November 22, 1963 turned out to be a beautiful day after some morning showers had dissipated, leaving a clear sky which allowed plenty of sunshine to greet President Kennedy’s motorcade. A photograph snapped by Walter Sisco is probably one of the most popular images ever seen of the motorcade as it made its way down Main Street, towards the killing zone in Dealey Plaza. Notice the prominence of the reflections off of the vehicles. They look like mirrors!
This is the same photograph which adorns the cover of Assassination Science, by Jim Fetzer, published in 1998, and is considered the first of his trilogy of ground breaking books which came out after the ARRB forced the release of numerous documents. The other two, of course, are Murder in Dealey Plaza (2000), and The Great Zapruder Film Hoax, (2003). In all three of these books, Dr. Fetzer allowed the very best experts in the world in their particular field, to present their research on many different aspects of the JFK assassination.
Speaking of the Zapruder film, today I would like to focus on something that has bothered me since I became aware of the great Beverly Brunson’s research of the late 1960’s. Brunson puzzled over the fact that reflections were clearly visible on the side of the limousine before the Stemmons Freeway sign blocked Zapruder’s view of the limousine, but disappeared after the limo re-emerged.
This is what she was referring to:
As seen in the Sisco photograph, (and all other photographs for that matter), there are clearly defined reflections on all vehicles seen in the Zapruder film, including JFK’s SX-100 1961 Lincoln Continental. All except when the limousine comes out from behind the freeway sign. As a matter of logic, one would expect the reflections to become more prominent as the limousine approaches Zapruder’s position, when in fact, the opposite is what happens!
Not surprisingly, when we look at our Blender renderings of the limousine which replicate the Zapruder film, specifically frame 255, there are those darn reflections!
Brunson suspected that the Z film had been subjected to, in her own words, a “paint job”, which means that she was probably the very first investigator to conclude that the Zapruder film had been extensively edited and altered – and this was way back in 1967 without the benefit of any modern digital analysis!