 dot dress.' "
However, there were several witnesses who claimed they had observed Sirhan in the pantry next to a tray stacker and he was talking to a girl who had been wearing a polka dot dress. (Author's Note: Conspiracy advocate Philip Melanson said all the descriptions of the girl's dress were" characterized rather similarly in terms of color and size" – this was misleading.) Security guard Jack Merrit said he had seen a girl in a"polka dot dress" immediately prior to the shooting. Richard Houston, who was in the pantry at the time of the shooting, said he had seen a"girl in a black and white polka dot dress with ruffles around the neck." Houston said he heard the girl say"We shot him" as she ran from the pantry. I believe this girl can be identified in a clip from news film footage taken shortly after the assassination. The girl has joined a group of Kennedy supporters in an ajoining area to the Embassy Ballroom, praying for the Senator. It would appear obvious to most that such a conspirator was unlikely to remain in the vicinity of the shooting if they had indeed been a participant in a conspiracy to murder Robert Kennedy.
Other witnesses said Sirhan had been in the Embassy Ballroom next to a"girl wearing a dress with polka dots." Lonny L. Worthy said he saw Sirhan during the evening in the Ambassador standing next to a woman and he thought they were together. Kennedy volunteer Susan Locke said she had observed a"suspicious looking" polka-dot-dress woman in the Embassy Ballroom prior to RFK's speech. Locke said the woman seemed"out of place" and"expressionless" in the midst of the celebrations for RFK's California Primary victory. She said the woman wore a"white dress with blue polka dots." Nurse Gloria Farr described seeing a man who bore a resemblance to Sirhan next to a woman wearing a"polka dot scarf."
George Green stated he had seen Sirhan standing near a polka dot dress woman before he went to the Embassy Ballroom bar for drinks. Green gave two differing descriptions of the girl's dress – in one description he described it as a"white dress with black polka dots." In another description he said the girl had been wearing a"dark dress, which may have had some type of white dots."
A similar confused description of the girl's dress was provided by Booker Griffin. Griffin said he saw Sirhan standing eight to ten feet away in the Embassy Ballroom next to a woman. He said the woman had been wearing a dress"described by the media as polka dot. I can't say for sure but it had some color in it other than white." Griffin said the two"seemed out of place."
Judith Groves, an employee of a political consulting firm who was in the lobby when the shooting occurred, heard three shots, saw a woman splattered with blood run out, and a wounded man being carried through the lobby. She described going into the Embassy Ballroom through the Lautrec Room with the help of a"strange" man. She said the man spoke to two women in a foreign language, and that one of the women was wearing a polka dot dress.
There were other witnesses who reported seeing a woman in a polka dot dress, of varying descriptions, on the night RFK was killed. John Ludlow, Eve Hansen, Nina Ballantyne, and Jeannette Prudhomme reported seeing the woman with a Sirhan look-alike or was "acting in suspicious circumstances." The Los Angeles Police Department murder investigation team"Special Unit Senator" (SUS), spent some considerable time trying to track the girl down and searched the news film archives in their attempts to find photographic evidence. None was forthcoming. Although a number of women wearing polka dot dresses were in the Embassy Ballroom and the kitchen pantry that night the LAPD did not believe they had any connection to the shooting nor could they find any photographic evidence which put Sirhan together with the girl.
The story of the"polka-dot girl" was also supported by pantry shooting eyewitness Vincent DiPierro and Kennedy supporter Sandra Serrano. Furthermore, LAPD Police Sergeant Sharaga said a couple,"the Bernsteins," observed a girl shouting "