What’s up with the missing tile?

[John Hunt]

What’s up with the missing tile??

The color image was taken after the RFK assassination (June 5, 1968) and before the LAPD wrecked the crime scene (the same day). Notice that the acoustic tile in the color photo (blue arrow) is intact and in place.

The image in the middle was taken by the FBI at least one day after the assassination. We know this from other images in the FBI series which show the entire scene. All of the debris on the floor has been removed by that point and two platters filled with dinner plates are being kept warm on the steam table. This photo was accidentally released to RFK researcher, the late Greg Stone, as part of his FOIA request.

A caption accompanies the FBI close up of the area of the blue arrow (marked E-2 by the FBI). It reads, “A close up view of the two bullet holes of the area described above.” The two defects in the wooden door frame are denoted by the yellow circles. (Deputy Walter Tew of the LA Sheriff’s Office circled what he believed were two bullet holes in the wooden door frame, adding his badge number (723) and "W Tew" inside each circle.)

The image on the left was taken by LAPD photographer, Charles Collier an the night of the assassination. (I have a better version of this photograph but cannot find it at the moment.) Notice that the tile is displaced as it is in the FBI photo.

Without question, the tile was intact in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. And then the LAPD removed an approximately six inch portion of the bottom of that tile.

Why did they do that?? We don’t know because that wedge of acoustic tile was never booked as evidence and no reports were ever made regarding any analyses that might have been performed.

What evidence was contained in that phantom tile??

We will probably never know. What we do know is that we have yet another example in a long, long line of LAPD mishandled of RFK assassination physical evidence.

John Hunt