I got a call from Marian Teeter.  She is the mother of Lawrence Teeter, Sirhan’s long time attorney.  Apparently Munir Sirhan, the brother of Sirhan Sirhan, called her checking me out.  Fortunately Marian had recently inquired of a local librarian if there were any JFK assassination books she could recommend.  The librarian recommended my book, JFK vs CIA.  Thank God somebody is recommending it.  Marian was effusively laudatory about my book and it was gratifying to know what I was trying to communicate to the reader actually connected.  Interestingly the last two months I had been tracking down Lawrence Teeter visiting law office addresses I found on the Internet.  It wasn’t until meeting Munir that I learned Larry had passed away.  Marian Teeter was quite pleased I was researching the case reading the complete LAPD investigation files.  She welcomed me aboard, gave me an update on the case as well as Paul Schrade’s phone number and told me to give him a call.  This was a break.  Paul Schrade was one person I wanted to interview.  He was the union man standing behind RFK when Sirhan fired his weapon.  Paul was hit in the forehead and went down knocked unconscious.

I knew from the autopsy of Kennedy that an unidentified gunman standing behind the senator fired point blank into the back of Kennedy’s head with two more shots entering the senator’s back.  But knowing this and proving it are two different things.  I need to identify or at least prove that such a gunman exists.

Since Paul was directly behind the senator coming into the pantry perhaps he saw someone slip between himself and Kennedy just before all hell broke loose.

I was also suspicious of one Jerry Bruno, the advance man.  Someone had set Kennedy up by bringing him into the kill zone.  Sirhan is waiting for Kennedy in the pantry as well as the mysterious girl in the polka dot dress.  The LAPD documents also inadvertently identify a support team backing up Sirhan as well as the actual gunman who shot Kennedy in the back of the head.  This group are not waiting in the pantry by accident.  Ten minutes before as Kennedy entered the pantry on his way to give his victory speech the pantry was empty except for a few kitchen workers.  This tidy group of traitors were ushered in while Kennedy was on stage.  What arose my suspicion is when coming to Jerry Bruno’s LAPD investigation interview report all that it says is “no interview.”  No interview!  How could that possibly be.  The Los Angeles Police Department interviewed 4,700 individuals but was not interested in interviewing the one person most responsible for Kennedy’s movements at the hotel that night.  Bullshit!  I checked the JFK Presidential Library for Jerry Bruno documents.  Apparently every little thing Jerry Bruno did for the Kennedy brothers as the advance man is in the files except for one glaring omission.  April, May and June of 1968 are missing from the Jerry Bruno papers.  These are the very months covering the Robert Kennedy campaign for the Presidency.  Where are the records?  Why are they missing?  Did some agency read them and realize they implicated Jerry Bruno in Kennedy’s murder and had them removed?  I spoke to a librarian at the JFK Presidential Library and he had no answer why April, May and June of 1968 were missing from the Bruno papers.  Now I was doubly suspicious.  Also, Jerry Bruno was President Kennedy’s advance man and responsible for the trip to Dallas including planning the motorcade route.  Could Jerry Bruno have set up the murders of both Kennedy brothers?  A month after my inquiry I went back into the JFK Library web site.  Now a notice was up saying all of the Jerry Bruno papers were off limits.  My suspicion of Bruno’s involvement was tripled.  Anyone getting nervous at Langley?  It’s just beginning brother.

I have a photo of Jerry Bruno and want Paul to ID the photo and ask him if he saw Bruno at the hotel that night and most important – when.  According to Jerry Bruno’s own account in his book, “The Advance Man,” he was on a 10:00 p.m. flight out of LAX heading back east.  RFK was shot shortly after midnight.  I’m betting Jerry Bruno never made that flight.  I’m betting Jerry Bruno remained at the hotel making sure Kennedy was directed back through the pantry and to his death.  I need at least two eye witnesses to verify Jerry Bruno’s presence at the hotel close to midnight.  Maybe Paul can tell me.  I called Paul and made an appointment.

As I drove up into the Hollywood Hills winding along Mulholland I felt like a plebian visiting a Roman senator at his palatial estate.  Maybe I should ask Paul if he can get me into the union.  I’d like to live in the Hollywood Hills in a forest surrounded by white people.  Sign me up.  As soon as I parked in the driveway up a short hill I thought about putting the car in reverse and parking on the street.  I have a ’96 Hyundai Accent and although I’m not ashamed of the car I drive I am a little ashamed of having so little so late in life.  Isn’t not having anything a sign of lack of character?  As an ex girlfriend used to periodically remind me, “You don’t have anything.”  I guess not.  Yet how is getting rich by screwing every person you ever met character.  I got out of the car.  Better to be thought of as poor than crazy and poor.

Handsome, tall Paul Schrade greeted me at the door.  Welcoming me into his home we went over to the kitchen table.  Remodeling was going on and Mr. Schrade made me feel at home.  I gave him a copy of my book, JFK vs CIA and told him I was reading the complete LAPD investigation files of the Robert Kennedy assassination.  He identified the photo of Jerry Bruno and I asked him if he remembered seeing Bruno at the hotel that night.  He wasn’t sure.

In another photo Paul pointed himself out on stage as Kennedy was giving his victory speech and living his final minutes.  Paul didn’t exit out the back door of the stage with Kennedy, stepping down instead to his left and meeting up with RFK as they both approached the double doors leading into the pantry.  So he couldn’t tell me who met Kennedy backstage in the passageway after the speech.  It is here Kennedy’s fate is sealed.  Someone Kennedy trusted informed him of the change in plans agreed to twenty minutes earlier in the Fifth Floor suite and redirected him toward his death.  I need to identify who met Kennedy backstage.

As they entered the pantry Paul noticed the several television cables that had been laid on the floor in order to cover the evening’s events.  He told me he felt a shock and thought it was from stepping on the cables.  He fell to the ground unconscious.  In reality, Paul had been struck in the forehead by a bullet and knocked to the floor.  The fact that Paul is 6’ 4” and Sirhan 5’ 2: makes me wonder if Sirhan was actually trying to hit Senator Kennedy.  In order to hit Paul in the forehead Sirhan would have had to aim quite above RFK’s head even taking consideration distance.

I asked Paul if he saw anyone slip between himself and Kennedy anytime after emerging into the pantry.  He said no.  He was directly behind the senator pointedly staring at the back of his jacket so as not to lose him in the crowd.  There was no one between him and Senator Kennedy.  If accurate then the gunman slipped behind the senator as Paul was falling unconscious.

I thanked Paul for graciously having me into his home and giving me his time.  It’s not every day that one gets to meet someone who is a part of history.  Details were now being filled in by Paul Schrade and Munir Sirhan in a way second hand analysis can never do.  Yet I still don’t have my second shooter nor do I have the traitor responsible for setting Kennedy’s trap.  Perhaps the answers lay in a careful reading of the microfilm reels of the LAPD investigation files of the Robert Kennedy assassination.