My Parthian Shot (s)
(once again, skip if you weren’t blessed with a whole lot of smarts)
What I shall present in this Report are some final thoughts as well as grousing over the many frustrations I have with an archaic judicial system where judges are not given greater latitude to do their work and are often shackled by an outdated judicial system that isn’t always keeping up with the changing times.
Skip these four paragraphs if you are not in love with history
The above thoughts remind me of Konstantin Pobedonostsev, a brilliant Russian jurist, who at a young age brought many of Russia’s old outdated laws into a more modern and relevant code of laws. I believe his great three volume “Course of Civil Law” is still used as a legal reference in modern Russian courts. (pub. 1868, 1871 and 1880). But, unfortunately all was not well with this brilliant jurist’s mind. He was a rabid anti- semite who had a negative influence on the Tsar and his family. In time this led to a major increase in the Russian pogroms and the loss of most civil rights for Russian Jews.
The resulting flight of many persecuted Jews leaving Russia in the early 1900’s I believe was in no small measure the result of Pobedonostsev’s terrible poisoning influence on the Russian Tsar and the Cossacks.. ( the pogroms included wild murderous raids by drunken Cossacks against the helpless Jewish victims who had no rights and nowhere to turn for justice – so they fled their persecutors). Many of these sufferers fled to America and Palestine for safety.
In my early teens I was most fortunate to have come to know a wonderful Russian Jewish family who experienced those nightmare pogroms. They settled in the Bronx, New York and quickly became Americans. What impressed me most was their love of education , their love of learning and their great love of justice. It was the Kapner family’s influence that turned me into a lifelong reader/researcher. I often think of the many gifts and talents these wonderful refuges brought to America.
Years later when I met Mary Sirhan I shared the story of the Kapner family with her. And I remember Mary’s response was a simple prayer thanking God for saving that family.
To continue
I shall briefly respond to the latest ruling by Beverly Reid O’Connell , U.S. District Court Judge and with the recommendation of Federal Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Wistrich in Sirhan B. Sirhan latest appeal wherein Judge O’Connell writes “Petitioner failed to meet the showing required for actual innocence” January 5, 2015 (Case No. CV 00 – 05686 BRO (AJWx) )
I must agree with the court’s ruling – Sirhan attorneys William Pepper and Laurie Dusek failed to prove to the court their charge that there was proof of actual innocence.
That is not to say Pepper/Dusek didn’t raise some compelling issues, they did, e.g., there was Phillip Van Praag’s very impressive report of the sound recording that showed thirteen bullet shots were fired in the pantry.
Then there was Dr. Brown’s fascinating report/findings of his removing the memory block from Sirhan’s mind enabling Sirhan to remember the pantry events. I never thought it would happen. Yes, that was a truly impressive work.
Another issue raised by Pepper/Dusek is the pantry witness Nina Rhodes’ experience which certainly deserves a closer look and I can see no reason to doubt the accuracy of her story.
One of the most powerful charges raised by Pepper/Dusek was their citing the many instances when Sirhan trial attorney Grant Cooper openly appeared to be aiding the prosecution. There can be no excuse for Cooper’s failure to adequately represent his client. It was outrageously bad. And Pepper/Dusek didn’t mince words about it.
A tantalizing question
I ask what if Pepper/Dusek had provided the court with a COPY of the 1975 Court Order #2 Report signed by the seven examiners which tells us in plain English that the two comparison bullets Officer Wolfer used on 6-6-68 for his Special Exhibit 10 photomicrograph (Peo 47/Peo 52) were in fact the very same comparison bullets (Peo 47/Peo 52) the seven examiners used in their re -creation Special Hearing Exhibit 10? And that those two bullets had the wrong id markings on their bases (in 1968 and 1975).
The Little wanderers
In light of the fact that the O’Connell/Wistrich court did not receive Court Order #2 as an exhibit I have to wonder, if Pepper/Dusek had included it would the court have addressed the fact that the Kennedy neck bullet and the Goldstein bullets were in fact proven to have been substituted bullets in 1975 and also in Wolfer’s comparison test of the same bullets on 6-6-68? Therefore it follows - wouldn’t the court want to know What the blazes was going on? Well for starters, you can’t have renegade bullets wandering in and out of courtrooms. Ballistics evidence simply cannot be allowed to become a guessing game in ANY courtroom.
And I ask should procedural law trump over the proven switched bullets evidence? What would the O’Connell/Wistrich court have done had they been given a copy of the 1975 Court Order #2 Report in light of what Kamela Harris wrote to the court?
Here is why I feel this is of paramount importance
You see, California Attorney General Kamela Harris tells the court that the evidence bullets are authentic (including Peo 47) . This is simply not true. We see in the official Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory dated 1975 that the Kennedy neck bullet (Peo 47) was marked “DW TN” on its base. That is incorrect. Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi marked the Kennedy neck bullet “TN31” and not “DW” “TN” upon his removal of the Kennedy neck bullet (Peo 47) on 6-6-68 during the autopsy. The fact is in 1975 Peo 47 and Peo 52 were switched bullets.
And not to forget Wolfer was given these very same substituted bullets on 6-6-68 for his comparison tests. (However we do not know with an absolute certainty whether the Sirhan trial court received the authentic or the switched bullets –because – in April 1974 Baxter Ward , former news man and then current member of Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was successful in holding an inquiry concerning Sirhan ballistics.
One of the witnesses Baxter Ward called to testify was Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi who examined Peo 47 bullet base and there it was “TN31” the very bullet Dr. Noguchi removed from Robert F. Kennedy’s neck at the autopsy on 6-6-68. But then, a year later seven court appointed experts examined the Sirhan ballistics evidence and lo and behold - the real Kennedy neck bullet (TN31) in 1974 inexplicably became the switched imposter “Kennedy neck bullet” (“DW” “TN”) in 1975 !!! (more about this in the following paragraphs)
Officer Orozco
It will be remembered Dr. Noguchi handed the Kennedy neck bullet over to the custody of LAPD Sgt. William Jordan – but, inexplicably it was not Jordan but LAPD officer L.M. Orozco who somehow got hold of the RFK neck bullet - from Jordon’s custody - and so it was Orozco and NOT Officer Jordan who entered the (alleged) Kennedy neck bullet into evidence in the LAPD Property Report.
On what planet is that a legally accepted chain of evidence?
As REQUIRED on the LAPD Property Report Orozco DID NOT record the id marking “TN31” into the LAPD Property Report, instead, Orozco substituted Noguchi’s id engraving with the Coroner’s case number!! Can you believe that? So , here we see Orozco early on threw his own sabot into the machinery.
Returning to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury for some more fun and games
Here we see L.A. County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi testified before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury Hearing on 6-7-68 at which time Dr. Noguchi verified the bullet he removed from Robert F. Kennedy’s neck was authentic. It was engraved with the correct engraving TN31. ( However, the gun received in evidence by the Grand Jury didn’t fare as well, you see the serial number on the “Sirhan” gun was NOT recorded! Technically, it was a phantom gun with an unknown serial number that was received in evidence with the Grand Jury.)
To continue with Dr. Noguchi
Then at Sirhan trial on Feb. 24, 1969 Dr. Noguchi was called to testify BUT – guess what? He was not given the neck bullet (Peo 47) to examine. The poor man was there for window dressing only. ALL of the Sirhan case ballistics evidence was stipulated into evidence by a prior secret agreement between all three prosecutors and all three defense attorneys in the presence of the trial judge in his chambers three days earlier. There was a reason for this secret meeting in the trial judge’s chambers. Prosecutor David Fitts admitted they didn’t have adequate foundation for the bullets and it was his understanding the defense would stipulate to the bullets. Are you ready for that?
That’s not all - Orozco really did what appeared to be some dirty work in this case, e.g., his unbelievable LAPD Property Report for the Kennedy neck bullet was followed by his falsely dating victim William Weisel’s bullet on the LAPD Property Report (the 6th instead of the 5th)
But there is more. That Weisel bullet went through seven separate hands/ transactions without any id engraving on the bullet base when it finally reached Orozco’s hands. Unbelievably, it was Orozco and NOT the operating room surgeon - who’s name I believe is Dr. Neal - who marked the base of the Weisel bullet with his own initials LMO (Leroy M. Orozco).
There was a reason
I strongly suspect the reason Orozco wrote the wrong date on the Weisel LAPD Property Report was to delay Wolfer’s receiving the near pristine Weisel bullet for comparison purposes with the Kennedy neck bullet.
This is supported by the fact that the Weisel bullet is not even listed in Wolfer’s Log. Therefore, with Wolfer not receiving the near perfect Weisel bullet in time Wolfer compared the Kennedy neck bullet with the damaged Goldstein bullet for comparison tests (Special Exhibit 10 at 9:00 p.m. on 6-6-68). No one in his right mind would choose the damaged Goldstein bullet over the near perfect Weisel bullet for microscopic comparison testing. And Wolfer was no dummy. So those bad boys tricked him into using the fake Goldstein bullet over the near perfect Weisel bullet. Yes, Wolfer was had for breakfast.
Putting icing on the cake
Wolfer was given a fake Kennedy neck bullet to compare with a fake Goldstein bullet which we see in Special Exhibit 10 photomicrograph! This is all true which I have backed up with numerous official records.
Wait
But, not so fast. Remember, the Goldstein bullet given to Wolfer was proven to be a substituted bullet (#6 on its base instead of Dr. Finkel’s X) in Wenke examiner Patrick Garland’s Evidence Inventory dated 1975 and it will be remembered the examiners reported Peo 47 and Peo 52 were in the same condition in 1975 as they were in 1968 !
Therefore, with the wrong id markings on Peo 47 and Peo 52 in 1975 and with the examiners reporting that Peo 47 and Peo 52 matched Wolfer’s Peo 47 and Peo 52 in 1968 – doesn’t this tell you – that Wolfer was given a substitute Peo 47 and a substitute Peo 52 on 6-6-68? Who in SUS did this to Wolfer? And how easy it was for SUS to place the blame on Wolfer and the LAPD Crime Lab.
To return to Peo 47
After the Baxter Ward Hearing in 1974 came the Judge Wenke Court Authorization for the retesting of Sirhan ballistics evidence in 1975 at which time the Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory revealed that the seven examiners were given many altered and substituted items of evidence (too numerous to list in this summation).
The Goldstein bullet
We know the Goldstein bullet is a switched bullet because Dr. Finkel, the surgeon who removed the Goldstein bullet engraved an “X” on the bullet base. Yet the Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory reports the number “6” on the Goldstein bullet base (Peo 52).
But the story doesn’t end there.
You see, in order for the unknown person to have engraved the number 6 on the Goldstein bullet base tells us that an UNMARKED bullet was substituted in the place of the real Goldstein bullet and then it was engraved on its base with the number 6. However, the records clearly show Dr. Finkel engraved an X on the Goldstein bullet base. Incredibly, # 6 performed double duty by also serving as Panel Identification # 6.
Clearly, Kamela Harris erred when she informed the court that the bullets, including Peo 47 were authentic – when in fact the bullets were proven to be switched bullets in 1975 and 1968. I want to stress I do not fault Harris for her error. She simply could not have been expected to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the mountain of ballistics problems in Sirhan case – including of course, the switching of bullets.
Before I leave the subject of Court Order #2 - to be fair and balanced - I feel neither Sirhan attorneys nor Kamela Harris were fully aware of the many complex ballistics frauds that existed. Therefore, any errors made by either of them must not be faulted.
This is clearly seen in the unanswered question as to which Kennedy neck bullet was present in court during Sirhan trial – was it “DW” “TN” or “TN31” ? The record is silent about which Kennedy neck bullet was actually present in the Sirhan courtroom on February 24, 1969. And so that compelling argument made by Pepper/Dusek was stillborn. (I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I feel about the impossible burden the ballistics problems placed on Pepper/Dusek and Kamela Harris). Therefore, I repeat, I cannot fault them.
But that’s not the end of this bad business
There remains the matter of SUS ( Special Unit Senator) stealing the Investigation of the Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy away from the Los Angeles Police Department. That should never have been allowed to happen.
Unquestionably, it was SUS who masterminded the shell casings cover-up of Peo 21 and Peo 55 which were mysteriously WITHHELD from the seven examiners in 1975. SUS couldn’t risk the seven examiners making comparisons of any Sirhan shell casings with the test shell casings from the test firing of gun #H53725 in 1975. And to prevent future snoopers from discovering this shell casings cover-up the seven examiners’ own test shell casings from gun H53725 secretly VANISHED ! They were never turned over to the CSA ! No. I didn’t make this stuff up.
And what about GJ5B? We see in Patrick Garland Evidence Inventory that those four test bullets were in fact unmarked which is a clear contradiction of Wolfer’s testimony under oath at both his Grand Jury testimony and in Wolfer v Blair Deposition ( that he marked the four GJ5B bullets with his initials.) In short, GJ5B bullets were proven to be substituted bullets.
The following are just some of the frauds I discovered over the years:
And what about the unbelievably rotten Bullet Worksheets?
The Sportarm/Lock, Stock ‘N Barrel fabrication?
The overall monumental fraud of the shell casings?
And then there is the major problem of SUS turning over inauthentic bullets to Wolfer. (this is seen with the Goldstein and the Kennedy neck bullets).
And what gun was actually given to Wolfer? Technically, the record tells us it was H18602 (Peo 55) and not H53725.
And what gun id number was received in evidence by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on 6-7-68?
And not to forget the identification number assigned to the fatal Kennedy neck bullet and a small fragment – the id numbers were changed from Item # 24 to Item # 26 and the small fatal bullet fragment from Item #25 to Item #27. This was such a shocking discovery that it was the major piece of evidence in the Scott Enyart trial (1996) which I testified in as the discoverer of this fraud. So, how can we be certain that the fatal bullet and its fragment are in fact authentic? (this is too long a story to get into at length here)
That is precisely why Wolfer put the prosecution on notice - that there were no matches for the bullets which resulted in the secret deal to stipulate the bullets into evidence. In short, SUS put Wolfer’s head in a vice. He was stuck big time. How was Wolfer to deal with dirty bullets from a dirty SUS crew? And then let the Los Angeles Police Department take the blame..
That raises another question – Please pay attention to this
How come there are no shell casings in GJ5B? This has always bothered me, because it will be remembered there are two separate evidence envelopes (GJ5B and Peo 55) with each envelope containing a different set of test fired bullets and each evidence envelope records a different gun number. And these test firings for comparison test bullets took place on two separate days (6-5-68 and 6-6-68). And further, each envelope appeared in separate courtrooms (GJ5B at Grand Jury and Peo 55 at Sirhan trial). I suspect that was to prevent GJ5B fake test bullets from bumping into Peo 55 test bullets that were fired from a police gun and not the murder gun..
And now we see there are no test shell casings in GJ5B (with gun# H53725) and someone REMOVED the two test shell casings from Peo 55 Evidence envelope (with LAPD gun # H18602) at the Sirhan trial. I repeat, there are no spent test shell casings in GJ5B and no spent test shell casings were present in Peo 55 evidence envelope DURING the Sirhan trial! Simply UNBELIEVABLE.
And bear in mind, the (alleged) 8 crime scene shell casings (first received the identity GJ7A at Grand Jury Hearing on 6-7-68 and later received the identity Peo 21 during the Sirhan trial on 2-24-69) were not given to the seven examiners which of course prevented them from making any shell casing comparison tests. The fact is the examiners received no shell casings at all period. And their own test shell casings took a hike and never came back.
GJ7A is one huge disgrace
These eight little (really phantom) crime scene shell casings (again, at Grand Jury GJ7A and at trial Peo 21) were reported to have been removed from “Sirhan” gun in the early morning hours of 6-5-68 and then placed in an evidence envelope marked GJ7A at the Grand Jury. But GJ7A evidence envelope unbelievably had no gun number – no gun make – no gun model – no officer’s name written on that evidence envelope ! And written in red ink. Oh, and the shell casings were inexplicably UNMARKED by the reporting officer. (I do not refer to the manufacturer’s CCI stamp) Yes, there were unmarked shell casings in a near blank evidence envelope (however, only the Sirhan DR number for id is provided). Can you believe that? Again, can you believe that?
The rat caper
Not to forget, Peo 55 had a different gun number written on the evidence envelope - this was an LAPD owned gun from LAPD’s Property Division (gun number H18602 was formerly the Jake Williams gun). And to cap off this monumental fraud the gun that was delivered to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on 6-7-68 does NOT record a gun id number in the Los Angeles County Grand Jury Transcript for the gun that was received in evidence !!!! What rat cooked up that caper?
No – this did not happen in Red China or Russia – it happened in my country. And shame on us all that not only my research reports, but the reports of the many other dedicated researchers continue to go under-reported by a tightly controlled mainstream news media. I remember reading Alexis de Tocqueville’s sharp criticism in his Democracy in America of this sort of business going on with the Fourth Estate back in the early 1800’s. No changes.
How does one defend Appendix H: List and Description of Trial Exhibits?
And now we see from Appendix H: List and Description of Trial Exhibits that the Sirhan ballistics evidence which was delivered to the California State Archives in Sacramento, Ca. is – I hate to say – consists almost entirely of misleading and false information of the Sirhan evidence (don’t take my word for it – take the time to examine Appendix H: List and Description of Trial Exhibits for yourself (an exhibit in my Letter to Nancy Zimmelman)
On the subject of Appendix H:…
Reader, please note in my 6-27-14 letter to Ms. Nancy Zimmelman, Head Archivist, CSA I did not include the juxtaposition of Peo 6/two photographs in F3906: 178-179 in Appendix H: List and Description of Trial Exhibits, p. 5. We see the listing of two photographs which were incorrectly listed as Peo 6. These two photographs are photographs of Peo 6 – photographs of a gun and not Peo 6 the gun itself. Hence the gun id number was not at issue on page 5. I wanted to clear up that sloppy listing.
(Reader, overlook repetitions and overlappings if you see it in this report. I tell you after all these years this screwed-up case is taking out its spiteful revenge on me (repeating myself) and also – I tried to make a very complex research work a little easier to follow and understand).
I close with this question : Now that the court has ruled. Can we in good conscience shut our eyes to so many frauds and the compelling charges raised by Pepper and Dusek?
Rose Lynn Mangan 4-29-2015
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