Richard Brockway Stolley (October 3, 1928 – June 16, 2021) was an American journalist and magazine editor.
He promptly flew to Dallas and was the first reporter to get in touch with Abraham Zapruder, who captured the shooting in Dealey Plaza on his film.
Eager to obtain the footage, Stolley initially wanted to go to Zapruder's house on the night after the assassination to see the film.
However, he acquiesced to Zapruder's request to meet at his office the next morning, with the latter citing exhaustion from the events he had witnessed earlier that day.
[3] Stolley arrived an hour ahead of the agreed-upon meeting time to pre-empt other reporters.
Other journalists offered to pay Zapruder more money for the film, but he ultimately gave it to Stolley because he acted like "a gentleman".
[3] Zapruder told Stolley how, on the night of the assassination, he dreamed of a huckster in Times Square peddling his film, indicating that he wanted it to be "handled with care".
[4] Stolley later recounted that the Zapruder film was the "single most dramatic moment" in his career as a journalist.
He stated that the "biggest mistake" of his career came in 1977, when he spurned the opportunity to put Elvis Presley on the front cover after his death.