New footage from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has emerged and it will be up for auction to the highest bidder at the end of the month.
The film does not reveal anything new about the assassination according to some experts who have viewed it, yet it presents a different angle of the immediate aftermath as the motorcade speeds down Interstate 35 to rush the president to Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot.
Even over 60 years later, experts say it’s not surprising that new documentation is still turning up. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, teaches visitors about the JFK assassination and how Nov. 22, 1963, rocked the nation to its core. Museum curator Stephen Fagin commented on the new footage and said a lot of time such images “are still out there” in attics or garages waiting to be discovered or rediscovered years later.
The auction will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28, in Boston and the lucky winner will receive the 8 mm home movie shot by Dale Carpenter Sr. The footage shot on I-35 only runs about 10 seconds and captured Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, who became known for jumping onto the back of the car during the shooting, standing in position guarding the president and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Hill also famously called JFK’s brother, Robert Kennedy, and informed him of the incident.
James Gates, the grandson of Carpenter who is auctioning off the footage, said the family knew that Carpenter captured some film of that day but that “it wasn’t talked about often” and none of them had seen it. Carpenter died at the age of 77 in 1999 and the film eventually ended up passed down to Gates in a milk crate full of other family movies and photos.
The auction house published a few still photos from the footage but will not release the portion of the motorcade. The auction house’s vice president, Bobby Livingston, said the footage was “remarkable, in color,” and that one could “feel the 80 mph” speed of the motorcade rushing down I-35.
Historian Farris Rookstool III said the footage presented “a fresh look” at the rush to the hospital immediately after the fatal shots and that he hopes whoever purchases it will allow filmmakers to use it and show the public.
