If The Zapruder Film Was Altered By The CIA, It Explains Everything You Need To Know About Their Involvement In The JFK Assassination
Sometimes articles write themselves, while others require torturous cranial housing group spinning and grinding of gears to extrude an understandable narrative. This story writes itself, but it is important to tell it in terms of the sequence of events so dear reader can understand why there has been so much controversy over the seemingly straight forward action of making sense of one of the key pieces of evidence of the JFK Assassination, represented by the Zapruder Fim.
Myriad efforts have focused on both attacking-and defending-the veracity of the Zapruder Film over the years, with a number of them occurring throughout the six plus decades since the event, but particularly as early as the 1970s, with renewed interest in 1992 through 1997, starting up again in 2003 and with veritable body blows in 2009 and 2011.
In terms of a JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theory, the veracity of the Zapruder Film is basically COL Mustard, in the kitchen, with the butcher knife: if the Zapruder Film was altered to protect or cover up some truth-and we can figure out how that act was done-well that leads to COL Mustard.
Debunking the veracity of the Zapruder Film can be viewed as the starting point confirmation that it happened-that there was a government cover-up-which likely points to the CIA-if true. But even if true it is not necessarily the be all, end all, final answer to the questions surrounding the JFK Assassination: unless you are willing to settle for the culpability of the lead agency in the cover up.
Which may be enough. For instance, if the culpability leads to the CIA then you can bet the farm that the cover up tracks straight into the President’s Office-eventually-having meandered its way to there from next door in the Vice President’s office, with an assist by the FBI and perhaps the Secret Service.
Answering that question-whether it was altered or not-does not necessarily answer the why, although the trail of facts from the what insinuates enough about it that there is a direct causality or corollary answer to that part of the question or puzzle (i.e., answering the who, what, where, when, why and how-the 5Ws and H of the matter.)
There are two somewhat critical phases or threads to begin the story of the Zapruder Film that reveal why the later questions about its veracity and pedigree became such a tortuous and near futile exercise in “he-said, she saidism,” conspiratorial intrigue that in theory has yet to be resolved. But in the telling there are facts that emerge that explain a lot about how that little film became such a hotly contested record of the assassination due to what it represents as the often-single cited record of that historical event.
Perhaps the easiest way to get at this issue of the veracity of the film is to detail the events that brought it to everyone’s attention in the first place. So here we go…
Abraham Zapruder was in the clothing business with an office in the DalTex building across from the Texas School Book Depository building in Dealy Plaza. Being a Kennedy admirer-a democrat-with a hobby of filming with his modern 8MM Bell and Howell Zoomatic Director Series Model 414P camera, he took up a position atop a four foot concrete abutment from the John Neely Bryan concrete pergola on the grassy knoll north of Elm Street up the street a ways from the Depository building to the north of Dealy Plaza. He was assisted by his secretary-Marilyn Stitzman-who helped stabilize him to mitigate his vertigo concerns.
With Stizman steadying Zapruder by holding onto his coat from behind him, Zapruder captured some 26.6 seconds encompassing 486 feet of film as the motorcade made its way down Houston Street, turned left on Elm Street in front of the Dal-Tex building and continued toward its fateful rendezvous with violence directly in front of Zapruder some 65 feet away. He immediately knew the shots were fatal, as he had witnessed what he would later describe as “JFK’s head exploding like a firecracker,” shouting repeatedly at the time “they’ve killed him.”
Zapruder and Stitzman made their way back to his DalTex office, encountering Dallas Morning News reporter Harry McCormick who had been standing by Zapruder and noticed he had been filming. McCormick was acquainted with Dallas based Secret Service Agent (SSA) Forrest Sorrels and offered to bring him to Zapruder’s office, which he did after he found him. Zapruder agreed to give the film to Sorrels, on condition that it was only to be used for the investigation.
The trio made their way to the local Dallas News office and subsequently to the WFAA Television Station intending to get the film processed, discovering that they lacked the capability. Zapruder did a short interview for the television station while there. They left to go to the Eastman Kodak’s Dallas Processing Plant, where the film was processed around 6:30PM. Zapruder wanted to have three copies made, but the Kodachrome film required different equipment for duplication than to develop-to process the film-and the plant did not have the requisite equipment.
The original processed film was taken to the Jamison Film Company to make three copies of the original film (the original neg, while the three copies would be duplicate negatives 1, 2 and 3.)
This is where the seemingly straightforward narrative gets a bit confusing-in fact-it already has. Later efforts to reconstruct Zapruder’s actions disclosed that he actually made his way to the Dallas News and then the WFAA Television Station accompanied by his business manager Erwin Schwartz and his legal representative. When the film was processed at the Kodak plant, Zapruder had the production supervisor-Phillip Chamberlain-sign an affidavit testifying to the fact that the film was original and genuine.
After discovering that the Kodak Plant was unable to copy the film, the trio reportedly made their way to Jamison shortly after 6PM with the original 16mm negative film-processed, but unsplit, along with three rolls of 16mm Kodak Type A Film for copies. The three copies were contact prints with bracketed exposures, a technique often used to account for the potential vagaries of conditions such as inadequate light, speed variations due to the winding mechanism and camera mechanics.
One copy was done at the assumed correct exposure, one was under-exposed by half a stop, and one was over-exposed by half a stop. The Bell and Howell 8mm camera actually used 16mm film that was 25 feet long that reversed during filming to produce an 8mm exposure on each side of the 16mm film that was then processed, slit in half and joined to produce a contiguous 8mm film strip that was 50 feet long.
At Zapruder’s request the Jamison Laboratory Manager Fank Sloan signed an affidavit attesting that three copies were made. At this point there was a processed Zapruder Film that remained in the original 16MM format and three copies, one a duplicate neg, and two bracketed duplicate negs, one a half-step over and one a half-step under-exposed. It goes without saying but this was the early days of publicly available video cameras and the quality was not discussed in terms of definition and the like.
Zapruder and Schwartz returned to the Kodak Plant about 8PM to get the three copies processed. At least one of the copies and perhaps two were reportedly slit lengthwise and pasted together to form an 8mm contiguous 50-foot film strip. At Zapruder’s request Kodak Production Foreman Tom McNulty signed three affidavits, each attesting to the authenticity of one of the three copies.
Even in this short span of time with authentication of the actions taken, it remains unclear-disputed, and speculated upon-whether we ended up at the end of the day on 22 November 1963 with: an original neg, unslit, 16mm film 25 foot long processed roll film, along with a slit 8mm 50 foot copy representing the dupe neg in processed form (roll film,) along with two bracketed negs, one of which was slit and therefore 8mm 50 foot long roll film, with the other 16mm 25 foot long unslit roll film. With somewhat unclear provenance on which bracketed contact dupe neg was slit, with the possibility that it was both of them…
Or some combination or permutation variation thereby.
Zapruder made his way home at this point, very late in the evening with his original film and copy number 2-which we would assume was the unbracketed but slit 8mm 50-foot roll film-having delivered copies 1 and 3 to the Secret Service Dallas office. Copy 3-which was reportedly “probably split”-was put on a plane and delivered to the SS in Washington DC that night, while copy 1 was maintained at the Dallas SS office.
Zapruder received a call that night from Richard Stolley, a Life Magazine Editor based in Los Angeles and they agreed to meet the next morning in Zapruder’s DalTex office at 0900. Stolley showed up shortly after 0800 and found Zapruder with several SS agents (SSA). Zapruder projected his slit/8mm roll film version for the SSA and later to a group of journalists that included Stolley.
Stolley had been authorized by Life Magazine HQs in NY to offer Zapruder 50K dollars for the print rights to the film. Zapruder agreed, Stolley drew up the contract and Zapruder handed over the original film and the last remaining copy.
Just to ensure we are tracking at this point in the movie (pun intended,) at about mid-day on Saturday 24 November 1963 in Dallas, Texas, Zapruder no longer had possession of the Zapruder Film.
The original and copy 2 were in the hands of Stolley and would be on a plane to Chicago within the hour-supposedly unescorted, but that is disputed. Copy 1 was held by the Dallas SS in their local office. Copy 3 had in theory arrived in Washington DC late night Friday or early morning Saturday 24 November 1963.
The aftermath remains somewhat disputed, but folklore reports that the original remained in Chicago while copy 2 was sent on to Life Magazine HQs in New York. There are reports that Stolley hand carried the precious cargo to Chicago: whatevs…
Which may seem like making a complex story out of what seems pretty straight forward, but as with all things JFK Assassination related, there are many who argued that because of the somewhat dogmatic manner in which Zapruder went about documenting his actions, there was a solid chain of uninterrupted custody of the film that precluded any possible attempts at mischief making.
Which-as you will soon see-becomes ever so much moreso debatable as we continue to trace the busy life journey of the Zapruder Film, including the original and three copies, two of which were a bit different than the original and the original copy (true dupe neg.)
These terms are very important in the business and will become more important as the story unfolds.
Which is where we will take up the next phase of the saga of the Zapruder Film to detail how the CIA entered the picture in a major way. A phase that was long rumored about but went virtually unknown for decades, with allegations about film manipulation, conspiracy theories, double-blind operations and shenanigans that remain disputed to this day.
Max Dribbler
23 March 2026
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