Cold Case JFK

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas has probably inspired more speculation than any other crime in American history. Rushmore DeNooyer's PBS-aired NOVA documentary Cold Case JFK offers yet another spin around Dealey Plaza to try to determine what happened on November 22, 1963. Given NOVA's scientific bent, the film focuses on the use of tools and technologies unavailable a half-century ago—including laser scanning and 3D digital reconstruction of the president's skull—in an attempt to assess whether the official determination that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin was correct. Despite the promise of a new approach to the subject, Cold Case JFK quickly devolves into a been-there/done-that examination featuring well-known aspects of the murder, including the numerous claims of shots ringing out from the so-called “grassy knoll,” and the immediate controversy surrounding the Kennedy autopsy. DeNooyer also repeatedly serves up the grisly footage from the Zapruder film to support findings offered by the various ballistics experts and pathologists called upon here to provide expert commentary. The film's conclusion—that the fatal bullets were shot from Oswald's vantage point in the Texas School Book Depository—will certainly not pacify conspiracy-theory advocates, but it's also unlikely to teach much new to viewers who already accept the lone-gunman scenario. An optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)