The Missing JFK Assassination Film: The Mystery Surrounding the Orville Nix Home Movie of November 22, 1963

by Gayle Nix Jackson

Orville Nix is not the typical JFK assassination book. This book does not attempt to answer the question of who killed John F. Kennedy; instead, it addresses why we should question the actions of those involved and why the truth was withheld from the people. Though copies of Orville Nix’s film exist, the original film is missing. Why? The FBI confiscated Orville’s camera for several months, then returned it in pieces. Were these actions sinister or were they just examples of governmental incompetence? Orville Nix exposes information about the House Select Committee staff’s involvement in the missing film. Author Gayle Nix Jackson’s interviews with people who were close to Orville and the film will shed light on the government’s involvement with the filmmaker.Gayle Nix Jackson is the granddaughter of Orville Nix. As his eldest granddaughter, Nix Jackson shares experiences growing up with her beloved grandfather and on how his views changed after that fatal day. Hearing his story precipitated the quest Jackson is still on to find the film. Her grandfather was there that day for a reason, and if the original Nix film could be located, modern-day technology could determine if there was indeed another person behind the stockade fence or not. Questions still abound today as to whether or not the film was altered. Finding the original Nix film would answer one of the most enduring questions related to this horrific Was there a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963?Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, Historical, True Crime, History, Conspiracy Theories

401 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 25, 2014

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very pleasantly surprising and original addition to my JFK assassination library collection. It has taken me a year to get round to reading Gayle Nix Jackson's book which was published last June 2014. My only previous knowledge of the famous 'Nix' film has been book and internet stills, plus internet communications with the author.
What I have found so interesting here has been the intimate family story surrounding Orville Nix's short cine movie of Kennedy's murder, focussing on the northern plaza side of Elm Street. His friendship with Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels, highlighting Sorrels' observations from the lead car in the motorcade, the Honest Joe's Gun and Pawn Shop Edsel sightings, the dismantling of his Keystone camera by the FBI, returning it in bits, as well as the many mysteries behind the camera original film.
Orville Nix was quite clearly a steadfast patriotic American family man who stood firmly to what he witnessed in Dealey Plaza in November '63, against the official government/media agenda of three shots from the Book Depository. His struggle for his films recognition, against intimidation and anonymous threats is expertly documented by grand-daughter Gayle, writing in the third person.
A short book, packed with unique information that perhaps poses many more questions than answers, yet makes essential reading. A full chronological study of the 8mm Nix film is produced in the Appendix, a contribution from a colleague from Dealey Plaza U.K., Chris Scally, and a bibliography that has provided me with a few more books to add to my collection.

[Gayle Nix Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote it, so I love it!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of information and stories you won't find anywhere else.

[Matt McLeod · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was honestly entertained by the book, but it's an incredibly poor a scholarship reference for anyone seeking serious research surrounding the JFK assassination.

The book is essentially a stream of consciousness from several characters at Daley Plaza, in which the author elaborately fills in undoctumented holes in a brazen fashion - implying that all of the material is factual.

The author simply could not know the opinions and subjective motives of its central characters.

Nothing is new. Even the sprinkling of facts Nix peppers her melodrama with are suspect and/or demonstrably false.

At one point, she has a character (a poor contemporary Texan house wife) who rails against LBJ's privileged upbringing as a son of Texas big money scions. Nix's real life character reflects on Johnson's womanizing and domestic abuse and how being the son of an extremely wealthy father spared him the criminal justice he so deserved.

One big problem: LBJ was born to dire poverty, in tiny hovel upon a rocky dirt field. His own father had difficulty putting food on the table, much less the money, clout and connections ascribed to him and - we are to believe - passed down to his progeny.

[Mike Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Man and his Film

I am glad someone finally gave the Orville Nix film some attention.
I enjoyed learning about Mr. Nix. It is amazing how disrespected this man and his video were; and all the hassle his family has gone through trying to find the un doctored original film which is still missing and they hold all rights to the film at this time.

His granddaughter did a great job of highlighting this man and giving this video it’s deserved respect in a place as important as the Zapruder film.

The information in this book was very interesting and easy to read.

Enjoyed the book thoroughly.

[Lexi Sølvhammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is interesting but sadly it’s presented in a dull manner.

However I’d like to know if the author managed to find the film, so if another book will be released I’m ready.

[Darrell Hamlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is the granddaughter of Orville Nix, the amateur photographer who captured one of the two most important live action films of the shooting in Dallas in 1963. During the chaotic and dangerous setting, Mr. Nix provided the opposite perspective to the simultaneously documented Zapruder film. If for no other reason, a book about the origins and aftermath history of the Nix film has value on its own terms. This book is seriously sourced for the context of the story it tells, which is an achievement considering the book is also intended to keep faith with a family legacy of disappointments and outrageous treatment at the hands of government, media, and technical professionals who time and again seemed to bait-and-switch Mr. Nix and his heirs in their dealings regarding his footage. Ms. Nix Jackson has every right to argue passionately for reputational and historical justice that her family has been denied much more than it has been offered. Even though the book is highly personal, with narrative force that can come only from a family member who lived through the events, the author resisted the temptation to turn the book into a platform for elevating herself in some kind of heroic Hollywood way. I admire that she balances the story of mistreatment by some with offering her own gratitude and credit for those who helped her along the way in her efforts to tell an important story of a man and his place in history. At the heart of the story is the mystery of the lost original out-of-camera color print of the shooting, and the inconceivably reckless and destructive way the film was handled for investigative and commercial use until it was declared lost by the very people to whom it had been entrusted – the US government and its professional preservationists at the National Archives. The mystery of what happened to the original – critically important because only the original can reveal most clearly what evidence it contains about the possibility of additional shooters on the grassy knoll area – remains unresolved. There are chapters here that are necessary for context, but not particularly valuable in their rendering. The chapters that attempt to review the range of criticisms, conjectures, and research on the assassination, for example. Those are better understood in their original, rather than summarized form. But the book overall is valuable to serious researchers and buffs alike, for several reasons. First, the final chapters and the appendices contain a roadmap to internet-era material she discusses, most importantly the work that has been done, in good faith, to bring clarity and perspective to what is on the footage itself. There is a detailed chronology of events related to the history of the film, and a bibliography of sources. But the great achievement of the book, and its historic value, is the story Ms. Nix Jackson tells from within her own family’s journey. That story can only be told the way she tells it, from family members who were present throughout it. Some readers may not care for the novelistic narrative techniques the author uses to describe not just events she didn’t witness, but thoughts and emotions happening within Orville Nix. I don’t see it as inappropriate or unreliable. I read it as a family member recounting what she saw and heard throughout her life, a life that took shape in relation to this famous film and the events surrounding its use and loss. Ultimately, I deeply admire the author’s work to keep faith with her grandfather, a man who captured historic evidence that is now a cultural fixture. Sadly, Orville Nix was overwhelmed by institutional agendas, deceit, and the enveloping darkness of a dark moment of fate to be standing where he stood looking through a viewfinder on November 22, 1963. I am unfamiliar with her work since publication in 2015, and only vaguely informed on her court battles to get the film back with her family and estate heirs. But with this book, Gayle Nix Jackson has given back to her grandfather the dignity of his own life and his own achievement in history. Orville Nix and his granddaughter, Gayle Nix Jackson, deserve respect for honest efforts to do the right thing as citizens.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to begin.... Really I just can't.
This is guilty of many things:
*It's got hundreds of footnotes, giving the feel of a well-researched and carefully annotated book. But most are rubbish and vague. For example, references to speeches made often just give the year in which it was made and a good number of references to books don't give a publisher or even a page number. My favourite though was the quote from Plato which has the footnote "Plato quote".
*There is an incredible amount of padding - again to perhaps give the impression of meticulous historical accuracy. There is a whole chapter on what everyone in the family said and did during breakfast on the morning of Nov 22, 1963; it takes another two chapters to describe the short journey to downtown Dallas.
*GNJ reads herself into the narrative as the most articulate and perceptive six year-old ever to walk the planet (but with a weak bladder).
*For a book claiming that the Nix film is the most important photographic document of the JFK assassination (my footnote: it's really not, go Google and YouTube it for yourself), there is a notable absence of stills from the film itself, instead we ask to just trust the people who claim to see shadows and people packing away guns in the very shaky grainy footage. And it isn't because the book doesn't have the production budget to reproduce photos - there are loads of (often random) pics included here (did we really need to see a picture of the cafeteria where Orville's wife worked or the cinema where his son worked part-time?).

I could go on further. The Nix film might be important, but there is nothing substantial here to justify any determination of this. Its biggest crime though is its blunt and silly insertion into the narrative of a shadowy Suite in which the manipulators gathered to game out the events of that time and location with such precision.

All of this just tarnishes any valid points contained here.

By all means, call this auto fiction - that would be honest, although it might have put me off reading and getting frustrated by it. Just don't call it fact.

[Dennis Kocik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by the grand-daughter of Orville Nix who took one of the most important videos of the century...and lost it for himself, his family, and to history through the greed, ignorance, and criminals of the government that are determined to keep the truth hidden of what really happened at the JKF assassination. His film was taken nearly exactly opposite from where Abraham Zapruder was filming, and therefore shows the grassy knoll and stockade fence area where the fatal head-shot was fired from. All of the rest of what happened in Dealy plaza that day was nothing but 'noise' to cover up and confuse the people there to where the real action was taking place. That is why there has been such an effort to destroy and ignore the Nix film. Despite all of the books and information that is out there regarding the assassination and the subsequent decades long cover-up, I still learned a few things from this book that I did not know or read anywhere before. Thank you Gayle!

[Bruce · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst JFK books I have ever read. They took his film and did not give it back. There I told you the whole story and saved you the $$ and frustration of buying this tripe. Literally half the book goes by before the assassination even happens. Worthless, completely worthless

[Mel Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with so many other things that have “gone missing” or “locked away” with the assassination of JFK...a person can’t but help lean towards a conspiracy to not only kill the President...but to cover it up as well.

[Kevin Hoffpauir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A turn towards the truth

Eye opening to the things held from us. These things that help to find the truth to this terrible act