The famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination lasts a grand total of 26 seconds. In this 400-page book, Wrone (professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point) dissects Zapruder's footage frame by frame, only to end up restating at length the well-worn argument, expressed much more succinctly in scores of other publications, that the film shows shots fired from three different angles, none of them correlating with Lee Harvey Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository. While Wrone's exhaustive consideration of the film itself quickly becomes tedious, he provides a few chapters that tell some intriguing stories, such as Zapruder's early actions in the initial hours after the assassination (when he first realized he possessed a valuable "property"), the several subsequent court fights over ownership in various sections of the film and the tangled history of the U.S. government's acquisition, decades after the event, of the film. Wrone also chronicles the various ways in which the film has been used and abused by both adherents and critics of the Warren Commission and summarizes the theory, advanced by the commission's more crackpot critics, that Zapruder's footage has been altered in order to eliminate the most damning evidence of conspiracy. Aside from these anecdotes, however, there is nothing new here, just reiteration of the scathing criticisms of the Warren Commission's conclusions. Wrone's book will appeal to only the most die-hard and detail-driven assassination buffs, though these findings by a sober historian may draw attention as we mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination. 40 photos, 22 in color.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
". . . clearly written and accessible to a wide audience. It will be useful to students of American society, particularly in the fields of criminology and law, sociology, political science, and history."--
Critical Criminology"Wrone has provided a stimulating, clearly written, and well-researched study of an issue that may never be satisfactorily resolved."--Journal of Southern History
"One of the most sober JFK assassination books of 2003 or any other year. . . . Wrone seems to be without an ideologically motivated agenda. He seems interested only in finding and presenting the evidence responsibly. . . . Of all the Zapruder film analyses I have read, Wrone's is the most lucid for a nonexpert, and the calmest in tone."--Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Future assassination researchers will consult this fascinating history of the indelible Zapruder film. Strongly recommended."--Library Journal
"Wrone is neither a Warren Commission defender nor an outlandish conspiracy theorist but a careful historian who presents a strong case that the Warren Commission hastily and wrongly concluded that Oswald murdered Kennedy. . . . Strongly recommended."--Library Journal
"A stimulating, clearly written, and well-researched study."--Journal of Southern History
"An important, valuable, and compelling addition to the literature on the assassination that argues convincingly that the film is both authentic and contains evidence of a conspiracy."--Michael L. Kurtz, author of The JFK Assassination Debates: Lone Gunman versus Conspiracy
"Wrone's knowledge of the assassination's complex and daunting evidentiary base is unparalleled."--James H. Lesar, founder and president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center
"The vivid images captured by the Zapruder film are eminently recognizable, perhaps more so than any other film footage ever captured, so much so that anyone who reflects on JFK's assassination quite likely does so from Abraham Zapruder's vantage point."--Walter E. Dellinger III, Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University and former Solicitor General of the United States
From the Back Cover
"An important, valuable, and compelling addition to the literature on the assassination that argues convincingly that the film is both authentic and contains evidence of a conspiracy."--Michael L. Kurtz, author of
Crime of the Century: The Kennedy Assassination from a Historian's Perspective "The vivid images captured by the Zapruder film are eminently recognizable, perhaps more so than any other film footage ever captured, so much so that anyone who reflects on JFK's assassination quite likely does so from Abraham Zapruder's vantage point."--Walter E. Dellinger III, Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University and former Solicitor General of the United States
"Wrone's knowledge of the assassination's evidentiary base is unparalleled."--James H. Lesar, founder and president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center
About the Author
David R. Wrone is professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
