Newly discovered footage of President John F Kennedy‘s motorcade speeding along a Dallas freeway towards a hospital after he was fatally wounded has sold for $137,500 at auction.
As per the news agency AP, the 8 mm colour home film was offered by RR Auction in Boston. The auction house stated that the buyer remains anonymous.
The film had been with the family of Dale Carpenter Sr, who recorded it on November 22, 1963.It starts as Carpenter misses the limousine carrying President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy but captures other vehicles in the motorcade on Lemmon Avenue heading downtown. After Kennedy was shot, Carpenter’s footage shows the motorcade speeding down Interstate 35.
Shots were fired as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned. The assassination was notably filmed by Abraham Zapruder.
Carpenter’s footage on I-35, lasting about 10 seconds, shows Secret Service Agent Clint Hill standing over President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, seen in her pink suit. Kennedy was declared dead on arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, said in a news release, “The film provides a gripping sense of urgency and heartbreak.”
Carpenter’s grandson, James Gates, noted that while the family knew of the film, it wasn’t discussed much. When Gates received the film, stored in a milk crate, he projected it in 2010. Initially, he found the footage from Lemmon Avenue unimpressive until the I-35 sequence revealed itself. “That was shocking,” he said.
The auction house has released still photos but is not making the video public.