WFAA’s Film of the Motorcade Run to Parkland Hospital Stabilized

[James Hackerott]

Here’s a photo of the ambulance leaving Parkland Hospital with the slain President. The mobile unit from WFAA could possibly be one that they moved there from the Trade Mart once it became obvious what had happened. The building in the background is Lingo Lumber, and is across Hines Blvd from the hospital. It has a distinctive roof and I think I have located it on a couple of the aerial photos. I am guessing that the cameraman is following the lead cars escorting the ambulance to Love Field. Perhaps he hasn’t yet noticed the ambulance just below him.




Edit: I drew a yellow arrow to show the Lingo Lumber building and it’s distinctive roof:





Edit #2:

I suspect that the dark part of that distinctive roof can be seen in your stacked image. I drew a yellow arrow to show what I mean:

I think you are right again. I made another stack where I put the stack focus in the area of this building, but don't think it improved the image much. Can you make out a Parkland candidate?

[Charles Collins]

I think you are right again. I made another stack where I put the stack focus in the area of this building, but don't think it improved the image much. Can you make out a Parkland candidate?

I drew a yellow outline of what looks to me to be the tallest portion of Parkland Hospital.




I now think that my first stab at locating the distinctive roof of the Lingo Lumber building in your stacked image is probably wrong. Now it looks like that dark area could be a horizontal member of a telephone pole? All the different angles and perspectives can easily confuse me. Compare what the yellow outline above indicates with what we can see in this image from google maps:




Also, for another perspective, take a look at the aerial image taken when Stemmons Freeway was still under construction. It is at least from a similar direction.

[James Hackerott]

I drew a yellow outline of what looks to me to be the tallest portion of Parkland Hospital.




I now think that my first stab at locating the distinctive roof of the Lingo Lumber building in your stacked image is probably wrong. Now it looks like that dark area could be a horizontal member of a telephone pole? All the different angles and perspectives can easily confuse me. Compare what the yellow outline above indicates with what we can see in this image from google maps:




Also, for another perspective, take a look at the aerial image taken when Stemmons Freeway was still under construction. It is at least from a similar direction.

I pinned Google Earth with Parkland Hospital (highest floors per your yellow outline), Lingo Lumber using the address 5116 Hines from the 1961 Dallas City Directory, and the RR tracks at Industrial at Hines (from the WFFA film car jumps). I also traced a path along Hines in green. Then, in Google Earth ground-level view, overlay the WFFA frame stack. It does appear the lumber company building is not the building you first thought, which you already realize, but I had fun anyway.

[Charles Collins]

I pinned Google Earth with Parkland Hospital (highest floors per your yellow outline), Lingo Lumber using the address 5116 Hines from the 1961 Dallas City Directory, and the RR tracks at Industrial at Hines (from the WFFA film car jumps). I also traced a path along Hines in green. Then, in Google Earth ground-level view, overlay the WFFA frame stack. It does appear the lumber company building is not the building you first thought, which you already realize, but I had fun anyway.

Yep, the fun is in the challenge of figuring stuff like this out. Good job. If I understand your pins correctly, we appear to have oriented these items reasonably close in the stacked image from the WFAA film. My first attempt at locating Lingo Lumber in the stacked image was just an educated guess without any real attempt to line things up. You have located it where I thought it would be after I had looked at things closer and from many different angles. This has been a good exercise. I have a better feel for the big changes in what we see by changing the angle only slightly.

[Steve Barber]

Yep, the fun is in the challenge of figuring stuff like this out. Good job. If I understand your pins correctly, we appear to have oriented these items reasonably close in the stacked image from the WFAA film. My first attempt at locating Lingo Lumber in the stacked image was just an educated guess without any real attempt to line things up. You have located it where I thought it would be after I had looked at things closer and from many different angles. This has been a good exercise. I have a better feel for the big changes in what we see by changing the angle only slightly.

 Hi Guys,

  I just checked in to see the latest progress of this great thread.  You guys are awesome, Charles and James!  Now I can see how this is laid out!  Thanks so very much for all your hard work, and I know others watching this thread feel the same way.  However...there is one thing regarding my post of the aerial photo, and my addition of red arrows and such.

  Upon looking over everything, I discovered that I have the big, dark red arrow labeled wrong!  I posted the letters "RR Crossing"and am actually pointing to Stemmons Freeway, not the railroad crossing!  I have the arrow pointing to the wrong spot!  I'm truly sorry about this! Gargantuous mistake on my part.  I'm going to try to fix it and move the arrow to the proper spot. 

[Michael Walton]

Why is this considered a "great thread?" It's a pixelly, blurry 5-second clip taken from far, far away and proves absolutely nothing one way or the other. I'm constantly amazed on here of how people get into a lather about something that means nothing.

[Steve Barber]

Why is this considered a "great thread?" It's a pixelly, blurry 5-second clip taken from far, far away and proves absolutely nothing one way or the other. I'm constantly amazed on here of how people get into a lather about something that means nothing.

 For years and years, some of us who study the photographic evidence have never been able to see the motorcade "Going up the hill" in the WFAA-TV film that was broadcast live the day of the assassination, as it was narrated by WFAA-camera man Bert Shipp.  In fact, barely anything could be made out in the film due to horrendously bad quality video tape.

Over the past few years, due to technologyy, we have been able to get our hands on better quality copies of certain footage taken that tragic day. James' find finally allowed many of us to actually see where the motorcade was when this "5-second clip taken from far away" came to surface for James, who shared it with us. To you, it's nothing, to us, it's a great find, and allows us for the first time to see something we couldn't see before, that took place while the president was being taken to Parkland Hospital. 
 
 I'm not sure why this "amazes" you, but to each their own. It's a great thread because it's a discussion about a new find in film footage taken November 22, 1963. 

[Charles Collins]

Why is this considered a "great thread?" It's a pixelly, blurry 5-second clip taken from far, far away and proves absolutely nothing one way or the other. I'm constantly amazed on here of how people get into a lather about something that means nothing.

I agree with Steve Barber, it is about discovery. (No matter whether or not it answers any questions that you might consider critical.) Steve is the one who discovered the crosstalk in the DPD radio tape recordings and brought it to the attention of the world. So compliments from Steve about this thread are quite special in my book.