Word: sirhan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...William Harper, an independent ballistics expert, has been quoted as saying that the bullet taken from Kennedy's neck could not have been fired by the same gun that wounded a bystander. At the trial, Sirhan's gun, taken from him in the pantry, was never positively tied to either bullet...
Disturbing as they appear, all but the final point were seriously undermined last week by Vincent DiPierro, a catering manager who was one of the few witnesses with an unobstructed view of the shooting. In his first public interview since the assassination, DiPierro told the Washington Post that Sirhan was indeed standing in front of Kennedy, but Kennedy had turned to shake someone's hand when Sirhan began firing...
DiPierro confirmed that Sirhan was standing, not lying on the floor, when he fired. But the witness noted that Sirhan's gun was pointed upward. Also, Sirhan was seven inches shorter than Kennedy. Those factors could account for the ascending trajectory-of the bullets. Sirhan was indeed 3 ft. away from Kennedy when he opened fire, DiPierro said, but then Sirhan lunged forward...
...interview left the ballistics issue as the major unexplained item. The Post also located Harper and got him to qualify his earlier statement. A recognized forensic specialist, Harper prepared an affidavit for Sirhan's attorneys in 1970 noting discrepancies between markings on the bullet taken from Kennedy's neck and those on a bullet that struck a bystander. Last week, however, Harper admitted that the markings do not prove that the bullets came from separate weapons. Differences in the markings, Harper said, are too insignificant to be conclusive...
...number of lesser questions remain, and Los Angeles County District Attorney Joseph P. Busch has said that he would reopen the case only if a court directed him to do so. Sirhan's attorney has been preparing an appeal for two months, and plans to file it soon. Skeptics have long been troubled by the fact that Sirhan's trial dwelt on his motives and mental state when he pulled the trigger and not on the other evidence. But unless a new inquiry turns up facts more convincing than those that have inspired the current renaissance of doubt...