Overview
- The Court of Federal Claims on January 15 allowed the Nix family’s Fifth Amendment takings suit to proceed, clearing lawyers to probe what happened to the film.
- Orville Nix’s 8mm footage, which captured the grassy knoll during the shooting, has not been publicly seen since 1978 after being sent to a Los Angeles firm for analysis.
- Custody over the decades reportedly involved the FBI, United Press International, Congress, and The Aerospace Corporation, while the National Archives says it holds only a copy.
- Granddaughter Gail Nix Jackson seeks compensation with a preliminary valuation near $930 million, citing the 1999 Zapruder film appraisal plus decades of compounded interest.
- Family attorneys say modern optics and AI could recover details from the grassy knoll area, referencing the 1978 HSCA conspiracy finding and the FBI’s 1980 critique of its acoustic evidence.