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Typed notes about Abraham Zapruder by Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne
Typed notes about Abraham Zapruder by Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne

Typed notes about Abraham Zapruder by Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne

Object number1996.003.0108
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsDocuments
Creator
ObjectDocument
Credit LineJohn Schoellkopf Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions12 x 8 1/2 in. (30.5 x 21.6 cm)
Collections
  • "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963"
  • All Online Objects
DescriptionOne page of typed notes, in black on tan copy paper, written by Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne, recounting Abraham Zapruder's eyewitness account to President Kennedy's assassination and scenes of the aftermath on November 22, 1963. The notes record Abraham Zapruder’s description of President Kennedy's head wound and the injuries he observed. Zapruder also describes Jacqueline Kennedy climbing onto the rear of the limousine. The notes indicate that Zapruder captured the assassination on film and planned to provide the footage to police. The notes also acknowledge that there are multiple eyewitness reports on scene, police activity, and an announcement confirming the President’s death. The full text reads: "Abraham Zatruder pres Jennifer Juniors....corner Elm & HOUSTON M heard 3 shots///after 1st one pres slumped over grabbed stomach..hit in stomach...2 more shots///looked like head opened up & everything came out... blood splatters everywhere....side of his face...looked like blobs out of his temple... forehead...Jackie first reached over to the pres and after 2nd shot...she crawled over to back of car..out of rear..cars moving so fast, he didn't see how it happened...mr. zabrudd taking film with 8 mmm camera..he has whole works on film..swants to give to police...(he is at Jennifer Juniors Co....RI8-6071)... several eyewitness reports there.....Willie Allen wants another photographer there...Texas School Book Depository.... D.O. Sexton Bldg. police have barricaded bldg....police arriving with rifles...THE PRESIDENT DEAD...JUST ANNOUNCED....Secretaries crying...people weeping.. Fire Dept. just arrived on scene......with ladders...."
Curatorial Commentary
Dr. Darwin Payne was a reporter at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. Shortly after the assassination, he interviewed Abraham Zapruder and visited the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and Oswald's rooming house in Oak Cliff. A prominent Dallas historian and author, Payne is professor emeritus of communications at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from July 2012 may be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Dr. Darwin Payne Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Other objects in the Museum's Collection related to Dr. Payne may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger   

This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.
The Museum's John Schoellkopf Collection includes a number of typed notes and draft stories from November 22, 1963, as well as newspaper proofs, a pencil mock-up of the intended front page and other Dallas Times Herald documents related to the weekend of the Kennedy assassination. John L. Schoellkopf (1938-2018) had a remarkable career at the Dallas Times Herald, starting out as an intern while attending Southern Methodist University in 1957. By the time he left journalism in 1970 for a career in business, farming and politics, he had risen to become the Dallas Times Herald vice president of administration. At the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, he was the paper's assistant city editor. Schoellkopf later ran for Dallas mayor and served on the board of a number of organizations including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Theater Center and the Texas State Historical Association. Schoellkopf recorded an oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on June 11, 1996. - Stephen Fagin, Curator