Updates

Be sure to check ARRB Updates in this issue.

The ruling is binding and cannot be appealed.

The award was near the midpoint between the $30 million sought by the Zapruder family and the $1 million offered by the U.S. Justice Department for the original, 26-second film taken as Kennedy's motorcade moved through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The panel cited testimony by auction experts and the soaring value of Kennedy memorabilia in ruling that $16 million was just compensation for the government's seizure of the famous film made by Zapruder, a Dallas dress manufacturer.

The Zapruder family retained the rights to the film, which was made by Zapruder with his home movie camera near the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, throughout the years. Zapruder died in 1970, and was survived by his son and daughter.

The panel reached its decision on July 16, the same day the murdered president's son, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash in the waters off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Justice Department officials said the announcement was delayed out of respect to the Kennedy family.

Lawyer Robert Bennett, who represented the Zapruder family, said in a statement they were "pleased with the thorough and thoughtful decision."

But Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, offered a different view. "I think it's outrageous," he said. "It's not the ownership of the film that's the problem, it's the copyright."

Lesar said the Zapruder family charges high rates to reproduce the film for documentaries. A "toll gate" has been placed on the right of the American people to study and research the film, he said.

The family said it is working to transfer the copyright to a yet undisclosed public institution, but researchers wonder whether that will mean lower charges for using the film.

A piece of the film was used by director Oliver Stone in his 1991 movie JFK. In 1998 the Zapruder family licensed the film to MPI Home Video, which has released a video of it commercially.

According to federal law, the film became public property when it was transferred a year ago to the JFK Records Collection at the National Archives.

The government is required by the Constitution to pay "just compensation" to the owners of private property that has been taken.

The panel was led by Arlin Adams, a lawyer in Philadelphia and a former federal judge. The other members were Kenneth Feinberg, a Washington, D.C., lawyer and law professor, and former top Justice Department official Walter Dellinger.

Dellinger disagreed with the other two members of the panel, saying $16 million was "simply too large an amount." He would have awarded between $3 million and $5 million.

Jeff West, director of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, which commemorates Kennedy's life and death, called it a "good, fair price for the family and the government."

West said the price was as fair as possible considering that there were no precedents, that the government wanted the film and that the family had gone through years of negotiations and mediation to get compensation.

"If you put it (the film) on the auction block I'm sure it would bring in a lot more than $16 million, but then the government wouldn't have it," West said.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David Ogden said the resolution of the dispute "ensures that this evidence of one of the most tragic events in American history will be protected for scholarly and research use."

Return to Main Page

* * *