Never-before-seen footage from JFK’s assassination sells at auction for nearly $138K

Never-before-seen footage of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade speeding towards a Dallas hospital after being shot has been sold at auction.

RR Auction, of Boston, offered the lot which sold on Saturday to an anonymous bidder for $137,500. Back in October, the bidding started at $12,100.

The footage was taken by Dale Carpenter Sr. on 8mm home film which was sitting in a milk crate until 2010, when his grandson, James Gates, discovered the reel and projected it onto his bedroom wall.

Gates said he was “shocked” at the significance of what his grandfather recorded all those years ago.

Carpenter was initially set up on Lemmon Avenue in downtown Dallas. The amateur auteur was lined-up along the street – ready to film as JFK’s motorcade.

He just missed filming the president’s limousine and settled for recording the other cars in the procession.

The film then picks up after Kennedy had been shot.  Carpenter ran and posted up on the side of Interstate 35 where he clearly captures the president’s car hurdling toward Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

Secret Service Agent Clint Hill – who can be seen jumping onto the back of the limousine as the shots rang out on Dealey Plaza – can be seen standing in the back of the car guarding Jacqueline Kennedy as they whizzed down the empty I-35 at 80 MPH . 

Jackie’s iconic pink suit can also be made out in the footage which lasts only about ten seconds.

“It is the first original real film you could really buy from November 2nd, 1963 since the Zapruder film,” he added. 

RR Auction has released still photos from the portion of the video that shows the president’s limo racing down 1-35, but will not publicly release the footage in whole.