Everyone knows the story of the Zapruder film and have viewed it numerous times, on TV, in popular films, and on the internet. Yet few outside the research community are aware of an even more important film shot across the street at the same time, one that showed the stockade fence on top the grassy knoll during the ambush.
The key to solving this crime is distinguishing important evidence from the avalanche of fake whistleblowers seeding rabbit holes salted with time bombs. The Nix film remains one of the most overlooked pieces of evidence, mostly because significant parts were removed, and the original fragments disappeared. We know the Zapruder film was likely worked over as well, but there was something in the footage Orville Nix shot that day that made it necessary to lower the veils completely with a magic disappearing wand.
Like many in Dealey Plaza that afternoon, Nix was convinced a shot came from behind the stockade fence. After the shots rang out, most people in the plaza hit the ground. But when the shooting was over and the limo long gone, everyone raced toward the triple overpass, which was the only way to get behind that fence. All this was captured by Nix. After the assassination, the FBI visited film labs and requested assistance locating evidence. They seized the original from Nix, and when he got it back, it had been cut into several segments and crucial frames appeared to have been removed or destroyed in the process.
Strangely, Nix played poker with the head of the local Secret Service and had been told by him that the Texas School Book Depository was the best spot for filming the motorcade. One would have thought the media might have interest in that detail, but Nix never got any attention beyond the first wave, and refused to talk about the assassination in later years, yet always remained convinced there was a second gunman behind the picket fence. The disappearance of the original film while in government hands is evidence of a cover-up, and it seems possible an original Nix film could eventually have been used to prove the Zapruder film was tampered with as well.
Thank you so much for writing this article. The more people know there was another film and that the camera original is missing, the better chance we have of finding it!
Gayle Nix Jackson