DALLAS (NewsNation) — Sixty years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy conspiracy theories continue to swirl, but many believe the original copy of a home movie could provide definitive answers.
The family of Orville Nix, a Dallas maintenance worker, says he recorded the moment Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza with his home-movie camera. His family has been trying to get that footage back from the government for years.
They’ve filed a lawsuit for nearly $30 million, in compensatory damages and return of the film, against the National Archives in hopes of changing that.
Nix’s is the only footage from Nov. 22, 1963, facing the JFK motorcade — and the area known as the grassy knoll, which is across the street from where Abraham Zapruder captured his famous video.
Grainy still frames from copies of the Nix film have been examined for decades. And some question if the images, enhanced in the ’70s, show a second gunman.
Days after the tragedy, Nix sold his film to United Press International. A copy of it is housed on the sixth floor of the former Texas Book Depository, but what happened to the original remains a mystery.
“That’s the $64,000 question. Orville Nix turned it over to UPI and when UPI gave it back to him, they gave him a copy,” author and CIA expert Jefferson Morley said.
Many tech experts believe combining Zapruder and Nix’s footage could reveal more answers about Kennedy’s killing.
“These two men (Nix and Zapruder) are pointing movie cameras at the presidential motorcade, which is in between them. So we have the shot right at the moment when the gunfire erupts. So we have two different perspectives on that,” Morley added. “And that’s important because they can be compared and give us a better picture of what happened. And the original copy of the eight-millimeter film is going to be clearer than the copy.”
Patricia Hall, now 71, was 11 in 1963 and knew Oswald as a tenant in her grandmother’s rooming house. Hall now owns the home, offering tours for extra income. She also believes the Nix film could hold answers but believes government forces worked to prevent that long ago.
“I think the actual evidence that would take us to the smoking gun has already been destroyed,” Hall said.
The National Archives refused to comment on the situation, citing pending litigation.