◆ SpookStack

MO L Moreover, the previous reports issued by the District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles Police Department confirming their own conclusions that Sirhan Sirhan had been the lone gunman seemed only to generate accusations by the critics of a "cover up. " Eventually, during 1975, new accusations appeared in the press, and on media talk and entertainment shows. At the time of the appoint~- ment of Kranz as Special Counsel, the facts and circumstances surrounding political assassinations had become new entertainment in both tabloid reading and on television and radio talk shows. The United States Congress was investigating possible conspiracy concerning the assassination of President John Kennedy, and other Congressional Committees were investigating the link between CIA operations in foreign countries and political assassinations. The Columbia Broadcasting System was in the process of producing a news documentary on the subject of political assassinations for nation- wide broadcast in early 1976. CBS, through its local Los Angeles attorneys, had filed a request in Los Angeles Superior Court for examination and testing of the exhibits and evidence in the Sirhan Vdoce In short, major questicns had been raised about the scientific evidence generated in the investigation of Sirhan and in the trial which followed the assassination of Senator Kennedy. The Major questions were whether all of the bullets recovered from Senator Kennedy and the other five victims came from the gun of Sirhan. Beginning in mid-1970, and for the next several years, several forensic scientists, working in the field of firearms iden- tification, and on the basis of examination of photographs and the physical evideannra had concluded that thara vars tnannsiatonniac in an JF wt eb we -_ Me Fd ed See hs ee eg Net Neh Ne ek Neh Ne anak Ww whi, To Few di te we Re Ad ee ee ee ee hee the cannelure design and the rifling angles of the Kennedy neck wound bullet (Sirhan trial exhibit 47) when compared to the Weisel wound bullet (trial exhibit 54). It was argued by the critics that these "apparent incorsistencies" should not have been present if both bullets had been fired from the Sirhan gun. Evidence Presented at Trial On the evening of June 2, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy had given a speech at the Palm Terrace Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Prior to the Senator's speech on the evening of June 2, William Blume, who had worked as a stock boy in a liquor store located next door to an organic health:food store where defendant Sirhan had worked the few months previous to that date, observed Sirhan in the lobby area adjacent to the Palm Terrace Room. Mrs. Miriam Davis, a hostess for the Kennedy event that night, was walking around the hotel twenty minutes after the speech when she observed Sirhan seated in the kitchen area. After the Senator's speech on June 2, Kennedy had passed through the kitchen area. On the morning of June 4, 1968, election day, Sirhan signed in at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club located on Fish Canyon Road in Duarte. He wrote "Sirhan Sirhan" and the address 696 East Howard Street, Pasadena, on the roster. After Sirhan had fired awhile on the shooting range, he told the range master, Edward Buckner, "I want the best box of shells you have, and I want some that will not wisfire. i got to have some that will not misfire." Buckner then sold defendant Sirhan a box of shells, and Sirhan resumed shooting, engaging in rapid fire shooting, using a .22 revolver and remaining on the range til 5:00 p.m. - 4¥ -