Ever since Oliver Stone went all Mulder and Scully with the JFK assassination, the nation has been curious to know the truth behind the tragedy. Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone? Was Fidel Castro involved? Was it the CIA? How did the magic bullet turn around in mid-air?
A new video of the Kennedy motorcade just before the assassination surfaced last week to much hoopla. The silent, color film is largely uninteresting, with shots of Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, and the Texas Schoolbook Depository where Oswald was waiting, but little else. George Jeffries, who shot the footage, recently decided to donate it to The Sixth Floor Museum, a museum about the assassination housed in, creepily enough, the Texas Schoolbook Depository. The footage can be viewed at the website.
While it’s no Zapruder film (but really, what could be?), the Jeffries tape does have some significance. This analysis from Slate with Andy Bowers and Ron Rosenbaum examines the prospect that the video pokes holes in the magic bullet defense. This theory, suggested by Arlen Spector and the Warren Commission, states that one single bullet caused a number of Kennedy’s wounds and those of Governor John Connally, who was also shot. The seemingly physics-defying path of the bullet has led many to believe that there were multiple shooters. Especially at issue was the entry of the bullet, which pierced Kennedy’s jacket and exited through his neck. This new film confirms the suspicion that Kennedy’s jacket was simply bunched up, allowing the bullet to enter and exit in a straight line.
Like a good episode of Lost, the Jeffries footage examines the theory by raising more questions. How did Kennedy’s suit jacket get bunched up? Is there any relation to a more recent suit bulge mystery? Is this classic Seinfeld moment less funny now?
In all seriousness, any information about the Kennedy assassination should arouse a great deal of interest. Until the findings of the Warren Commission are released in 2039, we probably won’t have a definitive idea of what really went on that day. The JFK assassination is one of America’s biggest mysteries and manages to even draw in conspiracy skeptics. It’s also one of the few we can still get evidence on. Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, said that there are more undiscovered pictures out there. It’s not like some housewife is suddenly going to reveal home movies that prove Americans didn’t walk on the moon. There’s certainly not going to be any new evidence to show who took the first shot in the Revolutionary War. Sure, there are some who will never be satisfied and will keep looking for conspiracies (Steve from Blues Clues was actually brainwashing children to vote Republican and he was assassinated by his backers after he threatened to go public, so his killers started spreading that cocaine overdose rumor, then contradicted it to cover their tracks…you heard it here first). Still, for most of us, any JFK evidence puts us one step closer to solving one of America’s great mysteries. Sheer curiosity should be reason enough to care.