An anonymous bidder bought never-before-seen footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding toward Parkland Memorial Hospital, in Dallas, after being shot for $137,500 at an RR Auction on Saturday.
Bidding started at $12,100 for the footage by Dale Carpenter Sr, a truck driver, on an 8mm home film taken of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade just after his assassination on November 22, 1963. The film was discovered in a milk crate in 2020 by Carpenter's grandson, James Gates.
The grandson projected the film onto his bedroom wall when he discovered it and was "shocked" at the footage's significance. His grandfather passed in 1991 aged 77.
Prior to the discovery of this film, the only known imagery of Kennedy's limousine on North Stemmons Freeway were three still photographs, also captured by spectators along the route. There were no reporters or press photographers stationed on the freeway, since the quick drive north to the Trade Mart, where Kennedy was to give an address, was not supposed to be a newsworthy event.
The cameraman, a truck driver named Dale Carpenter, Sr., initially missed his shot of the presidential limousine and the film opens in a different location earlier on the motorcade route, one car behind Kennedy's, with the Presidential Secret Service Follow-Up Car, carrying Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, and the Vice Presidential Car in the frame.
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Carpenter remained in place to capture much of the rest of the motorcade, and all together, this initial footage amounts to about 40 seconds, while the footage from North Stemmons Freeway lasts just over 10 seconds.
Having missed his initial opportunity to capture footage of President Kennedy, he made his way up to North Stemmons Freeway to capture a glimpse. The motorcade's intended route had been well publicized, published locally in the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Morning News, and the parade's plodding pace gave Carpenter ample time to relocate. Standing on the thin shoulder of the freeway's edge, he managed to capture the only known film footage of the motorcade during its dash to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the president would be pronounced dead.
Bobby Livingston, Executive Vice President of RR Auction told PA “It is the first original real film you could really buy from November 22nd, 1963 since the Zapruder film."
While the auction house released still photos from the footage it will not publicly release the whole film.
Watch this short film on the footage released by R.R Auction before the sale:
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