallas Morning News published an article
written by Mark Wrolstad, titled: "Zapruders Donate JFK Film, Rights." I
have a copy of this article today. I attempted to access the article
online today by going to the link: http://dallasnews.com, but could
not do so because the article is over ten years old, and the online
archives appear to go back only ten years, to calendar year 2001.
I will therefore now quote verbatim from the passages in this article
which are germane to this journal entry:

The author explained that the Zapruder family had donated "...its last
original duplicate of the film and the copyright to its coveted images
to the Sixth Floor Museum."

Items donated, the article explained, included "...the copy of the

26-second film clip itself---as well as other film, frame-by-frame
slides and stills."

The article continued: "Mr. Zapruder ordered three so-called

first-generation copies of the film when it was processed the day of the
assassination. The two he gave to the Secret Service...now rest at the
[National] Archives. The third copy, the only one still privately owned,
became the Sixth Floor's property when an agreement was signed December
30, capping four months of discussions."

"Mr. West [Sixth Floor Museum Executive Director] and an associate

carried the film in an archival box on a flight to Dallas nine days ago,
along with other materials."

"Part of the 1,900 item donation may be exhibited later this year, but
the material must first be cataloged."

"Gary Mack, the Museum's Archivist, was all but whistling Tuesday as he
examined what may be the gem of the bunch---oversized transparencies of
each Zapruder film frame believed to have been made in 1963 or 1964."

The reader of this journal entry will note that the article's author
states as a FACT that Gary Mack had examined the oversized
transparencies made in 1963 or 1964. (Presumably, Mark Wrolstad
witnessed this examination himself.) Wrolstad then directly quoted Gary
Mack, in direct reference to this examination: "These may be in better
condition than the original film is today," he said. "We may have
something that is better or sharper. Who knows?"

And with this significant quote, the article ended. The article makes it
very clear that in January of 2000, the Sixth Floor Museum possessed the
large format Zapruder film transparencies made by LIFE, and that Gary
Mack had examined them. I find it difficult to believe, and extremely
unlikely, that the author, Mark Wrolstad, made up this story out of
whole cloth, or was mistaken about such an important fact.

(3) In November of 2010, over ten years later, in response to a question

posed by a Museum visitor, the Sixth Floor Museum's Director of
Collections and Intellectual Property, Megan Bryant, claimed that the
Sixth Floor Museum did not possess the transparencies, and that the
article in the Dallas Morning News had been in error.

Something is terribly wrong here. If you want to know why the question
posed by this journal entry is so important to me, keep reading.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The ad hoc Hollywood Research Group (a label given to that ongoing,

informal research effort by me alone, not by its participants) that is
studying a 35 mm dupe negative of the extant (so-called "original") Z
film (obtained from the National Archives) has discovered startling
visual anomalies---what I have described in my book as a "black patch"
seen in several frames on the back of JFK's head---that strongly imply
that the images in the film have been severely (and crudely) altered.1

Since the publication of my book, some in the JFK research community

have stated that they see no such anomalies in other versions of the
Zapruder film, or in other still images of the Zapruder film. The
unseemly insinuations of many of these critics and skeptics are that
the Hollywood Research Group may have manipulated or altered
its own evidence, in an attempt to prove there was a government
coverup of the true facts involved in the assassination (namely, that
JFK had a large exit wound in the rear of his head caused by a shot from
the front). Unfortunately, many of the critics of my book's reportage
fail to understand that the 6K digital scans of the dupe negative frames
are "flat" or neutral scans, and have not been manipulated to make them

1
See chapter 14 in Volume IV of "Inside the Assassination Records Review
Board," pages 1352-1363.
more pleasing to the human eye---and that they therefore reveal much

more information than, for example, Z film images from a

multi-generational bootleg copy of the Z film that suffers from contrast
buildup, or than some manipulated video version of the Z film shown on
television, or presented on a DVD.

The best way for interested Americans to resolve this issue for
themselves is to ask to see the LIFE magazine large format
transparencies, and to compare what they show to the image of frame 317
(from the 35 mm dupe negative) published in volume I of my book. Frames
313, 321 and 323 of the dupe negative also show a large black patch
extraordinarily well. Once the LIFE magazine large format color positive
transparencies are located, the frames that should be studied most
closely are 313, 317, 321, and 323. The "black patch" should appear in
each of these first-generation transparencies, if LIFE did not unduly
manipulate the contrast when they were created. (Remember, if these
transparencies are suddenly produced, to check their provenance: they
should exist on film stock made no later than 1963.)

Perhaps Megan Bryant made a mistake when she claimed that the Sixth
Floor Museum does not possess these materials. Who knows? I prefer to
place my trust, for the time being, in the unbiased Dallas Morning News
reporter who wrote his article in January of 2000.

I will never be traveling to Dallas again---it's too upsetting for me to

go there, and in any case, I can't afford the trip. But those of you who
wish to take on this issue could ask the Sixth Floor Museum, in writing
(hint: use the Museum's website), whether it possesses large format
transparencies of the Zapruder film made in 1963 or 1964, approximately
4 x 5 inches in size (and unmounted when I saw them in 1997).

If the Museum still claims that it does not possess them, researchers
who visit the Museum might ask to review both the Deed of Gift signed
between the LMH Company and the Museum on December 30, 1999; and much
more importantly, the full inventory or catalog made in 2000 of the
items received. That inventory would have been made 11 years ago, before
there was any controversy associated with what those images might
reveal.

I will sum up this entry by simply repeating the question posed at the
beginning of this journal entry: "Where are the large format color
positive transparencies of the Zapruder film made by LIFE magazine in
1963 or 1964?" The LMH Company, presumably, had no motivation to hold
onto them when it transferred the film's copyright, and all of its film
elements, to the Sixth Floor Museum on December 30, 1999. The evidence
contained in the Dallas Morning News article---the best evidence I have
at this writing---indicates that the Museum DID IN FACT receive these
transparencies from the LMH Company. All members of the JFK research
community deserve an honest, and accurate answer to this question. END

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