New tech could potentially help solve JFK mystery

AI could finally help solve the mystery of a “second shooter” in the assassination of US President John F Kennedy almost 60 years ago.

Experts believe Artificial Intelligence, combined with new advances in digital image processing, will either prove or disprove beyond all doubt whether another gunman took aim at JFK in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

The fresh evidence is contained in a little-known home movie shot by local maintenance man Orville Nix, whose descendants have launched a legal bid to get it back from the US government.

His clip – unlike the famous one shot by Abraham Zapruder that has been seen by millions – was filmed from the centre of Dealey Plaza as Kennedy was hit in the head while he and wife Jackie waved at crowds from the back of his open-top limousine.

As a result, it provides the only known unobstructed view of the “grassy knoll” where conspiracy theorists have long claimed another sniper – or snipers – were concealed.

Nix’s film was last examined in 1978 by photo experts hired by the US’s House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Based in part on that analysis, the panel sensationally concluded JFK “was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy” and that “two gunmen” likely fired on him.

But the technology of the time left experts in doubt about whether the home movie actually proves this – and the original film subsequently “vanished from view”, with only imperfect copies remaining in the hands of government officials.

Now Nix’s family, who claim to have owned the rights to the film since he died in 1972, are suing the country’s National Archives and Records Administration.

They want the return of the original and all copies as well as $29.7million (£23.9million) in “compensatory damages”.

Nix’s descendants intend to have the original closely re-examined using AI and other new tech developments if it is returned intact.

And their plan has been welcomed by former NASA scientist Kenneth Castleman.

He analysed photos of the Challenger and Columbia disasters and is one of only a handful of experts to have viewed the original Nix film decades ago.

Mr Castleman said: “Modern image processing and other new techniques should be done.”

“Working from the original, assuming it’s still in good shape, might reveal data that is not visible on the copies.”

Author and CIA expert Jefferson Morley said it would be “very significant” if the original were released.

He added with AI and other advances “it would essentially be a new piece of evidence” which copies alone might not provide.”

Mr Morley explained: “There’s a significant loss in quality between the first and second generation of an analogue film like Nix’s.”