--- title: Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light | TIME description: Former LIFE editor Richard Stolley shares the stranger-than-fiction tale of how he purchased Abraham Zapruder's film of JFK's murder -- "the most infamous home movie in American history" -- for LIFE magazine in 1963. canonical: https://time.com/video/L87Zsshe/ og:title: Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light og:description: Former LIFE editor Richard Stolley shares the stranger-than-fiction tale of how he purchased Abraham Zapruder's film of JFK's murder -- "the most infamous home movie in American history" -- for LIFE magazine in 1963. og:url: https://time.com/video/L87Zsshe/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/L87Zsshe/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light twitter:description: Former LIFE editor Richard Stolley shares the stranger-than-fiction tale of how he purchased Abraham Zapruder's film of JFK's murder -- "the most infamous home movie in American history" -- for LIFE magazine in 1963. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/L87Zsshe/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light [Watch (HLS stream): Kennedy's Assassination: How LIFE Brought the Zapruder Film to Light](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L87Zsshe.m3u8) (8:34)  _Published 2013-11-13. Former LIFE editor Richard Stolley shares the stranger-than-fiction tale of how he purchased Abraham Zapruder's film of JFK's murder -- "the most infamous home movie in American history" -- for LIFE magazine in 1963._ --- Oct 11, 2023 9:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [JFK's Life in 90 Seconds](/video/LbmgfVTL/) ### JFK's Life in 90 Seconds [100 Photographs: Zapruder Frame 313](/video/EY7MBZVC/) ### 100 Photographs: Zapruder Frame 313 [Shots Fired In Dallas: TV News And The First Reports Of Kennedy's Assassination](/video/MKU9D8So/) ### Shots Fired In Dallas: TV News And The First Reports Of Kennedy's Assassination --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Every reporter writes his own obituary. And mine is going to say, the life reporter who obtained. The infamous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. There were other photographs taken of the motorcade. Abe Zabruder got it from the beginning to end and he was the only one. He expressed embarrassment the day we were negotiation that it was him, this middle aged garment manufacturer, who got the only filmed evidence of the assassination. And not one of those world famous photographers back there in the press bus. He never quite got over that. [ NOISE ] As a word of crime got in our news room. There has been an attempt as perhaps you know, now on the life of President Kennedy. He was. On November 27th, 1963 I was in my office. Saw all the bulletins spitting out on the AP, bells ringing, it was astonishing. President Kennedy died at 1: 00 pm Central Standard Time. When I first reached Abraham Zapruder, I had no idea who he was. Except somebody who, who'd an eight millimeter camera in Daley Plaza. I picked up the phone book and did literally ran my finger down the z's, and it jumped out at me. I started calling that number, every 15 minutes as a matter of fact. [ MUSIC ] At 11 o'clock, this weary voice answered. Mr. Spuder had been been contacted as I knew he would be, by, by other reporters. And he had asked them to come to his office at nine. And I got there at 8. He looked up when I walked up, he looks slightly annoyed but he said, said you might as well come in. I'm about to show the film to two secret service agents, so the three of us went into this tiny whitewashed room. And this old, rickety eight millimetre projector. He turned to us and he said, are you ready? And the answer is there's no way in the world that anybody in that room could be ready for all about to happen. [ SOUND ] Turn it on, and there was that familiar sequence of the, of the motor cage. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] Coming around the corner and then turning, abruptly left. Then the Presidential limousine just disappeared behind a huge road sign. When it comes out the President has both of his fists jammed up underneath his chin. That was a signal that he had been hit by the first bullet that hit him, the second shot. And suddenly, we get to what we know now is the infamous Frame 313. Were the top of the President's head just explodes up into the air. [ MUSIC ] When that happened, the three of us two grizzled agents, and this not so grizzled reported all reacted with [ SOUND ]. It was as if we had been simultaneously gut punched. I've seen that film now about 100 times in my life. The impact remarkably has, has never diminished. That moment in all my years in journalism was probably the most dramatic I've ever encountered. Once I saw that film I thought, there is no way in hell that Life Magazine is not gonna wind up with that film. And one thing that he constantly repeated was, he said I, I do not want this film to be exploited. [ MUSIC ] I assured him that Life Magazine would not exploit the film. I mean, I knew the reputation of Life. And that seemed to comfort him. Meanwhile, out in the hall, the other reporters were behaving very badly. [ MUSIC ] They were shouting. They were banging on the door. And Zapruder, himself, was getting increasingly upset. I think the negotiation made him uncomfortable. And I finally got to $ 50, 000. And I said, if we have to go any higher than that, I'm gonna have to call New York. He looked up at me and he said, let's do it. So I sat down at his typewriter, typed out a nine line contract, and I walked out the back door, with, with what turned out to be the most famous home movie in American history. [ MUSIC ] That week's issue of Life, was already on press when the President was shot. They made black and white copies because it was too late to do color at that point. Out of deference to the grieving Kennedy family, they did not publish, the head shot frame 3 13. life, later published that, particular frame, but not on this first issue. In, in, in many ways it's ironic, that Life Magazine got this film, and therefore had to show it. For the first time to the world in still pictures. I often talk about the majesty of the still picture, of the still image. There is no question in my mind that the printer film would never have had the impact it does... If it had been shown the first time, as a motion picture. The fact is we showed it in still images, and those cemented themselves onto the American psyche. When your a reporter, you have to make a decision often on weather to push something very hard and heartlessly often or when not to. Abe Zapruder, was haunted by the fact that he shot that film for the rest of his life. And in many ways the same is true of me. 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