Follow the Gun
I wish to assure
the Reader that I did not rush to judgement in
writing this Report. Indeed the opposite
is true. Many years were spent searching through records for information on
guns and their serial numbers in the Sirhan case.
This Report begins with
L.A.P.D. Officer
DeWayne Wolfer’s Log dated 6-5-68 records a gun with a different
identification number was given to Officer Wolfer
(Item # 22) as the crime scene gun. At first it appeared to be an innocent
error.
After a lengthy
research I detected an unmistakable pattern emerging which clearly pointed to
repeated tampering with the evidence - including the gun.
This tells me
Item # 22 cannot be dismissed as harmless error, and that Officer Wolfer used this substitute gun to test fire for comparison
test bullets. And these fraudulent test bullets were used to compare with the
substitute Kennedy neck bullet and the substitute Goldstein bullet.
There is no
evidence to suggest Officer Wolfer was aware of this
monumental fraud, and for that reason, I do not assign blame to him.
*********************
Let us start from
the very beginning and follow this imposter gun
Former FBI agent
William Barry was in charge of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s security on that
fateful nght in the Pantry of the Ambassador Hotel.
Immediately
after the shooting Sirhan was thrown onto a steam
table with a number of angry men pouncing on him in a desperate effort to grab
the gun from him.
In these chaotic
moments Barry managed to wrench the gun out of Sirhan’s
hand.
Oddly, after
taking possession of the gun, Barry LAID
THE GUN on the steam table and LEFT IT THERE - and then turned away to go to the aid of Senator
Kennedy.
I have to ask why
Barry didn’t put the gun in his jacket pocket instead of laying it on the steam
table? (this is corroborated by several people who reported seeing a
gun lying there.)
At some point in
this chaotic scene photographer Boris Yarro briefly
held the gun in his own hand and later worried about his fingerprints being on
it. I have never been able to learn from SUS files how Yarro
managed to get hold of the gun. Or how it left his hand.
Unaccountably, SUS
records skip past this important piece of information - sort of like a blind eye. Never-the-less,
it is true, Yarro did hold the gun in his hands for a
brief time.
Following the
incident of Yarro briefly having posession
of the gun, a
gun was removed from Sirhan’s hand for the second time. This time it was the huge athlete Rosey
Grier who wrested the gun out of Sirhan’s hand and promptly turned it over to Rafer Johnson. That
of course allowed him to have a better grip of Sirhan..
Rafer tells me about taking the gun to his home
In the spring of
1973 while at the Drake Stadium at a track meet I was introduced to Rafer Johnson. I asked Rafer what
he did with the Sirhan gun for the two hours he had
possession of it. It was at that time that Rafer told
me he put the gun in his jacket pocket and then went to his home where he wrote
the serial number of the gun down in his diary. When I asked to examine his
diary Johnson gave me his unlisted phone number telling me he would give me the
gun’s serial number when I call. I
telephoned many times only to have his very polite mother answer the phone and
tell me Rafer would return my call. He never did. (I
was aware Rafer had the gun for approximately two hours from examining
the Sirhan Trial Transcript time line).
After leaving his
home with the gun still in his jacket pocket Rafer
tried to find out what he could about Senator Kennedy’s condition. Once he was
satisfied that Kennedy was in surgery he turned the gun over to LAPD Officers
Calkins and McGann at Ramparts Headquarters.
The transcribed
interview of Johnson by McGann left much to be
desired. I found the interview boarded on vagueness and did not contain a
thorough and accurate description of the gun. I dismissed my concern by
thinking everyone was hyper-excited and wasn’t at their best. After all, it had
been a terrible day.
Gun # H-53725 was booked into evidence in the LAPD
Property Report as Item # 11 with the eight shell casings booked as Item # 12.
(6-5-68)
Here is where the
story becomes interesting
On 6-5-68 Wolfer writes the following in his Log:
“1:45
p.m. - Central Property - Parker Center.
Item # 29 - Poss. 22 cal.
slug (Stroll)
Item #
22 - Iver Johnson Rev.
Item # 12 - eight expended shells
Item #
1 - 22 cal. slug (Goldstein)
Item #
2 - Mt. slip
Item #
3 - Receipt
“2:00 p.m. - Laboratory.
Examined Iver Johnson to determine number of shots fired.
Type of ammunition used.
Working
condition of weapon.” (see exhibit)
It will be noted Wolfer
recorded the gun as Item # 22. That is incorrect. The correct Booking number for the gun in LAPD Property Report reads
“Item # 11”
But there is
another big surprise
In addition to
the wrong Item number for the gun (Item # 22) we see the Goldstein bullet
identified as Item # 1 is also wrong. Strangely, the Item number for the
Goldstein bullet was re-numbered from Item # 1 to Item # 113 and stamped
“Confidential” (see exhibits)
Re-numbering the
ID number of the Goldstein bullet along with the re-numbering of the gun
strongly suggested a tampering of the evidence.
This is not idle
speculation, as it turned out the 1975 Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory
revealed both the Kennedy neck bullet and the Goldstein bullet were
substituted. And we learn from the Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory the Goldstein bullet was switched prior to
its delivery to Officer Wolfer for him to conduct his examinations. (Special Exhibit 10 and Special Hearing
Exhibit 10 Report)
Fake Sirhan gun - fake Goldstein bullet - fake Kennedy
neck bullet
This tells us Wolfer test fired gun (Item # 22) for comparison test bullets on 6-5/6-68.
Which can only
mean Wolfer compared his fake comparison test bullets fired from
the fake Sirhan gun
(Item # 22) with the fake Kennedy
neck bullet and with the fake Goldstein bullet
No, this is not a
rush to judgement
Without the
Garland Evidence Inventory, the Judge Wenke/Court
Order # 2 Special
Hearing Exhibit 10 Report, Wolfer’s
surprise photomicrograph Special Exhibit 10, Wolfer’s
Log (which does not record the serial
number of the Item # 22 gun), the LACGJ Transcript which also does not
record the serial number of the gun it received in evidence (6-7-68) - without these extraordinary records, I
would not have made too much of Item #
22 .
Unquestionably,
the Sirhan gun number was the elephant in the room
Here is what we
know
GJ5B evidence
envelope is dated 6-5-68 and contains four test bullets fired from an Iver Johnson rev, serial # H-53725 and we see these four test
bullets in GJ5B envelope were proven to be substitute bullets. (source: Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory). Then there is this problem, at the time GJ5B
envelope was received in evidence by the Grand Jury, for what
ever reason,
the serial number of the gun
clearly WRITTEN on the envelope
was NOT read into the record.
Think about this
for a moment - the gun itself was received in evidence by the Grand Jury - but
the serial number was NOT read into the record.
And now we see the gun number written on GJ5B evidence envelope (# H-53725),
containing Wolfer’s
four test bullets, was also NOT
read into the record! Goodnight!
The
importance of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury Transcript not recording the
serial number of the gun it received in evidence cannot not be lightly
dismissed for these two reasons:
Reason # 1 - the
gun number (H-53725) appearing on GJ5B evidence envelope (containing
the four test bullets) WAS NOT read into the record .
# 2 - Those four test bullets were
subsequently proven to have been SUBSTITUTE test bullets. (source:
Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory - which is an attachment to the 1975 Judge Robert K. Wenke
Court Order # 2 authorizing the re-testing of the Sirhan
gun)
More bad news
Eight months
after Officer Wolfer testified before the Grand Jury
he testified in the Sirhan Trial to having matched Peo. 47 (Kennedy neck bullet) with his
test bullets in Peo. 55. envelope. But that raises a serious problem because the
serial number of the gun
written on Peo. 55 evidence envelope
(containing three test bullets) records the serial number of a Los
Angeles Police Department gun from Property Division (#H-18602 instead of #H-53725). How to explain that?
Review
The Sirhan gun which was booked in evidence on 6-5-68 in the
Los Angeles Police Department Property Report was identified as Item # 11,
serial # H-53725 Iver Johnson rev....
GJ5B is an LAPD
Test Shot envelope
dated 6-5-68 containing four test fired bullets which were
subsequently proven to be substitute bullets. The Serial number of the gun
written on envelope
GJ5B is H-53725 but was NOT recorded in the Grand Jury
Transcript ( 6-7-68)
A gun identified
as Item # 22 was recorded in Officer Wolfer’s Log on 6-5-68.
Wolfer did NOT record the serial number of gun Item # 22 in his
Log
The LAPD -owned
gun # H-18602 was written on
Sirhan evidence envelope Peo. 55
which contained the three test bullets fired by Officer Wolfer (6-5/6-68)
That gun number (H-18602) was
not read into the Sirhan trial record. (2-24-69)
The two missing
shell casings in
Peo. 55 were removed from the evidence envelope prior
to Wolfer’s testimony. (this
is covered in earlier reports)
The LACGJ did NOT
record the serial number of the gun (Grand Juy
7) which it received in evidence (6-7-68) .
Grand Jury 7A
“evidence” envelope contains eight spent shell casings which were reported to
have been removed from the Sirhan gun on 6-5-68 were unmarked.
The writing on
envelope Grand Jury 7A, does not contain the serial number of the gun from
which the spent bullets were removed - nor does GJ7A contain Officer names
or badge numbers
Ah, I almost
forgot. Item # 11 and Item # 12 were transferred to SUS on 8-24-68 and marked
Confidential. (this was covered in earlier reports).
I strongly suspect the gun
identified as Item # 22 and the LAPD gun
(serial number H-18602) on Peo. 55 evidence envelope is one and the same gun.
And of course -
there is the matter of all of the bullets (including the gun) being stipulated
into evidence at the Sirhan trial by the seriously
compromised defense attorney Grant
Cooper. And what about the defense attorneys being put on
notice by DDA David Fitts that the bullets did not
have adequate foundation?
Nothing, absolutely nothing was proven up.
Inexplicably -
the defense did not hire their own ballistics expert.
It couldn’t have been to save money because Cooper paid five hundred dollars
out of the defense fund for a professional photo/portrait of himself !
When Sirhan learned the monies from the defense expense account
were used to pay for
Cooper’s portrait - Sirhan
asked me “Why didn’t Cooper use the 500 dollars to hire a ballistics expert for
me?” Good question
Then too,
Attorney Abdeen Jabar flew
into Los Angeles from Detroit, Mich. carrying a one hundred twenty five thousand
dollar check and gave it to the defense attorneys for expenses. Additionally,
there were monies coming in from various news agencies. There was no excuse to
not hire a ballistics expert in the face of the Prosecution putting the Defense
on notice that there wasn’t adequate foundation for the bullets.
Now let’s turn
our attention to the little fakes
Clearly Item # 22
is not the Sirhan gun (Item #
11) and this substitute gun was given to Wolfer on
6-5-68. It therefore follows that Wolfer’s test bullets from Item # 22 gun were also
substitute test bullets. And these
little fakes were then compared with a substitute Kennedy neck bullet and also
with a substitute Goldstein bullet.
Again,
What does that do
to Wolfer’s Court testimony wherein he testified to
matching his test bullets with the Kennedy neck bullet and with the Goldstein
bullet?
(sources Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory
dated 1975; Judge Wenke/Court
Order # 2 Special Hearing Exhibit 10
Report (1975); Wolfer’s Log dated 6-5-68 re Item # 22; Wolfer’s
Log re Item # 1 same date; Dr. Thomas Noguchi Autopsy Report; SUS Records re Dr.Finkel
ID mark “X” on the Goldstein bullet base; LAPD Property Report dated 6-5-68 re
crime scene gun identified as Item # 11; Grand Jury Transcript, 6-7-68; Wolfer’s Grand Jury testimony 6-7-68; Wolfer’s
Sirhan trial testimony 2-24-69)
Considering all
of the above
Item # 22 must be
seen for what it is - an unknown - a substitute gun.
It is well worth
going over these facts again
Wolfer did not record the serial number of gun Item
# 22. in his Log.
#
H-18602 gun number on Peo. 55 envelope was an
LAPD-owned gun. - the serial number was not read into
the Sirhan trial record.
The serial number
of the Grand Jury gun (GJ7) was not read into the record (6-7-68)
Kennedy neck
bullet was switched
Goldstein bullet
was switched
Baby steps in the
world of research
From the start I believed , as did every one else,
that Sirhan fatally shot Senator Robert F. Kennedy in
the Ambassador Hotel. Then, after the trial ended I asked Appellate Attorney
Luke McKissack for the Sirhan
Trial Transcripts -
Aside from my interest in research, I wanted to examine the legal
process at work. - and I admit to being a little
suspicious.
Volume Fifteen
changed everything. In the very early stages of my innocent research project I
wrote off LAPD
criminalist DeWayne Wolfer as a Klutz. There were
just too many ballistics problems.
That low opinion
of him didn’t change until my research ripened at which time I saw how the
evidence was switched, altered, moved
around, burned, fabricated and covered up. And I knew, without the slightest
doubt, that wasn’t Wolfer’s doing .
Without the help
of honest and courageous men like crusty, cranky criminalist William
Harper; tenacious investigator Ted Charach (who always
drove me crazy); Sirhan’s loyal older brother Adel Sirhan;
the dedicated Attorney Lawrence Teeter;
the very brave and honest Dr. Thomas
Noguchi and so many other dedicated researchers this case would never have seen
the light of day.
I want to close
this report with a
fond remembrance of Sirhan’s older brother, the late Adel Sirhan
One day on our
long drive up to the prison to visit with Sirhan I
asked Adel what his name (Adel) meant in Arabic. “Justice” that was his answer.
Rose Lynn Mangan February,
2014