Sirhan Sirhan may be released tomorrow

[Richard Smith]

Not sure what role partisan politics plays in this case.

The issue for LA officials is that the key person on the LAPD who was in charge of the evidence, DeWayne Wolfer, was involved in lots of cases. If it were confirmed that Wolfer lied or tampered with evidence, it would affect dozens of cases. That’s the sort of thing that discourages the LA officials from coming clean about his handling of the evidence even though it’s widely acknowledged today that Wolfer was corrupt. A judge stopped short of accusing Wolfer of perjury.

The corruption of the LAPD, especially the Ramparts precinct that handled the RFK investigation, has been well documented since the 1990s.

Most witnesses were focused on Sirhan who was in front of Kennedy or they were taking cover.

There ARE a few witnesses who saw the security guard who was behind Kennedy with a gun drawn (all shots that hit Kennedy came from behind). At least one witness said he saw the security guard fire the gun.

At Sirhan’s trial, one witness said he saw a gunman and could identify him if he saw him again but didn’t identify Sirhan as the gunman.

So yes, some witnesses DID see other potential shooters but they were either ignored or dismissed as wrong about their recollection.

You suggested that the shot to RFK's head was fired from one inch away.  Do you think someone could get within one inch of RFK and get away in that crowd?  Why would everyone focus on Sirhan if someone else with a gun was only one inch from RFK?  It makes no sense.  And even if a security guard had mistakenly shot RFK in an attempt to defend him from Sirhan that makes no difference as to Sirhan's culpability.

[Jon Banks]

You suggested that the shot to RFK's head was fired from one inch away.

I didn't suggest that, the medical examiner who conducted RFK's autopsy did. He has kept the same story for 50+ years even though it conflicts with the conclusion that Sirhan alone killed RFK.

 

Do you think someone could get within one inch of RFK and get away in that crowd?  Why would everyone focus on Sirhan if someone else with a gun was only one inch from RFK?  It makes no sense. 

I noted earlier that some witnesses described other gunmen who weren't or couldn't have been Sirhan.

Tactically, it makes sense to use Sirhan as a decoy in front of Kennedy while someone else shot him from behind. Kennedy's entourage understandably went after Sirhan and weren't paying attention to what was going on elsewhere in the room.

Researcher, Lisa Pease, has suggested that Sirhan's gun had Blanks, which seems far-fetched but could explain why none of the bullets from the crime scene were matched to his gun.

And even if a security guard had mistakenly shot RFK in an attempt to defend him from Sirhan that makes no difference as to Sirhan's culpability.

That's possible. The security guard might've shot RFK accidentally. I'm not sure if the accidental killing thing was ever explored by investigators.

However, based on dozens of witnesses, Sirhan wasn't alone at the Ambassador hotel that evening. He was seen by several witnesses with other Latino or Middle Eastern looking men and a woman in a polka-dot dress. They stood out because they were dressed down while most people at the party were well dressed.

And I don't see how Sirhan alone could've figured out where to wait for Kennedy after the victory speech. There had to be some coordination to get Sirhan past security and in the position he was in to shoot RFK.
---------------------

Waiter Vincent DiPierro, 19, said in a statement: “When I first saw him there was a girl behind him, too.”

He said she was 21-24, shapely and wore a white dress with black or violet polka dots.

Another witness, Darnell Johnson, saw a woman in a polka dot dress near Kennedy, as did George Green, who said she fled the scene with a man after the shooting.

Sergeant Paul Sharaga, the first police officer to arrive, said he interviewed an elderly couple who were on the balcony outside the hotel’s Embassy Room, “when a young couple, early 20s, came running from the direction of the Embassy Room shouting, ‘We shot him, we shot him’.”

Sandy Serrano, 20, spoke of seeing a woman in a polka dot dress run past her on a stairwell with a young man in a gold sweater and heard the woman say: “We’ve shot him.”

In all, 25 witnesses saw a woman in a polka dot dress. Thirteen saw her with Sirhan.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/968886/bobby-kennedy-assassination-shots-killed-president-losangeles-hotel-jfk

[Mitch Todd]

The point is, she didn’t dismiss the new evidence or argue that “the case is solved.”

Sirhan’s new trial was denied due to it being considered a waste of time due to the fact that a conspiracy finding wouldn’t exonerate him. It wasn’t rejected due to a lack of legitimacy of the evidence of a second shooter.

You've just made my point for me. Stop that! The State of California didn't try to rebut or dismiss the "new evidence" (was there anything really new, other than the  Pruszynski tape anyway?) because the State had no need to.

[Tom Scully]

The uber liberals running California today are protecting the conservative LAPD from five decades ago in the cover up of the murder of a liberal icon?  And you think someone got their gun within one inch of RFK's head amidst a large crowd of people and escaped unnoticed?  None of that adds up.

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/california-population-change-between-census-decade.html


Who should "run" California "today"?

...the extremists supporting this misogynist "mess" because he reassures them their white supremacist sympathies are just fine with him?

Column: Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy ...
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-20/recall-candidate-larry-elder-is-a-threat-to-black-californians
Column: "Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You've been warned Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Norwalk."

[Jon Banks]

Thane Eugene Cesar was in the best position to shoot RFK from the rear right-side. The police never inspected his gun to see if it was fired on the night of the assassination. He sold his .22 revolver shortly after the assassination. It’s certainly plausible that Cesar accidentally shot RFK while attempting to fire at Sirhan but that doesn’t explain some of the lies or inconsistencies in his statements:

Thane Eugene Cesar died today in the Philippines. Compelling evidence suggests that Cesar murdered my father. On June 5, 1968, Cesar, an employee in a classified section of Lockheed’s Burbank facility, was moonlighting as a security guard at the Ambassador Hotel. He had landed the job about one week earlier. Cesar waited in the pantry as my father spoke in the ballroom, then grabbed my father by the elbow and guided him toward Sirhan.

With 77 people in the pantry, every eyewitness said Sirhan was always in front on my father at a 3-6 feet distance. Sirhan fired two shots toward my father before he was tackled. From under the dog pile, Sirhan emptied his 8 chamber revolver firing 6 more shots in the opposite direction 5 of them striking bystander and one going wild .

By his own account, Cesar was directly behind my dad holding his right elbow with his own gun drawn when my dad fell backwards on top of him. Cesar repeatedly changed his story about exactly when he drew his weapon.

According to the Coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, all 4 shots that struck my father were ‘contact’ shots fired from behind my dad with the barrel touching or nearly touching his body. Cesar sold his .22 to a co-worker weeks after the assassination warning him that it had been used in a crime. Cesar lied to police claiming that he’d disposed of the gun months before the assassination. Cesar was a bigot who hated the Kennedys for their advocacy of Civil Rights for blacks.

 I had plans to meet Thane Eugene Cesar in the Philippines last June until he demanded a payment of $25,000 through his agent Dan Moldea. Ironically, Moldea penned a meticulous and compelling indictment of Cesar in a 1995 book and then suddenly exculpated him by fiat in a bizarre and nonsensical final chapter. Police have never seriously investigated Cesar’s role in my father’s killing.

It’s been alleged that Cesar owned an H&R .22 revolver and sold it later to Jim Yoder, a friend of his in Arkansas. He allegedly told police he sold the .22 before the murder when he actually sold it after the murder. Moldea’s book says that Charach, the documentarian, learned that Cesar sold his .22 revolver to Yoder three months after the assassination, and that Yoder provided a receipt. The book adds that Yoder allegedly told Charach the gun was stolen in a burglary.

“It’s clear that Cesar’s position behind and to the right of Kennedy matched the shooting position described in the autopsy,” the book reports. He had advance notice Kennedy was coming through and was “possibly seen talking to Sirhan.” He “has repeatedly changed his story on when he drew his gun, and his movements after the shooting…Questions remain as to who pulled his tie off.”

Among anolamlies in the case, the Chronicle cited the fact that Noguchi “reported that the fatal shot was fired less than one inch from Kennedy’s head behind his right ear.” Four shots came from the rear but Sirhan fired a .22 “from a few feet in front of Kennedy.” The revolver held eight rounds, but “a radio reporter’s tape recording of the shooting has sounds of what one audio expert describes as 13 shots” and “double shots,” reported The Chronicle, summing up the main concerns.

https://heavy.com/news/2018/05/thane-eugene-cesar/

[Tom Scully]

Jon, I guess you missed or discounted this?

-snip-
RFK, Jr. suspected security guard Thane Eugene Cesar's involvement.
https://aarclibrary.org/thane-eugene-cesar-rfk-jr-calls-him-possible-assassin/

Dan Moldea's account of Cesar's cooperation, including consenting to a lie detector test, and the results.:
(Moldea mentions he was discouraged from hypnosis because of reliability vs risk and went with polygraph.)
https://www.moldea.com/Cesar-polygraph.pdf
Dan Moldea on the polygraph test he arranged for Thane Eugene Cesar. From his book, The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive Means, ...
-snip-

I would have agreed with most of what you posted about Cesar, but the details here influenced me to no longer suspect him based on the reasons you presented because Moldea's efforts answered most of my concerns.

https://twitter.com/DanMoldea/status/1430179825403183115
10:46 AM · Aug 24, 2021

Thane Eugene Cesar, an innocent man, falsely accused. . . . With the confessed and convicted Sirhan Sirhan’s parole hearing this Friday, Cesar will be defamed by a desperate cadre of screwballs, hoping to cast Sirhan as a misunderstood visionary who should be released from prison

Supported by:
https://www.moldea.com/Cesar-polygraph.pdf

[Richard Smith]

I didn't suggest that, the medical examiner who conducted RFK's autopsy did. He has kept the same story for 50+ years even though it conflicts with the conclusion that Sirhan alone killed RFK.

 

You cited the fact that the ME indicated that a shot was fired within an inch of RFK's head to support the claim that it could not have been Sirhan who was the shooter.  So do you believe someone else get within an inch of RFK and escaped in that crowd or not? 

[Richard Smith]

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/california-population-change-between-census-decade.html


Who should "run" California "today"?

...the extremists supporting this misogynist "mess" because he reassures them their white supremacist sympathies are just fine with him?

Column: Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy ...
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-20/recall-candidate-larry-elder-is-a-threat-to-black-californians
Column: "Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You've been warned Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Norwalk."

I can't decipher exactly what point you are trying to make here.  Is it that the black guy running for governor is a white supremacist and that the rich, elitist white guy is not?  If so, that is truly rabbit hole doubleplusgood reasoning.  LOL.  The lengths that liberals will go to vilify any minority or female who dares to stray from the cause is enlightening on their hypocrisy.