Orville Nix
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Orville Orhel Nix (April 16, 1911 – January 17, 1972) was a witness to the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
on November 22, 1963. His filming of the shooting, which only captured the last few seconds of it, is considered to be nearly as important as the film by Abraham Zapruder.


Background

Nix was born in Texas, the son of Myrtle (née Mabra) and James Allan Nix. He was reported to have only a
fourth grade Fourth grade (also called grade four, equivalent to Year 5 in England and Wales, and Year 4 in Australia) is a year of Elementary education in some countries. In North America, the fourth grade is the fifth school year of elementary school. Stud ...
education and later worked as an
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
engineer working for the
General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...
in Dallas. He was married to Ella Louise Robison in 1938 with whom he had one son, Orville, Jr.


JFK assassination

On November 22, 1963, Nix walked from his office in the Terminal Annex building located on the south side of
Dealey Plaza Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963; 30 minutes after the shooting ...
to the northwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and Houston Street with his Keystone Auto-Zoom Model K-810 8 mm
movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie s ...
. Nix filmed the presidential limousine and motorcade as it entered the Plaza, then quickly moved 20 to 60 feet west of Houston Street to the south curb of Main Street. There, he ended up capturing the last part of the assassination with the
grassy knoll Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963; 30 minutes after the shooting ...
in the background. Shortly after the motorcade had left Dealey Plaza, he filmed people running from Main Street to Elm Street. Nix's film is much darker than the other films shot that day, as he used Type A indoor film, and did not have the proper filter to correct this. The Nix film was obtained as a result of a notice that the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
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 United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
(UPI) purchased the copyright for $5,000 and took possession of the original version of Nix’s film on December 6, 1963.
Reese Schonfeld Maurice Wolfe "Reese" Schonfeld (November 5, 1931July 28, 2020) was an American television journalist and executive. Trained as a lawyer, he co-founded CNN with Ted Turner in 1980, and went on to establish Food Network in 1993. Early life and e ...
, a UPI executive and later the founding president of
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, stewarded the film for UPI. UPI distributed frame enlargements to its news subscribers the following day. The film’s original rendition was examined by the
House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its i ...
in 1978. When UPI returned the copyright and all its copies to the Nix family in 1992, the film’s original version was missing. In 2002, the Nix family assigned the film’s copyright to the Dallas County Historical Foundation, which operates the
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is a museum located on the sixth floor of the Dallas County Administration Building (formerly the Texas School Book Depository) in downtown Dallas, Texas, overlooking Dealey Plaza at the intersection of El ...
. Nix was interviewed in 1966 by investigator Mark Lane for his documentary ''
Rush to Judgment ''Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald'' is a 1966 book by American lawyer Mark Lane (author), Mark Lane. It is about the Assassin ...
''. In a filmed interview undertaken by Lane, he also stated that the film he received may not have been identical to the one that he shot.Rush to Judgement documentary He told Lane that at the time of the assassination, he believed that the shots had come from behind the stockade fence on the grassy knoll, but was later told that conclusive proof existed that shots only came from the Texas School Book Depository and that he was convinced by this. He was also interviewed by
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
in 1967 for a television documentary on the Kennedy assassination. In 2015, Nix's granddaughter, Gayle Nix-Jackson, initiated a lawsuit against the US government for the return of the original film or compensation seeking $10m. Ms Nix Jackson said that "it was incomprehensible authorities would lose an important piece of historical evidence. I can understand little clerical issues. I don't understand the loss of evidence like this." In 2017, Jackson's lawsuit was "dismissed without prejudice" from proceeding in that court-type venue; subsequently, Jackson filed a similar lawsuit in a different court-type venue.


Death

On January 17, 1972, Nix died in Dallas at the age of 60. He is buried in Edgewood Cemetery in
Lancaster, Texas Lancaster ( ) is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,275 according to the 2020 census. Founded in 1852 as a frontier post, Lancaster is one of Dallas County's earliest settlements. Today, it is a suburban communit ...
.


References


External links

* JFK Online
Orville Nix Film

Daily Talk show
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nix, Orville 1911 births 1972 deaths Burials in Texas People from Dallas Witnesses to the assassination of John F. Kennedy