Rating: 
Summary: Fit for the "National Enquirer"...
Review: "Publisher's Weekly" and other print media have stayed far away from this exercise in tabloid writing on the Kennedy assassination. In reviewing another book on the Zapruder film, "Publisher's Weekly"pointed out that there was a "theory, advanced by the Commission's more crackpot critics, that Zapruder's footage has been altered in order to eliminate the most damning evidence of conspiracy." Here's that theory with all its "crackpot critics" displayed in living color. To find an analog to this book, you'd have to go to the film "A Beautiful Mind" to that scene showing John Nash's garage-full of conspiratorial proofs made up of marked-up magazines! Let me give you an example.John Costella, a high school math teacher from Australia with a Ph.D. in physics, visits Dealey Plaza in company with another contributor, Jack White. They see a metallic cylinder attached to a highway sign in the Plaza. Costella includes in his essay nine pages of text and pictures (223-232) arguing that the cylinder is a "listening device" placed there by the U. S. government to spy on people like Jack White and himself. The listening device is actually a rain sensor placed in Dealey Plaza by Dallas Parks and Recreations to turn off the sprinklers when it rains! Costella also claims in this book that the U.S. government sabotaged his razor and messed with his shirts during a recent visit to the U.S. With respect to the assassination, Costella claims that Abraham Zapruder and Marilyn Sitzman were not standing on that concrete pedestal. Rather, standing on the pedestal was the "coordinator of the assassination" who also used his position there to film at least part of the shooting (216).
The book's sole claim is that the Zapruder film has been altered, indeed fabricated - a claim Fetzer has been making ever more shrilly since 1996. The arguments for Z film forgery in his earlier books were sequentially refuted by knowledgeable people in the years since they were published. They were shown to be products of either ignorance or sloppy research. Likewise, with this effort. Here are a few highlights. LIFTON: CLAIM: In an essay that runs 117 pages, David Lifton offers exactly one basis for the claim that the Z film has been altered. Lifton wrote that a staffer on the ARRB [Assassination Records Review Board] told him that Kodak and ARRB expert Roland Zavada had not been able to duplicate a feature of the Z film on Bell & Howell cameras of the same make and model as Zapruder's camera. This feature was the presence on the film of intersprocket images that went full flush left between the sprocket holes.
TRUTH: Since Lifton's claim was hearsay, Roland Zavada was contacted directly. He pointed out that the claim was false and that in his report he had published frames from similar Bell & Howell cameras showing images that went full flush left between the sprocket holes. Zavada said he could not understand why Lifton would rely on hearsay when the contrary was in his report. Zavada's comments and his illustrations are published on the web site mentioned above. COSTELLA: CLAIM: Costella compared frames from the Z film with a still photo taken by a Dallas police photographer from the same pedestal on November 27th. He found that the Stemmons freeway sign did not align perfectly in the two photos.
TRUTH: Zapruder took his film while standing on the front of the pedestal with Sitzman standing behind him. Barnes took his photo from the back of the pedestal with flowers sitting on the front of the pedestal. The lack of alignment is due to the difference in position of the two photographers. ClAIM: Costella claims that features of the Stemmons freeway sign in certain frames from the Z film do not exhibit "pin cushion distortion" introduced by the lens.
TRUTH: Costella is shown to have made a mistake. All the features of "pin cushion distortion" are present where they should be. CLAIM: Costella claims that driver Bill Greer turns his head with such speed that the head turn is not physically possible.
TRUTH: The head turn is shown to be physically impossible only if you choose incorrectly which frames mark the beginning and end of the turn. I've been around this case since the 1960s. My book, Six Seconds in Dallas, was published in 1967. This is just a dreadful book.. There is no other way to put it. It marks a new low point in the "National Enquirer" approach to the case.
Rating: 
Summary: Empirical science wins out over unfounded beliefs.
Review: "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax" finally puts to rest the question of the title film as a realistic timeline of the assassination of JKF. One of the contributors, Dr. John Costella, attacks the question using science and the scientific method. His findings reveal that the film was not merely edited but that it was in fact a complete fabrication (i.e. a composite).
There is an excellent section, written by David Healy, that details the state of the art in 1963 of film editing and composition techniques. This puts to rest the old arguements that "there wasn't enough time to alter the film" and that "the technology didn't exist at the time". In addition, Fetzer et al delve into some of the other photographic evidence involved in JFK's death. The conclusion that one must draw is that all of the photographic "evidence" is suspect. When one realizes that this is the case, then what is left is the only credible evidence in this case that survives to this date - eyewitness testimony.
This book is a must read for everyone who is interested in the truth.
Rating:
Summary: Empirical science wins out over unfounded beliefs.
Review: "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax" finally puts to rest the question of the title film as a realistic timeline of the assassination of JKF. One of the contributors, Dr. John Costella, attacks the question using science and the scientific method. His findings reveal that the film was not merely edited but that it was in fact a complete fabrication (i.e. a composite).
There is an excellent section, written by David Healy, that details the state of the art in 1963 of film editing and composition techniques. This puts to rest the old arguements that "there wasn't enough time to alter the film" and that "the technology didn't exist at the time". In addition, Fetzer et al delve into some of the other photographic evidence involved in JFK's death. The conclusion that one must draw is that all of the photographic "evidence" is suspect. When one realizes that this is the case, then what is left is the only credible evidence in this case that survives to this date - eyewitness testimony.
This book is a must read for everyone who is interested in the truth.
Rating:
Summary: If you ever wondered about the Z film read this book
Review: Ever wondered who in the research community would fit a description as "pig on a leash?" After reading this book I know who qualifies as my opinion of a pig on a leash.
If you have ever wondered how the Z film became available to the community of researchers in so many versions, this book will answer that too, as well as informing as to why it took so long to get it out to the public.
Moreover the segments concerning alteration are quite convincing. Doctor Fetzer has completed his doctorate level course for researchers in this book, complemented as it is by the undergrad level Murder In Dealy Plaza and the masters cirriculum piece Assassination Science. That is the order I would pursue them in if I had to choose. Murder, then Assassination Science and this book.
I surely do hope and trust that more works of this level of research and clarity will be in our future.
As for the Z film and the question of alteration, after this book, stick a fork in the idea that the Z film is anything but contrived falsified evidence manufactured to obfuscate the reality of President John Kennedy's MURDER. We were sold a bill of goods so long ago and serious researchers can now move on to the query of WHY was such a huge effort expended to lie to us in providing a false time-clock of events in Dallas forty years ago.
Simply put Doctor Fetzer Thanks again and thank Amazon for making this work available at what amounts to a small cost in terms of the quality of the CRITICAL THINKING this encourages. Maybe now we can shed the illusions created by the presumed time clock and get on with the case. Maybe we consider the bigger issues of the tragedy than those stretched and/or shrunk to fit the "timing constraints" imposed by that bogus film. The case made by this book is that strong.
very much sincerely
Jim HACKETT II
Rating:
Summary: The Film Is As Real As The Conspiracy
Review: First off let me state that I'm a firm believer in a massive assassination conspiracy, however this book hurts the conspiracy cause because it is devoid of common sense and invents conspiracy when there is none. Fetzer's premise is that the government fabricated the Zapruder film to fool the public. The obvious fallacy here is that the government worked hard to conceal the film because IT PROVES A CONSPIRACY. The film was only shown to the public in 1975 by Geraldo Revera on 'Good Night America' using Robert Groden's bootleg copy. Time Life paid $150,000 for it but never showed it. 1. Film Proves A Conspiracy: If the government wanted to forge a film they would have forged one that didn't show Kennedy and Connally being hit from different angles. As any conspiracy buff will tell you, the film proves a conspiracy. In frame 225 Kennedy is shot in the throat, but Connally still waves to the crowd with his hat in his right hand, this shows had they were hit by separate bullets. In frame 256 Kennedy jerks sharply forward probably when he is shot from behind. We see Connally hit later as he turns to his right to see the president and then cries out and falls back onto his wife's lap. In frame 313 we see JFK's head jerk sharply backwards; being shot from the front. 2. Witnesses Didn't React: One of Fetzer's arguments the film was faked is the fact that witnesses don't react, they stand still or wave to the car. Of course anyone who read the Warren Commission testimony knows this is what witnesses have said all along. Many said they didn't understand what was happening because the motorcycles were making so much noise or they thought the shots were firecrackers. 3. Film Doesn't Show Left Temple Wound: Another criticism Fetzer has of the film is that it doesn't show JFK being shot in the head from the left as Fetzer believes he was. Fetzer's theory is based on exhibit 392 which states, "massive head and brain trauma due to gunshot to left temple" however that doctor later clarified that statement and agreed with the other doctors that they saw a massive head wound to the RIGHT temple. Hence the film correctly shows JFK being hit from the front right. If the Warren Commission wanted to fake a film they would have shown JFK being hit from behind as they claimed. 4. Different Versions of Films Conflict: Fetzer's main argument is showing massive conflicts between different versions of the film. The Robert Groden version, the David Lifton version, and the MPI version. Fetzer ignore the obvious conclusion that the conflicts were cause because the three openly used radically different versions of the film. Groden's version was made in the 1970s from a poor copy obtained by Jim Garrison. The MPI version was made on a computer in 1997 by scanning the original frames, MPI openly altered the film by adding color to cover static. Conflict between these versions is to be expected. In summary, Fetzer blows inconsistencies way out of proportion and fails to see that even in the JFK assassination the simplest solutions are sometimes correct. He also never explains why the government would go to such lengths to forge a film which hurt their lone assassin case and favors a conspiracy.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond conspiracy
Review: For some the Zapruder film is the most dramatic, and best, evidence of conspiracy in the murder of John Kennedy. As everyone knows, the film shows President Kennedy being slammed back and to his left apparently from a shot coming from the right front, evidence, apparently of a shooter other than Oswald and thus proof of a conspiracy. Yet, James Fetzer, a conspiracy believer himself, tells us in his book that the film has been altered, leading one to ask why would anyone alter the film and not eliminate all evidence that conflicted with the official version, especially the backward head snap? One would think that if you are going to alter the film, presumably to eliminate any visual evidence of conspiracy, the head-snap would be the first thing you edited out of the film. By contesting the validity of this film, Fetzer has done what almost no one else has been able to do: He has united conspiracists (some of them anyway) and lone-assassin defenders who believe the film is authentic and divided the conspiracy community. I don't know why those who altered this film left the head-snap in the final product but I do know that this book makes an extremely compelling case that the film has been altered in several places leaving us with an unreliable piece of evidence and wondering what it could all mean. Fetzer plunges us even deeper into the labyrinth. In one sequence, the driver of the President's limousine turns his head more than 90 degrees in one frame, a physical impossibility. The closest 50 or so witnesses all say the limousine stopped but the Zapruder film shows no such stop. In several other places, frames are missing. Inexplicable anomalies exist. What other explanation is there except that the film, for whatever reason, has been altered? In another article, one researcher shows people who appear in another film (taken by another photographer in Dealey Plaza that day) but who do not appear in the Zapruder film. How can that be? (I think I found a peculiar and suspicious series of images in the film. In one sequence in which a researcher shows people missing from the Zapruder film, the Franzen family is shown in the Zapruder standing on the south side of Elm Street, watching the wounded President's limousine drive by. Jackie Kennedy is on the trunk of the car. The scene is bedlam. Yet throughout the shooting sequence and as the rest of Dealey Plaza was plunged into chaos, the three Franzens are just standing there, frozen, not moving, not ducking, not reacting, not flinching, not screaming. After reading this book, one wonders whether these images are indeed authentic.) Fetzer presents experts who explain how the film was altered, which was the most technical and difficult part of the book and one of these experts concludes without equivocation that the film is a fake. He also includes an article by an expert who says that the technology available in 1963 was more than sufficient to accomplish the fakery Fetzer surmises occurred in the Zapruder film. I noted several negative reviews of this book but I did not see any of these reviewers actually try to explain the anomalies in the film. I recommend the book as well as Fetzer's two previous compendia of assassination articles, "Murder in Dealey Plaza," (which also contains several articles regarding the probable inauthenticity of the Zapruder film) and "Assassination Science."
Rating:
Summary: Not Again, Professor Fetzer!?
Review: Here we go again...
David Lifton wrote a chapter for this new book - allegedly proving tampering of the Zapruder film. In those 100 pages, one can only find ONE specific argument for "proving" alteration. And that one argument is easily proven INCORRECT...not by me, but by the gentleman who invented the Koday emulsion that Abraham Zapruder was using that day.
You would think that an honest researcher would use the BEST AVAILABLE experts when writing such a chapter. One would further think that an editor would demand that only the finest resources be contacted when publishing a book on any topic.
But not David Fetzer nor Professor Fetzer.
John Costella offers "alteration" arguments that have been dis-proven for years now.
But there IS a NEW REVELATION in this book! Jack White and Costella are wandering around Dealey Plaza last year, and discover MYSTERIOUS LISTENING DEVICES picking up their conversation! There's even PICTURES of these BLACK OPS devices in Fetzer's new book!
The "devices" are humidity/rain sensors - which send their collected data to a computer to turn ON and OFF sprinklers.
If that is the type of NEW information you want - then please purchase this book.
Clint Bradford
http://www.jfk-info.com
Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: I find it all very interesting how intelligent the conspirators (if there were any) were to plan such a beautifully orchestrated manuever. As in many mob or organized crime trials the most incriminating piece of evidence seems to come from a Stooley or a member who has turned in order to receive a break of prison time. Th defense then turns and discredits this witness and their credibility for that very reason they agreed to testify in the first place. The Kennedy assassination has proven no different. If their was a conspiracy by any or multiple organizations they were smart enough to involve either individuals who could not be trusted or the true dregs of society so that any investigation into the murder could be squashed easily by crushing the credibility of witnesses and evidence. Quite possibly the biggest fear I have is no one will ever have the proper evidence to truly know what happened. After the murder there was an enormous amount of evidence collected and even more mistakes made. This evidence was then Classified and held away from the American public by the very organizations that most have indicted in a conspiracy (The CIA, FBI, and Federal government.) It took years for even some items like the Zapruder film to even reach prosecutors hands much less the publics eyes and trickles of documents have followed after. My issue with this is how reliable can any of this evidence be regardless of which side of the fence you are on. Either way those indicted by investigators where holding all the cards and had ample time to destroy, modify, and prepare the evidence however they saw fit. If you wanted to stimulate conspiracy ideas that involved the mob or even more the editing of the Zapruder film seems just however the Secret Service has admitted repeated to lying about numerous mistakes made on that day, and they spent an awful lot of time attempting to cover up those mistakes and thus motive for removing the scene of the stopped limosuine appears. So you can play both sides again. After Stone's film JFK in 91 there was a lot of preassure placed on Washington to release more of the documents sooner than 2032 or whenever so they hired a committee to trudge through the millions of documents and condense them to a 400,000 page report that all Americans can see. This some 30 years or more after the assassination and what about the other 1.6 million documents. What information in those documents does the government feel inadequate or useless. And how much have these documents changed over 30 years. So however this information is used, either pro-conspiracy or con I really cannot endorse either side since the evidence has been in the hands of the accussed for so long it no longer holds any validity. Remember it was our government who basically said we are too stupid of a nation to handle this information and thus we never saw it until recently. It is also our government that developed the CIA in the 40's to act completely in secrecy of the people and without regard to Federal rules. America lost a lot more than a president that day regardless of who killed him. We lost a lot of our liberty and our freedom. We no longer have the power over our government.
Rating:
Summary: Very Illuminating
Review: I found Dr. Fetzer's book to be fascinating, provocative, and ultimately compelling. That there are those who still insist that the Zapruder film is intact puzzles me because, to begin with, Life magazine, who originally owned the print, has indicated that there were a few splices made to it, and no less a personage than J. Edgar Hoover admitted that frames 313 and 314 were reversed. So it never really WAS "intact," if you want to get technical. The extensive changes made to the film are detailed in the book-- it's a "must read." Others may vehemently disagree with my opinion-- I say, let the reader be the judge. Typically, when a book is so ludicrous that it's not to be taken seriously, no one bothers reviewing it. For some reason, that is not the case concerning "The Great Zapruder Hoax." If I hadn't read it already, I'd be mighty curious to know what some of the "critics" are trying so hard to hide.
Rating:
Summary: Best Evidence Author David Lifton Lays It Down!
Review: I just read the long 120 page piece by David Lifton and it is just incredible. He traces his own personal experiences with the Z Film from 1965 till the present. Apparently, in 1965-66 the average joe blow could go to the national archives and view the most famous home movie ever made!. There is Lifton's usual brilliant unique analysis, Robert Groden's long history with the film(personally, I like Mr. Groden, and respect many important things he's done for the case, but I think even his admirers, can see he's pulled more than a few shady things to personally control the JFK Photographic evidence. There are bombshells galore throughout this article, and this is must reading if you have any interest in the assassination. The rest looks pretty technical, so I can't necessarily vouch for it.
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