Image of camera car #1 in the presidential motorcade

Jay Skaggs took this photograph soon after he captured his image of the Kennedy motorcade.  Immediately after this photograph was taken, Skaggs began to wind his Argus C3 camera. 

In his 2002 oral history with the Museum, Skaggs recalled, "After this [camera] car came by, took this picture, I turned around and was winding [my camera] and heard the first shot.  So, it was just in the time it took me to take the picture, turn around, and was winding the picture.  Just a second, it seems, I would think....  And I was irritated because I thought at first that it was a firecracker or something that somebody set off as a prank, and I made some remark about 'some stupid jerk' or whatever....  Then I heard the next shot, and I realized it was real." - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The film shot in Dealey Plaza by CBS photographer Tom Craven has never been seen.  In 1995, shortly after KDFW (the successor to KRLD-TV) donated all of the station's original JFK assassination news coverage to The Sixth Floor Museum, retired KRLD engineer Henk DeWitt told me he had mechanical problems processing the first films that came in that day and some reels were ruined.  He said the film processor, which required water pressure to operate properly, failed when the pressure dropped.  He had to run a garden hose from outside the building up to the processor to build up the water pressure.  It is possible that Craven's film was one of the reels that was lost due to processing damage. - Gary Mack, Curator