RFK KILLER MAY BE LIVING ABROAD, SAY AUTHORS

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Posted on Wed, Mar 26, 2008

RFK killer may be living abroad, say authors

By Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor

LEDYARD — The man who killed Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 may be living in the Philippines.

Sirhan B. Sirhan sits in a California prison, serving a life sentence for RFK’s murder, but, according to two investigators, his gunshots could not have killed Kennedy.

As Robert Joling and Philip Van Praag said numerous times during their presentation Tuesday at the 17th annual Arnold Markle Symposium, held at Foxwoods Resort Casino, “Don’t overlook the obvious.” The obvious, they say, is printed in Dr. Thomas Noguchi’s autopsy report: Kennedy’s fatal wounds came from a gun fired at point-blank range from behind, while Sirhan fired from in front of Kennedy, standing about 4 feet away.

The obvious, they claim, also can be heard on an early cassette tape recording: There were at least 13 gunshots fired, while Sirhan’s .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet revolver could hold only eight bullets.

Joling, a retired judge, and Van Praag, an expert in forensic sound analysis, presented their case at the symposium, sponsored by the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven.

The title of their book, “An Open and Shut Case: How the Justice System Failed in the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination,” is based on a quote by the Los Angeles police chief.

“Our conclusions are rather simple,” Joling said at the symposium. “Sirhan Bishara Sirhan did not and could not have killed Senator Robert Kennedy.”

Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary on June 5, 1968, and was heading from a victory speech through a pantry-kitchen to a press conference at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he was shot. He died the next day.

According to the autopsy, Joling said, three bullets hit Kennedy from behind and a fourth passed through his jacket’s shoulder. “The two shots that were fired underneath his armpit and the one in his coat were close-contact shots,” he said.

The fatal shot entered Kennedy’s skull one inch behind his right ear. Gunpowder burns created “tattooing” on the senator’s skin. “The black powder was embedded deeply into the flesh of the skull,” Joling said. “You don’t get that from four feet away.”

After shooting at Kennedy, Sirhan was tackled by Karl Uecker, an assistant maitre d’, and others.

Joling pointed out that RFK was hit four times and five others were also wounded, totaling at least nine bullets. “It doesn’t work that way in Los Angeles,” he said. “Five plus four makes eight, because Sirhan had an eight-shot revolver.”

The autopsy has long been available, contradicting the official version of events. Van Praag said analysis of the tape recording made by Stanislaw Pruszynski adds weight to the conclusion that at least 13 rounds were fired. Pruszynsky was a freelance journalist who now owns a cafe in Warsaw, Poland.

But unlike myriad conspiracy theories about the 1963 assassination of RFK’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, there has not been an outcry about whether Sirhan acted alone in 1968.

“The authorities were so convinced of this open-and-shut case, that’s the way they dealt with it throughout,” Van Praag said. At Sirhan’s trial, his defense lawyers used a diminished-capacity defense and never challenged the prosecution’s evidence, he said.

Sirhan was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court threw out the death penalty in 1972.

“He was a man literally caught with the smoking gun,” Joling said.

The most likely second gunman, according to Joling and Van Praag, was a security guard on his first — and last — day on the job. “I know who he is; I know where he lives,” Joling said, but added he has never interviewed the individual, believing that it wouldn’t prove or disprove his theory.

Why would the guard shoot Kennedy? “I have passed that issue past a half-dozen renowned psychiatrists,” Joling said. He might have panicked, though Joling doubts it. “Beyond that, I know of no other excuse,” he said.

Van Praag said the guard made statements about hating the Kennedys and blacks, and that he now lives in the Philippines.

Afterward, Henry Lee said the most important piece of evidence presented was that RFK’s fatal wound was a “close-contact shot.”

He said careful investigation of a crime scene is vital. Referring to the murders of O.J. Simpson’s wife and JonBenet Ramsey, which he investigated, as well as JFK’s assassination, Lee said, “We have to learn from the history. History teaches us a valuable lesson.”