(Testimony of Abraham Zapruder)
Mr. Zapruder.
That must be it because there's another couple back there---I took some from there and I was shooting some of the pictures to start my roll from the beginning. I didn't want to have a blank and I shot some, in fact, they have it--the Federal Bureau of Investigation have those pictures.
Mr. Liebeler.
As you stood there on this abutment with your camera, the motorcade came down Houston Street and turned left on Elm Street, did it not?
Mr. Zapruder.
That's right.
Mr. Liebeler.
And it proceeded then down Elm Street toward the triple underpass; is that correct?
Mr. Zapruder.
That's correct. I started shooting--when the motorcade started coming in, I believe I started and wanted to get it coming in from Houston Street.
Mr. Liebeler.
Tell us what happened as you took these pictures.
Mr. Zapruder.
Well, as the car came in line almost--I believe it was almost in line. I was standing up here and I was shooting through a telephoto lens, which is a zoom lens and as it reached about--I imagine it was around here--I heard the first shot and I saw the President lean over and grab himself like this (holding his left chest area).
Mr. Liebeler.
Grab himself on the front of his chest?
Mr. Zapruder.
Right---something like that. In other words, he was sitting like this and waving and then after the shot he just went like that.
Mr. Liebeler.
He was sitting upright in the car and you heard the shot and you saw the President slump over?
Mr. Zapruder.
Leaning--leaning toward the side of Jacqueline. For a moment I thought it was, you know, like you say, "Oh, he got me," when you hear a shot--you've heard these expressions and then I saw---I don't believe the President is going to make jokes like this, but before I had a chance to organize my mind, I heard a second shot and then I saw his head opened up and the blood and everything came out and I started--I can hardly talk about it [ the witness crying].
Mr. Liebeler.
That's all right, Mr. Zapruder, would you like a drink of water? Why don't you step out and have a drink of water?
Mr. Zapruder.
I'm sorry--I'm ashamed of myself really, but I couldn't help it.
Mr. Liebeler.
Nobody should ever be ashamed of feeling that way, Mr. Zapruder. I feel the same way myself. It was a terrible thing.
Let me go back now for just a moment and ask you how many shots you heard altogether.
Mr. Zapruder.
I thought I heard two, it could be three, because to my estimation I thought he was hit on the second--I really don't know. The whole thing that has been transpiring--it was very upsetting and as you see I got a little better all the time and this came up again and it to me looked like the second shot, but I don't know. I never even heard a third shot.
Mr. Liebeler.
You didn't hear any shot after you saw him hit?
Mr. Zapruder.
I heard the second--after the first shot--I saw him leaning over and after the second shot--it's possible after what I saw, you know, then I started yelling, "They killed him, they killed him," and I just felt that somebody had ganged up on him and I was still shooting the pictures until he got under the underpass--I don't even know how I did it. And then, I didn't even remember how I got down from that abutment there, but there I was, I guess, and I was walking toward--back toward my office and screaming, "They killed him, they killed him," and the people that I met on the way didn't even know what happened and they kept yelling, "What happened, what happened, what happened?" It seemed that they had heard a shot but they didn't know exactly what had happened as the car sped away, and I kept on just yelling, "They killed him, they killed him, they killed him," and finally got to my office and my secretary--I told her to call the police or the Secret Service--I don't know what she was doing, and that's about all. I was very much upset. Naturally, I couldn't imagine such a thing being done. I just went to my desk and stopped there until the police came and then we were required to get a place to develop the films. I knew I had something, I figured it might be of some help--I didn't know what.
As to what happened--I remember the police were running behind me. There
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