Newly surfaced film footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down a Dallas highway toward a hospital after he was fatally wounded was sold at auction Saturday for $137,500.
The 8mm color home film was produced by RR Auction in Boston. The auction house said the buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
The film has been with the family of the man who took it, Dale Carpenter Sr., since he recorded it on November 22, 1963. The film begins with Carpenter missing the limousine carrying the President and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, but taking other vehicles. In the procession as it travels down Lemon Street toward downtown. The film then begins after the Kennedy shoot, with Carpenter rolling as the motorcade roars down Interstate 35.
Shots rang out as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where it was later discovered that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper position on the sixth floor. The assassination itself was famously depicted in a film by Abraham Zapruder.
An undated photo posted by RR Auctions shows a box of home movie footage of President John Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down the Dallas Expressway to the hospital after being fatally wounded on November 22, 1963.
RR Auction via AP, file
Carpenter’s footage from I-35, which lasts about 10 seconds, shows Secret Service agent Clint Hill — who jumped on the back of the limousine as the shots rang out — hovering in a standing position above the president and Jacqueline Kennedy, who was wearing her pink suit. It can be seen. The president was declared dead after arriving at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
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The film “provides an overwhelming sense of urgency and heartbreak,” Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of the auction house, said in a press release.
Carpenter’s grandson, James Gates, said that although it was known in his family that his grandfather had a film from that day, it wasn’t talked about much. So Gates said that when the film, stored with other family films in a milk crate, was eventually delivered to him, he wasn’t sure exactly what his grandfather, who died in 1991 at age 77, had captured.
After displaying it on his bedroom wall around 2010, Gates was initially awestruck by the footage from Lemon Street. But then, footage of I-35 appeared before his eyes. “That was shocking,” he said.
The auction house released still images from the portion of the film showing the race down I-35, but has not publicly released video of that portion.
An undated photo released by RR Auctions shows home movie footage of President John Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down the Dallas Expressway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on November 22, 1963.
RR Auction via AP, file
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