Robert A. Wenke | High-profile judge, 88

Robert A. Wenke, 88, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who sought to untangle conspiracy theories as he presided over a high-profile examination of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, has died.

Mr. Wenke died Aug. 14 at his home in Long Beach, Calif., from complications of pancreatic cancer, his family said.

Mr. Wenke, who in 1975 became the youngest presiding Superior Court judge in Los Angeles County, handled cases involving a long list of Hollywood celebrities, including Lucille Ball, Jimmy Durante, Cary Grant, Dyan Cannon, and Barbara Stanwyck.

But it was the Kennedy hearings in 1975 that kept him in the news. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968, and Sirhan Sirhan had already been convicted and sentenced by the time Mr. Wenke presided over the so-called second-gun hearings in 1975.

The hearings examined whether it was possible a second gunman had been involved in the assassination, a theory that gained momentum with reports that there might have been more gunshots than Sirhan could have possibly fired.

Vincent Bugliosi, a former deputy district attorney, told the court that nine gunshots could be heard, one more bullet than Sirhan's gun held. There was also testimony that a mystery bullet had been found wedged into a doorjamb at the hotel.

- L.A. Times