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Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

February 02, 2023

On June 5, 1968, shortly after midnight, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. PDT the following day.

Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor immediately after the shooting. Kneeling beside him is 17-year-old busboy Juan Romero, who was shaking Kennedy's hand when Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots.[1]
LocationAmbassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California, United States
Coordinates34°03′35″N 118°17′50″W / 34.0597°N 118.2971°W / 34.0597; -118.2971Coordinates: 34°03′35″N 118°17′50″W / 34.0597°N 118.2971°W / 34.0597; -118.2971
DateJune 5, 1968; 54 years ago (1968-06-05)
12:15 a.m. (UTC−7)
TargetRobert Francis Kennedy
Attack type
Political assassination, shooting
WeaponsIver Johnson .22 LR revolver
Deaths1 (Kennedy died on June 6, 1968 from his injuries)
Injured5[a]
PerpetratorSirhan Bishara Sirhan
VerdictGuilty on all counts
ConvictionsFirst-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder (5 counts)[2]
SentenceDeath in 1969; commuted in 1972 to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole

Kennedy was a senator from New York and a candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. On June 4, 1968, he won the California and South Dakota primary elections. He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Room ballroom. After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 26 hours later. His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, near his brother John F. Kennedy's grave.

Sirhan was a Palestinian who held strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs. In 1969, he testified that he killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought";[3] he was convicted and sentenced to death. Due to the court case People v. Anderson, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole. As of January 2022, his parole request has been denied 16 times.

Kennedy's assassination prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential candidates. Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee but ultimately lost the election to Republican candidate Richard Nixon. Kennedy's assassination has led to several conspiracy theories. No credible evidence has emerged that Sirhan was not the shooter, or that he did not act alone. It has been described as one of four major assassinations in the United States that occurred during the 1960s.

Background

Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1925.[4] In 1948, he visited Palestine and wrote six dispatches for The Boston Post.[5][6] He dismissed the possibility of the Jewish state becoming communist as "fantastically absurd",[7] and called it the "only stabilizing factor remaining in the near and middle East".[8] In 1960, John F. Kennedy, Robert's elder brother, was elected the president of the United States[9] and appointed Robert as the attorney general. During his tenure, Robert served as John's close advisor[10] and was associated with various decisions during the Kennedy administration.[4] According to author Matthew A. Hayes, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert acted as a "de-facto Chief of Staff, Presidential Agent and Intermediary for his brother" and was an "indispensable partner" in its successful resolution.[11] In November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas,[12] and Robert was deeply affected by it.[13][14] Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency[15] and retained almost all prominent Kennedy advisors, including Robert as attorney general.[4][15] Despite his political differences with Johnson, Robert Kennedy remained in the cabinet.[4]

 
Kennedy campaigns in Los Angeles, 1968 (photo by Evan Freed)

In 1964, polls showed that various Democrats wanted Kennedy to be Johnson's running mate in that year's presidential election.[16] Kennedy instead organized his senatorial campaign in New York,[17] challenging Kenneth Keating, an incumbent Republican senator.[18] During a campaign speech, Kennedy declared his support for Israel, stating that in the event of an attack, "we will stand by Israel and come to her assistance".[19] He won the election; during his congressional career, he supported civil rights and opposed Johnson's policies regarding the Vietnam War.[4]

The 1968 presidential campaign has been referred to as one of the most volatile campaigns in American history.[20] There was strong opposition to the ongoing Vietnam War; and it was a period of social unrest, with riots in major cities.[21] Allard K. Lowenstein, a Democratic politician, organized a "Dump Johnson" movement to prevent Johnson's nomination as the presidential candidate,[22] and asked Kennedy to run instead. Kennedy refused, asserting that he did not want to split the Democratic Party.[4] Eugene McCarthy, a senator from Minnesota, then emerged as the leader of the "Dump Johnson" movement and entered several state presidential primaries.[23] In late January 1968, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, in the view of historian Lloyd Gardner, "shattered hopes that the war could be won within a reasonable period of time—if ever—and broke open the cracks in the Democratic coalition".[24]

On March 12, 1968, in the New Hampshire Democratic primary election, McCarthy nearly defeated Johnson[25] with 42 percent to Johnson's 49 percent of the votes.[23] Four days later, Kennedy announced his presidential campaign.[26] On March 31, Johnson announced that he would not seek the presidency.[27] Four days later, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, leading to further riots in several cities.[28] The same day, Kennedy gave a speech in Indianapolis, Indiana,[29] saying:

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. ... let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.[30]

In April, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy for the presidency. He mostly avoided primaries and focused on states which held caucuses. Contrary to Kennedy, Humphrey did not publicly oppose the Vietnam War.[31]

Assassination

California primary and shooting

 
Kennedy addressing supporters in the Embassy Ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel

The California presidential primary elections were held on June 4, 1968. Polls by CBS showed Kennedy leading by 7 percent.[32] The statewide results gave Kennedy 46 percent to McCarthy's 42 percent.[33] Kennedy also won the South Dakota primary, winning approximately 50 percent of the vote.[34] Author Joseph Palermo referred to the victory as Kennedy's "greatest". He was now in second place with 393+1⁄2 total delegates, against Humphrey's 561+1⁄2 delegates.[35][36]

At approximately 12:02 a.m. PDT[37] the next day, Kennedy addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Room ballroom in the Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles.[38] At the time, the government did not provide Secret Service protection for presidential candidates.[39] Kennedy's only security personnel were former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent William Barry and two unofficial bodyguards: Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson[40] and former football player Rosey Grier.[41] At approximately 12:10 a.m., concluding his victory speech, Kennedy said: "So my thanks to all of you and on to Chicago and let's win there."[42][43] Kennedy planned to walk through the ballroom after speaking on his way to another gathering of supporters, but reporters wanted a press conference. Campaign aide Fred Dutton decided that Kennedy would forgo the second gathering and instead go through the hotel's kitchen and pantry area behind the ballroom to the press area.[44] Kennedy had welcomed contact with the public during the campaign, and people had often tried to touch him in excitement.[45] Soon after Kennedy concluded the speech, he started to exit through the ballroom when Barry stopped him and said, "No, it's been changed. We're going this way."[44] Barry and Dutton began clearing a way for Kennedy to go left, through swinging doors, to the kitchen corridor, but he was hemmed in by the crowd and followed maître d'hôtel Karl Uecker through a back exit.[44] Uecker led Kennedy through the kitchen area, holding his right wrist, but frequently releasing it as Kennedy shook hands with people whom he encountered.[46] Uecker and Kennedy started down a passageway narrowed by an ice machine and a steam table in the north.[46]

Kennedy turned to his left and shook hands with Juan Romero,[47][48] just as Sirhan Sirhan stepped down from a low tray-stacker beside the ice-machine, rushed past Uecker, and repeatedly fired an eight-shot .22 Long Rifle caliber Iver Johnson Cadet 55-A revolver[49] at point-blank range.[50] Kennedy fell to the floor; others, including writer George Plimpton and Grier, tried to disarm Sirhan, as he continued firing his gun in random directions. Five other people were wounded: William Weisel of ABC News, Paul Schrade of the United Automobile Workers union, Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans, Ira Goldstein of the Continental News Service, and Kennedy campaign volunteer Irwin Stroll.[51][52][53] A minute later, Sirhan wrestled free and grabbed the revolver again, but others grabbed him.[54] Barry went to Kennedy and placed his jacket under Kennedy's head.[54] As Kennedy lay wounded, Romero cradled his head and placed a rosary in his hand.[55] Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody OK?"; Romero responded, "Yes, everybody's OK." Kennedy then turned away and said, "Everything's going to be OK."[56] The moment was captured by Boris Yaro of the Los Angeles Times and became the iconic image of the assassination.[57]

Immediate aftermath and death

As the shooting took place, ABC News was signing off from its election-night broadcast, while the CBS coverage had been concluded. CBS went back on the air with coverage of the assassination 21 minutes after the shooting. ABC's associate news director Weisel, who was wounded during the shooting, reported from his stretcher.[58] ABC was able to show scant live footage from the kitchen after Kennedy had been transported, but all of ABC's coverage from the hotel was in black-and-white.[59] Approximately three hours after the incident, television networks began their morning broadcast schedule. About six million Western American households viewed the live reporting.[58]

Kennedy's wife, Ethel, who was three months pregnant,[60] had been away from the shooting scene.[61] She was soon led to Kennedy and knelt beside him. Kennedy turned his head seeming to recognize her.[62] Kennedy's campaign manager, Stephen Edward Smith, promptly appeared on television and asked for a doctor.[63] After several minutes, medical attendants arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher, prompting him to whisper, "Don't lift me", which were his last words;[64][65] he lost consciousness shortly after.[66] He was taken to Central Receiving Hospital. A doctor slapped his face, calling, "Bob! Bob! Bob!" while another doctor massaged his heart.[67] After obtaining a good heartbeat, doctors handed a stethoscope to Ethel so that she could hear Kennedy's heart beating.[68] After about 30 minutes, Kennedy was transferred several blocks to the Good Samaritan Hospital to undergo surgery. A gymnasium near the hospital was set up as temporary headquarters for the press and news media to receive updates on his condition. Surgery began at 3:12 a.m. and lasted approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes.[69] At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, spokesman Frank Mankiewicz announced that Kennedy's doctors were "concerned over his continuing failure to show improvement"; his condition was critical.[70]

Kennedy had been shot multiple times.[67] The fatal shot was fired at a range of 1 inch (3 cm),[71] entering behind his right ear.[51] The other two shots entered at the rear of his right armpit; one exited from his chest and the other lodged in the back of his neck.[51] Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, he was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, nearly 25 hours after the shooting.[67] Mankiewicz left the hospital and walked to the gymnasium where the press and news media were set up for continuous updates on the situation. At 2 a.m. on June 6, Mankiewicz announced Kennedy's death.[72] The following week, NBC devoted 55 hours to the shooting and its aftermath, ABC 43 hours, and CBS 42 hours, with all three networks initially pre-empting their regular coverage and advertisements to cover the story.[58]

Funeral and aftermath

 
Kennedy's grave in Arlington National Cemetery

Kennedy's remains were taken to New York City, where his casket was viewed by thousands at St. Patrick's Cathedral.[73] The funeral mass was held on the morning of June 8.[74] Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, delivered the eulogy, saying:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it ... As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."[75]

Kennedy's body was transported via train to Washington, D.C.; many mourners lined the route, paying their respects.[76] On the way to the cemetery, the funeral procession passed through Resurrection City, a shantytown protest site.[77] The procession stopped in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where residents of Resurrection City joined the group, and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was sung.[78] Kennedy was buried near his older brother John in Arlington National Cemetery. This was the first burial to have ever taken place there at night.[73][76] After the assassination, Congress altered the Secret Service's mandate to include protection for major presidential and vice-presidential nominees.[79]

At the time of his death, Kennedy was substantially behind Humphrey in convention delegate support,[80] but many believe that, following his victory in the California primary, he would have ultimately secured the nomination.[81] Humphrey won the nomination at the convention in Chicago, at which violence in the streets occurred. He ultimately lost the general election to Republican candidate Richard Nixon by a narrow popular vote margin of 0.7 percent. Nixon won by a more decisive 301–191 margin in the electoral vote.[82]

Perpetrator

 
Mugshot of the assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, taken after his arrest.
Main article: Sirhan Sirhan

Sirhan Sirhan was born on March 19, 1944, in Jerusalem, Palestine, to an Arab Christian family.[83] At the age of four, he and his father narrowly escaped a bomb explosion during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.[84] This incident, according to author Mel Ayton, "had a psychological effect on young Sirhan".[85] He witnessed various other violent incidents during his childhood, including physical abuse by his father and the death of his older brother by a Zionist truck that was trying to avoid sniper fire. In late 1956, Sirhan, along with his family, immigrated to the United States.[86] He opposed immigration, saying that "the US was against the Arabs and was friendly with Israel, and a friend of my enemy is my enemy".[87] Once in the United States, Sirhan received above-average grades and joined the officer cadet corps.[86] During his late-teenage years, Sirhan's father abandoned the family,[88] his sister died, two of his brothers were arrested, and he was expelled from Pasadena City College.[86] Sirhan held strongly anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs.[89]

In 1966, while pursuing a career as a jockey, Sirhan fell from a running horse,[86] suffering minor injuries. A friend of Sirhan said that after this incident, Sirhan was "impatient, nervous, emotional and always in a hurry".[90] A diary was found during a search of his home, where he wrote on May 18: "Robert Kennedy must be assassinated ... My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession. RFK must die. RFK must be killed."[19][91][92]

Investigation and trial

Due to Sirhan being a non-citizen, it was illegal under California law for him to purchase firearms.[93] He violated three California laws by possessing the pistol he used to kill Kennedy.[93] Loren Coleman suggested that the date of the assassination is significant because it was the first anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.[94]

 
Sirhan's lawyer William F. Pepper

When Sirhan was booked by police, they found in his pocket a newspaper article that discussed Kennedy's support for Israel;[95] Sirhan later said that he began to hate Kennedy after learning of this support.[96] Sirhan was convicted of Kennedy's murder in April 1969,[50] and was sentenced to death.[97] In 1972, the sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole, after the California Supreme Court, in its ruling in California v. Anderson, invalidated as unconstitutional all pending death sentences that were imposed before 1972.[98][99] In 1975, it was decided that Sirhan would be freed on parole in 1984. In 1982, however, the California Board of Prison Term rescinded the parole date, citing death threats made by Sirhan from prison.[100] In 1989, Sirhan told David Frost in prison that his sole connection with Kennedy was "[Kennedy's] support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians."[101] Although a study published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists referred to Sirhan as a "withdrawn fanatic with multiple identity problems", the author James W. Clarke stated that Sirhan was more motivated by political issues than by his personal temperament.[102] During the trial, Sirhan's lawyers attempted to use a defense of diminished responsibility,[103] while Sirhan tried to confess to the crime and change his plea to guilty on several occasions.[3] He testified that he had killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought".[3] As of 2022, Sirhan has been denied parole 16 times.[104] His lawyers have claimed that he was framed, and he claims to have no memory of his crime.[99][105]

In February 2012, Sirhan's lawyers William F. Pepper and Laurie Dusek filed a court brief in District Court in Los Angeles, claiming that a second gunman fired the shots that killed Kennedy. It was the fourth in a series of federal briefs filed under habeas corpus by Pepper and Dusek, beginning in October 2010.[106] In 2015, Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell denied the petition.[107] During Sirhan's 2016 parole hearing, Paul Schrade, who was shot and wounded on the assassination night, asserted that the fatal shot to Kennedy was by a different shooter. He claimed that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) destroyed evidence, "hid ballistic evidence exonerating Sirhan, and covered up conclusive evidence that a second gunman fatally wounded Robert Kennedy."[108] In August 2021, the California state parole panel recommended Sirhan's parole.[109] Two of Kennedy's children, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Harriman Kennedy, supported the decision, while six others opposed it.[110] Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, denied the parole in January 2022, asserting that "Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community."[111]

Conspiracy theories

Main article: Robert F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories

CIA involvement hypothesis

In November 2006, the BBC's Newsnight program presented research by filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan alleging that several Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers were present on the night of the assassination.[112] The three men who appear in films and photographs from the night of the assassination were identified by former colleagues and associates as former senior CIA officers who had worked together in 1963 at JMWAVE, the CIA's anti-Castro station based in Miami. They were JMWAVE Chief of Operations David Morales, Chief of Maritime Operations Gordon Campbell, and Chief of Psychological Warfare Operations George Joannides.[112][113] Several people who had known Morales were sure that he was not the man claimed by O'Sullivan. After O'Sullivan published his book, assassination researchers Jefferson Morley and David Talbot discovered that Campbell had died of a heart attack in 1962, six years before Kennedy's assassination. In response, O'Sullivan stated that the man on the video may have used Campbell's name as an alias.[114]

Second gunman hypothesis

The location of Kennedy's wounds suggested that his assailant had stood behind him, while some witnesses assert that Sirhan faced west as Kennedy moved through the pantry.[115] This has led to the suggestion that a second gunman fired the fatal shot, a possibility supported by Thomas Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who stated that the fatal shot was behind Kennedy's right ear and had been fired at a distance of approximately 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters).[116] Other witnesses said that Kennedy was turning to his left shaking hands as Sirhan approached, from the east.[117]

In 1975, during a re-examination of the case, experts looked into the possibility of a second gunman, and concluded that there was little or no evidence to support this hypothesis.[118] In 2004, CNN's senior writer Brad Johnson discovered a recording of Kennedy's victory speech, recorded by the Polish journalist Stanisław Pruszyński [pl]. Johnson gave the tapes to the audio engineer Philip Van Praag, who analyzed and found 13 shots fired even though Sirhan's gun held only eight rounds.[119][115] He also stated the recording revealed at least two cases where the timing between shots was shorter than physically possible from Sirhan's gun alone.[115] Forensic audio specialists Wes Dooley and Paul Pegas of Audio Engineering Associates in Pasadena examined the findings and corroborated the presence of at least 10 shots on the tape along with an over-lapping shot. [120] Other acoustic experts have claimed that they could find no more than eight shots recorded on the audiotape.[121] Critics claim that Van Praag misidentified the noise impulses of the recording as gun shots.[119]

In 2008, eyewitness John Pilger asserted his belief that there must have been a second gunman.[122]

Legacy

"It made me realize that no matter how much hope you have it can be taken away in a second."

Juan Romero[56]

Kennedy's assassination was one of the four major assassinations in the United States in the 1960s, the others being those of John F. Kennedy (1963), Malcolm X (1965), and Martin Luther King Jr. (1968).[123] Some scholars view the assassination as one of the first major incidents of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East.[124]

Until 1987, the LAPD retained the original files, reports, transcripts, fragments of the bullets that struck Kennedy and the four other bystanders in the kitchen pantry, the .22 caliber Iver-Johnson handgun used by Sirhan, Kennedy's blood-stained clothes, and other artifacts related to the assassination. In 1987, the LAPD donated the entire evidence collection (except for Kennedy's clothes) to the California State Archives in Sacramento, for permanent preservation.[125][126] Kennedy's blood-stained shirt, tie, and jacket are in the possession of the Los Angeles County District Attorney.[126] In 2010, controversy arose when Kennedy's clothing was transported to the California Homicide Investigators Association conference in Las Vegas, where they were included in a temporary public display. Max Kennedy called it a "cheap bid for attention". The items and Kennedy's clothing were removed from the exhibit, with the LAPD apologizing to the Kennedy family.[127][128]

The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth contains a large collection of materials on the assassination.[129] In 2006, American filmmaker Emilio Estevez wrote and directed the film Bobby. He attempted to recreate the scene of the assassination through a fictional account. According to the author Ron Briley, "the history in Bobby is often misleading".[130]

See also

References

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  56. ^ a b Allen 2015.
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  63. ^ Newfield 1988, pp. 299–300.
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  104. ^ ABC (Australia) 2022.
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Notes

  1. ^ Paul Schrade, William Weisel, Elizabeth Evans, Ira Goldstein, Irwin Stroll

Works cited

Books

Scholarly articles

Magazines

  • Hodak, George (2012). "Precedents: April 17, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan Convicted". ABA Journal. Vol. 98, no. 4. American Bar Association. ISSN 0747-0088. JSTOR 23207729. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • "Once Again ..." (PDF). Newsweek. June 17, 1968. ISSN 0028-9604. (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022 – via Harold Weisberg Archive.
  • "A Life on the Way to Death". Time. June 14, 1968. ISSN 0040-781X. from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  • "Everything Was Not Enough". Time. June 14, 1968. ISSN 0040-781X. from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • "What Was Going On?". Time. June 14, 1968. ISSN 0040-781X. from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • "The Man Who Loved Kennedy". Time. February 21, 1969. ISSN 0040-781X. from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • "Trials: Behind Steel Doors". Time. January 17, 1969. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • "Trials: A Deadly Iteration". Time. March 7, 1969. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • Lopez, Steve (June 8, 1998). "Guarding The Dream – Thirty Years Later, Juan Romero Honors R.F.K." Time. ISSN 0040-781X. from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2022.

News sources

  • "Video: June 5, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy is Assassinated". ABC News. from the original on September 4, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • Allen, Nick (August 30, 2015). "Busboy Describes Bobby Kennedy's Final Moments". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  • "Robert F Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan denied parole by California's governor". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. January 14, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • "CIA Role Claim in Kennedy Killing". BBC News. November 21, 2006. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
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  • Murphy, Jarrett (March 7, 2003). "Sirhan Sirhan Kept Behind Bars". CBS News. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • Martinez, Michael; Johnson, Brad (March 13, 2012). "Attorneys for RFK convicted killer Sirhan push 'second gunman' argument". CNN. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • "Bullet Switch Proves Sirhan Sirhan Innocent of Robert F Kennedy Assassination, Claim Lawyers". Daily Record. November 30, 2011. ISSN 0956-8069. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  • Dershowitz, Alan M. (February 20, 1972). "The Nation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  • Esty-Kendall, Jud (June 1, 2018). "The Busboy Who Cradled A Dying RFK Recalls Those Final Moments". NPR. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  • Hayes, Ashley (March 4, 2010). "After Criticism, LAPD Pulls RFK Clothing from Homicide Exhibit". CNN. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  • Holley, Peter (February 10, 2016). "This Kennedy Confidant has Spent Decades Calling for the Release of RFK's Killer". The Washington Post. from the original on February 11, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  • Issenberg, Sasha (June 8, 2008). The San Diego Union-Tribune. ISSN 1063-102X. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
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  • Reynolds, Christopher (January 5, 2007). "Double Exposure of History and Art, in a Shutter's Click". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
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  • "Sirhan Sirhan: Six Kennedy Children Condemn Secision to Grant Killer Parole". The Guardian. August 28, 2021. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  • "Assassination: The Night Bobby Kennedy Was Shot". The Independent. January 21, 2007. ISSN 1741-9743. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
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  • Willon, Phil (January 13, 2022). "Gov. Gavin Newsom Rejects Parole for Sirhan Sirhan, Convicted of Killing Robert F. Kennedy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 25, 2022.

Web sources

Further reading

  • "Robert F. Kennedy Assassination (a)". Federal Bureau of Investigation. April 5, 1977. from the original on February 27, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • "Robert F. Kennedy Assassination (c)". Federal Bureau of Investigation. April 5, 1977. from the original on February 27, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  • Klaber, William; Melanson, Philip (1997). Shadow Play: The Murder of Robert F. Kennedy, the Trial of Sirhan Sirhan, and the Failure of American Justice. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-15398-4. Retrieved February 27, 2022.

External links

February 02, 2023
assassination, robert, kennedy, june, 1968, shortly, after, midnight, robert, kennedy, shot, sirhan, sirhan, ambassador, hotel, angeles, pronounced, dead, following, robert, kennedy, lies, mortally, wounded, floor, immediately, after, shooting, kneeling, besid. On June 5 1968 shortly after midnight Robert F Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel Los Angeles He was pronounced dead at 1 44 a m PDT the following day Assassination of Robert F KennedyRobert F Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor immediately after the shooting Kneeling beside him is 17 year old busboy Juan Romero who was shaking Kennedy s hand when Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots 1 LocationAmbassador Hotel Los Angeles California United StatesCoordinates34 03 35 N 118 17 50 W 34 0597 N 118 2971 W 34 0597 118 2971 Coordinates 34 03 35 N 118 17 50 W 34 0597 N 118 2971 W 34 0597 118 2971DateJune 5 1968 54 years ago 1968 06 05 12 15 a m UTC 7 TargetRobert Francis KennedyAttack typePolitical assassination shootingWeaponsIver Johnson 22 LR revolverDeaths1 Kennedy died on June 6 1968 from his injuries Injured5 a PerpetratorSirhan Bishara SirhanVerdictGuilty on all countsConvictionsFirst degree murder assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder 5 counts 2 SentenceDeath in 1969 commuted in 1972 to life imprisonment with the possibility of paroleKennedy was a senator from New York and a candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries On June 4 1968 he won the California and South Dakota primary elections He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel s Embassy Room ballroom After leaving the podium and exiting through a kitchen hallway he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 26 hours later His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near his brother John F Kennedy s grave Sirhan was a Palestinian who held strong anti Zionist and pro Palestinian beliefs In 1969 he testified that he killed Kennedy with 20 years of malice aforethought 3 he was convicted and sentenced to death Due to the court case People v Anderson his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole As of January 2022 his parole request has been denied 16 times Kennedy s assassination prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential candidates Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee but ultimately lost the election to Republican candidate Richard Nixon Kennedy s assassination has led to several conspiracy theories No credible evidence has emerged that Sirhan was not the shooter or that he did not act alone It has been described as one of four major assassinations in the United States that occurred during the 1960s Contents 1 Background 2 Assassination 2 1 California primary and shooting 2 2 Immediate aftermath and death 2 3 Funeral and aftermath 3 Perpetrator 4 Investigation and trial 5 Conspiracy theories 5 1 CIA involvement hypothesis 5 2 Second gunman hypothesis 6 Legacy 7 See also 8 References 9 Notes 10 Works cited 10 1 Books 10 2 Scholarly articles 10 3 Magazines 10 4 News sources 10 5 Web sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksBackgroundRobert F Kennedy was born in Brookline Massachusetts in 1925 4 In 1948 he visited Palestine and wrote six dispatches for The Boston Post 5 6 He dismissed the possibility of the Jewish state becoming communist as fantastically absurd 7 and called it the only stabilizing factor remaining in the near and middle East 8 In 1960 John F Kennedy Robert s elder brother was elected the president of the United States 9 and appointed Robert as the attorney general During his tenure Robert served as John s close advisor 10 and was associated with various decisions during the Kennedy administration 4 According to author Matthew A Hayes during the Cuban Missile Crisis Robert acted as a de facto Chief of Staff Presidential Agent and Intermediary for his brother and was an indispensable partner in its successful resolution 11 In November 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas 12 and Robert was deeply affected by it 13 14 Vice President Lyndon B Johnson assumed the presidency 15 and retained almost all prominent Kennedy advisors including Robert as attorney general 4 15 Despite his political differences with Johnson Robert Kennedy remained in the cabinet 4 Kennedy campaigns in Los Angeles 1968 photo by Evan Freed In 1964 polls showed that various Democrats wanted Kennedy to be Johnson s running mate in that year s presidential election 16 Kennedy instead organized his senatorial campaign in New York 17 challenging Kenneth Keating an incumbent Republican senator 18 During a campaign speech Kennedy declared his support for Israel stating that in the event of an attack we will stand by Israel and come to her assistance 19 He won the election during his congressional career he supported civil rights and opposed Johnson s policies regarding the Vietnam War 4 The 1968 presidential campaign has been referred to as one of the most volatile campaigns in American history 20 There was strong opposition to the ongoing Vietnam War and it was a period of social unrest with riots in major cities 21 Allard K Lowenstein a Democratic politician organized a Dump Johnson movement to prevent Johnson s nomination as the presidential candidate 22 and asked Kennedy to run instead Kennedy refused asserting that he did not want to split the Democratic Party 4 Eugene McCarthy a senator from Minnesota then emerged as the leader of the Dump Johnson movement and entered several state presidential primaries 23 In late January 1968 the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in the view of historian Lloyd Gardner shattered hopes that the war could be won within a reasonable period of time if ever and broke open the cracks in the Democratic coalition 24 On March 12 1968 in the New Hampshire Democratic primary election McCarthy nearly defeated Johnson 25 with 42 percent to Johnson s 49 percent of the votes 23 Four days later Kennedy announced his presidential campaign 26 On March 31 Johnson announced that he would not seek the presidency 27 Four days later civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated leading to further riots in several cities 28 The same day Kennedy gave a speech in Indianapolis Indiana 29 saying What we need in the United States is not division what we need in the United States is not hatred what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country whether they be white or whether they be black let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world Let us dedicate ourselves to that and say a prayer for our country and for our people 30 In April Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy for the presidency He mostly avoided primaries and focused on states which held caucuses Contrary to Kennedy Humphrey did not publicly oppose the Vietnam War 31 AssassinationCalifornia primary and shooting Kennedy addressing supporters in the Embassy Ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel The California presidential primary elections were held on June 4 1968 Polls by CBS showed Kennedy leading by 7 percent 32 The statewide results gave Kennedy 46 percent to McCarthy s 42 percent 33 Kennedy also won the South Dakota primary winning approximately 50 percent of the vote 34 Author Joseph Palermo referred to the victory as Kennedy s greatest He was now in second place with 393 1 2 total delegates against Humphrey s 561 1 2 delegates 35 36 At approximately 12 02 a m PDT 37 the next day Kennedy addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel s Embassy Room ballroom in the Mid Wilshire Los Angeles 38 At the time the government did not provide Secret Service protection for presidential candidates 39 Kennedy s only security personnel were former Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI agent William Barry and two unofficial bodyguards Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson 40 and former football player Rosey Grier 41 At approximately 12 10 a m concluding his victory speech Kennedy said So my thanks to all of you and on to Chicago and let s win there 42 43 Kennedy planned to walk through the ballroom after speaking on his way to another gathering of supporters but reporters wanted a press conference Campaign aide Fred Dutton decided that Kennedy would forgo the second gathering and instead go through the hotel s kitchen and pantry area behind the ballroom to the press area 44 Kennedy had welcomed contact with the public during the campaign and people had often tried to touch him in excitement 45 Soon after Kennedy concluded the speech he started to exit through the ballroom when Barry stopped him and said No it s been changed We re going this way 44 Barry and Dutton began clearing a way for Kennedy to go left through swinging doors to the kitchen corridor but he was hemmed in by the crowd and followed maitre d hotel Karl Uecker through a back exit 44 Uecker led Kennedy through the kitchen area holding his right wrist but frequently releasing it as Kennedy shook hands with people whom he encountered 46 Uecker and Kennedy started down a passageway narrowed by an ice machine and a steam table in the north 46 Kennedy turned to his left and shook hands with Juan Romero 47 48 just as Sirhan Sirhan stepped down from a low tray stacker beside the ice machine rushed past Uecker and repeatedly fired an eight shot 22 Long Rifle caliber Iver Johnson Cadet 55 A revolver 49 at point blank range 50 Kennedy fell to the floor others including writer George Plimpton and Grier tried to disarm Sirhan as he continued firing his gun in random directions Five other people were wounded William Weisel of ABC News Paul Schrade of the United Automobile Workers union Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans Ira Goldstein of the Continental News Service and Kennedy campaign volunteer Irwin Stroll 51 52 53 A minute later Sirhan wrestled free and grabbed the revolver again but others grabbed him 54 Barry went to Kennedy and placed his jacket under Kennedy s head 54 As Kennedy lay wounded Romero cradled his head and placed a rosary in his hand 55 Kennedy asked Romero Is everybody OK Romero responded Yes everybody s OK Kennedy then turned away and said Everything s going to be OK 56 The moment was captured by Boris Yaro of the Los Angeles Times and became the iconic image of the assassination 57 Immediate aftermath and death As the shooting took place ABC News was signing off from its election night broadcast while the CBS coverage had been concluded CBS went back on the air with coverage of the assassination 21 minutes after the shooting ABC s associate news director Weisel who was wounded during the shooting reported from his stretcher 58 ABC was able to show scant live footage from the kitchen after Kennedy had been transported but all of ABC s coverage from the hotel was in black and white 59 Approximately three hours after the incident television networks began their morning broadcast schedule About six million Western American households viewed the live reporting 58 Kennedy s wife Ethel who was three months pregnant 60 had been away from the shooting scene 61 She was soon led to Kennedy and knelt beside him Kennedy turned his head seeming to recognize her 62 Kennedy s campaign manager Stephen Edward Smith promptly appeared on television and asked for a doctor 63 After several minutes medical attendants arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher prompting him to whisper Don t lift me which were his last words 64 65 he lost consciousness shortly after 66 He was taken to Central Receiving Hospital A doctor slapped his face calling Bob Bob Bob while another doctor massaged his heart 67 After obtaining a good heartbeat doctors handed a stethoscope to Ethel so that she could hear Kennedy s heart beating 68 After about 30 minutes Kennedy was transferred several blocks to the Good Samaritan Hospital to undergo surgery A gymnasium near the hospital was set up as temporary headquarters for the press and news media to receive updates on his condition Surgery began at 3 12 a m and lasted approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes 69 At 5 30 p m on Wednesday spokesman Frank Mankiewicz announced that Kennedy s doctors were concerned over his continuing failure to show improvement his condition was critical 70 Kennedy had been shot multiple times 67 The fatal shot was fired at a range of 1 inch 3 cm 71 entering behind his right ear 51 The other two shots entered at the rear of his right armpit one exited from his chest and the other lodged in the back of his neck 51 Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain he was pronounced dead at 1 44 a m on June 6 nearly 25 hours after the shooting 67 Mankiewicz left the hospital and walked to the gymnasium where the press and news media were set up for continuous updates on the situation At 2 a m on June 6 Mankiewicz announced Kennedy s death 72 The following week NBC devoted 55 hours to the shooting and its aftermath ABC 43 hours and CBS 42 hours with all three networks initially pre empting their regular coverage and advertisements to cover the story 58 Funeral and aftermath Kennedy s grave in Arlington National Cemetery Kennedy s remains were taken to New York City where his casket was viewed by thousands at St Patrick s Cathedral 73 The funeral mass was held on the morning of June 8 74 Kennedy s younger brother Senator Ted Kennedy delivered the eulogy saying My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it saw suffering and tried to heal it saw war and tried to stop it As he said many times in many parts of this nation to those he touched and who sought to touch him Some men see things as they are and say why I dream things that never were and say why not 75 Kennedy s body was transported via train to Washington D C many mourners lined the route paying their respects 76 On the way to the cemetery the funeral procession passed through Resurrection City a shantytown protest site 77 The procession stopped in front of the Lincoln Memorial where residents of Resurrection City joined the group and the Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung 78 Kennedy was buried near his older brother John in Arlington National Cemetery This was the first burial to have ever taken place there at night 73 76 After the assassination Congress altered the Secret Service s mandate to include protection for major presidential and vice presidential nominees 79 At the time of his death Kennedy was substantially behind Humphrey in convention delegate support 80 but many believe that following his victory in the California primary he would have ultimately secured the nomination 81 Humphrey won the nomination at the convention in Chicago at which violence in the streets occurred He ultimately lost the general election to Republican candidate Richard Nixon by a narrow popular vote margin of 0 7 percent Nixon won by a more decisive 301 191 margin in the electoral vote 82 Perpetrator Mugshot of the assassin Sirhan Sirhan taken after his arrest Main article Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan was born on March 19 1944 in Jerusalem Palestine to an Arab Christian family 83 At the age of four he and his father narrowly escaped a bomb explosion during the 1947 1949 Palestine war 84 This incident according to author Mel Ayton had a psychological effect on young Sirhan 85 He witnessed various other violent incidents during his childhood including physical abuse by his father and the death of his older brother by a Zionist truck that was trying to avoid sniper fire In late 1956 Sirhan along with his family immigrated to the United States 86 He opposed immigration saying that the US was against the Arabs and was friendly with Israel and a friend of my enemy is my enemy 87 Once in the United States Sirhan received above average grades and joined the officer cadet corps 86 During his late teenage years Sirhan s father abandoned the family 88 his sister died two of his brothers were arrested and he was expelled from Pasadena City College 86 Sirhan held strongly anti Zionist and pro Palestinian beliefs 89 In 1966 while pursuing a career as a jockey Sirhan fell from a running horse 86 suffering minor injuries A friend of Sirhan said that after this incident Sirhan was impatient nervous emotional and always in a hurry 90 A diary was found during a search of his home where he wrote on May 18 Robert Kennedy must be assassinated My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession RFK must die RFK must be killed 19 91 92 Investigation and trialDue to Sirhan being a non citizen it was illegal under California law for him to purchase firearms 93 He violated three California laws by possessing the pistol he used to kill Kennedy 93 Loren Coleman suggested that the date of the assassination is significant because it was the first anniversary of the start of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors 94 Sirhan s lawyer William F Pepper When Sirhan was booked by police they found in his pocket a newspaper article that discussed Kennedy s support for Israel 95 Sirhan later said that he began to hate Kennedy after learning of this support 96 Sirhan was convicted of Kennedy s murder in April 1969 50 and was sentenced to death 97 In 1972 the sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole after the California Supreme Court in its ruling in California v Anderson invalidated as unconstitutional all pending death sentences that were imposed before 1972 98 99 In 1975 it was decided that Sirhan would be freed on parole in 1984 In 1982 however the California Board of Prison Term rescinded the parole date citing death threats made by Sirhan from prison 100 In 1989 Sirhan told David Frost in prison that his sole connection with Kennedy was Kennedy s support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians 101 Although a study published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists referred to Sirhan as a withdrawn fanatic with multiple identity problems the author James W Clarke stated that Sirhan was more motivated by political issues than by his personal temperament 102 During the trial Sirhan s lawyers attempted to use a defense of diminished responsibility 103 while Sirhan tried to confess to the crime and change his plea to guilty on several occasions 3 He testified that he had killed Kennedy with 20 years of malice aforethought 3 As of 2022 Sirhan has been denied parole 16 times 104 His lawyers have claimed that he was framed and he claims to have no memory of his crime 99 105 In February 2012 Sirhan s lawyers William F Pepper and Laurie Dusek filed a court brief in District Court in Los Angeles claiming that a second gunman fired the shots that killed Kennedy It was the fourth in a series of federal briefs filed under habeas corpus by Pepper and Dusek beginning in October 2010 106 In 2015 Judge Beverly Reid O Connell denied the petition 107 During Sirhan s 2016 parole hearing Paul Schrade who was shot and wounded on the assassination night asserted that the fatal shot to Kennedy was by a different shooter He claimed that the Los Angeles Police Department LAPD destroyed evidence hid ballistic evidence exonerating Sirhan and covered up conclusive evidence that a second gunman fatally wounded Robert Kennedy 108 In August 2021 the California state parole panel recommended Sirhan s parole 109 Two of Kennedy s children Robert F Kennedy Jr and Douglas Harriman Kennedy supported the decision while six others opposed it 110 Gavin Newsom the governor of California denied the parole in January 2022 asserting that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community 111 Conspiracy theoriesMain article Robert F Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories CIA involvement hypothesis In November 2006 the BBC s Newsnight program presented research by filmmaker Shane O Sullivan alleging that several Central Intelligence Agency CIA officers were present on the night of the assassination 112 The three men who appear in films and photographs from the night of the assassination were identified by former colleagues and associates as former senior CIA officers who had worked together in 1963 at JMWAVE the CIA s anti Castro station based in Miami They were JMWAVE Chief of Operations David Morales Chief of Maritime Operations Gordon Campbell and Chief of Psychological Warfare Operations George Joannides 112 113 Several people who had known Morales were sure that he was not the man claimed by O Sullivan After O Sullivan published his book assassination researchers Jefferson Morley and David Talbot discovered that Campbell had died of a heart attack in 1962 six years before Kennedy s assassination In response O Sullivan stated that the man on the video may have used Campbell s name as an alias 114 Second gunman hypothesis The location of Kennedy s wounds suggested that his assailant had stood behind him while some witnesses assert that Sirhan faced west as Kennedy moved through the pantry 115 This has led to the suggestion that a second gunman fired the fatal shot a possibility supported by Thomas Noguchi the Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for the County of Los Angeles who stated that the fatal shot was behind Kennedy s right ear and had been fired at a distance of approximately 1 inch 2 5 centimeters to 3 inches 7 6 centimeters 116 Other witnesses said that Kennedy was turning to his left shaking hands as Sirhan approached from the east 117 In 1975 during a re examination of the case experts looked into the possibility of a second gunman and concluded that there was little or no evidence to support this hypothesis 118 In 2004 CNN s senior writer Brad Johnson discovered a recording of Kennedy s victory speech recorded by the Polish journalist Stanislaw Pruszynski pl Johnson gave the tapes to the audio engineer Philip Van Praag who analyzed and found 13 shots fired even though Sirhan s gun held only eight rounds 119 115 He also stated the recording revealed at least two cases where the timing between shots was shorter than physically possible from Sirhan s gun alone 115 Forensic audio specialists Wes Dooley and Paul Pegas of Audio Engineering Associates in Pasadena examined the findings and corroborated the presence of at least 10 shots on the tape along with an over lapping shot 120 Other acoustic experts have claimed that they could find no more than eight shots recorded on the audiotape 121 Critics claim that Van Praag misidentified the noise impulses of the recording as gun shots 119 In 2008 eyewitness John Pilger asserted his belief that there must have been a second gunman 122 Legacy It made me realize that no matter how much hope you have it can be taken away in a second Juan Romero 56 Kennedy s assassination was one of the four major assassinations in the United States in the 1960s the others being those of John F Kennedy 1963 Malcolm X 1965 and Martin Luther King Jr 1968 123 Some scholars view the assassination as one of the first major incidents of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab Israeli conflict in the Middle East 124 Until 1987 the LAPD retained the original files reports transcripts fragments of the bullets that struck Kennedy and the four other bystanders in the kitchen pantry the 22 caliber Iver Johnson handgun used by Sirhan Kennedy s blood stained clothes and other artifacts related to the assassination In 1987 the LAPD donated the entire evidence collection except for Kennedy s clothes to the California State Archives in Sacramento for permanent preservation 125 126 Kennedy s blood stained shirt tie and jacket are in the possession of the Los Angeles County District Attorney 126 In 2010 controversy arose when Kennedy s clothing was transported to the California Homicide Investigators Association conference in Las Vegas where they were included in a temporary public display Max Kennedy called it a cheap bid for attention The items and Kennedy s clothing were removed from the exhibit with the LAPD apologizing to the Kennedy family 127 128 The Robert F Kennedy Assassination Archives of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth contains a large collection of materials on the assassination 129 In 2006 American filmmaker Emilio Estevez wrote and directed the film Bobby He attempted to recreate the scene of the assassination through a fictional account According to the author Ron Briley the history in Bobby is often misleading 130 See alsoKennedy curse List of assassinated American politiciansReferences Esty Kendall 2018 Indeterminate Sentence Parole Release Review Sirhan Sirhan B 21014 PDF State of California 2022 01 13 Retrieved 2022 11 12 a b c Time c 1969 a b c d e f O Neill 2000 Bass 2003 p 50 Heymann 1998 p 45 Bass 2003 p 51 Davis 1992 p 650 Heymann 1998 pp 182 183 Palermo 2001 p 4 Hayes 2019 pp 1 3 Kurtz 1982 p 1 Thomas 2002 p 21 Clarke 2008 p 19 a b Palermo 2001 p 5 Palermo 2001 pp 5 6 Palermo 2001 p 6 Ayton 2007 p 43 a b Ayton 2007 p x Sieg 1996 p 1062 Thomas 2002 p 22 Hoogenboom 2000 a b Keene 2013 Gardner 2000 Moldea 1995 p 19 Clarke 2008 p 1 Goldzwig 2003 p 51 Clarke 2008 pp ix 1 92 Clarke 2008 pp ix 94 Clarke 2008 p 96 Curtin 2000 Clarke 2008 p 265 Guide to U S Elections 2010 p 410 Clarke 2008 p 266 Moldea 1995 p 26n Palermo 2001 p 245 O Sullivan 2008 p 495 Thomas 2002 p 387 O Sullivan 2008 p 159 Clarke 2008 pp 8 119 Moldea 1995 p 46 The New York Times 1968 Los Angeles Times 1986 a b c Witcover 1988 pp 264 265 Witcover 1988 pp 113 114 a b Moldea 1995 p 33 Melanson 1994 p 18 Moldea 1995 p 96 Witcover 1988 pp 266 269 a b Hodak 2012 p 72 a b c Moldea 1995 p 85 Time a 1968 Los Angeles Times 1995 a b Witcover 1988 p 269 Time 1998 a b Allen 2015 Reynolds 2007 a b c Time c 1968 ABC Segalov 2018 Newsweek 1968 p 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of 1968 Rhetoric and Public Affair Michigan State University Press 6 1 25 53 doi 10 1353 rap 2003 0029 JSTOR 41939808 S2CID 143697074 Archived from the original on August 14 2020 Retrieved February 8 2022 Hayes Matthew A May 7 2019 Robert Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis A Reassertion of Robert Kennedy s Role as the President s Indispensable Partner in the Successful Resolution of the Crisis PDF History The Journal of the Historical Association Wiley 104 361 473 503 doi 10 1111 1468 229x 12815 ISSN 0018 2648 S2CID 164907501 Archived PDF from the original on December 27 2021 Retrieved December 27 2021 Hoogenboom Olive 2000 1999 Lowenstein Allard Kenneth American National Biography Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 anb 9780198606697 article 0700674 ISBN 978 0 19 860669 7 Archived from the original on December 31 2021 Retrieved December 31 2021 Keene Ann T 2013 McCarthy Eugene American National Biography Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 anb 9780198606697 article 1501341 ISBN 978 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27 2022 The Man Who Loved Kennedy Time February 21 1969 ISSN 0040 781X Archived from the original on September 10 2021 Retrieved February 27 2022 Trials Behind Steel Doors Time January 17 1969 ISSN 0040 781X Retrieved April 2 2022 Trials A Deadly Iteration Time March 7 1969 ISSN 0040 781X Retrieved April 2 2022 Lopez Steve June 8 1998 Guarding The Dream Thirty Years Later Juan Romero Honors R F K Time ISSN 0040 781X Archived from the original on September 10 2021 Retrieved February 17 2022 News sources Video June 5 1968 Robert F Kennedy is Assassinated ABC News Archived from the original on September 4 2021 Retrieved February 27 2022 Allen Nick August 30 2015 Busboy Describes Bobby Kennedy s Final Moments The Daily Telegraph ISSN 0307 1235 Retrieved April 3 2022 Robert F Kennedy s assassin Sirhan Sirhan denied parole by California s governor Australian Broadcasting Corporation January 14 2022 Retrieved April 2 2022 CIA Role Claim in Kennedy Killing BBC News November 21 2006 Retrieved April 2 2022 Blankstein Andrew March 3 2010 LAPD Apologizes to Robert Kennedy s Family Los Angeles Times ISSN 0458 3035 Retrieved April 3 2022 Murphy Jarrett March 7 2003 Sirhan Sirhan Kept Behind Bars CBS News Retrieved April 2 2022 Martinez Michael Johnson Brad March 13 2012 Attorneys for RFK convicted killer Sirhan push second gunman argument CNN Retrieved April 2 2022 Bullet Switch Proves Sirhan Sirhan Innocent of Robert F Kennedy Assassination Claim Lawyers Daily Record November 30 2011 ISSN 0956 8069 Retrieved April 2 2022 Dershowitz Alan M February 20 1972 The Nation The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved March 26 2022 Esty Kendall Jud June 1 2018 The Busboy Who Cradled A Dying RFK Recalls Those Final Moments NPR Retrieved June 27 2022 Hayes Ashley March 4 2010 After Criticism LAPD Pulls RFK Clothing from Homicide Exhibit CNN Retrieved April 3 2022 Holley Peter February 10 2016 This Kennedy Confidant has Spent Decades Calling for the Release of RFK s Killer The Washington Post Archived from the original on February 11 2016 Retrieved April 25 2022 Issenberg Sasha June 8 2008 RFK s Death Now Viewed as First Case of Mideast Violence Exported to U S The San Diego Union Tribune ISSN 1063 102X Archived from the original on June 11 2008 Retrieved June 11 2008 Jackman Tom June 6 2018 The Bobby Kennedy assassination tape Were 13 shots fired or only 8 The Washington Post Retrieved September 7 2022 A Moment of Victory Then the Dream Died Los Angeles Times March 5 1986 Archived from the original on October 8 2019 Retrieved September 2 2022 Irwin N Stroll Wounded in RFK Slaying He Became Famed Designer Los Angeles Times February 20 1995 Retrieved September 2 2022 Lovett Ian March 2 2011 California Sirhan Sirhan Denied Parole The New York Times Archived from the original on March 25 2022 Retrieved April 25 2022 Newsom Gavin January 13 2022 Newsom Why I will not release Sirhan Sirhan on parole Los Angeles Times Retrieved April 25 2022 Turner Wallace May 22 1982 Panel in California Cancels Sirhan s 1984 Parole Date The New York Times Retrieved April 25 2022 Reynolds Christopher January 5 2007 Double Exposure of History and Art in a Shutter s Click Los Angeles Times ISSN 0458 3035 Archived from the original on February 18 2022 Retrieved February 27 2022 Segalov Michael October 6 2018 Rory Kennedy In our family there was no tolerance for being a victim The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved May 5 2022 Stempel Jonathan January 6 2015 Sirhan Sirhan Loses Bid for Freedom Over RFK Death Reuters Retrieved April 2 2022 Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy The Guardian November 20 2006 ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved April 2 2022 Randerson James January 27 2007 Would Robert Kennedy Have Been President The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved March 15 2022 New Evidence Challenges Official Picture of Kennedy Shooting The Guardian February 22 2008 ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved April 2 2022 Sirhan Sirhan Six Kennedy Children Condemn Secision to Grant Killer Parole The Guardian August 28 2021 ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved April 25 2022 Assassination The Night Bobby Kennedy Was Shot The Independent January 21 2007 ISSN 1741 9743 Retrieved April 3 2022 Transcript of Kennedy Primary Victory Speech PDF The New York Times June 6 1968 ISSN 0362 4331 Archived PDF from the original on January 9 2022 Retrieved January 10 2021 via Harold Weisberg Archive Sirhan Felt Betrayed by Kennedy The New York Times February 20 1989 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved August 19 2021 Willon Phil January 13 2022 Gov Gavin Newsom Rejects Parole for Sirhan Sirhan Convicted of Killing Robert F Kennedy Los Angeles Times Retrieved April 25 2022 Web sources Robert F Kennedy Memorial Arlington National Cemetery Archived from the original on May 11 2008 Retrieved May 11 2008 RFK Assassination Archives Claire T Carney Library Retrieved April 3 2022 Democracy Now Special Robert F Kennedy s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination Democracy Now June 5 2008 Retrieved April 2 2022 Robert F Kennedy Assassination b Federal Bureau of Investigation April 5 1977 Archived from the original on February 27 2022 Retrieved February 27 2022 Secret Service History United States Secret Service Archived from the original on May 13 2008 Retrieved May 13 2008 Wells Leslie 2018 RFK s Assassination We Lost a Chance PDF Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Retrieved April 3 2022 Robert F Kennedy Assassination Investigation Records Secretary of State of California Retrieved April 3 2022 List of Physical Eviden PDF Secretary of State of California Retrieved September 2 2022 Further reading Robert F Kennedy Assassination a Federal Bureau of Investigation April 5 1977 Archived from the original on February 27 2022 Retrieved February 27 2022 Robert F Kennedy Assassination c Federal Bureau of Investigation April 5 1977 Archived from the original on February 27 2022 Retrieved February 27 2022 Klaber William Melanson Philip 1997 Shadow Play The Murder of Robert F Kennedy the Trial of Sirhan Sirhan and the Failure of American Justice St Martin s Press ISBN 978 0 312 15398 4 Retrieved February 27 2022 External linksList of physical evidences at the assassination site via the California State Archives Robert F Kennedy Assassination 50th Anniversary via C SPAN Public Law 90 331 via Govinfo gov Portals 1960s Los Angeles Law Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Assassination of Robert F Kennedy amp oldid 1135677735, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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