New footage of JFK's assassination shows motorcade heading to hospital at high speed

The film will be offered on September 28 at Boston-based RR Auction, which has been selling items related to Kennedy and the assassination for nearly 40 years.

Recently surfaced footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway toward Parkland Hospital after his fatal injury has been discovered and is set to be auctioned later this month.

Although the discovery may seem shocking decades after the assassination, experts say it is not necessarily surprising.

“These images, these films and photographs are often still out there. They are still being discovered or rediscovered in attics or garages,” Stephen Fagin, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, told CBS News. The museum is located in the old Texas Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Boston-based RR Auction will auction the 8mm home movie on September 28. According to Bobby Livingston, the auction house’s deputy general manager, the auction house has been selling items related to the Kennedy assassination for nearly 40 years, including Oswald’s wedding ring and his book on marksmanship, among others.

New footage from the JFK assassination shows a hectic scene

The film was directed by Dale Carpenter Sr., a concrete company executive who lived in Irving, Texas, about 12 miles northwest of Dallas.

Although he had no affinity for JFK, he was drawn to the scene by the splendor of the presidential visit, according to The New York Times, which spoke to Carpenter’s family. Carpenter kept the film in a round metal tin labeled “JFK Assassination,” one of his sons, 63-year-old David Carpenter, told the Times. He said he rarely showed the footage to others, likely due to its grim nature.

The film shows two parts of the incident. First, Carpenter is seen narrowly missing the limousine carrying the President and his First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Instead, he hits other cars in the motorcade that is rolling toward downtown Dallas.

After Kennedy’s shooting, the action continues: The President’s motorcade rolls along Interstate 35 toward the hospital.

“You see the American flags waving and the lights flashing,” Livingston told USA TODAY. “That limo is so ingrained in my memory that when I saw it sitting in Dealey Plaza, I immediately recognized what it was.”

The second part of the footage, which lasts about ten seconds, shows Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who was photographed jumping into the back seat of the limousine as shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, standing over the President and Jacqueline Kennedy, who can be seen in her famous pink suit.

“The second thing that absolutely terrifies me is the sight of Mrs. Kennedy’s pink suit as the car drives by. It is so distinctive, so iconic,” Livingston said.

The most famous footage of the event was shot by Abraham Zapruder. After the shooting, Kennedy’s motorcade sped down I-35 toward Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that day.

An assassination full of doubt

To this day, the assassination of John F. Kennedy remains a popular target of conspiracy theories. As of December 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration had released more than 14,000 documents related to JFK’s assassination.

Another 515 documents were withheld by the Archives in full and 2,545 documents were withheld in part. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time that 97% of the nearly 5 million pages held by the Archives relating to the JFK assassination had been made available to the public.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

The film will be offered on September 28 at Boston-based RR Auction, which has been selling items related to Kennedy and the assassination for nearly 40 years.

New footage from the JFK assassination shows a hectic scene

An assassination full of doubt

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