RFK Witness: I Heard 2nd Shooter

In a new interview with CNN, a Robert F. Kennedy campaign volunteer and witness to his assassination insists that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone. "There were more than eight shots," Nina Rhodes-Hughes says. "There were at least 12, maybe 14," which would have exceeded Sirhan's gun's capacity. She told the FBI how many she heard, but she believes senior officials "twisted" her statements in order to "conform with what they wanted the public to believe, period." The FBI's claim that only eight shots were fired is "completely false," she says, adding that she also told the FBI she heard shots coming from a direction other than Sirhan's position. "There was another shooter to my right."

Sirhan's lawyers are using Rhodes-Hughes' claims in their challenge to his conviction; a federal court will soon rule on Sirhan's request to be released, retried, or given another hearing based on new evidence. At least four other witnesses also mentioned the possibility of more than eight shots, CNN notes, and an analysis of a newly uncovered recording identified the sounds of at least 13 shots—five of which were fired from a different direction and likely from a different type of gun. Witnesses have also said that Sirhan fired at more of a downward angle from Kennedy's front—which does not fit with the fact that Kennedy was hit from behind from bullets that were fired upward. Click for Rhodes-Hughes' complete account. (More RFK stories.)