June 5th, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA, Robert Kennedy had just recieved the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. At 12:15 am, Kennedy finished his acceptance speech and left the podium to head to another room.
Waiting in the kitchen pantry is a young Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. Robert Kennedy walks through the kitchen, shaking hands with the kitchen help. After he shakes hands with a kitchen worker, Sirhan Sirhan pulls a .22 revolver out of his pants and immediately fires at Kennedy. Pandemonium ensues as people dive and run to get out of the line of fire. Sirhan Sirhan is pinned to a nearby counter by Hotel workers, but he manages to empty his 8 round gun clip in the direction of Robert Kennedy. Kennedy is hit 3 times and he only stays concious for a few seconds to ask if others are all right.
In my opinion, it was one of the greatest losses this country has ever suffered. At least Lincoln, Martin Luther King and his brother had a little time to accomplish great things. He was just getting started and he had more potential than any of them. I think the nations youth gave up on hope for the future on that day and the drug culture and materialism took over leaving hopelessness in it's wake.
Haldor Lillenas was a retired minister of the Nazarene Church. He and his wife toured the Holy Land on one of many trips abroad. On this trip they met a Jordanian, Bishara Sirhan, who acted as their guide. He was a Christian and they became good friends. Eventually they agreed to sponsor Bishara and his family to move to the US. In 1956, when Sirhan Sirhan was 12, his family traveled to the US. They arrived in New York City, stayed there briefly, and then moved to California. The Lillenas put up the Sirhans in their own home. Later, the Lillenas said that it was hard to find a job that Bishara would take. Eventually the women found work as maids and nursery workers.
The Sirhans visited the Catholic Welfare Bureau in Compton, CA where they applied for assistance. The Sirhans recommended 2 books to the social worker there: Secret Doctrine and At the Foot of the Master. Both books are heavily influenced by Eastern mysticism and philosophy. They also are major books used by the occult to teach how to "access" spiritual powers and healing as well as controlling personal and world events.
Bishara was a controlling father and husband who could not adjust to the culture in the US. He soon left the family and moved back to the Middle East. His wife, Mary, raising 6 children on her own, found work as a teacher's aide in a nursery school in Pasadena, CA. She worked hard and learned fast.
Sirhan Sirhan was a good student and had many friends. At John Muir High School, he studied German and Russian. He joined the California Cadets, a junior military training group like the ROTC. They would take trips to the National Guard Armory where they were allowed to shoot .22 rifles at targets.
In August, 1963, Sirhan had an argument with his mother. He was working for a gardener named William Beveridge during his last year of high school He moved into a camper in Beveridge's garden for 7 months upon graduation.
In 1963 Sirhan enrolled in Pasadena City College, but didn't attend classes very much and dropped out in 1965. He worked as a gardener and at fast food while in College. He bought a 1956 pink and white DeSoto for $400. He asked girls out, but they would always turn him down. He was very small, foreign and very unusual. Gwendalee Gum was a contestant for Carnival Queen at PCC and Sirhan made a $10 donation for her. He asked her out, but she turned him down.
Around this time, SS supposedly cut the brake lines of a girl who possibly spurned his advances and caused her to have a wreck. He was arrested by police and defended by Hollpeter?
In 1965, his sister Aida was diagnosed with late-stage Leukemia. Sirhan stayed home to take care of her. She died about a month later. He was booted out of Pasadena City College for poor grades and poor attendance.
Oct 15, 1965 Sirhan landed a job as stablehand at Santa Anita Racetrack. He dreamed of becoming a jockey with his small frame and love for horses. Groom Thomas Rathke introduced Sirhan to the Rosicrucion religion.
June 1965 - May 1967, Sirhan Sirhan was working at a horse breeding farm owned by Burt Altfallisch in Corona, CA as an exercise boy. His best friend and coworker was Terry Mickey Welch. He stayed in a motel room with an alcoholic named Edward Van Antwerp. Sirhan would go to the bar with his co-workers and treat them all to a round. He didn't drink himself according to his friend. He wrote obsessively about another horse rider, Peggy Osterkamp, who he was attracted to. He picked up her check one day at the bar and paid it himself. He was always trying to impress women by giving them money or buying them things.
Mid June, 1965 Sirhan applied for membership in AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross). He began a correspondence course with AMORC based in San Jose. The lessons were mostly about expanding "mind power" through exercises in self-hypnosis and psychokinesis. Staring in special mirrors, changing the color of candle flame, thought transference, etc...
Sept 25, 1965, Sirhan suffered a bad fall from a horse during an early morning race set up by trainers. He injured his head and back and he lost partial sight in his left eye. He also suffered severe headaches. He was taken to Corona Community Hospital. The doctor treated him for cuts and bruises. He stayed one night but left on his own the next day. He was very nervous and afraid of needles. A week later he was back on the horses. He fell again and opened up the cut by his eye. He complained of blurred vision, pain and "extreme motion". Sirhan ended up seeing 9 different doctors in 15 months and was very unhappy with the lack of results.
Welch said that his personality changed considerably after his accident. Before he was easy-going, well-mannered, neat, clean, generous and he didn't drink. After the injury, he became withdrawn, resentful, unreliable and unpredictable. Welch said he used to be intelligent and read law books and liked to discuss interesting cases. This and the vision problems say brain damage to me.
Sometime in 1966, Sirhan's brother Sharief was arrested and convicted for blowing up the car of his girlfriend. His lawyer got the sentence reduced to "tampering with a vehicle".
Sometime in 1966, a coworker at Altfillisch Ranch steals and cashes a check made out to Sirhan Sirhan from the Altfillisch Ranch where Sirhan worked. LAFO vol 12, pg 53
May 30, 1966, Flagstaff AZ, Munir Sirhan, David Myers, Philip Clevenger and Ronnie Houlen are arrested for vagrancy and sentenced to 15 days in the FPD jail.
Dec 2, 1966, Sirhan quits the horse-racing scene and moves back to Pasadena. He kept falling off horses and the trainers didn't think he'd make it as a jockey. I think brain damage from the earlier fall effected his balance, his vision, his emotions and his personality.
Sirhan lived at his family home in Pasadena during this time. He was trying to get worker's comp pay for his earlier fall that caused all the damage. He became reclusive and read voraciously. Books and magazines on Arab/ Israeli issues and Rosicrucion books. He bought a used book called Cyclomancy (about white magic) and really got into the idea of using his mind to "control" events and people, to alter reality and to "summon" angels.
June 2, 1967, Sirhan takes some old notebooks from college and begins a "manifesto" in response to newscast about the Arab/Israeli war. Starting with a "Declaration of War Against America" and includes ideas of revenge, getting money to buy weapons ($2000), victims being the President, vice pres, etc..., belief that others agree with him, starting WWIII, Life is ambivalence, struggle, wicked. He always on the losing end and being exploited. This written statement of goals is very anarchist and communist in nature. Friends Tom Good and Walter Crowe, from Pasadena Community College, were very much into anarchy and communism. Crowe was a member of the WEB Dubois Society (Socialist Youth Club) and they just happened to meet next to the Fez Club where Adel worked.
It's curious that the amount of $2000 is written as the amount needed to purchase weapons. That is the exact amount Sirhan is awarded in his horse injury settlement. After lawyer's fees Sirhan collects $1705, but he doesn't get the money until 9 months later. How does Sirhan know that he's going to get this money 9 months before he does?
June 5, 1967, the Israeli airforce launches a surprise strike against the Egyptian airforce, destroying most of the planes on the ground. 6 days later, Jerusalem comes under full control of Israel.
Sirhan's mother finds him a job. He worked at the "Organic Pacific" health food store in Pasadena from Nov. 1967 to Jan. 1968. He told co-worker Carol Burgess that he was into witchcraft, one time bringing ritual candles to work.
According to Carol, he drank a little too much and had "bad luck" with girls. His boss John Wiender was a member of the French Underground during WWII that helped Jews escape Germany. Sirhan argued that he shouldn't have helped the Jews. Other than these personality flaws, he seemed intelligent, quiet, polite and likeable. Sirhan told Wiender he would like to forgive the Israelis but he can't. Actually, Wiender was a tough taskmaster and he and Sirhan argued constantly.
Late January, 1968, Sirhan asked his brother Munir if he knew of anyone who would sell them a gun. Munir was the wild one of the bunch. His rap sheet included malicious mischief, running away, led police in a high-speed chase through Pasadena resulting in him crashing Saidallah's car (their older brother) and a juvenile porn investigation involving homosexual pictures found in his car, vagrancy and selling pot. He was convicted of the drug charges and sentenced to 1 1/2 years. The INS ordered him deported. The Deportation hearings were pending at the time of the RFK assassination.
Anyway, Munir knew a friend at work, George Erhard who had a gun to sell. Sirhan and Munir bought it together for $25, Munir paying the major portion. It was an 8 shot, Iver Johnson, double-action, .22 caliber revolver that Sirhan used at the Ambassador Hotel.
On Mar 7, 1968, Sirhan is fired from his job at the Organic Pacific store. He refuses to leave until he gets $180 he says he's owed. The police are called by Wiedner and Sirhan is forced to leave, which he does without further resistance. A co-worker who tried to intervene in the confrontation was told to stay out of it and she quit and walked out on the spot.
Sirhan spends more time betting at Santa Anita. When his old boss's horse runs, according to Sirhan, he uses his "mind power" against the horse and the horse broke through the temporary rail and was disqualified right out of the gate.
April 9, 1968, a man, his wife and his son sees Sirhan Sirhan at the San Gabriel Valley shooting range in Duarte, CA. He is with a young woman and they are both practicing rapid fire small bore pistols. They are speaking a foreign language together. It is not Spanish. Sirhan had on a sportcoat with a suit. The woman had lighter skin, dark hair and she had a heavier build but she was "well built". This man worked in LA as a security guard. Merry Ferrell FBI files LAFO vol 3 pg 364.
Mid April, 1968 Donna Herrick says that she saw Sirhan Sirhan at the Lock, Stock and Barrell gunshop with 2 other men who look very similar to his brothers. They asked for tank piercing ammo. She said they don't carry it, and the brothers left.
5/2/68, Sirhan meets former PCC classmate Walter Crowe at Bob's Big Boy in Pasadena. Crowe is a member of the WEB DuBois club and the Communist Party. They go out drinking and cruising topless bars.
5/5/68 A letter is written to Sirhan Sirhan from a "dear friend" (the name is blacked out). It is in response to a letter Sirhan wrote. Apparently he sent pictures of himself and his "girlfriend". The writer encourages him to tell his girlfriend about his problems. The writer encourages him to get married. The writer tells him that he shouldn't do anything that he would be sorry for. The writer has a 9 year old daughter. Mentions the assassination of Dr. King and the "risks" of life in the US. Asks for his "real address". Apparently he'd given the writer a false one or an incomplete one. LAFO vol.12 pg 60 Why didn't the police find the author of the letter and ask for the pictures of Sirhan and his "girlfriend". This "girlfriend" may have important information.
I don't know about anyone else, but people who are falling into an "unshakeable obsession" usually don't know that they are, and they rarely write about it in a stream-of-conciousness notebook. Much of the maniacal writing sounds phony and put on to me. As if they came out of a Hollywood script. But very convenient for a quick prosecution.
Sirhan says that he saw a TV program about Robert Kennedy where he is shown supporting Israel and perhaps that is why he wrote what he did. The entry referred to is dated May 18. The program Sirhan is referring to is The Story of Robert Kennedy which didn't air in the LA area until May 20. How did Sirhan see the show and become incensed before it aired? Sirhan says he doesn't remember writing it. Did someone forge the notebook ramblings, filling in significant statements with times and dates in order to convict Sirhan? Did Sirhan write what he was told under drugs or hypnosis? Or is he lying?
May 20, 1968 Pomona, Robbie's Restaurant. RFK is slated to give a speech to 400 guests at a private luncheon. Off-duty policeman, William Schneid, providing security for the event, sees a young woman, caucasian, 5'6", 25-30, med-blond shoulder length hair, nice figure, standing by the kitchen doorway attempting to get in. He tells her she can't go in. She asks where RFK will go for lunch. He tells her probably the 2nd floor. After RFK climbs the stairs, a bartender named Albert LeBeau starts collecting tickets and admitting people up the stairs, Schneid spots the same woman and a man who looks exactly like Sirhan Sirhan jump the rail behind the bartender and attempt to crash the party. The young man has a heavy coat draped over his arm, even though it's very sunny and warm. The bartender grabs them and sends them back down. Later LeBeau goes into the dining room where RFK is speaking and sees the young woman and man against the back wall with 100 people in the room. "Sirhan" has his coat still draped over his arm and his right hand can't be seen. After the assassination, LeBeau relays this info to the FBI. He picks Sirhan's mugshot out of 25 photos of young, latin males. They ask him if he could swear in a courtroom that it was Sirhan and no one else. LeBeau says that he can't. So instead of investigating a possible lead with a policeman as a 2nd witness, the FBI dismisses the whole story as a fabrication. Why didn't they interview other possible witnesses at Robbie's? While it might have been misidentity, with all the other sightings of a "young, caucasian, slightly heavy-set girl with a nice figure" at the gun-club, in Azusa, and at the Ambassador Hotel before and after the assassination, you would think it might be worth investigation.
5/28/68 Sirhan Sirhan attends an AMORC meeting of the Pasadena Chapter. It is a secret order that specializes in ancient techniques and rituals to free the mind and spirit in order to attain peace and wisdom and etc.... Didn't seem to do Sirhan much good. Sirhan signed in the guest book and dated it April 16, 1968? Witnesses said he was there on May 28. Why did he sign in with the date over a month before? Or did the witnesses lie? The Master of this chapter was Theodore Stevens and the supervisor of the Pasadena meeting was Sherman Livingston. Sirhan participated in a "touch sensation" experiment where he was blindfolded, touched with various objects and had to guess how many.
Around 5/29/68 Adel Sirhan's ex-girlfriend Myleen Kaye (real name Mileen Norma Murphy) was living in San Diego. She didn't get along with Sirhan and eventually broke up with Adel because he wouldn't get a better job than musician at the Fez Club in LA. Around this date she went somewhere? on Garnett St in San Diego for an "examination" and used the name "Mrs. Hank Sirhan". She said she didn't know why she used that name. LAFO vol5 pg154 Adel said that she had another boyfriend, caucasian, 40 yrs old, 5'10", 165 lbs, that carried a gun. LAFO vol5 pg160
The Fez Club was a hangout for nationalistic Arabs. A couple went to see belly-dancing and the Club just sang Arab nationalist songs all night. LAFO vol 5 pg 163 The Fez Club was shut down on the night of the assassination for about a week, supposedly for water damage repairs. Apparently the W.E.B Dubois Club (Socialist Youth) met next door to the Fez Club.
Another "girlfriend" of Adel, Phyllis Hazel Young worked at the Fez restaurant in LA on Vermont as a cocktail waitress. She and Adel dated for awhile. She met Sirhan a few times at the Fez and he seemed very non-violent. The last time she saw Sirhan was around April 1968 (a month before the shooting) She left the Fez just after April, because she was Jewish and was tired of the insults from the Arab patrons. On the night of the assassination, several of the patron expressed satisfaction that the "Jew lover" was dead. (LA field office Reddin rpt, pg 188)
5/30/68 Ethal Crehan and Laverne Boting, who worked for the Kennedy campaign in Azusa and lived in Duarte, said that they saw Sirhan Sirhan in the company of a young woman (18, brownish blonde hair) and another man. They said that the 3 came to the campaign office and asked if Kennedy was coming to Azusa. They informed them that RFK cancelled the Azusa stop and they left. LAFO vol6pg117
6/1/68, morning, insurance exec Dean Pack and his son are hiking in the Santa Ana mountains south of Corona. They see a woman and 2 men shooting at cans. One of the men looks like Sirhan. The other man was 6' tall, caucasian, sandy hair and the girl is early 20s with long brown hair. The Sirhan looking one glares at them. Pack offers to take the FBI to the spot to check for casings and shells but the FBI didn't seem interested. Later the LAPD said he couldn't positively identify Sirhan's picture.. the thing is, they only talked to him on the phone and never showed him a picture.
6/1/68, 12:50pm, Sirhan signs in at the Corona Police Pistol Range. He is accompanied by a 2nd man and shoots for a couple hours. Rangemaster William Marks and Deputy Harry Starr describe this Sirhan as 20-30 years, 6'-6'2", 215-225 lbs, brown hair. His companion was 20-30, 5'6", 140 lbs, brown hair, pencil moustache, horn-rimmed glasses. . . . Yes, you're right, neither of these men would be Sirhan Sirhan, but handwriting experts determine the signature is Sirhan's. The smaller man might have been Sirhan in disguise, but what was the purpose of that. The larger, fake Sirhan fired a .22 pistol that he kept in a zippered carrying case (the real Sirhan didn't own one of these). The smaller man doesn't shoot, but questions Marks about "aliens" using the range and speaks with a foreign accent. Sirhans lawyer simply stipulated that Sirhan was there. Even with this very confusing but obvious deception.
According to receipts found in SS car, on 6/1/68 4 boxes of high-powered .22 caliber bullets were purchased at the Lock, Stock and Barrell gunshop in San Gabriel, CA. The empty box and receipt was left in his car after the assassination.
6/1/68 Larry Arnot was working as clerk at the Lock, Stock and Barrell. He testified that Sirhan came in with 2 other men. Arnot says that Sirhan's brother Sharif looks kind of like one of the men with him. He bought 2 boxes of CCI mini-mag hollow points, and 2 boxes of Super-X Westerns. Later, a Hernandez polygraph says that Arnot is lying about the other men, and he changes his story, claiming that he confused the incident with what the store owners said.
A conflicting statement was taken from the owners of the Lock, Stock and Barrell. Mr and Mrs Herrick (owners) said they don't remember anyone looking like Sirhan or any members of his family coming in the store on 6/1/68. They recall Sirhan coming in the store on 4/15/68 with 1 or 2 men who didn't speak English. They had asked for tank piercing ammo, but they didn't have any and the 3 men left. A Hernandez polygraph said she was lying, but Herrick stuck to her story. (LAFO vol5 pg 104)(LAFO vol14 pg198)
6/2/68 Sirhan goes to the San Gabriel shooting range again but they only allow rifles on Sunday.
6/2/68 He sees an advertisement in the LA Times for the Kennedy rally at the Ambassador Hotel. He goes to the Ambassador about 6:30 or 7:30 and enters the rally room. Sirhan listened to Kennedy speak and thought he was a "saint" although he is still bothered by Kennedy's willingness to send bombers to Israel. He goes home that night and goes to bed without writing in his notebooks.
6/3/68 A telephone repairman was working at the house across the street from Sirhan Sirhan's. He reports that Sirhan Sirhan is dropped off by a green or metallic Mercedes. It was driven by a man and had a woman in the front passenger side. This info is not recieved until 11/15/68.
John Fahey says that a young girl came up to him in the Ambassador Hotel. They got to talking. She told him they were going to get Kennedy tonight. She had wads of cash in her purse. He was going to visit some business clients. She asked if she could come along to get away from some men. They rode in his car north but he noticed that they were being followed. At one point on 101 near Malibu, he pulled over and the car following pulled over behind them. She then told him it was no use and asked to be taken back to the Ambassador, which he did. He told her they should call the police, but she said it wouldn't do any good. Fahey said he didn't call the police because he didn't want his wife to know that he picked up a girl at the Hotel. But after the assassination he thought it was significant and reported it.
Robert Kennedy and family stay at the Malibu mansion of film director, John Frankenheimer (who directed The Manchurian Candidate incidently). Robert Kennedy surfs the Malibu waves and hangs out on the private beach. On the night before the assassination, Frankenheimer's neighbor reports that a man came up to her front door at about 10pm. He claimed to be a TV repairman. She looked at him from the balcony and he didn't look like a repairman. She told him to go away but he wouldn't go. Finally she went in and phoned the Sheriff's office. He had left by that time, but they said they couldn't do anything since he didn't try to force his way in.
The Assassination:
6/4/68 9:30am Sirhan Sirhan checks the newspaper for horseraces to bet on. He doesn't see any good races, so he decides to go to the San Gabriel Shooting range for some target practice. Range Master Everett Buckner takes Sirhans fee and has him sign in about 11:30am. While shooting Sirhan meets Michael Saccomen and offers to shoot his gun. Saccomen says Sirhan was a very good shot. Saccomen wonders why Sirhan is firing high velocity hollow points for target practice. Sirhan just says they're supposed to be the best. Later on, Claudia Williams and her husband Ronald come to shoot at the range. Her husband goes to shoot at the rifle ranges while she stays at the pistol range. She and Sirhan have a conversation and practice a little together. Buckner says that they seemed to know each other, but he can't really tell. Sirhan stays there until around 5pm when the range closes.
6/4/68 4:30pm Thane Eugene Cesar gets home from work at the Lockheed plant in Burbank. He receives a call from Tom Spangler at Ace Security. Cesar has been with Ace Security for a week moonlighting as a security guard. Spangler asks him to work the Ambassador Hotel that night. Cesar just got off work and doesn't want to but Spangler offers to let him leave at midnight, but to pay him the full 8 hours. Cesar needs the money, so he takes the job.
6:30pm Sirhan runs into his friend Gaymoard Mistri at Bob's Big Boy in Pasadena. They walk across the street to Pasadena City College and talk to some Arab friends in the cafeteria there. Sirhan asks Mistri to go shoot some pool, but Mistri has other plans. Sirhan gets back in his car around 7:15pm. He sees an advertisement in the paper for a Miracle March for Israel on Wilshire Blvd, and it angers him. He decides to drive there and see what's happening. First he stops at an election party for Thomas Kuchel. Then he overhears about a party at the Ambassador and decides to wander down there. He says he left his gun and wallet in his car.
8:30pm-9pm A group of girls from Youth for Kennedy arrive at the Ambassador: Elizabeth Miller, Irene Gizzi, Kathy Lentine, Karen Pasalich, Terry Travelli, Jeanette Prudhome and Kattie Keir. In the lobby, they claim to see a young woman in a white dress with black polka dots, and 2 men who are sloppily dressed.
One of the girls, Kattie Keir, said she saw the woman, dressed in a white dress with black polka dots, 5'6", 135, a little heavyset around 10:30pm. She also said that she was out on the stairway landing and saw this same woman run down the stairs after the shooting shouting "We shot Kennedy!". In front of her parents, she says that she may be mistaken about the exclamation. It might have been "They shot Kennedy" or something like that. SUS, LAPD microfilm, vol. 50, pg 124.
8:45 pm Sirhan enters the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It is filled to capacity with Robert Kennedy supporters, plus two other major parties. Celebrities and political leaders are all over. Harvey Pepper sees Sirhan Sirhan standing in the Ambassador lobby with 4 well-dressed people. Sirhan enters the Max Rafferty party, Repulican candidate for Senate. Sirhan went to high school with Kathleen Rafferty, the candidates daughter. He talks to the man in a sound booth, asking about Kennedy and where he might be.
9:45 pm Mary Grohs is a Kennedy Campaign worker who is watching a bank of Western Union Teletype machines in the Colonial room. She notices a strange young man staring at the machines over her shoulder. She says, "Can I help you?" Sirhan doesn't answer but just stares at the teletypes with a fascinated, glazed-over look.
10pm Gonzalo Cetina-Carrillo, waiter, helps Sirhan find a chair to sit down, holding his drink while Sirhan sets up the chair by the Venetian Room.
About the same time, Albert Victor Ellis says he saw Sirhan Sirhan standing in the Embassy ballroom. (LAFO vol 15, pg 269
10:30pm William Gardner, hotel head of security, places Thane Eugene Cesar in the pantry to keep people from sneaking into the ballroom through the kitchen entrance. He did a poor job according to Marcus McBroom and Valerie Schulte who walked freely through the pantry without being questioned. Where was Cesar? Cesar was a plumber at the Lockheed aircraft plant in Burbank. There, the CIA and the Dept of Defense built secret spyplanes and nuclear missiles. Cesar had a security clearance that allowed him to work in any part of the facilities. Apparently, he was hard up for money (a plumber working for defense contractors is hard up for money?) and he took this Ace Security job at the Ambassador Hotel to help with the bills. He had only been working for them a week or 2.
11pm Sirhan talks with electrician Hans Peter Bidstrup, who was running sound and lights for the party in the Venetian Room. He questions him about Kennedy's plans and where-abouts. After this Sirhan feels tired and goes back to his car. He realizes that he is too drunk to drive, so he decides to return to the Ambassador and find some coffee. He says he doesn't remember picking up his gun. Sirhan says he found a shiny coffee urn with cups stacked beside it. He said that a beautiful girl walked up to him, dark hair, early 20s, and he poured her some coffee as well. The next thing he remembers is being choked on the steam table of the pantry.
Kennedy press aide Judy Royer says she saw Sirhan in the pantry and asked him who he was. He immediately walked back out to the ballroom area. She noticed nothing unusual about him.
Robert Klase also chased Sirhan out of the backstage/pantry area saying that only press and staff are allowed.
11:15pm Watts organizer Gerald Green told the FBI that he saw Sirhan Sirhan in the pantry area with a tall, thin man with dark hair,, 5'11", 22 yrs old and a girl in her early 20s with long blond hair, a white dress with black polka dots and a good figure. When Green heard the shots and ran into the pantry, the same man and woman were trying to get out of the pantry. Green jumped in the fray with Sirhan.
At this time Thane Eugene Cesar was stationed at the swinging doors where Kennedy would enter the pantry. He was told by Bill Gardner to lead Kennedy through the pantry making sure that the path was clear for the Senator.
11:30 pm Sandy Serrano, a young Mexican American campaign worker goes out of a fire exit to get out of the heat and crowd of the lower ballroom. While sitting on the fire exit stairs, she encounters a girl in a white dress with black polka dots, a Mexican looking man in a gold sweater and another man who looks like Sirhan Sirhan. The girl said "excuse us" and the three went up the stairs to the Embassy Ballroom.
11:45pm In the kitchen pantry Sirhan asks waiter Martin Patrusky and kitchen porter Jesus Perez if Kennedy will be coming through here. They both say they don't know. Sirhan is folding and twisting some paper in his hands.
11:55pm Barbara Rubin enters the Ambassador through the kitchen pantry and sees Sirhan standing next to some ice machines.
12am 6/5/1968 The morning watch comes on at the Rampart Police Station. As Sargeant Paul Sharaga prepares to go out on his regular beat, Lt. Commander Robert Sillings informs him that he's staying in the Station to take over watch. Sillings and Rolon are going out in the field. Unusual, but Sharaga goes to buy a pack of cigarettes before he takes over the watch.
Hotel Security head, William F Gardner stations himself at the bottom of the stairs leading to the lower ballroom where RFK was originally scheduled to go. In his statement to the FBI, Gardner says that at 12:20am a female aide came down the stairs and said there had been a terrible accident. Gardner, the head of Hotel Security, said he stayed at the bottom of the stairs until the police and ambulance had arrived and taken both Sirhan and Kennedy away. Guards Willie Bell and Lloyd Curtis, who were in the same place, said that Gardner climbed the stairs and came back down saying "Forget about it."
12 am Robert Kennedy and his entourage take the service elevator down to the kitchen and walk through the pantry to the temporary stage set up in the ballroom. Kennedy stops to shake hands with kitchen workers.
He also stops to sign a poster for memorabilia collecter Michael Wayne. Sirhan watches them pass by.
Robert Kennedy gives his acceptance speech on the temporary platform put up in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel. He promises to take the country in a different direction. To end the division and work together, racially and politcally. To get us out of Vietnam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRy2R10tgVI&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LyCfJDGdnqE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r35bQ2tW60&feature=player_detailpage
6/5/68 12:14 am. Robert Kennedy ends his speech and heads toward the door behind him. He plans to take a route through the long serving pantry to the press room. Assistant maitre d' Karl Uecker takes him by the hand and leads him through the pantry.
Kennedy's bodyguard Bill Barry is helping the pregnant Ethel Kennedy get down from the podium. Barry expected Robert to come off the podium and walk through the crowd. He follows RFK into the pantry but has fallen quite a way behind him.
As Karl Ueker leads RFK through the hallway toward the Colonial room where the press are waiting, Frank Burns, assistant to California Speaker of the House Jesse Unruh, yells, "Slow down! You're getting ahead of everyone!" Ace Security Guard Thane Eugene Cesar takes Kennedy's right elbow and helps to guide him through the crowd in the pantry. Kennedy stops to shake hands with waiters Martin Patrusky,Vincent Di Pierro, and student Robin Casden. He suddenly turns left to shake hands with kitchen workers Juan Romero and Jesus Perez momentarily losing contact with Ueker and Cesar. Carl Uecker grabs Kennedy by the right hand and leads him on toward the Colonial Room.
Student Robin Casden was in the kitchen with Ira Goldstein looking for sandwiches. As she was coming out of the pantry area, she was surprised by Robert Kennedy as he shook her hand. A few seconds later she heard 2 definite shots. A man fell against her (Paul Schrade). The rest of the shots came in a bunch. She crouched against the wall and worked her way out of the pantry hall. When she emerged, her face and dress were covered with blood.
San Diego high school student Lisa Urso is standing by a tray stacker. A small young man bumps her from behind as he steps in front of her and seems to be reaching out to shake Kennedys hand. He kneels on the tray stacker. Reaching around and over Carl Uecker, Sirhan Sirhan points his .22 at Kennedy and yells "Kennedy, you son of a bitch!" as he pulls the trigger. Later, Urso tells researcher Phillip Melanson that she saw a gun drawn by a blond man wearing a grey suit standing beside Kennedy (Cesar was in uniform).
Fund-raiser Nina Rhodes was waiting at the bottom of the ramp for Kennedy to go to the lower ballroom as planned. When she realized Kennedy was heading for the press room, she ran after him into the pantry. She tells the LAPD that she heard about 12-14 shots and that some of them seem to be coming from the spot where Senator Kennedy fell, not in the area where Sirhan was being wrestled with. The FBI and the LAPD altered her statements to say she heard "8 distinct shots" and omitted her from the list of witnesses.
Sirhan fires 2-3 shots at Kennedy before Uecker manages to grab his wrist and slams it to the steam table beside them. After the first shot, Kennedy raises his right arm in front of his head defensively and moves away from the gun. Uecker grabs Sirhans wrist with his left hand and gets a him in a headlock with his right arm. Hotel Caterer Eddie Minasian tackles Sirhan around the waist knocking him up against the steam table. Unruh assistant Frank Burns joins Minasian as they try to pin Sirhan to the steam table. Uecker is slamming Sirhan's gunhand against the table, but Sirhan has a very strong grip on the gun (he WAS training to be a jockey) and he manages to fire the remaining bullets in his clip before they can get the gun out of his hand.
Paul Schrade, United Auto Workers, was standing 8'-10' behind Kennedy when he was shot in the head. He fell back against student Robin Casden and waiter Vincent DiPierro. Schrade said he saw flashes and thought he was being electrocuted by wet electric cables.
Ace Security Guard Thane Eugene Cesar says that he moved to RFKs side. He saw a hand with a gun extending between 2 cameramen, but he was blinded by the lights. He then says that the gun went off and that he was pushed and fell against the ice machine. He says that he saw RFKs head wound spilling blood. Somehow, Cesar's clip-on tie is pulled off in the fall and it lies right beside RFK. He then says that he jumped up and took his gun out of it's holster to protect RFK from any further attack. (LAFO #56-156, Miscellaneous Documents, pg 14)
In his LAPD interview, Cesar says he looked up and saw an arm and a gun. He reached for his, but it was too late and 5 shots had been fired. He ducked because the gun was right beside him. He grabbed for Kennedy, threw himself off-balance and landed against the iceboxes. Kennedy landed right beside him. He said Ace guard Fred Murphy, helped him up.
Paul Hope of the Washington Evening Star quoted Cesar as stating, "I fell back and pulled the Senator with me. He slumped to the floor on his back. I was off balance and fell down..."
Cesar's statements are contradicting. First, he fell, pulling the Senator with him. Then he was knocked off balance and fell. First he is helped up by guard Fred Murphy, then he jumps up on his own and pulls his gun. He later says that he left the pantry to find his superior Jack Merritt.
Reporter Ira Goldstein is hit in the hip. Student Irwin Stroll is hit in the shin. ABC news William Weisel is hit in the side. Elizabeth Evans shoe comes off, she picks it up and comes back up with a wound in the forehead. Rosey Grier pushes Ethel Kennedy down and covers her with his body. Bodyguard Bill Barry runs through the crowd and punches Sirhan in the face twice. Writer George Plimpton and Jack Gallivan try to pry the gun from Sirhan grip.
Later, George Plimpton said that Sirhan's eyes looked enormously peaceful.
Bill Barry tells Cesar to put his gun away which he does.
Busboy Juan Romero kneels by Kennedy's side, cradling his bleeding head in his hands. Kennedy feebley asks Romero, "Is everyone all right?" Romero hands him his own crucafix from his pocket. Kennedy clutches it to his chest.
Rosey Grier and Rafer Johnson go to help with Sirhan. Electrician Earl Williman jumped on the table and tried to kick the gun out of Sirhan's hand. Williman later said that Sirhan seemed to have superhuman strength. Grier finally reaches the fray and manages to pry the gun out of Sirhan's grip. Security Guard Fred Murphy comes up and identifies himself as an ex-cop and puts his hand out to take the gun. Rosey Grier raises the gun in the air and refuses to give it to him. Later he hands the gun to Rafer Johnson. Grier and Johnson stay with Sirhan Sirhan on the steamtable until the police arrive about 15 minutes later. They have to ward off blows from the angry crowd and protect the killer of their hero so he can have a trial. After the police arrive, Grier is seen sobbing as he leans against the wall.
Teen reporter Ira Goldstein, with a bullet in the butt, manages to make it to a nearby chair. He sits down and calls out to see if Kennedy's shot. Ethel Kennedy just happens to be passing and, thinking that he's being disrespectful, slaps Goldstein across the face. He tells her he's been shot too. She then apologizes and kisses him on the cheek. Soon she makes her way to her husband and takes Romero's place.
Reporter Jimmy Braislin, face to face with Sirhan, yells,"Why did you have to do it!?" Sirhan doesn't answer, but his eyes roll back in his head and his legs thrash about as he's being held.
Memorabilia collector Micheal Wayne runs out through the lobby with a poster in his hand. Several people chase him and corner him in a cul-de-sac. Ace guard Augustus Mallard handcuffs him. He said he was just running for a phone.
High schooler Katie Keir is standing on the upper landing by the stairs. She sees a woman in a white dress with black polka dots run down the stairs yelling "We shot Kennedy!" Description 23, 5'8", slightly heavy-set, dark brown hair in "love locks". Later, under pressure from police, in front of her parents, she says the girl might have said, "They shot him!"
Sandra Serrano is sitting on the fire escape steps leading to the ballroom. Suddenly a girl in a white dress with black polka-dots and a Mexican man in a gold shirt run down the stairs. The same people that entered a half-hour earlier. The girl was saying, "We've shot him!" Serrano asks, "Who did you shoot?" The girl says "We've shot Senator Kennedy!" (LAFO vol5 pg 155)
College student Richard Houston saw a woman run out of the pantry just after the shots, wearing a black and white polka dot dress with ruffles, yelling "We killed him!" She ran outside on a terrace area. She was 22-24, 5'6", 120lbs, long blond hair, brown eyes and a thin face.
Evan Phillip Freed was waiting in the pantry for RFK to make his way through. He saw RFK break off to shake hands with kitchen workers. Then he heard a "pop". He heard a barrage of pops and he looked up to see Sirhan Sirhan firing where RFK had been standing. He was knocked up against the East wall and pinned there by running and diving bodies. While against the wall he saw a young woman and two young men running toward him and leaving through the doors on both sides of him. The woman may have had on a polka dot dress. (LAFO vol 15 pg 259)
Ace Security guard Jack Merritt says that he saw 2 men and a woman leaving the kitchen through a back exit during the struggle with Sirhan. Woman's description: 5'5", light colored hair, polka dot dress. One man was 6' - 6'2", dark hair, dark suit, the other man was 5'5"-5'6", and they were smiling. He says that Ace Guard Thane Eugene Cesar comes back into the pantry and asks what happened. Cesar said he left the pantry to find Supervisor Jack Merritt. Why would Cesar ask what happened when Kennedy nearly landed on top of him?
Albert Victor Ellis was returning to the stage area after the shooting and he heard a woman's voice say "We shot him." He didn't see the woman. (LAFO vol. 15, pg 269)
Mary Whalen and Felicia Messuri say that they were in the Ballroom when they learned Kennedy had been shot. Right after, a man with a small communication device said, "You saw me here, all night, right? Don't forget." They thought he wanted to have witnesses that he was not involved in the shooting, but thought it peculiar to be speaking on a tiny walkie-talkie and to be so unconcerned about the tragedy and simply try to establish his alibi. Description: white, 45-50, 6', 200lbs, dark hair, swarthy complexion, wild-eyed expression, maroon sports jacket and dark knit sports shirt.
Jeff Brent of CNS interviews Don Schulman (KNXT film runner) in the corridor. Don says that he was standing behind Kennedy when "the caucasian gentleman" (Sirhan?) fired 3 times. Then he says that the security guards fired back (Cesar? and ?). In later interviews it is clear that Schulman saw Kennedy hit 3 times, saw him start to fall, saw the security guards draw their guns, then he said he hot-footed it out of there while they fired back. He only assumed the security guards were firing at Sirhan because he saw them draw and then a heard a bunch of shots. In his interview with Deputy DA Thomas Kranz, Schulman said Kennedy was shot 3 times, and Kranz insisted it was only twice. Schulman was proven right. Schulman also said he saw other guns pulled and possibly fired. Kranz insisted that there were no other guns. This was the last time Schulman was interviewed by police for a month.
John Marshall of radio KFWB interviews Ace Security Guard, Thane Eugene Cesar.
"Officer (mistaking Cesar for police), can you confirm the fact the Senator has been shot?"
Cesar: "Yes, I was holding his arm when they shot him."
Marshall: "What happened?"
Cesar: "I don't know... As he walked up, the guy pulled a gun and shot at him."
Marshall: "Was it just one man?"
Cesar: "No. Yeah, one man."
Marshall: "And what sort of wound did the Senator receive?"
Cesar: "Well, from where I could see, it looked like he was shot in the head and the chest and the shoulder..." (Cesar was the only one, besides the examining doctors, who knew exactly where all the wounds were on Kennedy. He was not called to testify in the trial, yet he ended laying right beside RFK when he fell. You can see Cesar's clip-on tie lying beside Kennedy while he lay dying)
12:17am The police at Rampart station are called. Officer Hathaway answers the call. The Ambassador operator isn't sure what the emergency is. She says, "We have Mr. Kennedy here tonight". Hathaway derisively says "Big deal!" He was obviously not a Robert Kennedy fan. Finally the operater relays the info that Kennedy has been shot. Officer Paul Sharaga is sitting in his patrol car across the street from the back entrance to the Ambassador. He whips into the rear parking lot to find pandemonium. People running everywhere. He sets up a command post in the parking lot.
12:22 am The ambulance arrives at the Ambassador. Led by Uno Timanson, they make their way to the pantry. Officers Travis White, Arthur Placencia, and Nunley arrive to take charge of Sirhan Sirhan. They peel off all the people restraining Sirhan. These people have also been keeping the unruly crowd from killing Sirhan for several minutes. California Speaker, Jesse Unruh, keeps saying he doesn't want another Oswald. Unruh accompanies the police with Sirhan. The Police hurriedly rush Sirhan out of the hotel. People hit and tear at Sirhan's clothes as he's being led out.
The ambulance attendants get RFK onto the stretcher and out to the ambulance. His heart is beating but he is still bleeding profusely. They take him to Central Receiving Hospital.
In the back parking lot of the Ambassador, a couple in their late 50s run up to Srgt Paul Sharaga. The Bernsteins say that they were coming out through the Embassy room when they saw a young couple running past. The young couple was well-dressed and they said "We shot him! We shot him!" in a happy manner. Mrs. Bernstein asked, "Who did you shoot?" They replied, "Kennedy; we shot him. We killed him!" Sharaga takes down the name and contact info for the couple, then hands the notes to a courier and says to take it to Bill Jordan. Sharaga then puts out an APB on the male suspect from the Bernstein's description: male caucasian, 20 or 22, 6' to 6'2", very thin, blond curly hair, brown pants, tan shirt.
Detective Bill Jordan is waiting at Rampart headquarters. He was LAPD intelligence dept head. He was in charge of security anytime an important politician came to LA. He was one of the first members of the SUS (Special Unit Senator) that the LAPD put together to gather trial evidence (and to cover up any evidence of a conspiracy). Soon after this investigation, he quit the LAPD and started the private security firm WCJ Inc, a fortune 500 company, that specialized in corporate espionage, and "covert operations". WCJ was involved in Haiti and all over the world in politcal coups and corporate cover-ups. Does this sound like a normal Police Detective to you or does it ring of someone with incredible contacts with CIA and political power brokers? WCJ describes itself as a "problem solving organization". Thats right, SUS was CIA controlled. More on that later.
http://www.wcj-inc.com/about_wcj.asp
While the Bernsteins story is a little different from Sandra Serrano's description, the young people were using the same words. It does lend credence to Sandy Serrano's statement. An older couple report a young couple running through the Embassy room saying exactly the same thing as Serrano heard immediately after the shooting and way before Serrano did her TV interview.
12:28am The police manage to get Sirhan in the squad car without the hostile crowd killing him right there. California Speaker Jesse Unruh goes with them. Unruh hears Sirhan say, "I did it for my country". As Officer White is speeding out of the parking lot, Officer Placencia shines a flashlight in Sirhan's eyes. The pupils stayed dilated and didn't respond to the light. This indicates that Sirhan was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He was read his rights. Unruh says, "Why him? Why him? He was trying to do something." Sirhan replies, "It's too late. It's too late."
12:45am LAPD officers Jean Scherrer and James Horrall have been in the Hotel ballroom incognito. LAPD does not have any official presence at the Ambassador. The plainclothes detectives drive to Central Receiving Hospital. Rafer Johnson is there awaiting word on Kennedy's condition. They ask him if he has the gun. He shows it to them but insists on personally turning it into police at the Rampart Station. They call in a description and accompany Johnson to the station where he gives his statement and turns the gun over.
Sergeant Bill Jordan does most of the interrogation of Sirhan at Rampart Station. They don't test him for drugs or alcohol (why not?) Sirhan refuses to tell his name and seems to toy with the officers. Jordan finds just over $400 in Sirhans pockets, a clipped article about RFK and his support for Israel, an invitation to come and listen to Kennedy on the 2nd, 2 unexpended .22 bullets and 1 expended one. Officer Willoughby is drinking a hot chocolate. Sirhan says he's thirsty and Willoughby refuses to give him any. Sirhan suddenly kicks the cup out of Willoughby's hand spilling it all over him. At that point the police turn off the recorder.
While waiting outside the Hotel to be taken to the Police Station and give her statement, Sandy Serrano is interviewed by Sander Vanocur of NBC TV. She says, "...this girl came running down the stairs in the back, and says, "We've shot him! We've shot him!" And I said, "Who did you shoot?" And she said, "We've shot Senator Kennedy..." I can remember what she had on and everything, and after that, a boy came down with her. He was about 23 years old and he was Mexican American... I can remember that because I'm Mexican American."........."she was not of Mexican American descent... she was caucasian. She had on a white dress with black polka dots. She was light skinned, dark hair. She had black shoes on and a funny nose. It was, it was...I thought it was real funny. All my friends tell me I'm so observant" Serrano was co-chair at Youth For Kennedy in Pasadena-Altadena area. Her interview is embedded in the youtube link to the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blP_ojEbR5o&list=PL229A01C70A0EC685
Serrano is systematically discredited by the LAPD. She said she heard a car back fire several times just before the couple ran down the stairs. When she learned about the shooting, she assumed the backfires must have been the shots, but the police use this against her to prove she made it all up. They conducted sound tests to prove Serrano couldn't have heard the shots where she was seated. She told them that it must have actually been a car backfiring, but they had made up their minds that she was lying. The fire security man said she wasn't seated on the stairs where she said, but she already told the police that she saw a guard chase some people off the stairs but he didn't see her where she was sitting. They bring dozens of white dresses with black polka dots into a room and have her pick out the dress that best fit the description. They suggested that she saw another woman, who was wearing an green dress and an orange scarf with polka dots who said, "They shot him!". She said that was NOT the woman she saw on the stairs. Soon she realized that she was a target and they wanted to destroy her story and prove that she lied. She began to receive threatening crank calls. She became very upset, quit her job and found a couple of lawyers to represent her.
1 am DeWayne Wolfer, LAPD chief criminologist, is called in to start the ballistics investigation. They photograph everything in the pantry. They took ceiling panels and doorframes for testing that may have had bullet holes. According to the Hospital, 6 people had been shot: Kennedy (twice they thought, once behind the ear and once under the shoulder), Paul Schrade (entry wound in the forehead, exit wound a few centimeters away, 2 fragments in the scalp) Ira Goldsteins butt, Irwin Strolls shin, William Wiesel's abdomen, and Elizabeth Evans forehead (she had 2 fragments removed from her head, no exit wound, that indicated the bullet she was hit with had struck something else already). The bullets used were high velocity hollow points that mushroom on impact doing maximum damage.
1:45am Inspector John Powers calls Paul Sharaga. He tells Sharaga that there was only one guy shooting and they don't want to get a big conpiracy story going. So Sharaga gets on the radio and tells them to disregard his APB of the male described by the Bernsteins. The police take Sirhan to headquarters at Parker Center. There he's examined by a doctor who treats his sprains and bruises from the pummeling he received. He says Sirhan doesn't seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Sirhan refuses to give his name or any information about himself...and seems to enjoy the little game of cat and mouse. His voice becomes sharper and more articulate. At one point Bill Jordan says, "You look very presentable compared to when I first saw you. You're clean, you're neat, you're eyes are clear...." This last bit about the eyes indicates that Jordan knew Sirhan was under the influence of something because his eyes "were not clear". I'm not sure if they didn't want to test him for drugs so he couldn't use it as a defense or if they just didn't think about it.
Officer Frank Foster is assigned to guard Sirhan in his cell. Foster is also close to Sirhan's age and I believe police hoped they'd hit it off and Sirhan would open up. Nothing doing. Sirhan is very friendly with Foster, but doesn't let anything slip to give away his identity. At one point their conversation does touch on some of Sirhan's point of view. Foster: "Maybe if circumstances were different, it would be vica versa; I'd be on the bench and you'd be over here, you never know." Sirhan tells Foster he's the complete opposite of his stereotype of a policeman. Foster says, "Well, in some respects, I hope you think of me as just another human being." Sirhan says, "We're all puppets." I think it's indicative that Sirhan uses the term "puppets" meaning that we're all being controlled by outside forces, including himself.
Munir goes to work and sees his brother Sirhan on TV. He rushes home to wake his brother Adel. Munir is in hot water with the police on a drug charge. Also, he and Sirhan bought the gun together. Adel goes into the police and identifies his brother as the shooter. The police are waiting at Munir's work, having traced the gun to him.
The police go to Sirhan's house with Adel. In his bedroom they find the "mad" notebooks, ritual candles and books on the Rosicrucians, the occult, and "mind projection". They also found a large, white envelope from the US Treasury with the words, "RFK must be disposed of like his brother was." Sirhan claimed to be angry at RFK for his support for Israel. Why would he refer to JFK in a derogatory manner as if he were a piece of trash. He was just a kid when JFK was killed. We've gone from the maniacal writings that use the words "assassinated, must die" to the arrogant, unemotional term "disposed of". It just doesn't ring true to form for a maniac who is becoming fixated.
A list of some of the writings found in Sirhan's notebooks:
-Long live Communism. Long live Communism. Long live Communism. Long live Nasser. Nasser. Nasser. Nasser. Nasser.
-Peggy Osterkamp, I love you. I love you. Osterkamp. Miss Peggy. Peggy. P.P.P. (She worked with him at Altfillisch's ranch in Corona)
-Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. We. I must buy a new Mustang tonight. Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. Meet me tonight.
-Let us do it. Let us do it. Let us do it do it it it. Let us do it. Please pay to the order of 50. 50. 50. 50,000. 5. 50,000. Very good. Very good. One hundred thousand dollars.
-Please pay to the order of Sirhan Sirhan the the the the amount of 15 15 15 15 death life 15. $15,000. Must die. Die. Die. Die. Dollar Sign. Life and death.
-Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. (from Karl Marx)
Please pay to the order of
-Kennedy must fall. Kennedy must fall
-My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession.
-We believe that Robert F. Kennedy must be sacrificed for the cause of the poor exploited people.
-A declaration of war against American humanity. When in the course of human events, it has become necessary for me to equalize and seek revenge for all the inhuman treatments committed against me by the American people. (When Sirhan read this declaration part he said that it was not like his handwriting)
The author expresses his wishes very bluntly that...he wants to be...recorded by historians as the man...who triggered off the last war.
The next day, Sirhan is being interviewed by the jail MD Dr. Marcus Crahan. A.L. Wirin (Lawyer from the ACLU) rushes in and says the RFK is dead. Sirhan hangs his head and says, "Mr. Wirin, I'm a failure. I believe in love, and instead of showing love...." he stopped there. Crahan concluded that Sirhan wasn't drunk at the time of his booking and was in complete control of his mental faculties at the time of the shooting. (even though an officer flashed a light in his eyes and his pupils didn't react). He was not tested for drugs.
Wirin was a staunch supporter of the Warren Commission and even participated in a debate with Commission critic Mark Lane, saying that Earl Warren saved us from a "pogrom" in the US. A pogrom is organized mass violence against defenseless people, commonly used to refer to East European violence against Jewish Communities.
June 6, 3am In the morgue of Good Samaritan Hospital, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, LA County Coroner, performs an autopsy on Robert Kennedy's body under the gaze of CIA, FBI, Secret Service, Sheriff office and 3 top military pathologists. He concludes the fatal shot was to the head, 1 inch behind the right ear, penetrating the brain. Another bullet entered the back of the right armpit and exited out the front of the right shoulder. Another bullet entered right armpit 1 inch below that bullet and lodged in his neck. Noguchi removed the bullet from the neck which was in almost pristine condition and hands it to Det. Bill Jordan. The bullets travelled at an upward angle and were fired from behind and from the right. Acid tests on the suit jacket showed that the side shots were fired from 1" - 6" distance.
Jun 6, morning DeWayne Wolfer X-rays the ceiling panels from the pantry and discovers 2 bullet holes.
Noguchi and Wolfer go in the pantry and use the holes in the suitcoat and the ceiling tiles to estimate and examine possible firing positions.
From theses pictures, Noguchi and Wolfer seem to think that the gun bullets came from below and went up. Wolfer fired test bullets out of Sirhan's gun and said that the striations from the bullets matched Sirhan's gun.
7 years later, independent experts examined the bullets. They found the "test" bullets used by Wolfer didn't leave strong enough impressions to get a conclusive match. So, they tried to conduct their own test and discovered that the barrel of the gun had been completely ruined by unjacketed bullets being fired through it. It's inexplicable that a vital piece of evidence in one of the most important crimes in history was so blatantly destroyed. The ceiling panels and doorframe had also been destroyed.
These are Wolfer's final conclusions about the bullet trajectories:
Bullet 1 was fired into RFKs head just behind the right ear within 1-2". (Just a couple of witnesses said that the gun was that close. Most said it was 2 feet or more.)
Bullet 2 cut through Kennedy's suit just below the armpit without entering his body and hit Schrade in the head. (this bullet was at a very steep 80 degree angle. In order to make the shot, RFK would have to be laying in mid-air almost perpendicular to the floor about 4 feet off the ground)
Bullet 3 entered RFKs right rear armpit about 7" from the top of the shoulder, at an upward angle and lodged in his neck. (RFK had raised his arm protectively. This angle would make sense if RFK was twisting and diving away from the gun, but the acid tests on the suitcoat said the gun was only 1" - 6" away.)
Numerous witnesses said they heard 2 (possibly 3) shots and then a pause before a quick barrage of shots. Carl Uecker said he grabbed Sirhan's wrist after 2 or 3 shots and was slamming it against the table.
Bullet 4 entered RFKs side 1 inch below bullet 3 at an upward angle with the muzzle 1" - 6" away. It passed through his body, exited out his upper chest, passed through the ceiling tile and got "lost" in the ceiling. (How was there a pause after 2 or 3 shots, and then the 4th shot enters right next to the 3rd shot? RFK's body would have hit the floor during the pause and Sirhan's arm is pinned to the table. How is the 4th shot still within 1" - 6"? Not possible with Sirhan's gun. How did it pass through his body and enter the ceiling if Sirhan's hand was pinned to the table? It had to come from below RFK. How was a bullet "lost" in the ceiling. This was a major assassination. The ceiling should have been torn apart until they found it.)
Bullet 5 hit Ira Goldstein in the bum and lodged there.
Bullet 6 went through Goldstein pant leg without hitting him, bounced off the floor and entered Irwin Stroll's leg where it lodged.
Bullet 7 hit Weisel in the gut where it lodged.
Bullet 8 went through the ceiling tile, bounced off the upper ceiling, re-entered through the lower ceiling tile and hit Evans in the forehead where it lodged.
Vincent Di Pierro showed the bullet holes in the sleave of his orange turtleneck sweater to Detective John Howard. Howard told him to hold onto it, but never asked him for it.
There are numerous logistical problems with this scenerio. The closest witness, Carl Uecker, said that the gun was never closer than 1.5 feet. Even if they are mistaken, how does Sirhan get off 3 shots at point blank range, 2 shots an inch apart, one of which came from below and entered the ceiling, and a 4th shot that passed through his suitcoat, while his wrist is pinned to the table and RFK is falling away from him? Uecker was adamant that not more than 3 shots went off before he grabbed the wrist. Numerous witnesses said there were 2 or 3 shot then a pause. It is impossible to be just 1 gun, 1 assassin.
Vincent DiPierro was a vital witness, but his story kept changing. First, he told police that he saw Sirhan reach around Uecker, the 1st shot he didn't know where it went, but Kennedy was hit with the 2nd or 3rd shot. 2 days later, he tells the FBI that Kennedy was killed with the 1st shot and then 3 more shots were fired rapidly as Kennedy fell, the muzzle was 3 to 5 feet away from RFK. Later he says that the gun muzzle might have been within a few inches. First he said he saw a girl in a polka dot dress with Sirhan just before Kennedy entered, then a few days later he says that he must have talked to Sandy Serrano and got the idea from her and that he must have been wrong. Not a reliable witness.
6/7/68 Dr. Noguchi requests that neutron activation analysis be done on the bullets to determine without a doubt that all bullets and fragments came from the same gun. Eventually he asks President Johnson directly and Johnson suggests that he have the FBI do it. The FBI turns him down, saying they don't want to "interfere" with the LAPD investigation. Why would they refuse to do this test in order to erase all doubt? Why would the LAPD oppose this test?
Michael Saccomen, who had shot beside Sirhan at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Range , on his own initiative, collected 485 bullets from the target area where Sirhan was shooting all day on the 4th. He brings them to the LAPD. Ballistics Investigator DeWayne Wolfer examines them, but finds none that were fired from Sirhan's gun. A single bullet from Sirhan's gun at he gun range that could have been matched up to the markings on the bullets from the pantry would certainly have dispelled any issues with police manipulation. Sirhan shot 7 cases of bullets that day and not 1 could be found?
6/9/68 Powerful Attorney Grant Cooper takes Sirhan's case. Cooper was a top-notch defense attorney in LA. He was a prosecutor in the early 40s and fought powerful crime and gambling interests. Cooper agreed to take Sirhan's case after his current case was over. THE THING IS Cooper was representing mafia interests in his current case. That's right, after prosecuting gamblers and crime in the 40s, Cooper was now working for them. Cooper was defending Maurice Friedman, a Vegas Casino developer, AND MOBSTER JOHNNY ROSSELLI and 3 others who had rigged the exclusive Friar's Club in Beverly Hills with peep holes and electronic signals in order to cheat wealthy patrons out of their money. ROSSELLI demanded a cut of the scam. In Jan. 1967 ROSSELLI said that Robert Kennedy had caused JFKs death by supporting assassination plots against Castro. ROSSELLI is also a major suspect in John Kennedy's assassination. The question is: Why did Grant Cooper, who now defended mob interests, end up "defending" the killer of Robert Kennedy, the man the mob hated with a passion. Isn't this still a conflict of interest? Isn't there just a little bit of question about mob influence over Cooper's "defense" strategy, which was seriously flawed? Grant Cooper tried to bring in 2 lawyers who worked for the Warren Commission. They turned him down. Eventually he found Russell Parsons. Parsons was famous for defending a man who tried to kill his wife by forcing her foot into a box of rattlesnakes. When that didn't work, he drowned her. Parsons also was a mob lawyer in the 50s, representing the Sica brothers in LA who worked for Mickey Cohen. Robert Kennedy once investigated Parsons who shared an office with mobster Murray Chotiner. Both Parsons and Cooper had mob ties and Parson had a grudge with RFK. There should have been some question of possible mob influence over the defense strategies.
6/27/68 Dr. Donald A Stuart is hired as Deputy medical examiner for Coroner Noguchi. Stuart later testified that Noguchi used amphetamines, that he rejoiced at RFKs death because it would make him famous and that he acted mentally unstable. 3 year later Stuart is arrested, as it is discovered that he is a fake and that his medical degrees are phony.
7/3/68 Saidallah Sirhan (Sirhan's older brother) is shot at on the Pasadena freeway by someone in a Volkswagen van. Pasadena police find that both bullets came from a .38 but there is no way to find the shooters. LAFO vol.14 pg. 143
9/6/68 - 9/20/68 SUS submit John Fahey to a polygraph test. SUS says that it shows he is lying and they get him to admit it was all a lie. Further investigation suggests that Fahey and reporter Faura are old friends and are conspiring to fabricate a "story".
11/5/68 Richard Nixon beats Hubert Humphrey to become President. Sirhan complains that Nixon is worse than Kennedy and he "gave it to him".
12/2/68 The "Friar's Club" case ends for Cooper. All 5 of his clients are found guilty including Johnny Rosselli. That frees Cooper to take over the Sirhan defense. From the beginning, Cooper stipulates to the guilt of Sirhan. He questions none of the prosecutions case. His sole defense is to prove that Sirhan was mentally disabled or incapacitated and save him from a death sentence. He and Parsons also completely deny any possibility of a conspiracy. Cooper's sole defense is "diminished capacity" and he does not even challenge the problem with the bullets, the bullet angles and the timing of the shots.
12/23/68 Cooper brings in Dr. Bernard Diamond to examine Sirhan. Sirhan still says he doesn't remember the shooting, or getting the gun, but he remembers hating Robert Kennedy because of his support for Israel. Diamond suspects paranoid schizophrenia.
1/2/68 Diamond examines Sirhan again. Sirhan tells him he was thrilled to see RFK at the Ambassador 2 days before and he had no thought of killing him then. He said "I seem to have just been railroaded into this thing. Why would I have left so much evidence (the notebooks) behind me? I'm not that stupid." Diamond decides to try hypnosis to recover Sirhan's memory loss. When he asks Sirhan about it, Sirhan replies, "Isn't it the domination of the weaker will by the stronger?" The Rosicrucians and white magic books that Sirhan had been reading and practicing emphasize this notion of hypnosis. When Diamond tried to put Sirhan under, he was surprised that Sirhan entered a deep trance within 10 minutes. Sirhan began to sob. When Diamond suggested that Sirhan "could have helped his people", Sirhan says "I don't know any people", "What did they do?" Then Sirhan went into a convulsive rage with clenched fists and a contorted expression on his face. Anytime his people were brought up during his hypnosis sessions, Sirhan began sobbing. When he was awoke, he always followed the same pattern. He would suddenly wake up, startled and confused, then it would take a minute to reorient himself. He would be suspicious that the "Doc" had been playing some kind of game with him. Then he would get very cold and shiver. (He was cold and shivering when he arrived at the police station after the assassination - it was a very hot night) He never remembered the hypnosis. The last thing he remembered was staring at the quarter and then waking up. Dr. Diamond a Dr. Pollack both do extensive examinations and hypnotic sessions with Sirhan in which he acts out the crime, but he never remembers it consciously.
1/20/69 Sargeant Hank Hernandez of SUS invites Sandy Serrano and her aunt out to a steak dinner. He sweet talks her into taking a polygraph test that night. She is very unhappy about it, but he promises her this is the last time a police officer will ask her any questions about it and that he would believe everything she said - that she could prove once and for all that she was telling the truth. The test was conducted at 9pm with Hernandez and Serrano alone. This is the official report he submitted: "Polygraph examination disclosed that Sandra Serrano has never seen Sirhan Sirhan in person; further, that Miss Serrano fabricated, for some unknown reason, the story about the girl in the polka dot dress. Responses to relevant questions indicate that no one made statements to Miss Serrano telling her that they had shot Kennedy or that she had heard any gunshots during the late evening of June 4.... Miss Serrano was informed of the results of the polygraph examination. Miss Serrano was interrogated extensively and ultimately she admitted that the story about Sirhan Sirhan, the girl in the polka dot dress and the gunshots was not true..... Miss Serrano stated that she had no knowledge of any woman in a polka dot dress until after the assassination and just prior to her being interviewed. She states that she was sitting, waiting to be interviewed, when she heard a kid making reference to a girl in a polka dot dress (Vincent DiPierro). She talked to the young man, and each of them inquired of each other concerning the description of the dress and the girl. According to Miss Serrano, there must have been a mutual agreement between them as to the description of the girl and the polka dot dress. Miss Serrano stated that later when she was being questioned by the police she felt that she should know more than she actually did know, and eventually the statements which were attributed to her were publicized on television and in newspapers. She said she knew that the statements were not true but she felt that she could not change them because it would make her look like a fool."
This is the report in the SUS files RFK LAPD microfilm, vol. 34, page 165, found on the Merry Ferrell site. Unluckily for Hernandez, someone forgot to erase the original tape of the polygraph session. This is what actually happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoRG5cMrfIk Sandra Serrano's polygraph tape starts at the 7 minute mark.
Hernandez verbally harassed her and intimidated her. He said that she needed to admit to the lie in order to "be a woman" and to "show respect for Kennedy" and to "let Ethel Kennedy have some closure". At first she stuck to her story and refused to admit to anything, then, finally, in order to get him off her back she said she must have been "all messed up". Hernandez ended the session here and got her to admit it was all made up. She later retracted her admission, saying that she was harassed and intimidated into saying it wasn't true. The report that he submitted above is a complete fabrication and she did not say a word of it. After this, she moved back home to live with her mother.
Isn't a polygraph operator supposed to be unbiased? Aren't they supposed to ask questions in a completely stoic manner so their demeanor doesn't emotionally effect the subject, rendering the results inaccurate and worthless? Hernandez was a specialist brought in, who used the "polygraph" as a way change witness testimony. He told his subjects they were lying and he employed a technique of feigning sympathy while offering "suggestions" as to why they may have been mistaken. His "polygraph" operating was a complete farce as any self-respecting polygraph operator will tell you.
1/7/69 The LAPD SUS requests the FBI to do a re-investigation of the Kennedy ballistics and forensics using LAPD equipment at their lab, in order to erase all doubt of an LAPD cover-up. Hoover refuses.
On the same day, Sirhan Sirhans trial began. Vincent DiPierro is proven to change his testimony over and over again. Juan Romero can't identify Sirhan Sirhan in the courtroom even after he stands up. Defense Attorney Cooper is solely interested in his "mental incapacitation" defense. The defense has serious flaws. Cooper does not question the bullets, the shooting distances, the presence of a girl and some young men who were witnessed with Sirhan by multiple people, the imposters out at the Police shooting range. Cooper stipulates that Sirhan shot and killed Robert Kennedy and his defense was that Sirhan "hypnotized" himself using mirrors and that he was in a trance when he shot RFK. Sorry, but that has no chance in hell of being an acceptable defense for murdering a man and shooting up a room full of people. The Prosecution open the door for testimony about possible accomplices but Cooper only sticks to his idiotic "incapacity" defense. Sirhan was more worried about being thought of as crazy than staying off death row.
2/1/69 Dr. Diamond put Sirhan in a hypnotic trance and places a pen and paper in his hand. When given the simple instruction to write his name, Sirhan begins to write Sirhan B. Sirhan Sirhan B. Sirhan... over and over in a slow, robotic scrawl. Diamond, Pollack and investigator Kaiser watch as he fills up pages. When prompted to write about Kennedy, Sirhan writes RFK RFK RFK RFK RFK... When told to write it all out, not just the initials, he writes Robert F. Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy.... "Tell us more than the name Sirhan. Write more than the name"
RFK RFK RFK RFK RFK.....
"More than the initials. What's going to happen to Kennedy, Sirhan?
RFK must die. RFK must die. RFK must..........
"When must Kennedy die?"
Robert Kennedy is going to die Robert Kennedy is going to die Robert..........
"Don't write what I tell you, Sirhan. Answer my questions. Who killed Kennedy?"
Who killed Kennedy?
"You're writing the question. Now write the answer."
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know......
Diamond goes on with his questions with Sirhan automatically writing answers. At one point Diamond asks, "If you're not crazy, why are you writing crazy?"
Practice. Practice. Practice......
"Practice for what, Sirhan?"
Mind control. Mind control. Mind control......
"Mind control for what?"
Self improvement. Self improvement. Self improvement.....
"Were you hypnotized when you wrote the notebooks?"
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.....
"Who hypnotized you when you wrote the notebooks?"
Mirror mirror my mirror. My my mirror......
Sirhan goes on to write that AMORC taught him to write like this. That he learned how to do it by reading their books. When Sirhan is awoken, he doesn't recognize the writing or remember anything about what he did. He's very concerned that the notebooks will make him look crazy.
2/8/69 Sirhan told Mike McCowan that he was just fooling the Dr. and wasn't really under hypnosis. McCowan worked out a signal where Sirhan would wave his middle finger while faking the hypnosis. But Sirhan couldn't budge the finger while under. Just to prove his point, Diamond suggested that Sirhan climb the cell bars like a monkey when he blew his nose. Later when Sirhan was awake and Diamond blew his nose, Sirhan climbed the cell bars and hung upside down like a monkey. When Diamond showed him the videotape of the session Sirhan became quite frightened. Of course Diamond was very quick to assure everyone that Sirhan hypnotized himself and performed the crime by himself and wrote the notebooks himself. This little demonstration shows the ease which Sirhan was subjected to hypnotic suggestion and the willingness to write whatever is asked of him. Why the defense completely rejected any notion or evidence that someone else may be involved is something that I don't understand.
2/10/69 Both prosecution and defense come to the judge. Both Drs Pollack for the prosecution and Diamond for the defense agree that Sirhan Sirhan is psychotic and Cooper asks for permission to plead guilty of 1st degree murder and serve a life sentence rather than the death penalty. The Judge refuses to forgo a trial, citing the lack of a trial for Oswald and that there would be massive suspicions that the whole trial was rigged. He orders the trial to go on.
Feb 1969 Dr. Thomas Noguchi meets with his lawyer Robert Joling at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. There he hands Joling a photographic enlargement comparing markings on the neck bullet from RFK and a test bullet from the gun Sirhan used. Noguchi tells him to hang onto it, that they may need it later.
3/18/69 Dr Thomas Noguchi is fired by the LA County Board of Supervisors. LAFO vol.14 pg. 107
Noguchi hires lawyer Godfrey Isaac to contest the firing. Dr. William Eckert, chairman of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, called Noguchi's autopsy one of the best he's ever seen.
5/10/69 Sirhan's mother and brother Adel contact Attorney Melvin Belli (the man who defended Jack Ruby) about being involved in Sirhan's appeal. Sirhan assures everyone that he'll retain Russell Parsons and Grant Cooper as attorneys. LAFO vol.14 pg. 106
5/12/69 In a LA Civil Service Commission hearing, suspended Coroner Noguchi is said to have "danced in his office while waiting for Kennedy to die" and saying that he would be famous if Kennedy died. Noguchi's Attorney said that he revered Kennedy and would have given part of his life for him to live. LAFO vol.14 pg.107
5/21/69 Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death despite the pleas of Robert Kennedy's brother Edward.
5/23/69 Researchers Lillian Castellano and Floyd Nelson discover pictures of bullet holes found in door frames among the police exhibits. They publish an article in the Los Angeles Free Press indicating that more bullets were discovered in the pantry than the LAPD reported.
6/27/69 LAPD destroys the doorframe and ceiling tiles from the RFK assassination that contain extra bullet holes unaccounted for.
7/31/13 Dr Thomas Noguchi wins his lawsuit and is reinstated as LA County Coroner.
8/6/69 Adel Sirhan is arrested for drunk driving in Oceanside, CA.
8/7/69 Sirhan Attorney Grant Cooper is indicted of illegally using a secret Grand Jury transcript in his prior "Friar's Club" case. The transcript was seen on the defense table and brought to the attention of the judge.
Fall 1969 Thane Eugene Cesar is playing cards with friends and says, "There's a hell of a lot more to the Bobby Kennedy assassination than anyone knew about". Ken Marshall, one of the men at the card game, tells Ted Charach and Charach arranges to interview Cesar. In these interviews, Cesar proves himself to be a racist and a commie hater. He believes John Kennedy gave the country to the commies, the minorities and the blacks and that his brother Robert would also. Cesar campaigned for George Wallace (segregationist candidate) in '68. He hated blacks and thought that there would be a race war soon, in which the whites would come out on top of course. He says he tried to pull his gun out as soon as he saw Sirhan's gun, but he was knocked down before he could get it out. He said the back of Kennedy's head was blown off, a statement that he later said was false. Cesar says he had an H&R .22 9 shot revolver, similar to the one that Sirhan used. A month after the assassination, he test fired it rapidly and found that it was hard to tell how many shots were fired. 2 shots could sound like one. Cesar said he sold the .22 a year ago (Oct 68, 5 months after the assassination) to a colleague who retired from Lockheed and moved back to Arkansas.
1970 Robert Houghton, SUS (Special Unit Senator) Chief, publishes his book Special Unit Senator describing the LAPD investigation of Robert Kennedy's assassination.
1970 Robert Kaiser, researcher, publishes the book R.F.K. Must Die! pointing out the flaws and discrepencies in the witnesses, exhibits and forensics and theorizing that Sirhan was hypnotically "programmed" to killed Kennedy.
6/12/70 Ted Charach (eventual author of "The 2nd Gun") files a complaint against the LAPD charging that they withheld pertinent info regarding the Robert Kennedy Assassination.
8/12/70 Retired forensic expert, William H. Harper takes an interest in the case and begins to examine the evidence at the LA County Clerks office. Being a 35 year expert for Naval Intelligence, he was given free reign.
12/28/70 Harper own tests on the bullets conclude that there is not a match between the bullet in Kennedy's neck and Sirhan's gun. He also concludes that the steep angle of the shot traveling through Kennedy and entering the ceiling prove that Sirhan couldn't have fired that shot from his position. He concludes that there was another gun fired in the pantry.
April, 1971, Thane Eugene Cesar is fired from Lockheed in Burbank.
5/21/71 Charach's movie The Second Gun is screened for people who were actually at the Ambassador. It is a sober and well-researched account of some of the discrepencies in the assassination of Robert Kennedy and makes a compelling case for Cesar as the 2nd gunman.
5/28/71 DeWayne Wolfer had been recommended for promotion to Chief forensic chemist at the LAPD lab. Barbara Blehr, William Harper and other prominent forensic experts filed a complaint against Wolfer citing his mistakes and mislabeling in the Kennedy case. Wolfer filed a defamation lawsuit in return. LAFO vol. 15 pg 174
7/14/71 Eugene Cesar is interviewed by LA district attorney. Cesar tells them that he sold his .22 to Jim Yoder in ....... February 1968, 4 months before the assassination. LAPD Sargeant Charles Collins is interviewing Cesar who says, (talking about his interview after the assassination) "I don't remember if I showed it to him, but I mentioned that I had a gun similar to the one that was used that night." Collins asks him how he could "show" the gun to the officer, if he'd already sold the gun to Yoder. Cesar said he just wanted to show him what kind of gun it was and he wasn't sure if Yoder had left for Arkansas already. Investigators decide that a polygraph is not needed, because Cesar answered all questions directly. DA Busch told the news that Yoder had been interviewed and that Cesar's story checked out. Yoder was never contacted by anyone from LA until Charach located him later. Yoder gave Charach a receipt for the gun dated 9/6/68 and said Cesar told him he had fired the gun while giving assistance to an unidentified officer. Unfortunately, Yoder had the gun stolen in a burglary in Oct. 1969.
On the same day, the FBI received information from Lila Hurtado, who worked for William R. Huntington, a famous interior designer to the stars. He was a friend of both John and Robert Kennedy. He was doing some interior design for a man named Ronald Buck who owned a club named "The Factory" in LA. Just before the RFK assassination Buck had secretly made a tape recording of military officials and government bigwigs gloating over the deaths of JFK & MLK and making plans to kill RFK. Huntington called RFK and had the tape played for him. RFK said that he couldn't do anything about it until he was President. Huntington told his doctor that his life had been threatened. He died on 3/1/71. The names of the individuals on the tape are blanked out. The Factory Club, incidentally, is the same club that the celebration for RFK presidential nomination was scheduled on the night of the assassination. LAFO vol. 15 pg. 185 The FBI interviewed some of the witnesses listed by Hurtado, but they denied her story and described her as unreliable and that Huntington never knew the Kennedy's.
7/23/71 Don Schulman is interviewed by the LA deputy district attorneys. He sticks by his original story, that he saw Kennedy hit 3 times, that he saw more than one security guard draw a gun and fire. But he admits that he's not able to swear 100% that he saw the guard firing the gun, he might have heard the shots and assumed the guard fired. Cesar said that he didn't get his gun all the way out of it's holster before he was knocked over. If that's true, how did Schulman see him with the gun?
The same day, DA Joseph Busch suggested that the bullets that Harper tested may have been tampered with or switched, an indirect accusation against Harper as he was the only one granted access.
9/1/1971 Fernando Faura, the reporter who had John Fahey take an independent polygraph test, holds a press conference in which he releases and attacks the LAPD and the FBI for covering up and suppressing evidence about the assassination. The results of the independent polygraph showed that Fahey was telling the truth about everything. The polygraph was given by Chris Gugas.
Oct 1971 Eugene Cesar files for bankruptcy.
1973 Eugene Cesar is hired by Hughes Aircraft where he again works with a high security clearance in a plant where secret military aircraft are being built.
1973 Owner of Ace security services, Frank Hendrix, says that Ace had the Ambassador account a year before the assassination and a year after. Ace Security did not even get it's security license until March 1968, four months before the assassination.
Mike McCowan was an ex-police officer who joined Sirhan's defense team as an investigator. In 1973, he was President of American Protection Industries (API) one of the biggest security services in the country. McCowan was very good friends with Frank Hendrix of Ace Security at the time of the assassination. (This seems to be a conflict of interest since Hendrix and Ace Security should have been thoroughly investigated)
Late 1973, Charach recruits independent criminalist Herbert MacDonell to test the bullets. He, like Harper, finds that the Kennedy bullet could not have come from Sirhan's gun.
1974 When ex-reporter, Baxter Ward, runs for governor, he holds a hearing about the forensics on the RFK case. Noguchi, MacDonnell, Harper and criminalist Lowell Bradford testify that they cannot match the Kennedy bullet to Sirhan's gun and that the forensic evidence doesn't add up. Wolfer and DA Busch refuse to appear.
1975 Special Counsel Thomas Kranz is appointed by the Los Angeles DA to re-examine the Robert Kennedy investigation. In many of Kranz's interviews, he reveals himself totally ignorant of the basic facts of the forensics and witness accounts. It was to respond to Charach's film The Second Gun. Kranz interviews Cesar, Schulman and police officers and other witnesses involved. He endorses the official version of events but said the LAPD should have checked Cesar's gun after the event. CORONER THOMAS NAGUCHI WENT TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and asked him to have the FBI intercede and test the bullets with better forensic methods. He was fired for his efforts. Kranz went on to serve as counsel to the army and navy in the Reagan, Bush and Bush, Jr administrations. He served on the Counsel on Foreign Relations.
From 1975, after the Kranz interview, until 1987, Thane Eugene Cesar dropped out of sight.
9/11/76 Requests from shooting victim Paul Schrade and CBS to reinvestigate the firearms evidence from the RFK assassination are granted. 7 experts from around the country are chosen to conduct the investigation including forensic investigators from police and the FBI. Wolfer objected, to no avail, citing the panel was biased and the evidence may have degraded over time. Wolfer did not submit reports, photos or other documentation for his work so the examination relied heavily on Wolfers memory and knowledge. Wolfer located the intials he marked on the neck bullet. When the panel made an inventory of the bullets, they found that the neck bullet was missing the "31" marked by Noguchi after removing it from RFK and the "X" on the bottom of the Goldstein bullet, marked by Dr. Finch after removing it, was also missing. Photomicrographs were found, dated 6/6/68. Wolfer testified, under oath, that the photomicrograph was a comparison between the Kennedy neck bullet and the test bullet fired from Sirhan's gun. After examination, the panel concluded that the pattern of unique surface defects showed the comparison was actually between the neck bullet....and the Goldstein bullet!? Later, Wolfer "remembered" that he took this comparison photo for a class example and not as evidence. If he could take a comparison photo of these 2 bullets, why didn't he take a comparison photo of the neck bullet and the test bullet at the trial? It was discovered that the test bullets were stripped of their copper coating and the markings were useless. The inside of Sirhan's gun was coated with lead. This can only happen from firing uncoated lead bullets through the barrel. But Sirhan was firing copper-coated minimags? 8 of them. This would have cleaned out any lead coating from before. So who fired uncoated bullets through the murder weapon after the assassination and before the test bullets were fired by Wolfer? The panel found that the victim bullets were all of the same class and weight. The test bullets were useless. The only way a 2nd gun could have been used is if an identical class of gun and identical class of bullets was used.
10/6/76 The panel concludes that the bullets can't be directly linked to the Sirhan gun, but they were all fired by the same gun. Therefore, there was no 2nd gun (unless there was another .22 identical to Sirhan's firing mini-mag hollow points identical to Sirhan's).
1987, author Dan Moldea finds Cesar working as a plumber in Simi Valley. He tells Moldea that after his bankruptcy in 1971, he worked night shift at Hughes. He was married and divorced twice. He visited the Phillipines to visit his 3rd wife Eleanor. He married Eleanor in 1986. (How did he meet and marry a Phillipino woman?) After the Watts riots he hated blacks even more and was a staunch Reagan supporter. After his intitial FBI interview, he told Moldea that he called up a friend and neighbor who works for the FBI and had him pull his file. He said the file indicated that he wasn't a suspect in the shooting. (Who was this FBI friend who stole a classified file and showed it to the subject?) He also acted out the shooting for Moldea. He said Sirhan's gun was held perpendicular to the floor and fired from a muzzle distance of about 2 feet. (Forensics showed the angle was upward and the distance was within 2 inches.) He said he didn't see Kennedy fall or get hit because he stumbled and fell as soon as he heard the shot. Later he said that Kennedy fell backward. (If Kennedy was turning and twisting so that Sirhan's gun could have hit him in the side, how did Kennedy land on his back?) He said he'd been working for Ace for 6 months and that he'd worked at the Ambassador as security before. (Both lies, he worked for Ace for 1 week and it was his first time at the Ambassador).
Moldea became friends with Cesar and one day over lunch, Cesar told him that he had made some "diamond purchases" from an associate of the Chicago mob sometime between 1968 and 1974. Cesar filed for bankruptcy in 1971 and said he was always working a 2nd job just to make ends meet. How does a person in this financial position make "diamond purchases"? Moldea talked him into taking a polygraph test which he passed. For Moldea, that is the proof that Cesar was innocent. Dr. Edward Gelb conducted the polygraph. Polygraph results totally depend on the integrity of the operator as Hank Hernandez has proven. Dr. Edward Gelb is not a doctor at all. He got his degree from a fraudulent degree mill which was subsequently busted and shut down. Polygraphs are not allowed in court because they are frequently fooled or mistaken.
1988 DeWayne Wolfer, the primary criminalist and ballistics expert in the Robert Kennedy assassination, is now the president of.... Ace Security Services, the company that employed the guards at the Ambassador Hotel and hired Thane Eugene Cesar.
Psychiatrist evaluating Sirhan's psychiatric examiners:
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Sirhan%20Sirhan%20NAA%20Guinn/Item%2004.pdfSandra Serrano says she saw a girl in a white dress with black polka dots come down the stairs outside the ballroom. She met a Mexican American man at the bottom. She said "We shot Kennedy!" or "We finally got him!" in a gleeful manner, according to Serrano. (LAFO vol5 pg 155)Other polka dot/girl witnesses: Jack Merrit, security guard, Richard Houston, Lonny L. Worthy, Susan Locke, Gloria Farr, nurse, George Green, Booker Griffin, Judith Groves, John Ludlow, Eve Hansen, Nina Ballantyne, Jeannette Prudhomme, vincent DiPierro, the Bernstein's, Darnell Johnson, Ralph Williams, Hector & Jesus Salazar (LAFOvol2pg266)
This photo was taken by Hal Burba of the LA Fire Dept. It's a terrible copy. Was this a restaging or a picture of the actual event? Seems to be the actual event of men holding Sirhan on the steam table and wrestling with the gun. This is out of the FBI files on RFK on the Merry Ferrell site, LAFO vol 2, pg 116.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s8lWYFslP8c
June 5, 1:05pm, A person called from the USC medical center and said that the man arrested for killing Kennedy was a patient in the psychiatric ward. She had his charts if the FBI wants them. At 2:53 am she calls the LAPD again saying that she had been informed that she couldn't release any patient forms without hospital authority and that she might lose her job if the FBI contacted the records dept. They can't release hopital forms to the police about a murder suspect? Later, USC hospital authorities tell the FBI that they can only release Sirhan's files if they receive a subpeona.
While in custody, Sirhan requests the book "The Secret Doctrine" by Madame Blavatsky and "Talks on the Path of Occultism, vol 1 - At the Feet of the Master" by Blavatsky's followers Annie Besant and CW Leadbeater. These books outline the philosophy and history of a spiritual movement called Theosophy. It entails the brotherhood of man, through religion, philosophy and science, and how to unlock the hidden "powers" of human beings.
6/15/68 A memo entered that says the "girl with the polka dot dress" is proven to be a "hoax" and the FBI discontinues investigation along those lines. LAFO vol4, pg246
Shooting Witnesses:
John V. Kenny (said he jumped off the stage and went into the small corridor to the pantry about 25 people behind RFK. He raised the camera over his head and took pictures. As he entered the corridor, he heard a loud explosion and then saw Rosy Grier wrestling with Sirhan.)
Wallace Turner, reporter(was waiting in the press room when he heard 3 shots. He saw the struggle with Grier and Rafer Johnson restraining Sirhan on the table. Saw Kennedy lying on the ground. Grier protected Sirhan from people who were trying to kill him until the police took him away)
David Bender
Rosemary Clooney
Sue Harris
Robert & Pearl Goodman
Kristie or Christie Witker
Lisa Urco
Jim Dunn (kennedy worker, said he heard 5 shots)
Jesse M. Unruh (Speaker of Cal State Assembly heard 2-4 pops and then 4 or 5 more, as people cleared he saw Schrade lying with a head wound and RFK lying prone, someone had already unbuttoned his shirt. RFK brought his hands from his head to clutch at his stomach. He saw Rosy Grier after he had disarmed SS, picked him up off the steam table and manhandled him into the hallway. He accompanied SS and police to Rampart HQ. He said SS said "I did it for my country", "It's too late", and "I can explain".)
Judy Royer (said she saw SS in the hallway to the pantry before the shooting)
James Breslin, reporter (was in press room, said he heard 5 shots as he was running into the pantry.
Breslin asked Sirhan "Why did you have to do it?" Sirhan's eyes roled and he thrashed about,
but he was held tight.
William Eppridge (Life Mag photographer, was 3 or 4 people behind RFK as he made his way to the ballroom. Saw a "heavy-set" girl about 5'5" try to nudge her way into the line behind RFK. She didn't seem to belong there. He didn't see her clearly, but she seemed to be wearing something with polka dots. He saw the girl again in the door leading to the pantry before they entered. He heard 2 shots, a pause, then 4 more)
Max Johnson
Richard Aubrey
Ronald T. Bennett
Tim Rich
Susan Locke
Carol Breshears
Ralph Elmore
Kriste Witker
George Green
Acqueline Sullivan
Gabor Kadar
Ray Brannigan
George Fulton
Robin Caslen
Ira Goldstein
Paul Schrade
Elizabeth Evans
Irwin Stroll
Pete Berkson (said a woman in blue dress standing in kitchen doorway yelled "fire" just before shooting started)
Alex Estrada
Delores Beilenson, wife of Senator Beilenson, saw SS shooting the first 3 shots holding the gun at waist level and she left as she heard other shots. She was roughly 20' away.
Rosie Grier (Football player, said he disarmed SS)
Rafer Johnson (Olympian)
Dick Lubic (Richard G. Lubic) (KHJ TV) Prior to RFK leaving podium, he checked the pantry hallway to see where he might meet RFK and congratulate him. There, he saw a woman in a white dress waiting, he assumed she was hotel personnel. He went back to listen to the acceptance speech, then went through a door to meet RFK in the pantry. He waited while RFK shook hands with kitchen workers. He heard "Kennedy, you son of a bitch!" just before he heard 2 shots. He didn't immediately locate the shooter, but when he did, he saw SS with his knee on a tray stacker, using it to fire from an elevated position. He saw RFK fall and ducked behind an ice machine. After SS was subdued, he helped keep the crowd from surging into the pantry. A large portion of Lubic's statement having to do with some related incident is blacked out.
Richard Drew (said he took pictures of the assassination and hadn't been interviewed as of 6/12/68)
Jesus Perez
Paul Grieco
Harold Edward Hughes (Reporter, heard 3-4 shots)
Barbara Rubin - Went through the Ambassador kitchen to avoid the crowds. She saw 2 kitchen workers and Sirhan Sirhan up against a wall just waiting. She followed Kennedy's entourage and got behind Paul Schrade. She heard 2 shots, and hit the floor along with a blonde girl, then she heard 5 more shots. She got up a bit later and ran out.
Enrique Rabago and Humphrey Cordero said they went to the Kennedy rally on the night of the shooting at the Ambassador Hotel. There, Enrique met and spoke to Sirhan Sirhan in the bar. SS expressed the opinion that Kennedy was rich and was buying his way into the presidency and his general disapproval of the rich class. Enrique was denied entry because he was not dressed in a suit. Both men positively identified him.
Pierre Salinger and Frank Mankiewicz reported that SS was removed from the press room just before the assassination.
SS was defended by Wilbur F. Littlefield and Russell Parsons?
A waitress at Tiny Naylor's restaurant on Wilshire Blvd saw a young man and woman enter the restaurant just after the shooting. They seemed joyful and exuberant about it and it struck everyone as strange. She had on a white minidress with green dots. He was olive skinned and his young 20s. She was blonde
LA County General Hosp, psychiatric outpatient clinic (maybe a file on SS)?
Dr Richard Nelson treated SS for his horse fall injury. He said SS was very nervous about any treatment. He seemed to think that someone meant to do him harm. Dr. Milton Miller said the same thing about SS.
Andy and Carl Mantigani own a bar in Alhambra and said SS came there sometimes. They said that he came with a man they named "Jim" and overheard them saying "We'll wait til he gets in town then we'll get him". Jim is a white male, 28, 170lbs, 5'10", sandy hair, always smiling & southern accent.
Classmate of SS, Bert Blume, said that he worked with SS at the health food store and was at the Kennedy rally at the Ambassador on 6/2/68. He saw SS there alone.
At the San Gabriel Valley Gun club, sometime before the RFK shooting, in Duarte, CA, Sirhan Sirhan signed in to shoot at the range. The manager said that while SS was firing, an unknown female and male entered. SS seemed to be acquainted with them. SS helped the female, teaching her how to shoot, while the other male shot on his own. The female was white, 25-30, blond shoulder length hair, 5'7", 135lbs, husky build. The male was 30-40 yrs, white with a slender build.
List of Ace Guard Service extra security guards at the Ambassador:
Willie S. Bell
Elmer M. Boombower
Thane E. Cesar
Augustus Mallard
Jack L Merritt
Albert Louise Stowers
Papers and things found in Sirhan Sirhan's room:
Sirhan Sirhan filled notebooks with rambling thoughts and death threats against Robert Kennedy. "RFK must die", "Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before June 5, 1968", "My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession", "He must be sacrificed for the cause of the poor exploited people", etc.....
Most of the names, addresses and phone numbers found in SS notebooks have to do with his job at the racetracks and horse farms and his search for work.
Part of a notebook was an unmailed letter in Arabic to SS mother, sending her $10 to buy stamps, envelopes and magazines of the Rosacrutions. He states that he wrote an address on an envelope and instructs her not to tell anyone else where he is. He says he's waiting for a check from the US Treasury. The 2nd page only says "Hotel 1879"in Arabic and "Rogers" in English.
Marvene Jones, Kennedy phone staff, was in the Ambassador and at her desk right after the shooting. About 10 minutes after the shooting, a man in a suit said to her that Kennedy had been shot. He said that the shooter had 2 or 3 helpers and that he tackled one but he got away. She didn't get the man's name.
Caroline Mary Pettinato heard 4 shots at the Ambassador while she was by the stage. She talked to a black man who called himself John Wright. He said he was a "kitchen reporter" and was in the kitchen at the time of the shooting. He saw Sirhan hanging in the kitchen drinking coffee. He saw Sirhan raise his gun and Kennedy fall, but he didn't see Sirhan pull the trigger. He said that he used to be called Danny, that he used to be in the Black Muslims, that he used to be a supervisor at construction work in Vietnam, that a couple of men in the kitchen said they were offered 1 mil to shoot Kennedy, that 7 men were involved.
Oct 22, 1968 - Sharif Sirhan (Sirhan Sirhan's brother) writes a letter to Richard Nixon from Pasadena. In it he rails against the US government aligning with Israeli Zionists and their unjust and violent takeover of Palestine. He rails against Communism although he blames the US for Arab countries that ally themselves with Communist countries just to fight the Zionists. He said he is ready to die for America. He says he has "ordered his commandos to murder every politician that negotiates any kind of help to the Zionist state". LAFO vol7 pg 200 Oct 28, 1968 Sharif denies writing the letter but says that he agrees with some of the statements. LAFO vol7 pg309
LA Field Office Sub File X-1, vol 1 pg 62
http://www.american-buddha.com/RFKREBORN.whokilledbobby.1.htm
