Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy U.S. Senator Part 2

About the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, history and biography of Bobby Kennedy U.S. senator and presidential hopeful, investigation of the crime

The Victim: ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY, U.S. senator

Dr. Thomas Noguchi listed the cause of death in his very complete medical report as a "gunshot wound of right mastoid, penetrating brain." In testimony, Noguchi expressed a professional opinion that the bullet was fired from a position "very, very close" to the senator. He went on to estimate that the muzzle of the gun that shot Kennedy was only "2" or 3" from the edge of the right ear." Not one witness places Sirhan any closer to Kennedy than 2' or 24", as he was firing. However, standing directly behind Kennedy was local security guard Thane Cesar who later admitted to having drawn his gun as soon as Sirhan began firing. He also concedes that his gun might have discharged but he denies having shot at Kennedy.

Further criminal research was continued in the case and concluded that 2 different firing W. Harper, reviewed the available evidence in the case. A qualified criminologist, William positions were used in the shooting and that 2 weapons had unquestionably been fired. This conclusion was based on hard evidence: comparison of a bullet removed from the abdomen of William Weisel with a bullet that lodged in the senator's neck (but which had entered near the armpit). There are no common class characteristics; the rifling marks sharply differ. That is to say, the bullets could not possibly have been fired from the same weapon. The substance of Harper's study is adhered to by several other criminologists including Drs. Herbert Leon MacDonell, Vincent P. Guinn, and Lowell Bradford. Harper unequivocally states that Kennedy was shot from a firing position entirely different from that of Sirhan B. Sirhan.

It would seem reasonable that Sirhan's gun would be test-fired to determine positively whether the Kennedy bullet or the Weisel bullet came from the Sirhan pistol. This standard police procedure, however, was not followed. Furthermore, a 2nd gun marked as evidence bore the serial number H18602, while the Sirhan gun had the serial number H53725. The police admitted that the guns had been reversed at the time of the trial, but the officials have not yet produced the Sirhan weapon so that it might be test-fired.

DeWayne Wolfer, head of the Los Angeles Police Department Crime Laboratory at the time of the original investigation, refused to test-fire the Sirhan gun. Marshall Houts, editor of Trauma magazine, an in-house organ of the field of criminalistics, mentioned his "deep academic and professional concern over Wolfer's horrendous blunders" in a letter sent to Evelle J. Younger, attorney general of the State of California.

Younger was district attorney for the county of Los Angeles at the time of the Kennedy assassination and the subsequent investigation. In his former position and in his present one as attorney general, he has refused to reopen the case for any reason. Present District Attorney Joseph Busch also has refused to reopen the case or the investigation. Busch was appointed D.A. by Younger when the latter was elected attorney general.

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