Abraham Zapruder was a Ukrainian-born American clothing manufacturer who witnessed the assassination of United States President John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22,1963.
23 Facts About Abraham Zapruder
2.
Abraham Zapruder unexpectedly captured the shooting in a home movie while filming the presidential limousine and motorcade as it traveled through Dealey Plaza.
3.
The Zapruder film is regarded as the most complete footage of the assassination.
4.
Abraham Zapruder was born into a Ukrainian-Jewish family in the city of Kovel, the Russian Empire, the son of Israel Abraham Zapruder.
5.
Abraham Zapruder received only four years of formal education in Ukraine.
6.
In 1918, Abraham Zapruder left Kovel for Warsaw with his family.
7.
At some point, Abraham Zapruder's brother was pulled off a train and murdered in front of his family, apparently by Polish guards.
8.
Abraham Zapruder was a Freemason and an Inspector-General of the Scottish Rite.
9.
In 1941, Abraham Zapruder moved to Dallas, Texas, to work for Nardis, a local sportswear company.
10.
At the time of the assassination, Abraham Zapruder was an admirer of President Kennedy and considered himself a Democrat.
11.
When he arrived at work that morning without his camera, Abraham Zapruder's assistant insisted that he retrieve it from home before going to Dealey Plaza because the weather had cleared.
12.
Abraham Zapruder had planned to film the motorcade from his office window but decided to choose a more optimal spot in Dealey Plaza where the motorcade would be passing.
13.
Abraham Zapruder chose to film on top of a 4-foot concrete abutment which extends from a retaining wall that was part of the John Neely Bryan concrete pergola on the grassy knoll north of Elm Street, in Dealey Plaza.
14.
Abraham Zapruder's film captured 26.6 seconds of the traveling motorcade carrying President Kennedy on 486 frames of Kodak Kodachrome II safety film.
15.
Abraham Zapruder's film captured the fatal head shot that struck President Kennedy as his limousine passed almost directly in front of Abraham Zapruder and Sitzman's position, 65 feet from the center of Elm Street.
16.
Abraham Zapruder agreed to give the film to Sorrels on the condition it would be used only for investigation of the assassination.
17.
Abraham Zapruder kept the original, plus one copy, and gave the other two copies to Sorrels, who sent them to Secret Service headquarters in Washington.
18.
Late that evening, Abraham Zapruder was contacted at home by Richard Stolley, an editor at Life magazine.
19.
Abraham Zapruder later donated $25,000 of the money he was paid to the widow of Officer JD Tippit, a Dallas police officer who was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald 45 minutes after President Kennedy was killed.
20.
Abraham Zapruder added that he had assumed the shots came from behind him because the President's head went backwards from the fatal shot, and that the wound on the side of the President's head was facing that direction.
21.
Abraham Zapruder said he believed it because police officers ran to the area behind him.
22.
Abraham Zapruder broke down and wept as he recalled the assassination, and did so again at the 1969 trial of Clay Shaw.
23.
Abraham Zapruder died of stomach cancer in Dallas on August 30,1970, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and is buried in the Emanu-El Cemetery in Dallas.