Buried in Plain Site by John Hunt

[Tom Gram]

I just finished the excellent book Buried in Plain Site by the late John Hunt. The entire book is on the RFKA forensic evidence, and Hunt goes into more detail on that topic than any RFK book I’ve ever read, by a wide margin. If anyone still thinks Thomas Noguchi performed the “perfect autopsy” on RFK and wrote the perfect autopsy report, you may be very surprised after reading Hunt’s book. Hunt basically proves that Noguchi was either wildly incompetent, extremely lazy, or intimately involved in a cover up - and he makes a very strong case for the latter. 

There were a few arguments I didn’t find particularly convincing. The biggest one is probably Hunt’s conclusion that the “ceiling tile ricochet shot” could not have caused Elizabeth Evans’ head wound. For one, Hunt’s own trajectory diagram has the bullet heading directly at Evans. Hunt says that because the Evans bullet moved upward under her scalp, it could not have come from the ceiling tile since that bullet was on a sharply downward trajectory. However, Hunt says elsewhere in a different context that bullets can “slide” along bone in certain cases. Is it possible that a flattened, unstable bullet moving at a reduced velocity could “slide” upward after striking a curved surface, especially if it was restrained by scalp? It sure seems like it. The Evans bullet was completely flattened and had clearly hit something hard before striking her head. Hunt also does not consider the simple possibility that Evans’ head was tilted slightly upward when she was shot. Hunt concludes that a separate shot hit the floor and ricocheted up into Evans’ head, which is possible, but I don’t think the ceiling tile ricochet shot can be completely ruled out.  

Another primary argument of Hunt’s book that didn’t make much logical sense to me is that RFK was shot in the head with a different caliber bullet. Hunt cites the autopsy report which mentions a 2cm diameter wound track, the incredibly suspicious avoidance of the head entry wound by Noguchi and others, important evidence on that wound that was provably “disappeared”, and several other items of evidence as support; and he makes a very compelling case that something shady was going on with that head wound. That may be true, but why the hell would a conspirator use a different caliber bullet to kill RFK if the end goal was to frame Sirhan as the lone assassin? 

Overall though, Hunt’s arguments are meticulous and very persuasive. He presents some genuinely “new” evidence of additional shots in the pantry, and debunks a lot of common myths about the RFK case.

I could go on, but this forum doesn’t get much traffic and I doubt many people will read this. 

Edited June 26 by Tom Gram