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| Terror Networks |
| Aristotle Onassis, the Palestinian Fatah, and Sirhan Sirhan (Part 7) |
| 2004-08-08 |
| This is Part 7 in a series of articles written by me, Mike Sylwester, inspired by a new book, Nemesis, written by Peter Evans. This part is based on a book titled The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, written by William Turner and Jonn Christian. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy at about midnight between June 4 and 5, 1968, in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. About three months earlier, perhaps in about early March, Sirhan was seen at the home of a man named Jerry Owen (born Oliver Brindley Owen) in Santa Ana. Owen was selling his home, so an acquaintance named Bill Powers brought a couple of his own acquaintances, who wanted to buy a home, to show them Owen's home. Standing in Owen's back yard was a man whom Powers at that time did not know but later recognized as Sirhan. Powers and Owen had known each other about four years. Powers owned Wild Bill's Stables in Santa Ana. Owen owned several horses and boarded some of them at Power's stables. Powers employed a stable-hand named Johnny Beckley, who spent some time training one of Owen's horses at Power's stables. On one occasion Owen was visiting the stables and watching Beckley train the horse. Owen mocked Beckley's efforts and said that he might start using Sirhan instead of Beckley to finish training the horse. Beckley knew Sirhan and sometime saw Owen and Sirhan riding horses together in the countryside. In about early May 1968, Powers bought a new pickup truck with a hitch to pull a horse trailer. Powers and Owen agreed that Owen would buy Power's old pickup truck for $350. As usual, Owen was short of money (Powers often lent Owen bales of hay to feed Owen's horses), so he paid $50 down and promised to pay the remaining $300 later. On about June 3, Owen drove onto Powers' property in a late-model Lincoln Continental that Powers had never seen previously. Owen greeted Powers and offered to pay the $300, saying that his smallest bill was a $1,000 bill. Owen showed Powers a wad of 25 to 30 $1,000 bills. Power said he didn't have $700 change, so Owen said he'd break a bill at a bank and bring him the $300 later. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |