Foreword

Just before midnight on June 4, 1968 Robert Kennedy’s victory was assured in the California presidential primary. This was his last big step to become the nominee of the Democratic Party. We had worked the phones to other states and helped him prepare his notes for his victory speech in the Embassy Ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He went downstairs to greet thousands of joyful supporters waiting in the hotel’s two largest ballrooms.

After his victory speech he left the stage and entered a pantry area. I was ahead of him and as he approached, Bob said, “Paul, I want you and Jess with me.” Jess Unruh was campaign chair and speaker of the California Assembly. I was the RFK union chair and an officer of the United Auto Workers union.

We were heading thru the pantry to the Colonial Room nearby for his media conference. Bob stopped to shake hands with Juan Romero, a kitchen worker he came to know during his stay. Romero’s story of trust and hope in Bobby was published in Life magazine by Steve Lopez.

That was the last time I saw Bob alive. As we turned to move on, shots were fired. I did not hear them. I was told I was hit first, fell and passed out with a severe head wound. Four others were wounded.

Bob was fatally wounded and died a day later. UPI reported, among his last words were “Is everybody okay? Is Paul all right?”

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was seen by many in the pantry firing a gun. He was subdued and arrested. His gun had been wrested from him by Rosie Grier and Rafer Johnson. Several others helped in Sirhan’s capture.

Within days suspicions were raised that more than one gun was fired that night. I refused to be involved and moved outside of Los Angeles, devastated by this deep personal loss and to our already divided and troubled country.

Many thought the case was “open and shut” but the Los Angeles Police Department never really opened the case. And it quickly shut down its limited investigation, and ignored or destroyed key evidence. Sirhan Sirhan’s own defense team never opened a full investigation and tried to plead their client guilty to avoid the death penalty. Both the prosecution and the defense agreed that the case was “open and shut”. They shut the door on the American system of justice.

Now nearly forty years later forensic science has given us hope that a truly scientific investigation has provided evidence that can finally lead to justice in this case. The authors of this book, An Open & Shut Case, are fully qualified forensic professionals who present important new evidence they have discovered and scientifically tested.

Audio engineer and teacher Phil Van Praag has spent years working on tape recordings of the shooting. These new tests were made with an audio tape recorded by a Canadian journalist in the pantry area. No other audio tape was made so close to the shooting. It provides the strongest evidence that a second gun was firing at Robert Kennedy that night. Tests were presented in 2007 on the Discovery Times Channel as produced by Creative Differences Productions in California.

Dr. Robert Joling, trial lawyer, former judge and President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences has nearly forty years experience investigating this case. Neither are conspiracy advocates. They bring us the best science and legal experience to solve this crime. The gun shot tests are made for the first time with an audio tape closest to RFK.
I began to understand what became known as the second gun theory when Congressman Allard Lowenstein from New York visited our home in 1974. He explained that serious questions existed about the incomplete police investigation, their errors and destruction of crucial evidence.

Allard took us to visit our neighbor, Lillian Castellano and her friend, Floyd Nelson. They had discovered signs of extra bullets in the hotel pantry - more than Sirhan could have shot - and had taken photographs the next day. FBI Agent William Bailey inspected the scene within hours of the shooting and discovered bullet holes in the doorjamb behind us. That doorjamb was removed and destroyed by the Police soon after, among other evidence.

I became convinced to join their investigations and worked with Allard Lowenstein, his research scholar Greg Stone, Dr. Joling and Dr. Philip Melanson whose book Shadow Play with William Klaber is definitive to 1997. It is sad these three friends are no longer alive to admire and build on the work of Van Praag and Joling.

Lawyers Geoffrey Cowan, Marilyn Barrett, Mel Levine, Monica Weil, and Vincent Bugliosi represented me and took our case to court, joined by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and CBS. We were able to examine the limited evidence presented in the trial by the prosecution. The vast police files still remained locked away from the public.

With the end of the trial, the struggle began for the promised release to the public of the police files. This handicapped any re-investigation and only ended twenty years later. With the help of the Police Commission and Mayor Bradley, the files were sent to the California State Archives in 1988 for public inspection.

Our request to convince the Grand Jury in 1992 to re-open the case was blocked by the District Attorney. Prominent Kennedy supporters and others signed on to our request. Signing on were Frank Mankiewicz, Bob Kennedy’s press secretary, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Watergate prosecutor Sam Dash, farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, forensic scientist Dr. Cyril Wecht, FBI agent William Bailey and many others.

The question is often raised why more of the Kennedy clan were not more involved in the investigations of the assassinations of the two Kennedy brothers when serious questions have been raised and a vast majority of the public has questioned the official versions and failures.

That is not what Robert Kennedy wanted. David Talbot’s new book Brothers tells us that Robert Kennedy was more intensely interested in who killed his brother than we knew. Talbot calls him ‘the first conspiracy theorist’.

One of his first calls on the day President Kennedy was shot was to the CIA, asking a ranking official “Did your outfit have anything to do with this horror?” Later, meeting with CIA Director John McCone, he was told they had not been involved. In his California campaign in 1968 he was asked about it and said he would reopen the files, and said, essentially, ‘No one is more interested in who killed my brother than I am.’

The Robert Kennedy case was never “open and shut”. We now have the opportunity to really solve this case. Van Praag and his skilled audio tests and Joling’s years of dedication to open this case completely and successfully is a great public service.

Their work effectively challenges the shameful conduct of Los Angeles law enforcement which shut out the public with its faulty investigation, its loss and destruction of evidence, and the cover up of its misguided actions.

Their science and legal work bring out the truth in this case for the first time. Their effort to solve this case is the way to reassert the authority and integrity of the American system of justice.

By Paul Schrade
December, 2007
(Copyright JV & Co., LLC, 2008)