"There is clear evidence of a second gunman in that kitchen pantry who shot Robert Kennedy," said Schrade. "One of the bullets -- the fatal bullet -- struck Bob in the back of the head. Two bullets struck Bob literally in his back. A fourth bullet struck the back of his coat's upper right seam and passed harmlessly through his coat. I believe all four of those bullets were fired from a second gunman standing behind Bob. You were never behind Bob, nor was Bob's back ever exposed to you."
Also, Schrade presented documents supporting his clemency request, including support for a new investigation of a recording by freelance reporter Stanislaw Pruszynski, the only known audio recording to capture the sounds of the gunshots fired at the Ambassador Hotel. Expert Philip Van Praag has argued that the audio showed 13 shots being fired.
The killing occurred in a Los Angeles hotel shortly after Kennedy was announced as winning California's Democratic presidential primary. The death removed a leading contender who was poised to win the presidency in 1968.
Instead, Republican Richard Nixon narrowly defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, whose late-starting candidacy was crippled by dissension across the nation and especially within the Democratic Party. Among causes were protests over the Vietnam War waged by the administration of incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and many post-assassination riots in cities after the 1968 assassinations of Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
This month for the 15th time, California officials denied parole for Sirhan, who was convicted of murder in the first degree during a trial in 1969 and sentenced to death in a gas chamber before separate legal decisions abolished the death penalty in California.
Schrade, a former United Auto Workers union official and friend to Kennedy, is far from alone in his belief in Sirhan's innocence in killing Robert Kennedy, even if Sirhan shot Schrade. At least a dozen books dating back nearly five decades have attacked the investigation and verdict.
The Debate
Schrade was one of five shooting survivors from the night of the assassination when Sirhan was wrestled to the ground after the shooting. the defendant is shown in a mug shot after arrest.
Sirhan Sirhan is shown in a photo upon his arrest in 1968
For Sirhan's unsuccessful 2011 parole hearing, the Palestinian-born Christian defendant, a resident of Pasadena 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 dress manipulated him.
Several books argue that Robert Kennedy's murder was inextricably linked to his desire to expose after his hoped-for election as president the true story of his brother John's assassination in 1963 via a high-level conspiracy. Then rogue operatives in government, business and the media operated a cover-up so powerful as to intimidate even the Kennedy family and its friends unless and until Robert Kennedy, a New York senator, could attain wider powers as president.
Books and articles also approve the official conclusion that Sirhan acted alone to kill RFK and injure others. Among them are The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy (1995) by investigative reporter Dan Moldea.
Crime Scene Evidence
Physical evidence from the hotel kitchen crime scene remains an important dimension in the background of this month's clemency appeal and other ongoing research efforts and controversies.
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