Source – gizmodo.com
– (Editors Note:…just don’t expect them to lose your tax return),
The Zapruder film may be the most famous footage taken of the Kennedy assassination, but it’s not the only one. The “Nix Film” may be lesser known, but it’s no less important. It has been missing for decades, so the granddaughter of the photographer who captured the film is now suing the US government. She wants it returned, or be paid $10 million.
It’s yet another episode that adds to the conspiratorial feel of the Kennedy assassination. The original footage, captured 52 years ago on Orville Nix’s Keystone Model K-810 8mm home-movie camera, hasn’t been publicly seen in more than 37 years.
http://gizmodo.com/ajax/inset/iframe?id=youtube-video-GU4mAVCprAU&start=0
As ABC affiliate WFAA reports, Gayle Nix Jackson, the granddaughter of Orville Nix, has filed a federal lawsuit asking for the footage to be returned to her, or to be compensated $10 million.
As her lawsuit states: “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.”
Copies exist, but some suggest the original frames may show more detail, or even new footage. As Jackson told News 8 back in 2013: “If it shows a second gunman, then we’ll put an end to all these conspiracy theories, because we’ll know. If it doesn’t, we’ll put an end to that way, too.”
Nix was standing on the opposite side of the street where Abraham Zapruder shot his famous footage, but he still managed to capture the final moments of the President’s life—including the final shot to his head. Though darker and less detailed, it’s a mirror image of the Zapruder film.
Shortly after the assassination, Nix gave the film to the FBI, who returned it three days later. United Press International (UPI) purchased it from Nix for $5,000 and took possession of it on December 6, 1963. Copies were made and distributed to UPI subscribers. It was examined by the Warren Commission in 1963, and then again in 1978 by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
But that’s the last time the original copy was seen. UPI returned the copyright and its copies to the Nix family in 1992, but the original film was missing. As Jackson’s lawsuit claims:
The HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations] was the last to acknowledge having the original Nix film in its possession, and its whereabouts unknown to this day. When the HSCA was disbanded, its files and exhibits including the original Nix film should have been stored and kept at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
The National Archives says it has copies, but not the original.
According to a former FBI analyst, the film has either been discarded (probably by accident), or it’s in the hands of a “private collector.”
Interestingly, Nix told a filmmaker in 1966 that the film he received back from the FBI was not identical to the one he shot.
http://gizmodo.com/the-us-government-is-being-sued-for-losing-a-critical-j-1744227217?
Related…
Call it “one small mistake by somebody, one giant loss for mankind.”
The original magnetic tapes that recorded the iconic images of man’s first footsteps on the moon are missing and scientists fear they are in danger of deteriorating into dust unless they are found quickly and converted to digital format.
Australian scientists at the Parkes Observatory and the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station in Australia have launched an intensive effort to find nearly 700 boxes of original, high quality slow-scan TV tapes used to capture the Apollo 11 landing on July 21, 1969. The two Australian stations, along with California’s Goldstone station, received signals from the lunar base.
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While many people are familiar with the grainy footage showing Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon’s surface, most don’t know that the original images sent to earth were high-quality transmissions. The conversion of the original signal into a format that could be rebroadcast over standard televisions accounted for the blurry images of Armstrong and fellow lunar astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.
“The quality of what you saw on TV at home was substantially degraded,” John Sarkissian, a scientist stationed at Parkes, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Scientists at Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek took Polaroid photographs of the original high-quality images on their screens during the moon landing. Despite the degradation that technology introduced, their images are significantly sharper than the those broadcasted to the public over television.
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“I can still see the screen,” said David Cooke, 74, a Parkes control room engineer in 1969. “I was amazed, the quality was fairly good.”
Sarkissian’s interest in the tapes began in 1997 when he was researching the role of Parkes in the Apollo 11 mission prior to the making of the movie, “The Dish”.
The film tells the story of the capture of the first Apollo images and features the role of the Parkes station in broadcasting the event to the world. During the initial walk on the moon, the U.S. Goldstone station was experiencing technical difficulties. Honeysuckle Creek’s antenna was the smallest of the trio but had the distinction of receiving and transmitting Armstrong’s “one small step for man.”
It wasn’t until Sarkissian contacted colleagues at NASA that anyone realized the tapes were missing.
“People may have thought ‘we have tapes of the moon walk, we don’t need these’,” said Sarkissian. “We want the public to see it the way the moon walk was meant to be seen. There will only ever be one first moon walk.”
Originally stored at Goddard Space Flight Center, records indicate the tapes were moved to the U.S. National Archives in 1970. For reasons unknown, about 700 boxes of the SSTV tapes were returned to Goddard in 1984.
“We have the documents to say they were withdrawn, but no one knows exactly where they went,” Sarkissian said.
If found, Sarkissian hopes to have the tapes digitized for permanent archival. The magnetic media, however, are subject to deterioration and there is concern that they could crumble to dust before their information is saved. Further, the only known device for decoding the original analog tapes is at a Goddard facility slated for closure in October.
Tracking the lost tapes has been made more difficult by the fact many of the people involved with the space program have retired or died.
Among the missing tapes are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon landings.
“We are working on the assumption they still exist,” said Sarkissian. “Your guess is a good as mine as to where they are.”
RIELPOLITIK 
