The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK (Paperback)

by James H. Fetzer (Editor) "From a logical point of view, the phrase, "the Zapruder film", implies the existence of one and only one thing of the kind thereby named..." (more)
Key Phrases: sprocket hole area, curb stripes, extant film, Warren Commission, Elm Street, Stemmons Freeway (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...this subperb collection convincingly demonstrate that seeing shouldn't mean believing when it comes to the Zapruder film...Indispensable...Highly recommended." -- --Kerry Walters, William Bittinger Professor of Philosophy, Gettysburg College

Product Description
Perhaps no greater debate has raged in the history of the study of the death of JFK than over the authenticity of a 27-second home movie of the assassination, known as "the Zapruder film". This footage has been described as "the most significant amateur recording of a news event in history". It is surely one of the most controversial. Some students of the crime take it as the absolute foundation for understanding what actually transpired. Others are not so sure.

This book brings together leading experts on the film, including Jack White, the legendary photoanalyst; David Healy, an expert on film production and post-production; John Costella, Ph.D., a physicist with specialization in light and the properties of moving objects; David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., the leading expert on the medical evidence and another authority on the film; David Lifton, a noted student of the assassination and author of BEST EVIDENCE; and James H. Fetzer, Ph.D., a professor of logic, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning.

The evidence that is presented in this volume provides proof that the film has not simply been edited by removing a few frames or by altering the contents of specific sequences (which has indeed been done in this instance) but that the whole film has been created by the use of sophisticated techniques relying upon optical printing and special effects, whereby any foreground can be merged with any background, any specific unwanted events can be removed and any wanted events can be introduced.

The Preface begins by dismantling the arguments of proponents of the film's authenticity, especially Josiah Thompson, who authored a work, SIX SECONDS IN DALLAS (1967), based upon the presumption that the film is authentic. Thompson has argued that the chronology of the film's possession precluded its alteration; that the publication of frames in LIFE magazine's issue of 29 November 1963 made it very difficult to fake; and that the synchronicity of the film relative to other photographs and films disproves it.

But a more complete version of the film was in the hands of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) run by the CIA already Friday night, where Homer McMahon watched it more than 10 times and observed the impact of six to eight shots fired from at least three directions. If there were copies around other than the official "original", then his chronology does not track them. The frames that appeared in LIFE were few in number (31 out of 486) and poor in quality, excluding the most crucial sequences. And the recreated Zapruder film may have been used as a guide for changing other photographs and films.

So it appears to have happened the other way around. Indeed, the evidence amassed here includes the unresponsive spectators, an impossible frame 232, inconsistencies with the Stemmons Freeway sign, differences in lamppost verticality between the film and DPD photographs, the missing limousine stop, the Greer backward head-turn in frames 302-303, the disappearning blood spray in frames 313-314, the "blob" of gushing brains, the Greer forward head-turn in frames 315-317, the absence of tissue debris on the limousine trunk, and the missing Connally left-turn.

That the film has been fabricated is established beyond reasonable doubt on the basis of internal anomalies, physical impossibilities, eyewitness testimony, and other forms of proof. In conjunction with other available evidence, however, authentic features of this film can be identified, including frame 225, which shows a hole in the windshield; frames 313-316, which show the motion of the President's body (back and to the left); frame 330, which displays a "solar flare" from a shot that hit the chrome strip; and frame 374, which shows a blow-out to the back of the President's head.

Frame 313 requires extensive consideration insofar as it may have been fabricated by merging two shots--one from behind, the other from in front--to reduce the number and conceal the origin of impacts on JFK. There is ample evidence that the driver brought the limousine to a halt, that the President was hit in the head from the rear and fell forward, then was hit again from the front after Jackie had eased him upright, which may be the most complex deception in the history of the case.

This volume emerged from The Zapruder Film Symposium, which was organized and moderated by James H. Fetzer on the Duluth Campus of the University of Minnesota, 9-11 May 2003, and may well prove to have been among the most important conferences in the history of the study of the death of JFK. Certainly, the discoveries reported here remove any question about the film's authenticity and reveal the lengths to which the conspirators were willing to go to cover up the true cause of death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Open Court; illustrated edition edition (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081269547X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812695472
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #338,478 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forty Year Hoax on the Citizens of the United States, November 9, 2003

By	Theresa C. Mauro "Terry Mauro" (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If there was ever another textbook to add to any forensic researcher's library, this is the one. Each section is painstakingly detailed with information, much of which has been declassified since The JFK Act was put into effect following the Oliver Stone film, "JFK", in 1991. This book covers the falsification of evidence following the President's ssassination in Dallas at the hands of the FBI and the Secret Service, with a little help from their friends. One of the principal pieces of evidence allowed to be entered into the Warren Report was a home movie of the event called the Zapruder film, which according to Zapruder himself, on being examined by the Commission, expressed not his memory of the sequence of events as he observed it through the lens of his Bell & Howell the day of the filming, but how they now appeared in what he was being shown by the Commission. "Is that what happened?", he's been quoted as saying, almost off-handedly, during his deposition.
The way in which the film could have been altered is discussed in detail and many proofs are presented of what was done to it. Some may find parts of this book a tad too technical, and may pass over those aspects due to the amount of data generated here, yet there is much valuable information to be gleaned from its pages, including chapters by leading experts in the field,
such as Jack White, David Mantik and David Lifton.
A short appendix on the possibility of listening devices in Dealey Plaza, although difficult to assess, suggests how far things appear to have deteriorated in relation to The Sixth Floor Museum, which several contributors--not only John Costella, but also David Lifton and editor James Fetzer--suspect of taking an active, perhaps leading, role in the continued dissemination of false information regarding this case.
This book is a treasure chest and presents to everyone who seeks it, hard evidence coupled with viable analysis, as well as, quality research compiled by some of the finest scientists in the field today.

27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a lot hanging in the balance., October 2, 2003

By	Corie Campbell (USA) - See all my reviews

If you don't buy another book this year, you should buy this one: THE GREAT ZAPRUDER FILM HOAX: DECEIT AND DECEPTION IN THE DEATH OF JFK by James H. Fetzer. I sat and read most of this book while still in the bookstore. It's so well-written that it is an easy read despite the complexity of the subject matter. Fetzer explains things very clearly, step by step. He is a professor, after all, and a very experienced teacher. He connects the dots for you. After so much conflicting information on the Kennedy assassination over the years, this book makes me confident that we can truly get to the bottom of this matter, finally. And why should we care? Because we are very likely living under a military coup that began with the Kennedy assassination. If it's true that the combined forces presented in this book did indeed murder Kennedy - and it is obvious that they did - then it follows that we are still living today under the same blackmail from those same "forces". The events that are occurring today, our economy, the leaders who succeed in getting elected or succeed in staying in office today, all have to make a similar "deal" with those same powerful, dark, and self-protective forces that murdered Kennedy and would murder today's leaders if they tried to stop or dismantle them. As Americans who care about our country, we should be VERY concerned about all of this. If the executive office of the United States is being controlled by the military, the CIA, and organized crime, that amounts to a treasonous situation, undermining the very principles this country is built upon, undermining the balance of power among the three branches of government - the executive, the judicial, and the legislative. It means we are being interfered with. It is affecting us in many ways we probably do not even know about. The Kennedy assassination - it happened so long ago, you might say, but these "forces" are still around, still alive, still affecting our economy, still affecting our young people who go to war and get killed and maimed, still tying the hands of our leaders under threat of death. We need to end these conditions, or we risk being pulled into continuous wars so that these underlying "forces" can continue reaping the incredible war profits - billions of dollars, and all of it going to a very few people. And we risk having our good, honest leaders murdered or controlled or driven out of office. This book represents an outstanding depth of research, and it will make you an expert. The only question left will be "What can we do to stop this situation?" I only hope that, if enough people embrace the education available in this book, we will find a way to end our slavery to these powerful, intimidating forces.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work by Fetzer, September 25, 2006

By	David Johnson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book describes the results of painstaking work by Fetzer and others, using simple tools of geometry and measurements of the still-existing concrete structures at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, to prove that the Zapruder film was heavily and professionally modified to show an incorrect series of events.

Fetzer et. al. got started on to path to their discovery when they noticed a few years ago that the photo taken by one of the girls shown in the background of the Zapruder film contained a sight line that would only be correct if the girl (Moorman) was standing on the street next to the curb. Yet, the Zapruder film inexplicably was showing the girl standing on the grass above the curb. Which was correct? Looking first at the Moorman photo, the researchers were able to establish that the perspective in the original photo taken by Moorman had not been altered after the photo was taken since that photo had been published worldwide by the wire services within an hour after the assassination. Then, working backwards, using simple geometry and careful survey measurements they were able to determine the exact spot where Moorman stood when she snapped her picture, which turned out to be 2 feet into the street next to the curb, just as she had said in her signed, sworn, statement to the police on the day of the assassination. The authors showed that it is a physical impossibility for Moorman to have taken her photo from the position on the grass, approximately 12 inches higher in elevation, where she is shown in the Zapruder film. With that as a starting point, the researchers were able to show that there were other alterations in the Zapruder film including two missing sequences of frames, a series of altered frames (including those with Moorman) where the back ground has been cut, enlarged 130 percent, and repasted into modified frames, and a series of frames modified with a slightly relocated freeway sign, apparently to obscure something taking place behind the sign.

I started off reading this book with deep skepticism over the claim implied by its title but after seeing the results of their work, they have proven every one of their claims without leaving room for even a shadow of doubt.

This is a classic real-life detective story that is fascinating reading. The best evidence that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy is now the very existence of the doctored-up Zapruder film since only a large conspiracy would have had the physical and technical resources to do such a thing in 1963. Certainly the original suspect in the crime, Lee Harvey Oswald, would not have been able to produce the doctored film and he would not have cared anyway since he was himself killed two days after the crime.

Does the crime matter anymore? Probably not since after 42 years, all of the players in the conspiracy are either dead or in a nursing home but it's still important to establish the truth, even for a crime from the distant past, and Fetzer has done this in superb fashion. This work will finally bring closure to the troubling assassination for those who read it.