Tony Zappone

Anthony Nicholas Zappone (October 9, 1947 – May 15, 2026) was an American journalist and radio personality. He became at age 16 the youngest credentialed journalist to lend press coverage to a major national political convention. Zappone was also the youngest contributor of evidence (his photographs) during the Warren Commission hearings into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He began his career in journalism at age 14 as a freelance photographer with The Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times, paid at the rate of three dollars per news photo used.

Photographed JFK days before assassination Zappone photographed President John F. Kennedy during his entire five-hour presidential visit to Tampa just four days before Kennedy's November 22, 1963 assassination in Dallas, Texas. Nine months later, he presented the slain President's brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, with pictures he had taken that day which were accepted for public display at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. The presentation took place at Kennedy's U.S. Justice Department office in Washington. (Almost 40 years later, the building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building.)

At that time, the Kennedy presidential library was still in the planning stages so the attorney general said he would ensure the photographs would be held with other exhibits and materials until it was constructed. A selection of his photographs are now on permanent display at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Several of the photos Zappone took that day showing the last time Secret Service agents were posted at the rear of the presidential limousine were entered as exhibits during The Warren Commission's investigation into the Kennedy Assassination and are still used today in Secret Service training. According to Secret Service records, Kennedy's Tampa visit was also remarkable in that he was exposed to the public for the second longest period of time of any appearance during his entire Presidency, the longest being his visit to West Berlin, Germany on June 26, 1963.

A week after the presentation of photos, Zappone was the youngest credentialed photographer to cover the 1964 Democratic National Convention at the original Atlantic City Convention Center (now Boardwalk Hall), having been granted an "All Areas" pass. Each evening he would take his film to the main Atlantic City post office and express mail it to newspapers in Tampa. During the convention, he was interviewed before a nationwide television audience by NBC News Correspondents John Chancellor and Frank McGee. He also caught up with Robert Kennedy once again at a rear exit following the attorney general's famous speech before an enthusiastic convention audience that gave him a 22-minute ovation.

In October 2013, Zappone published a book of photos he took during Kennedy's Tampa trip as well as a detailed narrative of his experience with the President during his visit. Its title is: "John F. Kennedy - An Amazing Day for a President and a Kid with His Camera." The publishing date was in observance of the 50th anniversary of JFK's trip and five-hour stay in Tampa. Portions of the book have been reprinted in newspapers and magazines all over the world.

One of Zappone's close-ups of Kennedy, which coincidentally was his brother Robert's favorite of those Zappone took, is etched in a historical marker that was placed in downtown Tampa at Kennedy Boulevard and Franklin Street. Zappone recalled his observations of the Presidential limousine making its turn at that intersection during the dedication of the marker, sponsored by the Tampa Historical Society, held on November 22, 2013.

Speeding chimpanzee cited Late in 1963, Zappone was monitoring local police frequencies and overheard a Florida Highway Patrolman requesting a sergeant after he pulled over a chimpanzee driving a compact convertible for speeding on Interstate 4 just east of Tampa. He rushed to grab a ride with another newsman, WTVT TV reporter Steve Wilson, and arrived in time to photograph the lawman issuing the chimp, named "Cappy," a citation for speeding, reckless driving and having no driver's license.