Maureen Hughes-Thompson Oral History

Robert Joseph Elmore Hughes (1938-1985) worked as a customs examiner for the U.S. Treasury and officed in the Terminal Annex Post Office in Dealey Plaza. On November 22, 1963, he took his Bell & Howell 8mm film camera to the southwestern curb at Main and Houston Streets to capture a home movie of the Kennedy motorcade. His film shows the presidential limousine turning from Main and proceeding on Houston towards the Texas School Book Depository. This sequence, which briefly shows the sixth floor of the warehouse seconds before the assassination, has generated law enforcement and researcher interest over the years, making it one of the most significant home movies taken in Dealey Plaza that day. Hughes later wrote that he stopped filming approximately five seconds before he heard the first shot fired. After hearing the shots, Hughes began filming as he quickly moved towards Elm Street, following bystanders running up the grassy knoll area. Hughes shot several sequences in the aftermath of the assassination showing Elm Street, the rail yards beyond Dealey Plaza and the exterior of the Texas School Book Depository. After developing his film, Hughes promptly delivered it to the FBI in Dallas. The film, sent to the FBI's lab in Washington, was copied and examined, though it was years before optical and digital analysis of the film tried to determine whether an individual or individuals could be discerned on the sixth floor of the Depository. Following this oral history in 2002, Maureen Hughes-Thompson donated her late husband's home movie to the Museum. It may be viewed here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/23202. - Stephen Fagin, Curator