Time: Mon Apr 14 06:32:11 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id FAA13312; Mon, 14 Apr 1997 05:16:07 -0700 (MST) by usr09.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id FAA25460; Mon, 14 Apr 1997 05:16:03 -0700 (MST) Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 06:25:31 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: SNET: What to do with Zapruder film? (fwd) Dear Clients, Notice here all the various euphemisms for "theft". /s/ Paul Mitchell http://www.supremelaw.com >WASHINGTON (AP)- > Students of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and experts in >photography pleaded with a government board Wednesday to keep the famous >Zapruder film of the killing from returning to private hands. > In a testimoney before the Assassination Records Review Board, charged >by Congress with preserving records of the assassination- they said that >enhancement technology could someday be used on the film to shed nwe light >on the events in Dallas on Nov. 22, l963. > The film- 26 seconds and 486 frames- was shot on a home movie camera by >Dallas clothes manufacturer Abraham Zapruder, standing atop a grassy knoll. >It constitutes the most nearly complete record of the assassination. > James Lesar, who runs an archive with the country's biggest private >collectio of Kennedy assassination documents, said the board should >'expropriate' the Zapruder original for the sake of history. > Someday, he said, the government may reopen a criminal investigation >into the assassination, in which case the film could be crucial evidence. > What's more, he siad, new technology could yield information on the >shooting from images between the procket holes on the film- 20 percent of >the exposed surface. > "It is inconceivable that Congress did not intend the JFK collection to >include the most important single piece of evidence related to the >assassination", Lesar said. > Another witness, Richard Trask, author of "Pictures of the Pain" a book >on the photgraphic history of the assassination, called the Zapruder film " >the most important film ever made of a historical event". > But the board members questioned how much the government should pay the >Zapruders. Lesar testified that the family may have already earned close to >$1 million from selling reproduction rights over the eyars, "an emormous >windfall". > Josiah Thompson, author of "Six Seconds in Dallas" estimated that on >the open market the film could bring $3 to $5 million. > "I don't think the taxpayers shoule pay a penny", he said. > The board recieved divided advice on whether the government could use >its power of eminent domain to seize the film. > Dissenting from other witnesses, Art Simonm, an English professor and >author of "Dangerous Knowledge: The JFK Assasination in ARt and Film", said >the film, rather than "ultimate witness' has become a fetishized object...a >secular relic", less reliable as evidence than enhanced copies. > Deteriorating but still capable of being copied, the film is held for >the Zapruder family by the National Archives. It is stored at 25 degrees >Fahrenheit. > An unknown number of copies exist. Weitzman said it is crucial to keep >the original because, in private hands, the images could be manipulated to >make it tell a different story. > > > > ~JoIn Us iN tHe bIg SkY @ tHe BiRDTRibEs liSt~ > (subscribe: Birdtribes-request@listserv.montana.com) > > > > >-> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com >-> Posted by: beazur@skyenet.net > > ======================================================================== Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU web site: http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this ========================================================================
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