Mellophonist in the Zapruder film?

Washington, D.C. -- Time-Life, the former owner of the Zapruder film has released an alternate version of the film recently discovered in their archives. This new film includes frames from the original that were originally thought to have been lost when the film was spliced by Life and damaged during copying. The newly discovered frame shows an image of a person that is believed to be a prime suspect in the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.

Abraham Zapruder

Life Magazine (now Time-Life) purchased the original copy of the the 8mm film taken by Abraham Zapruder in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. Zapruder sold the film and its rights to Time in November 1963 for $150,000. Frames from the film were published in an issue of Life Magazine in its November 26, 1963 issue. Zapruder died in 1970, but his family continued to receive usage rights payments from Time-Life surpassing one one million dollars.

The original Zapruder film.

In June 1996, the Assassination Record Review Board (ARRB) met to discuss photographic records relating to the assassination and specifically the Zapruder film. A formal examination of the Zapruder camera was undertaken by Kodak scientist Roland Zavada, further authenticating the Zapruder film as unaltered.

Subsequently, the ARRB declared the film as an assassination record and ordered a fair market value be paid to the owner so that the film could be

Zapruder's Bell & Howell Zoomatic camera used to capture images of the Kennedy Assassination (photo from the National Archives).

confiscated by the United States government. An appraisal revealed the value of the film to be in excess of two million dollars. The ARRB responded in April 1997 by ordering the confiscation of the film. It was during this time a missing frame believed to have been removed during the splicing of the film by Life was encountered during a physical examination of the canister used to house one of the three original copies.

The missing frame (see below), shows the image of what appears to be a Star of Indiana mellophone player.

Frame 166.5 of the Zapruder Film, November 22, 1963 -- In this new frame discovered, the image of a Star of Indiana mellophone player in full uniform can be seen on the sidewalk just to the right of the police motorcycle that is flanking the President's limousine.

In this enhanced enlargement of frame 166.5 (the background around the mysterious unidentified figure has been lightened), what appears to be a Star of Indiana mellophone player can be clearly observed.

Additional investigation is underway in an attempt to identify the mellophone player and to learn the reason why this performer was at Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

This haunting image will no doubt have an impact on the field of assassination research associated with events that occurred in Dallas in 1963. Investigators are searching through assassination documents in the hopes of learning more about the lone mellophonist. It's also very likely this will rekindle interest in the mystery surrounding a "ghost" contrabass bugle player seen in grainy images taken of the grassy knoll at the time of the assassination.

To complicate matters further, the mysterious lone mellophonist has appeared in other photographs associated with American presidents:

The mysterious lone mellophone (left) appears again at the Nixon resignation ceremony on August 9, 1974.

The lone mellophonist once again appears in a photograph taken moments before the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981.