coroners report

REPORT ON THE MEDICOLEGAL INVESTIGATION OF SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY,
JUNE 6, 1968

Summary

Thomas Noguchi performed what has been deemed the most perfect autopsy in American history due to the attention to detail and multiple expert observers present. Present at the autopsy were Dr. Noguchi, Neurosurgical Team, Hospital Staff Pathologist, and consultants from the Armed Forces institute of Pathology as well as Forensic and medical photographers.

The Coroner concluded the following:

The Senator was shot at 4 times from behind his body.
One shot missed him and passed through his jacket shoulder
Three shots hit RFK.
The Senator was shot at 4 times from behind his body.
Wound #1 “The fatal shot”: Direction from Right to Left, slightly to front and upwards. No exit. Entered behind right ear. The bullet was recovered in fragments only and could not be matched due to fragmentation. p.5
Wound #2: “Through and Through” of right shoulder, with no deflection within the body – it went in a clean line from entering the back, exiting the front. The direction was Right to Left, back to front and upward. The bullet was not recovered. There were gun powder granules on the dermis. p. 6, 26
Wound #3: The “neck bullet”. This bullet entered Just below Wound #2 entry, entering near the shoulder blade (scapula). A“ deformed” .22 caliber bullet was recovered at the 6th Cervical vertebra (neck/spine). Direction Right to Left, back to front and upward. The bullet is marked TN31 by Coroner Noguchi. p. 7, 27.
Powder residue was found with heat and blast effects visible p. 19, 26

Every single witness to Sirhan shooting in the pantry placed the muzzle of the gun, in Sirhan’s outstretched arm, no closer than 1.5 feet in front ofRFK.

Coroner Thomas Noguchi has consistently stated publicly that he did not determine that Sirhan Sirhan shot Senator Kennedy. During Grand Jury testimony he testified that his preliminary estimate was the muzzle of the gun was only 1-3 inches from RFK. Later he confirmed this with tests. (Coroner's Report p. 40). After the Grand Jury testimony, the District Attorney rushed up to Noguchi and asked if he meant“ feet”, not “inches”. Noguchi answered “My goodness, it’s an inch, not feet, because of the black powder behind the ear.”[1]

The fact that District Attorney John Miner asked this of Noguchi on the day of the Grand Jury hearing indicates he knew there was a serious discrepancy between what the witnesses were saying about where Sirhan was positioned and the scientific findings of the Coroner.

[1] Pease, Lisa A Lie to Big to Fail, The Real History of the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, 2018 Feral House at p.69, citing Moldea, Dan The Killing of Robert Kennedy, 1995 WW Norton & Company 2006 edition, at p. 92