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Robert F Kennedy Assassination — Part 2
Page 14
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Lowenstein also expressed his concern that Wolfer may never
have actually test fired the Sirhan weapon and may never have
matched up the bullets. Technically, Wolfer had testified that he
had only taken one of the seven test fired bullets recovered from
the water tank in 1968 and matched it with the evidence bullets.
When asked by Kranz if Lowenstein agreed that three of the seven
experts positively matched up the three victim bullets with one
gun, and two more did so by inference, Lowenstein replied in the
affirmative. Finally, Lowenstein expressed his opinion that the
photographs taken by Lystrup for the Baxter Ward Hearings in 1974
would show that the gouge marks were not present at the time of the
photographs, and therefore, such gouge marks must have been sub-
stituted on the various bullets after May, 1974. However, this
appears to be contradicted by a close analysis of the
photomicrograph taken by DeWayne Wolfer in 1968, which shows the
identifying characteristic of the so-called gouge mark..
Additionally, the Harper - Photographs taken in 1970, on close
examination, also reveal the so-called gouge mark.
In the several days following the release of the joint report
of the ballistics experts, Special Counsel Kranz met with several
of the critics and two-gun advocates. In essence, their position
could be simply stated that there had been no proof that a second
gun had not been used. Stated in another way, the experts had not,
by stating there was no evidence of a second gun, positively stated
that only one gun had been fired. In support of their attempt to
ask the experts to prove a negative, the critics had cited the fact
_ a
that the victim bullets had not in themselves been identified as
being fired from the Sirhan gun and "no other gun in the world."
Additionally, the critics felt that Exhibit 55 (the three test
bullets entered as exhibits at the trial) and Grand Jury 5B (the
four Wolfer test-fired bullets) had not actually been matched spe-
cifically with each other or identified with other evidence bullets
taken from the victims at the crime scene. Additionally, Lowell
Bradford issued a press release stating "the firearms evidence does
not in and of itself establish a basis for a two-gun proposition;
likewise, this same proposition, on the basis of other evidence is
not precluded either." The other evidence suggested by Bradford:
(a) "witness statements that another gun was being fired in
the Ambassador;
(b) bullet pathways contradictory to the direction from
which Sirhan was firing; a
(c) suspicion or speculation that more than eight bullets
had been fired."
Special Counsel Kranz met with Ted Charach in the days
following the release of the joint report and Charach was convinced
that the experts had totally contradicted DeWayne Wolfer. Charach
felt that Wolfer had never actually fired the Sirhan weapon in the
test firing, even though all the experts were able to identify
similar. gross characteristics on all of the bullets, including the
Wolfer test-fired bullets. Charach was critical of Wolfer for
having testfired copper coated bullets, since the cooper had been
easily destroyed and the bullets had not been easily identified.
However, Sirhan himself had fired copper coated bullets at the
particular crime, and it can be assumed that Wolfer was trying to
get an analysis from similar ammunition.
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