New Video Shows JFK on Eve of Assassination

Michelle Ruiz Contributor

AOL News

(May 16) -- Never-before-seen video taken on the eve of President John F. Kennedy's assassination shows him joyful on his last night alive, enjoying mariachi music at a gala in San Antonio, Tex., with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Roy Botello of San Antonio, who is now 88, shot the video of the Kennedys on 8mm film at a League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) gala on Nov. 21, 1963, the day before President Kennedy was fatally shot by a sniper's bullet while on a tour of Dallas. The President and first lady had made an impromptu stop at the gala, where Botello's three-and-a-half minute video shows them laughing and smiling, greeting guests and listening to mariachi music.

Botello said the first lady appeared to have been translating the music for her husband.

"She knew what they were singing." Botello told San Antonio's KENS-TV. "I think she tried to explain to him what was going on, as far as the singing, because I don't think he knew a word of Spanish -- maybe 'Adios.'"

The home video has been sitting in a chest of drawers in Botello's living room since he shot it almost 47 years ago on what would be the President's last night alive.

"I remember very well, everything stopped," Botello told KENS of Kennedy's assassination. "Everyone was very sad. We just could not believe what had occurred."

Botello said he would like to donate the footage to the National Archives. Several museums have expressed their interest in it, with the JFK Library in Boston calling it a "national treasure."