[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 84%"]
RFK Murder Cover-Up Continues After Dramatic Parole Hearing
By
Andrew Kreig
[/TD]
[TD="width: 16%"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
A California parole boardthis month rejected a dramatic plea to release the convicted slayer of 1968presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy, thereby continuing one of thenation's most notorious murder cover-ups.
Kennedy friend PaulSchrade, 91, argued that the accused assassin Sirhan B. Sirhan, firing from Kennedy'sfront, could not have killed the New York senator in a hotel massacre that leftSchrade wounded in June 1968.
"Kennedywas a man of justice," Schrade told the parole board Feb. 10 in a preparedstatement at a state prison in San Diego, CA.
"But, so far,"Schrade continued, "justice has not been served in this case. And I feelobliged as both a shooting victim and as an American to speak out about this --and to honor the memory of the greatest American I've ever known, RobertFrancis Kennedy."
The board refused to grantclemency despite additional evidence from multiple witnesses and books throughthe years supporting defense claims that Kennedy (shown in a file photo atleft) was killed from the rear.
The full text of Schrade'sunsuccessful arguments to California's parole board are appended to a longer version of this column on the Justice Integrity Project
site, and provide apowerful new dimension to the historical debate regarding the 1968 deaths of
Kennedy (widely known as "RFK" in news headlines) and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This month was the firsttime Schrade has made such a verbal plea on behalf of a Sirhan, who is widelyregarded by researchers (but not publicly by authorities) as a likely victim ofmind-control before he fired at Kennedy, who had left a ballroom at theAmbassador Hotel via a hotel pantry when he was shot.
Sirhan, a former race trackexercise jockey who disappeared from his family for many weeks shortly beforethe shooting, has maintained that he could not remember details of his actions,including repetitious entries in his diary "RFK must die!" thatdefenders describe as a symptom of mind control by unknown perpetrators.
Authorities have keptSirhan in solitary confinement in essence for more than 45 years while hisadvocates have unsuccessfully argued for a new investigation or clemency. Hismost recent parole hearing before this year's was in 2011.
Schrade addressed hisremarks in part to Sirhan (shown at right in a prison photo).
"Sirhan,I forgive you," said Schrade, whom Sirhan shot in the forehead in thepantry. Schrade continued:
"The evidence clearlyshows you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy."
"There is clearevidence of a second gunman in that kitchen pantry who shot RobertKennedy," said Schrade. "One of the bullets -- the fatal bullet --struck Bob in the back of the head. Two bullets struck Bob literally in hisback. A fourth bullet struck the back of his coat's upper right seam and passedharmlessly through his coat. I believe all four of those bullets were firedfrom a second gunman standing behind Bob. You were never behind Bob, nor wasBob's back ever exposed to you."
Also, Schrade presenteddocuments supporting his clemency request that included a 2012 letter fromRobert F. Kennedy Jr., the late senator's oldest son, to then-U.S. AttorneyGen. Eric Holder asking for a pardon. Schrade provided also what he called"new evidence" supporting a brand new investigation.
The killing occurred in aLos Angeles hotel shortly after Kennedy was announced as winning California'sDemocratic presidential primary. The death removed a leading contender who waspoised to win the presidency in 1968.
Instead, Republican RichardNixon narrowly defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, whose late-startingcandidacy was crippled by dissension across the nation and especially withinthe Democratic Party. Among causes were protests over the Vietnam War waged bythe administration of incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and manypost-assassination riots in cities after the 1968 assassinations of Kennedy andthe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Thismonth for the 15th time, California officials denied parole for Sirhan, who wasconvicted of murder in the first degree during a trial in 1969 and sentenced todeath in a gas chamber before separate legal decisions abolished the deathpenalty in California.
Schrade, a former UnitedAuto Workers union official and friend to Kennedy, is far from alone in hisbelief in Sirhan's innocence in killing Robert Kennedy, even if Sirhan shotSchrade. At least a dozen books dating back nearly five decades have attacked theinvestigation and verdict.
The Debate
Schrade was one of five shooting survivors from the night of theassassination when Sirhan was wrestled to the ground after the shooting. the defendant is shown in a mug shot after arrest.
![[Image: sirhan-sirhan-mug-gif_35217_20160226-976.gif]](http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/sirhan-sirhan-mug-gif_35217_20160226-976.gif)
Sirhan Sirhan
(image by State of California)
For Sirhan's unsuccessful2011 parole hearing, the Palestinian-born Christian defendant, a resident ofPasadena before the shooting, recalled under hypnosis that a still mysterious woman had infatuated him,as the Associated Press reported in
Convicted RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan says girl in polka-dot dressmanipulated him.
Severalbooks argue that Robert Kennedy's murder wasinextricably linked to his desire to expose after his hoped-for election aspresident the true story of his brother John's assassination in 1963 via ahigh-level conspiracy. Then rogue operatives in government, business and the media operated a cover-upso powerful as to intimidate even the Kennedy family and its friends unless anduntil Robert Kennedy, a New York senator, could attain wider powers aspresident.
Books andarticles also approve the official conclusion that Sirhan acted alone to killRFK and injure others. Among them are The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy (1995) by investigative reporterDan Moldea.
Sirhan Sirhan is shown in a photoupon his arrest in 1968
Crime Scene Evidence
Physical evidence from thehotel kitchen crime scene remains an important dimension in the background of thismonth's clemency appeal and other ongoing research efforts and controversies.
Critics of the officialinvestigation have argued that Kennedy's wounds from the back and 14 shots fired when Sirhan's gun could fire just eight shots constituteoverwhelming evidence that a second gunman administered the kill shots andescaped. Critics allege that authorities were complicit by seizing, secretingand ultimately losing such physical evidence such as woodwork panels, andignoring or intimidating witnesses disputing the official story.
Los Angeles county coronerDr. Thomas Noguchi, M.D., authored a 62-page autopsy report that found that thefatal shot killed Kennedy from behind. It said the fatal shot traveled upward,at nearly point blank range, and that two other shots wounded Kennedy. Oneother shot was said to have gone through his clothing. Bullets that woundedfive others, including Schrade, were recovered during their surgeries. Thus,there were eight known wounds, three for Kennedy and five for others.
In February 1969, Noguchi'stestimony was regarded as helpful to Sirhan's defense at trial but not enoughto thwart Sirhan's conviction. Two weeks later, the Los Angeles Board ofSupervisors fired Noguchi on 64 counts of unprofessional behavior. Noguchifought what are now widely regarded as trumped up charges, and was reinstated.
Dr.Cyril Wecht, M.D. and J.D., a medical school professor, consultant, formercoroner for Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, and former official consultantappointed by Noguchi, has been writing and speaking about the RFK case for 45years.
Wecht hasasserted that the fatal shot that killed Kennedy "behind the ear was firedat a distance of approximately 1 to 1.5 inches away from his head and had aforward trajectory." Further, Wecht, a former president of the AmericanAcademy of Forensic Scientists, has said repeatedly (and confirmed for thiscolumn) that "Sirhan's gun was never that close to RFK and was neverpositioned behind RFK."
Wecht co-signedan unsuccessful petition to Los Angeles county seeking a new grand juryinvestigation. Attached to the petition, submitted by Schrade as a victim, were800 exhibits. Among the 50 individuals and organizations co-signing thepetition were former RFK press secretary Frank Mankiewicz, film makerOliver Stone, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a Harvard historian and White Houseaide to the late President Kennedy.
Official reaction was"carefully muted," as described in the 1997 book Shadow Play by William Klaber and Philip Melanson.
"This has been lookedat a number of times before, and it hasn't resulted in anythingdifferent," said Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, "so I'm notgoing to comment on it."
What Can We Do?
Looking ahead, a number ofhuman rights and legal reform groups are building on the compelling evidencethat a cover up occurred in the murder of President Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Robert in 1968, among others. Thoseinvolved in the research include the new group Citizens Against Political Assassinations(CAPA) chaired by Wecht, our Justice Integrity Project, and such longstanding advocates as theAssassination Archives and Research Center (AARC).
The purpose? Justice -- and a better understanding of why injustice continues to undermine public life today.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
![[Image: s_500_opednews_com_0_sirhan-sirhan-2016-...26-607.gif]](http://www.opednews.com/populum/cachedimages/s_500_opednews_com_0_sirhan-sirhan-2016-jpg_35217_20160226-607.gif)
