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(NewsNation) — Abraham Zapruder, the Dallas businessman who filmed the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was private and reluctant to talk about what he had experienced.
But he did speak to radio journalist Marvin Scott, who says it took a lot of cajoling and a charm offensive. The interview took place in 1966, three years after the president’s murder and four years before Zapruder’s own death.
Scott donated the original tape of the interview to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which commemorates the event that changed the world.
On tape, Zapruder described seeing Kennedy’s open car coming into view.
“Jacqueline and the president are waving,” Zapruder said, referring to Kennedy’s wife, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. “As he came in line with my camera, I heard a shot. I saw the president lean over to Jacqueline. Then the second shot came. And then I realized I saw his head open up, and I started yelling, ‘They killed him. They killed him.’ And I continued shooting until he went under the underpass.”
Zapruder said he never forgot what he saw.
“It’s left in my mind like a wound that heals up, but yet there’s a pain left,” he told Scott.
The photographer expressed doubt about theories of a second gunman hiding behind a fence. Zapruder said he would have heard shots coming from the location, which was about 30 feet behind him.
The 26 seconds of footage that comprise Zapruder’s record of the Kennedy assassination was tightly controlled for years. “Life” magazine initially purchased the film and published still images in black and white.
The shaky film is ubiquitous today, but it didn’t appear on national television until 1975 through the efforts of investigative journalist Geraldo Rivera. Rivera, a correspondent-at-large for NewsNation, at the time hosted an ABC show called “Good Night, America.”
He said he tracked down a copy of the footage, which he called “astounding,” and had to reassure his bosses that he would take legal responsibility for airing the copyrighted material.
“I ultimately had to sign a document with ABC, my network, wherein I accepted personal responsibility for the onetime-only airing of the Zapruder film,” Rivera said. “And we put it on, and it launched an industry.”
