JFK assassination: Woman sues US government for return of 'lost' footage

The lawsuit comes 52 years after the killing of the 35th US president

Footage taken by Orville Nix captures part of the shooting of the President Kennedy (Youtube/Orville Nix)

A Texas woman has sued the US government for the return of footage her grandfather shot of the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

In a development that will grasp the interest of both historians and conspiracy theorists, Gayle Nix Jackson filed a lawsuit demanding the return of the “lost” footage or else $10m in compensation.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington DC on Saturday, a day before the 52nd anniversary of JFK’s killing, said the footage was as important as the celebrated film captured by Abraham Zapruder. The federal government settled with Zapruder’s heirs in 1999 to purchase that film for $16m.

“According to the Warren Commission, the Nix film is nearly as important as the Zapruder film, yet the public is mainly unaware of its significance,” the lawsuit said, according to Reuters.

Reports said Ms Nix Jackson’s grandfather, Orville Nix, sold the film that he shot on November 22, 1963, to the UPI news agency for for $5,000, with an apparent understanding that it would be returned to the family after 25 years.

It was examined by the Warren Commission and another federal panel that investigated the shooting and assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Ms Nix Jackson said she believed the film was in the possession of the National Archives and Records Administration because most materials that were part of the federal inquiry were forwarded there. The lawsuit said the agency had told Ms Nix Jackson it does not have it. The agency has not yet commented.

President Kennedy was shot 52 years ago (AP)

“It’s incomprehensible that authorities would lose an important piece of historical evidence,” said Ms Nix Jackson

“I can understand little clerical issues. I don’t understand the loss of evidence like this.”

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, which overlooks the site where Kennedy was fatally shot, said the Zapruder film had greater historical value because it showed all of the shooting, as opposed to Mr Nix's film and two others that capture part of the assassination.

The 8 mm film taken by Mr Nix was shot from the opposite side of the JFK limousine from where the Zapruder film was shot.

The lawsuit claimed the film sequence included first lady Jackie Kennedy climbing onto the rear of the limousine, and Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumping onto the vehicle.

The Associated Press said Ms Nix Jackson, who has written a book about the film, had been trying to recover the original film for years because she has publicly stated it could determine whether there was a second gunman involved in the assassination, as some conspiracy theorists continue to believe.

Farris Rookstool, a former FBI analyst in Dallas, said he helped the family obtain a duplicate of the FBI’s copy of the film. The family turned that copy over to the Sixth Floor Museum.

“The film is a mirror image of the Zapruder film from the other side of Dealey Plaza,” said Mr Rookstool.