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ro | oF Ironically, during this discussion in Acting District Attorney Howard's office, the Board of Supervisors was holding its weekly meeting. Supervisor Baxter Ward was expressing his dis-~ Pleasure with Acting District Attorney Howard's refusal to reopen the Sirhan matter. The previous weekend, the weekend of August 9, Howard had discussed the possibility of the appointment of a special ¢counsel with Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and Howard suggested his intention to discuss the appointment of special counsel with attorney Tom Kranz. During the Board meeting on that day, August 12, Supervisor Ward requested that Acting District Attorney Howard appear before the Board and give explanations concerning the Sirhan matter. Howard responded to the request to appear, and at the Board meeting, Howard announced that the District Attorney's _Office had been exploring various ways to re-examine key evidence “in the Kennedy assassination ina proper legal forum. The possi-~ bility of the appointment of a special master and special counsel was discussed. Howard then introduced Kranz before the Board of Supervisors, seeking permission for the appointment of Kranz as special counsel to the District Attorney's Office on a 60day basis, Salary at $2,000 a month. The motion was approved 5-0. This appointment was later extended for another 60-day period beginning October 13. Kranz appointment as special counsel expired December 12, i975. . Two days after this Board of Supervisors meeting, Special Counsel Kranz and Deputy District Attorney Dinko Bozanich represented the District Attorney's office at a hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert Wenke concerning the application by CBS and Paul Schrade for examination and testing of the Sirhan trial exhibits. Kranz and Bozanich stated that the District Attorney's Office had no opposition to the principle of test firing of the gun as long as the matter would be conducted within a judicial forum, with the right of cross examinaticn and evidentary rules applying. The re-testing of the Sirhan weapon and re-examination of all bullet evidence from the 1969 trial were ordered by Judge Wenke. Contrary to the immediate notoriety given the judge's order, this was not a re-opening nor a re-investigation of the Sirhan case. The judge's order involved only the reexamina- tion of the ballistics, gun and bullet evidence that could possibly shed light on factual differences. Judge Wenke had instructed all Parties and counsel to draft a suitable procedure for the testing and examination of the exhibits. In order to understand the nature of the appointment of Kranz as Special Counsel, it is necessary to review the events preceeding the appointment of Kranz as Special Counsel, and to look at the orchestration of controversy during the past several years - Since the murder of Robert Kennedy in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968, in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel. -?2?- ce a ree © te O