The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (62 page)

Kennedy had made the decision himself that he did not want an army of security people shrouding his every move, partly because he didn’t like the restriction of close-quarter body
guarding, but mostly because he was trying to appeal to normal individuals who associated that type of self-important gang-handedness with people with whom they had nothing in common. On this
particular night Kennedy was accompanied by his inner circle and a number of security personnel supplied under contract to the Ambassador Hotel. Behind the core group led by the hotel maitre
d’, Karl Uecker, a large number of the audience had followed the senator who was heading into the hotel’s pantry area, which was deemed the quickest way to get to the appointed press
room. One of the agency bodyguards, Thane Cesar, had moved in behind Uecker and now lightly held the senator’s arm in a bid to steer him along the pantry corridor which was set with all types
of stainless steel tables and utensils. Hotel staff had gathered in the pantry area and were pleased when Kennedy stopped to shake their hands, turning to the left and then the right. After one
handshake Kennedy turned to the front to continue his progress when the first shot rang out. It was 12.15 a.m.

A young man of eastern appearance had jumped out of the crowd in front of Kennedy and shouted, “Kennedy, you son of a bitch,” and started to fire over and over again. Reminiscent of
his brother’s shooting the scene broke into pandemonium, with the crowd dispersing, not knowing which way to run. In an act of pure bravery, Karl Uecker lunged for the gunman and managed to
contain him in a headlock with one arm whilst trying to control the man’s gun hand with his other. Bashing it against one of the stainless-steel steam tables he hoped to make him drop the
weapon, but the gun continued to fire until the last bullet was spent.

When the noise stopped and the chaotic scene had calmed down, Robert Kennedy lay on his back on the pantry floor, his blood pooling around his body. Juan Romero, a member of the hotel staff,
cradled the senator’s head in his lap. “Come on Mr Kennedy, you can make it,” he encouraged. Surprisingly, Kennedy was still conscious, and enquired if everyone was alright,
seemingly unaware of his own plight. A member of the crowd handed through some rosary beads and a doctor who had been found gave what little assistance he could. Kennedy’s wife, Ethel, was
ushered through to the front of the crowd, where she immediately knelt beside him in the expanding pool of blood and offered shocked words of comfort. Kennedy, barely audible, asked Ethel if he was
alright, but by now he was losing his fight as his life blood slowly seeped away.

The police were on the scene within three minutes of the attack, quickly taking charge and arresting the gunman. The ambulance was painfully late, taking 17 precious minutes to reach the hotel,
taking Kennedy first to the Central Receiving Hospital before being sent on to the Good Samaritan Hospital, where they arrived at 1 a.m., some 45 minutes after the shooting.

Once there he was rushed into the operating theatre where he endured a three-hour operation to save him, but the damage was too great and Kennedy died of his wounds, the second Kennedy to be
killed by an assassin’s bullet.

The man arrested for the crime was Sirhan Bishra Sirhan; born in Jerusalem, his family had moved to the United States after they had become refugees in Israeli-occupied territory. During the
course of the police investigation that followed, they found a diary kept hidden by Sirhan at his home, in which he appeared to make threats against Kennedy. It was suggested that Sirhan’s
motive was his disapproval of Kennedy’s support for the sale of 50 Phantom jets to the Israelis. On top of the eyewitness testimonies, Sirhan had been seen earlier in the day practising
rapid-fire shooting at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club and was known to have communist sympathies. The gun Sirhan had used at the gun club was the same calibre as that taken from him after the
shooting had occurred. If ever there was a case which could be classed as “open and shut”, this must surely be the one.

The media machine rolled into action once more as the name Kennedy hit the front pages, reminiscent of his brother’s tragic demise just four years earlier. Again there was outrage, another
Kennedy assassinated, and another opportunity for dynamic leadership of the American people had been lost through one man’s actions. And like the last time the public were fed the facts as
they emerged, the obvious ones – Sirhan was seen to have shot Kennedy, had been wrestled to the floor, had his gun taken and had left evidence to demonstrate his disdain for his victim
through his diaries.

The public once more wanted to see justice done and were in no mood for a complicated enquiry. But Kennedy’s celebrity, his worldly importance, would not allow the simple facts as
presented to just sail through unquestioned.

Examination of Kennedy by coroner Thomas Noguchi revealed that he had been struck by three bullets, a fourth one having travelled through his suit, exiting through the shoulder pad of his
jacket. The first bullet hit Kennedy just around his right shoulder blade, coming to halt after getting lodged in his spine. The second bullet entered just a couple of inches below the first,
exiting his chest, the entry and exit wounds showing that the bullet had been travelling steeply upwards and forwards at the same time. The third bullet struck just to the rear of and slightly
below the right ear, causing heavy damage to the neck tissue.

When the pantry area had been cleared the police began to take witness statements from those who were present, including many members of the public and those who worked at the hotel. The Los
Angeles Police Department’s forensic expert, De Wayne Wolfer, was also in attendance and began to draw up his own picture of events that evening by creating a “ballistics map”,
through which he intended to show where each bullet had ended up, from which direction they were fired and their trajectory once launched.

The ballistics map and the coroner’s report form the starting point of another assassination mystery which carries through into the LAPD investigation and the reports which were ultimately
released for public consumption in 1988.

An evaluation of the evidence from the forensic and medical perspective reveals that Kennedy was shot from behind, not from in front, the position adopted by Sirhan. All the bullets that struck
Kennedy show entry wounds to the back of his body and the more obvious exit wounds to his front. Closer examination of the injuries show that the trajectory of each bullet is steeply upwards and
forwards. The coroner’s report also suggests that the nature of the injuries would indicate that the gun involved would need to have been practically touching Kennedy to create the effect
uncovered in the examination. The ballistics report confirms similar findings – the bullets that were retrieved were found in the ceiling space, consistent with a steep angle of trajectory
and in a wooden door jamb, again in front of Kennedy.

If Sirhan had been a lone gunman then his bullets would have been found behind Kennedy and the entry wounds would have been obvious on Kennedy’s front. Eyewitness accounts are clear that
Sirhan made his attack from the front and that at most Kennedy only ever presented the side of his body as he shook hands with the kitchen staff. More specifically, the most common account is that
Kennedy was facing Sirhan full on when he fired his first shot. Sirhan had after all shouted, “Kennedy, you son of a bitch,” thus drawing the senator’s attention fully to the
front. In conflict also is Sirhan’s distance from Kennedy when he opened fire. It is estimated that he was at least one and a half feet away, possibly up to six feet away depending on your
perspective, whereas coroner Noguchi’s evaluation suggests that the shot that hit Kennedy behind the ear was fired from not more than a couple of inches away, and the others which hit him in
the back were fired with the gun’s barrel pressed up against Kennedy’s body.

Again reminiscent of JFK’s murder, there was a type of “magic bullet” conundrum. If one ignores the directions the bullets were fired from for a moment there is the angle of
entry. Given the positions of Kennedy and Sirhan in relation to one another, it would appear to be geometrically impossible for Sirhan to have fired bullets which could achieve such entry angles.
Supporting this further are the eyewitness accounts which state that Sirhan’s gun arm was parallel to the ground for the initial shots, which would indicate he was firing at a 90 degree angle
to Kennedy’s perpendicular body. Only after Uecker grabbed him did the angle of shot change. The circumstances the eyewitnesses found themselves in would have made it difficult to recall
everything perfectly, but the forensic and medical proof is difficult to ignore – though it ultimately was.

And then there was the matter of the number of bullets fired and the number of bullets accounted for at the scene. Kennedy was not the only person to have suffered gunshot wounds that night
– five other people were injured, including Kennedy’s friend Paul Schrade, newsman Ira Goldstein and others unlucky enough to have been in the vicinity. Sirhan’s gun contained a
maximum of eight bullets and he was able to keep firing until it was empty. He was prevented from reloading his weapon, therefore if more than eight bullets were found there must have been another
gunman in the kitchen at the same time. All of the bullets were accounted for except for one which had been lost in the ceiling space. Comments passed by officers of the LAPD at the time suggest
that there were many other bullets which had been found in the door frame, which when added to the ones removed from those who were hit add up to more than the eight Sirhan had fired. These
additional bullets were never mentioned in De Wayne Wolfer’s ballistics report. Other witnesses at the time also identified men in suits who had their weapons drawn; Don Schulman claimed he
saw one of the security guards firing his gun, but in the pandemonium could not be sure who at.

As Kennedy was a presidential candidate rather than the President, the crime committed that night was not a Federal offence, therefore it was appropriate for the LAPD to handle the enquiry
themselves. Their police chief, Ed Davis, was heard to say, “this will not be another Dallas,” making reference to the government-based investigation carried under the leadership of
Earl Warren. What was specifically meant by this comment is not known but what is clear is that the investigation was much less vigorous than it should have been. Early on the LAPD began to come to
conclusions which the evidence did not support, and where evidence emerged which did not fit the pre-formed conclusion it was discarded.

One would think that the medical and forensic evidence would have been sufficient for questions to be asked, but there were other pieces of the jigsaw which were officially ignored. Shortly
after the shooting one witness heard a man and a woman, who were running away from the Ambassador Hotel, say, “we shot him, we shot him.” Sergeant Paul Schraga was the officer who took
that particular statement and he subsequently put out an All Points Bulletin (APB) on the two suspects. At LAPD headquarters they were so sure they had got their man that Schraga was told to cancel
the APB – when he didn’t do so his superiors stepped in and cancelled it for him. One can draw one’s own conclusions as to why this action was taken – conspiracy involving
the LAPD, incompetence or the sheer wanton desire to be able to close the case without complication. When someone of Kennedy’s public stature is killed the net result can be difficult to deal
with – the press will invade, the government may intervene, the LAPD’s effectiveness will be scrutinized – however, if an arrest can be quickly concluded it is possible to look
good and avoid all of the chaos which would surely follow. The power of celebrity should not be underestimated; it can have a dizzying effect on all concerned. Eventually the witness statement was
explained away as a simple case of mishearing, the couple actually saying, “They shot him, they shot him,” which is of course possible, but those who heard it would be more likely to
recall accurately what was said than those who were not present.

Others in the room that night claim to have seen all manner of suspicious men acting strangely; two people say they saw armed men other than Sirhan and the contract security man, Thane Eugene
Cesar, with guns drawn. Lisa Urso stated she saw a blond-haired man in a grey suit putting his gun back into his holster. Another witness saw a tall, dark-haired man, dressed in a black suit, fire
two shots and then run out of the pantry, heading back in the direction Kennedy had originally come from.

With all of the above information seemingly contradicting the official version of events, the press were happy to report that the lone gunman, Sirhan Sirhan, had committed the crime because of
his political beliefs, the whole event was unfortunate and demonstrated the need for more security. Certainly had Kennedy had the benefit of official security he might have been a more difficult
target, as his bodyguards would have shielded him from any would-be attackers. However suspicions are aroused by the contract security provided by Ace Guard Service that evening. Given the
ballistic and forensic evidence, Thane Cesar, who had only been with the security company for one week prior to his assignment, was the man closest to Kennedy when he was shot; he was guiding him
by the elbow and was therefore in a position slightly to Kennedy’s rear, a position best placed to deliver the wounds that were sustained. During the LAPD investigation that followed, the gun
Cesar had been carrying that evening went missing – it has never been found.

Sirhan himself presented a rather odd persona on his arrest. Clearly he had drawn a gun and fired several shots which were presumably intended for Kennedy, and to this extent he was heavily
embroiled in the events that evening. The police, the press and the public were to that extent quite right to conclude that Sirhan was guilty; the issue comes as to whether he acted alone or acted
as part of a group. Those who saw Sirhan on the night of his arrest were surprised at his demeanour. Given that he had been arrested for a very serious crime he was unnervingly calm; he smiled and
his glazed expression gave the impression his mind was elsewhere, giving rise to the notion that he had been hypnotized. During interview he mumbled incoherently and claimed he could not recall
anything of the shooting. Many people had seen Sirhan in the company of others earlier in the evening, seemingly in deep discussion, but he couldn’t recall what he had been doing or with
whom. His forgetfulness seemed to fit nicely with the LAPD – talk of others who might have been involved that evening simply complicated the situation – who for some reason were much
happier to conclude that Sirhan had acted entirely independently. The detailed descriptions provided by those who had seen Sirhan in the company of others were simply dismissed, even when one
witness claimed to have spoken briefly with one of Sirhan’s party that night.