Zapruder Film (8mm color film, frames 133-486)
Abraham Zapruder's 26-second color 8mm home movie of the motorcade on Elm Street.
Evidence ID: zapruder-film
How Zapruder Film (8mm color film, frames 133-486) is grounded
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Archival records
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Testimony
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Records to read next
Follow the archival records and testimony references that ground Zapruder Film (8mm color film, frames 133-486).
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What this item anchors
Abraham Zapruder's 26-second color 8mm home movie of the motorcade on Elm Street. The film is the single most-examined piece of visual evidence in the case: frames 133 through 486 cover the motorcade's passage through Dealey Plaza, with frames 312-313 showing the fatal head wound. The Commission, the HSCA, and the ARRB each examined optically enhanced copies. The federal government took the original film by eminent domain in 1998 under the JFK Records Act, with arbitration setting compensation at $16M in 2000.
Chain of custody
Ordered transfers of the item through the investigative record, where the archival sources agree.
- 1November 22, 1963Abraham Zapruder
Filmed from a concrete pergola on the north side of Elm Street.
- 2November 23, 1963LIFE Magazine
Time-Life Inc. purchased print rights for $50,000 (initial agreement).
- 3November 25, 1963LIFE Magazine
LIFE acquired all rights for an additional $100,000 (total $150,000, paid in installments through 1964).
- 4January 1, 1975Zapruder family
LIFE returned the original film to the Zapruder family for $1.
- 5April 24, 1997U.S. Government (ARRB)
ARRB designated the original film an "assassination record" under the JFK Records Act.
- 6August 3, 1998U.S. Government (NARA)
Federal government formally took the original film from the Zapruder family by eminent domain; an arbitration panel set compensation at $16 million in 2000.