The notion that more than 8 shots were fired in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel has gained credence amongst doubters since the airing of a Discovery Times television documentary in June 2007.
The documentary claimed that a second gunman aided Sirhan in the pantry of the hotel. An audio engineer hired by the Discovery Times Channel had claimed he had detected 13 shots on an audio tape made by a journalist at the time of the shooting. However, the Discovery Times Channel’s claims have proven to be flawed by acoustics experts. Additonally, the Discovery Channel’s allegation that two shots fired in quick succession had been too close to have been fired by one gunman was also built on erroneous assumptions. The audio engineers quickly discounted a ricochet because the end of the room was too far away to produce a ricochet sound as quickly as it is heard on the tape. However, they never considered the possibility the bullet could have ricocheted off any of the metal surfaces (pots, pans, tray stackers and a metal serving table) anywhere in the pantry, not just off the far wall.
Ear-witness testimony had never established a scenario in which 13 shots had been possible. FBI files show all the pantry witnesses, with the exception of only a few, never heard more than 8 shots and those few who guessed they heard further shots did not put the number beyond 10. The FBI files, furthermore, show that
no one who had been in the pantry when Robert Kennedy was shot told the FBI or LAPD that anywhere near 13 shots had been fired. Only one witness gave this number, Nina Rhodes, but she never said this at the time she made her original statement in 1968. In 1968 she said she heard "eight distinct shots.” In 1992 Rhodes told conspiracy authors that she heard from 10-14 shots. (17)
According to the FBI files most of the estimated 77 witnesses in the pantry could not remember how many shots had been fired and described the gunshots in terms of ‘a number of shots,’ ‘a series of firecrackers,’ ‘several shots’ or ‘a number of shots in rapid succession.’ However, of those witnesses who ventured an opinion about how many shots had been fired all but a few put the number of shots at 8 or less, including: Harold Edward Hughes, Pete Hamill, Ralph Elmore, Jesse Unruh, Estelyn LaHive, Joseph A. LaHive, Richard Aubry, David Saul Barrett, Richard L. Cohen, David M. Esquith, Jacqueline Sullivan, James Cummings, Paul Green Houston, Richard Edward Drew, Bob Funk, Roosevelt Grier, Robert Anthony Toigo, Barbara Rubin, Freddy Plimpton, Lon Bruce Rubin, Dun Gifford, Charles Bailey, Jimmy Breslin, Stanley Kawalac, Robert Ray Breshears, Thomas Perez, Uno Timanson and Rafer Johnson.
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