Orville Nix

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Orville Orhel Nix (16 April 1911 – 17 January 1972, Dallas, Texas)[1] [2] was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. His filming of the event is considered nearly as important as the more famous Abraham Zapruder film.[3]

Nix worked for the General Services Administration as an air conditioning engineer in the former Terminal Annex building on the south side of Dealey Plaza. He filmed with an 8 mm movie camera, first from the southwest corner of Main and Houston streets, then from the south side of Main Street 50 feet (15 m) west of Houston, then from a point about another 50 feet west.[4] The footage contains three scenes: the motorcade entering Dealey Plaza, the last shot of the assassination in front of the grassy knoll along Elm Street, and the panic and confusion afterward.

The Nix film was obtained as a result of a notice that the FBI gave to film processing plants in the Dallas area, that the FBI would be interested in obtaining or knowing about any film they processed relating to the assassination. When Nix heard about this from his processor, he delivered the film to the FBI office in Dallas on December 1, 1963. It was returned to him three days later.

United Press International purchased the copyright for $5,000 and took possession of the original film from Nix on December 6, 1963. UPI distributed frame enlargements to its news subscribers the following day. The original was examined by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978. When UPI returned the copyright and all its copies to the Nix family in 1992, the original film was missing. The Nix family assigned the copyright of the film to the Dallas County Historical Foundation in 2000.[5]

Nix was interviewed in 1966 by investigator Mark Lane for his documentary Rush to Judgment. He told Lane that at the time of the assassination, he believed that the shots came from behind the fence on the grassy knoll, but he later became convinced they came from the Texas School Book Depository.[6] He was also interviewed by CBS News in 1967 for a television documentary on the Kennedy assassination.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.
  2. ^ Ancestry.com. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Orville O. Nix (obituary), Dallas Morning News, Jan. 19, 1972, p. D3.
  3. ^ Warren Commission Report, pp. 96-97, 109-110.
  4. ^ Don Roberdau professionally surveyed map of Dealey Plaza.
  5. ^ U.S. Copyright Office, copyright assignment, document #V3466D144, recorded 5 March 2001.
  6. ^ 216 Witnesses to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

[edit] External links