◆ SpookStack

Admission by L.A.P.D. of Ceiling Panel Destruction Prior to the appearance of DeWayne Wolfer in Judge Wenke's court for cross examination by the several parties in mid- September, 1975, was a shocking disclosure before the Los Angeles City Council in late August, 1975. At this hearing, Assistant Chief of Los Angeles Police, Darryl Gates admitted that the L.A.P.D. had destroyed ceiling panels containing three bullet holes that had been taken from the Ambassador Hotel kitchen pantry the day after the assassination. Moreover, Gates stated that these ceiling panels, along with x-rays of the panels, and records of the x-rays, had all been destroyed in 1969 because they "proved absolutely nothing." Gates had been summoned before the Los Angeles City Council as part of its own independent investigation into police procedures relative to the Kennedy assassination. “Reports had surfaced for several months that items of evidence in the case were missing. Gates argued that the tectroyed items, including the ceiling panels with the three bullet iioies in them, were technically not evidence since none of the destroyed items had been introduced at the trial of Sirhan in 1969. Legally, he was correct, although at the time of their destruction, immediately following the 1969 trial, the first appeal of Sirhan was not yet in progress. Gates justified the destruction of these panels and x-rays as "having absolutely no value since all of the testing, the real important testing, trajectory and the line of fire and the number of bullet holes, had been done pricr to their removal from the ceiling. The L.A.P.D. had made those tests and they had showed absolutely nothing. They proved absolutely nothing. They did nothing so far as supporting the investigation anc. in supporting the guilt or innocence of anyone." Gates also made reference to the fact that the records of the x-rays and the x-rays themselves proved nothing and were no longer in existence. Additionally, this disclosure by Chief Gates occured at a time in which other law suits were being filed by other interested parties (additional advocates of two gun theories) for a release and disclosure of the ten volume L.A.P.D. summary of the Special Unit Senator files. A refusal by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Commission to release these volumes added to the previous charges of “cover-up", "stonewalling", and the like. Police Commission President Samuel Williams stated, "that a procedure would be created whereby all questions in written form to the Police Commission concerning evidence in the ten volume summary would be released by a written answer to the questions." The Police Commission was concerned that if it opened the files to the public, much of the information released would be harmful to innocent parties and would have no relevance whatever to the assas- sination. This was primarily because the tenvolume summary contained hearsay evidence and police reports on the private lives of some individuals who had later been found to have had no part in the assassination. Finally, the admission of destroyed ceiling panels contributed to the growing cynicism and doubt concerning the assassination. Many critics of the official version of the case claimed the ceiling panels were of crucial importance. They argued that the number of bullet holes in the now destroyed panels might determine whether more than eight shots had been fired in the pantry. re we ae awe PRM Le a O