Kennedy assassination and O.J. Simpson
After Groden returned from his Army tour in 1967, he became a photo technician working in a
New York City motion picture processing lab; he had special expertise blowing up 8mm film for theatrical distribution. In 1969 the company did a large job processing film for the documentary
Woodstock; and because of that work, it was awarded a contract from
Life to work on the
Zapruder film, the 27-second home movie captured by
Abraham Zapruder of the Kennedy assassination. Groden worked on that project and made an additional unauthorized copy of the film, which he then kept hidden for several years, fearing not only the legal ramifications but also for his own life. In 1973, Groden showed the film to a symposium of assassination researchers at
Georgetown University in
Washington, D.C. Groden achieved his first national exposure on March 6, 1975, when he and
Dick Gregory were on
Good Night America, a late-night TV program hosted by
Geraldo Rivera, and they showed Groden's copy of the Zapruder film. This was the first time the film was shown in motion to a national TV audience. Later he served as a photographic consultant for the
House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). In 1976 Groden co-authored, with F. Peter Model, the book
JFK: The Case for Conspiracy. It featured an introduction by Congressman
Thomas N. Downing and was re-released in 1977 as an expanded edition. In the late 1980s, Groden was a consultant for
Oliver Stone's 1991 film
JFK, In 1988 he made an appearance in the documentary
The Men Who Killed Kennedy. In 1989 Groden co-authored with Harrison E. Livingstone the book
High Treason: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy & the Case for Conspiracy (also referred to as
High Treason I).
High Treason spent five weeks on the
New York Times Best Seller list for paperback nonfiction. He was an interviewee for the 1992 documentary
The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes. During the
O.J. Simpson civil trial, Groden appeared as an expert witness and testified that a 1993 photograph of Simpson wearing
Bruno Magli shoes at an
NFL football game was a forgery. Even after 30 additional photos by a different photographer captured on the same day of Simpson wearing the same clothes and shoes surfaced, Groden still maintained that the original photograph was a forgery. Groden sued
Random House over a 1993
New York Times advertisement for
Gerald Posner's book
Case Closed in which Groden was featured along with other
conspiracy theorists and declared "guilty of misleading the American public." The
U.S. District Court issued a
summary judgment and dismissed the case. Video documentaries he has released are
JFK: The Case for Conspiracy: Assassination and Medical Evidence,
The Assassination Films: The Case for Conspiracy, Volume II, and
The Killing of a President: A Video Magazine. Groden penned the foreword to
Robert K. Tanenbaum's 2025 book
That Day in Dallas.
Free speech suits the city of Dallas had charged Groden with illegal activity 82 times related to his sharing information near the place of the Kennedy assassination. The court has found in favor of Groden in all of those lawsuits. In December 2010, the case was dismissed by a judge who agreed with Groden's defense that Dealey Plaza was not a city park and that the city neither offers nor requires permits to sell merchandise in parks; the city appealed. In addition he sued certain police officers for violation of his constitutional rights. The suit against one of the police officers proceeded to trial. In October 2014, Groden filed a motion in the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas requesting that the dismissal order be
vacated and he be granted a new trial against both the City of Dallas and the police officer. Groden's
Monell claim was allowed to be pursued. The Appeals Court permitted the police officer's ruling to stand. ==Authored Works==