Midwestern manners secured the 'scoop of the century': the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination

A Pekin, Illinois, native's polite Midwestern manners helped secure what has been called the most famous 26 seconds in celluloid history: the Zapruder film of President John F. Kennedy's assassination 60 years ago.

In November 1963, Dick Stolley was a 35-year-old editor with Life magazine's Los Angeles bureau. When news broke of the Nov. 22 shooting, he caught the next flight to Dallas. At the magazine's local bureau, he got a tip that a Dallas businessman named Abraham Zapruder had filmed the assassination on his home movie camera.

Related: Pekin native Dick Stolley tells how he was the first reporter to contact Abraham Zapruder

How Life magazine found the Zapruder film

Stolley found Zapruder's home telephone number and called dozens of times until a weary voice finally answered. The former's perseverance led to the "photographic scoop of the 20th century," as the Peoria Journal Star described it in 2013.

Stolley "was not only the first journalist to contact Zapruder; he also was the most patient and polite, manners Stolley credited to his childhood in Pekin," the Journal Star wrote in 2021.

Stolley asked Zapruder if he could view the film. The latter declined.

"Though sensing the scoop of a lifetime, Stolley did not get pushy," the 2021 story read. "He remained respectful, as he had been taught as a boy in Pekin." Eventually, Zapruder reconsidered.

In a 1999 interview, Stolley told the Journal Star: "He was emotionally and physically exhausted at that point. I didn't press. I mean, sometimes in this business, you know, you have to press and sometimes there's a sixth sense that tells you don't press. Smartest decision I ever made."

The next morning, at his office, Zapruder screened the film for Stolley and three Secret Service agents, as other reporters began arriving.

More: Pekin native who famously obtained the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination has died at 92

The Secret Service obtained two of the three copies of the film Zapruder had had developed. The final copy was the subject of negotiations. As Zapruder had first been contacted by Stolley, the businessman spoke to him first. The two "chatted amicably over the price," the 2021 story said, while the other reporters "shouted at Zapruder and banged on the door." Zapruder, "visibly disturbed by the clamor on the other side of the door, said, 'Let’s do it.'”

Life secured all rights to the film — 486 frames over 26.6 seconds. Many of the still images ran frame by frame in the magazine. But one frame — showing the president's head being struck by the sniper's second shot — was omitted from the original magazine run, at Zapruder's insistence.

Why the Zapruder film matters

To the Journal Star, Stolley acknowledged that the film’s grim detail heightened the nation's horror. But he said it brought home the stark truth of the Kennedy slaying. "I think the film helped impress upon the American people that he was dead,” Stolley said. "In terms of public record, I think it is very fortunate I found Mr. Zapruder."

Despite the many conspiracy theories about the assassination, Stolley remained convinced there was only one killer: Lee Harvey Oswald. "No doubt," Stolley told the Journal Star in 2013. "And I've been studying this for 50 years. There are unanswered questions; there always will be. But it was him."

Stolley, who had worked at the Pekin Daily Times and the Chicago Sun-Times before his stint at Life magazine, went on to serve as the founding editor of People magazine. He died in 2021 at the age of 92.

Photo gallery: A look at the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: How Pekin native Dick Stolley secured the rights to the Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's slaying