DALLAS (AP) — Newly emerged film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway toward a hospital after he was fatally wounded will go up for auction later this month.
Experts say the find isn't necessarily surprising even over 60 years after the assassination.
Click to Gallery
File - In this Nov. 12, 2013 file photo, the former Texas School Book Depository building, left, now known as the Sixth Floor Museum overlooks Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where Lee Harvery Oswald fired from the building killing President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - A photo of President John F. Kennedy and flowers lay on a plaque at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Clint Hill, a member of the late First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's secret service detail, speaks to the media after he laid a wreath on the JFK Tribute outside the Hilton Hotel on Friday, Nov. 22, 2013. (Joyce Marshall/Star-Telegram via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows a box of home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeds down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. (Al Volkland, Dallas Times Herald Collection, Courtesy The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza via AP)
FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 file photo, President John F. Kennedy slumps down in the back seat of the Presidential limousine as it speeds along Elm Street toward the Stemmons Freeway overpass in Dallas after being fatally shot. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy leans over the president as Secret Service agent Clint Hill pushes her back to her seat. (AP Photo/James W. "Ike" Altgens)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
“These images, these films and photographs, a lot of times they are still out there. They are still being discovered or rediscovered in attics or garages,” said Stephen Fagin, curator at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which tells the story of the assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.
RR Auction will offer up the 8 mm home film in Boston on Sept. 28. It begins with Dale Carpenter Sr. just missing the limousine carrying the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy but capturing other vehicles in the motorcade as it traveled 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.
“This is remarkable, in color, and you can feel the 80 mph,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of the auction house.
The footage from I-35 — which lasts about 10 seconds — shows Secret Service Agent Clint Hill — who famously jumped onto the back of the limousine as the shots rang out — hovering in a standing position over the president and Jacqueline Kennedy, whose pink suit can be seen.
“I did not know that there were not any more shots coming," Hill said. “I had a vision that, yes, there probably were going to be more shots when I got up there as I did.”
The shots had fired as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where it was later found that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor. The assassination itself was famously captured on film by Abraham Zapruder.
After the shots, the motorcade turned onto I-35 and sped toward Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy would be pronounced dead. It was the same route the motorcade would have taken to deliver Kennedy to his next stop, a speech at the Trade Mart.
Carpenter's grandson, James Gates, said that while it was known in his family that his grandfather had film from that day, it wasn't talked about often. So Gates said that when the film, stored along with other family films in a milk crate, was eventually passed on to him, he wasn't sure exactly what his grandfather, who died in 1991 at age 77, had captured.
Projecting it onto his bedroom wall around 2010, he was at first underwhelmed by the footage from Lemmon Avenue. But then, the footage from I-35 played out before his eyes. “That was shocking," he said.
He was especially struck by Hill's precarious position on the back of the limousine, so around the time that Hill's book, “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” was published in 2012, Gates got in touch with Hill and his co-author, Lisa McCubbin, who became Lisa McCubbin Hill when she and Hill married in 2021.
McCubbin Hill said it was admirable that Gates was sensitive enough to want Hill to see the footage before he did anything else with it. She said that while she was familiar with Hill's description of being perched on the limousine as it sped down the interstate, “to see the footage of it actually happen ... just kind of makes your heart stop.”
The auction house has released still photos from the portion of the film showing the race down I-35 but is not publicly releasing video of that part.
Farris Rookstool III, a historian, documentary filmmaker and former FBI analyst who has seen the film, said it shows the rush to Parkland in a more complete way than other, more fragmented film footage he’s seen. He said the footage gives “a fresh look at the race to Parkland,” and he hopes that after the auction, it ends up somewhere where it can be used by filmmakers.
Fagin said the assassination was such a shocking event that it was instinctive for people to keep material related to it, so there's always the possibility of new material surfacing.
He said historians had wondered for years about a man who can be seen taking photos in one of the photos from that day.
“For years we had no idea who that photographer was, where his camera was, where these images were,” Fagin said.
Then, in 2002, Jay Skaggs walked into the museum with a shoebox under his arm. He was the photographer captured in the photo, and in that shoebox were 20 images from Dealey Plaza before and after the assassination, including the only known color photographs of the rifle being removed from the Texas School Book Depository building, Fagin said.
“He just handed that box to us,” Fagin said.
File - In this Nov. 12, 2013 file photo, the former Texas School Book Depository building, left, now known as the Sixth Floor Museum overlooks Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where Lee Harvery Oswald fired from the building killing President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - A photo of President John F. Kennedy and flowers lay on a plaque at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Clint Hill, a member of the late First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's secret service detail, speaks to the media after he laid a wreath on the JFK Tribute outside the Hilton Hotel on Friday, Nov. 22, 2013. (Joyce Marshall/Star-Telegram via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows a box of home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeds down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. (Al Volkland, Dallas Times Herald Collection, Courtesy The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza via AP)
FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 file photo, President John F. Kennedy slumps down in the back seat of the Presidential limousine as it speeds along Elm Street toward the Stemmons Freeway overpass in Dallas after being fatally shot. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy leans over the president as Secret Service agent Clint Hill pushes her back to her seat. (AP Photo/James W. "Ike" Altgens)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
An undated image released by RR Auction shows home film footage of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway to the hospital after he was fatally wounded on Nov. 22, 1963. The image comes from a home film taken by Dale Carpenter Sr., which will go up for auction later this month. (RR Auction via AP)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and injuring at least 200 others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
The governor of the surrounding state of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose from two to five and that more than 200 people in total were injured.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God's mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar, " Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.
Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The number of injured people was overwhelming.
“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said.
The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (about 54 yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market.
Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.
Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X.
Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland.
Two firefighters walk through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police officers and police emergency vehicles are seen at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A barrier tape and police vehicles are seen in front of the entrance to the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
People mourn in front of St. John's Church for the victims of Friday's attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Police tape cordons-off a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer stands guard at at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers patrol a cordoned-off area at a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reiner Haseloff, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, center, is flanked by Tamara Zieschang, Minister of the Interior and Sport of Saxony-Anhalt, left, and Simone Borris, Mayor of the City of Magdeburg, at a press conference after a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Dörthe Hein/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this screen grab image from video, special police forces attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Thomas Schulz/dpa via AP)
Reiner Haseloff (M, CDU), Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, makes a statement after an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer speaks with a man at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A policeman is seen at the Christmas market where an incident happened in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A firefighter walks through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A view of the cordoned-off Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Forensics work on a damaged car sitting with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
