Whew! A lil’ piece of recorded history just earned a family six figures. To be more specific, footage of President John F. Kennedy‘s motorcade racing to the hospital after his fatal shooting has been auctioned. The family of the man who recorded the video on Nov. 22, 1963, offloaded the footage for $137,500 on Saturday (Sept. 28).
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More About The Motorcade Footage Sale
RR Auction in Boston ran the sale of the 8mm color home film. Despite spending big bucks, the footage’s new owner wants to remain anonymous. According to the Associated Press, the video shows JFK’s motorcade speeding down the Dallas, Texas, freeway to seek medical attention.
Dale Carpenter Sr. filmed it, and the tape has been with his family since. It begins as Carpenter just misses the limousine carrying the president and first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, but captures other vehicles in the motorcade as it travels down Lemmon Avenue toward downtown. The film then picks up after Kennedy has been shot, with Carpenter rolling as the motorcade roars down Interstate 35.
Additionally, the footage from I-35 lasts about 10 seconds and shows Secret Service Agent Clint Hill hovering in a standing position over the president and Jacqueline Kennedy in her blood-stained pink suit. Agent Hill famously jumped onto the back of the limousine as the shots rang out.
Ultimately, medical staff at Parkland Memorial Hospital pronounced President JFK dead after he arrived. Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of the auction house, said in a news release that the film “provides a gripping sense of urgency and heartbreak.”
How The Family Found The Footage
Here’s the gag, though. Carpenter’s grandson, James Gates, inherited the footage with other family belongings and didn’t even know what was on it. His grandad Dale passed away in 1991 at age 71. Overall, the family knew his grandad had filmed the assassination day, but it reportedly wasn’t a frequent topic. So, after James found the footage in a milk crate alongside other family films, he projected it on his bedroom wall. That was around 2010, and his disinterest reportedly changed as the I-35 provided another viewpoint.
Details About The Actual JFK Assassination Footage
The shots were fired as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository. Investigators later determined that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had fired the shots in a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Abraham Zapruder famously captured the assassination itself.
Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle contributed to this report.
