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ROBERT F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION INVESTIGATION & . iE URT HEARINGS RE BALLISTICS EXAMINATION & TESTING Appointment of Thomas F. Kranz as Special Counsel to the Los Angeles District attorney's Qifice On August 14, 1975, Acting District Attorney John E. Howard appointed private attorney Thomas F. Kranz as Special Counsel to the District Attorney's Office in the matter of the Robert Kennedy assassination. The appointment of a special independent outside counsel, who was deputized as a deputy district attorney on August 14, 1975, was to insure a fresh independent look at the entire matter and controversy surrounding the death of Senator Kennedy. Thomas Kranz, private attorney, member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the State Bar of California, and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, met Acting District Attorney John Howard for the first time in midJuly 1975. The purpose of the meeting, at Kranz's request, was to inform Mr. Howard that Kranz was interested in seeking the then vacant position of District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles. Kranz emphasized to Howard that he, Kranz, saw himself as a long shot compromise choice in the event the Board of Supervisors were to deadiock in their selection of a successor to Joseph Busch. During this discussion in the office of Acting District Attorney Howard, Kranz admitted to Howard that "I have always had some degree of reservation concerning the Robert Kennedy case. With all respect to Joe Busch, I feel there are a lot of unanswered questions." Howard did not reply to this comment, but several weeks later, after the filing of both the CBS and Paul Schrade lawsuits, Howard requested that Kranz come to the District Attorney's Office for a meeting. ; At that time, in the presence of John Howard, Acting Chief Deputy District Attorney Gordon Jacobson, Chief of Investigators George Stoner, and other District Attorney personnel including Deputy District Attorney Dinko Bozanich, the possibility of the appointment of Kranz as a Special Counsel in the Sirhan Sirhan matter was discussed. The problem confronting Howard, as with Joe Busch, was not the validity of the verdict in the Sirhan case, but the erosion of public confidence in the system of justice in Los Angeles County due to the many questions that were continually being raised in the Sirhan matter. Additional discussion concerned the fact that such an independent special counsel would work with the District Attorney's office in the preparation and presentation of all evidence in the pending court hearing. Additionally, Kranz was to independently review all the previous evidence, transcripts, interviews, and documents relating to the Sirhan case, and make his Own independent investigation into the essassination of Robert Kennedy. -1-