Robert F. Kennedy assassination
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Robertkennedy.jpg
U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. The convicted assassin, 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan B. Sirhan, attributed the killing to Kennedy's support for Israel during the Six-Day War. On March 3, 1969, in a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan admitted that he had killed Kennedy. Sirhan has since recanted, and as late as 1998 has sought a new trial. [1] (http://www.jfk-info.com/teeter2.htm)
Various critics have suggested that the official account of Robert Kennedy's death is inconsistent or incomplete, and/or that the killing was the result of a conspiracy.
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Background
The evening he was killed, Kennedy had won the June 4 Democratic Presidential primaries in South Dakota and California, making him the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President during the 1968 presidential election.
Kennedy addressed his supporters in the early morning hours of June 5 in a ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Afterwards, Kennedy and his entourage walked through a kitchen hallway, shaking hands with well-wishers and hotel staff. The small pantry was rather crowded, when a 24-year-old man named Sirhan Sirhan stepped in front of Kennedy and shouted "Kennedy, you son of a bitch" before firing his .22-caliber revolver toward Kennedy and his entourage.
Hotel maitre d' Karl Uecker, writer George Plimpton, Olympic gold medalist decathlete Rafer Johnson and professional football player Rosey Grier helped detain Sirhan, with Grier jamming his thumb behind the trigger of the revolver to prevent further shots from being fired.
The shooting and resultant scuffle were broadcast live by reporter Andrew West of KRKD radio, who was interviewing Kennedy. [2] (http://hearitnow.umd.edu/1968.htm)
Kennedy was shot twice in his back and once behind his right ear. A fourth shot grazed Kennedy's clothing. Kennedy lay on the floor, bleeding heavily, and asked if anyone else was hurt. Five other people were wounded, and Kennedy died the next day.
Disputes and Contentions
There seems to be no dispute that Sirhan did fire his revolver. What is disputed is whether Sirhan planned and acted alone, whether there was another gunman at the scene, and also the propriety of some actions taken by various authorities during the investigation. Like his brother John's assassination in 1963, RFK's death has been analyzed by many who have developed various alternative scenarios for the crime, or who argue there are serious problems with the official case.
Kennedy's Wounds
Though some eyewitnesses suggest Sirhan was about one-and-a-half feet from Kennedy when he fired his revolver, many of the witnesses agreed that Sirhan was at least three feet away from Kennedy. All witnesses agree that Sirhan was facing Kennedy.
In conducting an autopsy on Kennedy, Los Angeles coroner Dr. Thomas N. Noguchi found powder burns on Kennedy's ear and gunpowder residue in his hair. Noguchi said this indicated that Kennedy was shot from a distance of, at most, 1.5 inches (37 millimeters.) (When a firearm is discharged, the powder residue travels only a few inches because the material is very light.) Noguchi's conclusions led to speculation that Sirhan was too far from Kennedy and in the wrong position to have adminstered the fatal shot (also fired from a .22 caliber handgun, one which had apparently been fired into Kennedy's head at point-blank range from behind his right ear) and that a second shooter must have been present. Dr. Noguchi himself wrote years later that "Until more is precisely known…the existence of a second gunman remains a possibility.Thus, I have never said that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy."[3] (http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/kennedy/5.html?sect=19)
Allegations of Suppression or Coverup
Scott Enyart asserts that he took photographs during the shooting, but these were confiscated by the LAPD and never returned.[4] (http://www.daywilliams.com/enyart.html)
Sandy Serrano reports that during questioning, she was intimidated by police.[5] (http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/kennedy/6.html?sect=19)
Police reportedly destroyed or concealed considerable amounts of evidence from the crime scene, including photographs, ceiling panels, and door frames.
Charges have been made that authorities withheld potentially exculpatory evidence from Sirhan's lawyer by keeping Noguchi's autopsy report sealed until after the trial had begun.
Additional Bullet Holes or Gunshots
Sirhan's .22 revolver held eight cartridges. The official conclusion is that Sirhan fired all his cartridges, and all eight projectiles were recovered. Others have suggested there were more than eight shots fired.
Conspiracy theories
Many claims of a "second shooter" point to an part-time armed security guard escorting Kennedy, a 26-year-old Lockheed aerospace worker named Thane Eugene Cesar who had been called to work at the Ambassador at the last minute by his employer, Ace Guard Services. According to witnesses, Cesar had been standing closest to Kennedy on the Senator's right and slightly to the rear when Sirhan had begun firing. Kennedy had suddenly grabbed Cesar's clip-on necktie with his right hand when hit and that tie was less than a foot away from the Senator's right hand while he was lying fatally wounded on the hotel's kitchen floor. Cesar had later admitted to investigators he had owned a .22-caliber revolver similar to Sirhan's, but had claimed to them he had sold the weapon in February 1968, a claim proving to have been false, as it had been later discovered that Cesar had instead sold it three months after the assassination. The buyer of that revolver had later reported it as stolen. The revolver that Cesar had been carrying at the time of the Kennedy shooting was not test-fired by the police.
Additional Conspirators
Los Angeles police sergeant Paul Sharaga and a young Kennedy campaign worker named Sandy Serrano had both claimed a young Hispanic man and a young Caucasian woman (the latter wearing a "polka dot" dress) had quickly burst out of a rear service exit of the Ambassador Hotel's kitchen moments after the shooting exclaiming, "We got him. We got Kennedy." Sgt. Sharaga immediately issued an all-points bulletin for the couple, one soon canceled without explanation by his superiors while Serrano had later been coerced by police into changing her story. A San Diego high school student, Lisa Urso, who had been present in the hotel kitchen when Kennedy was shot, claims she had seen a blond young man in a gray business suit place a revolver in a holster under his jacket when Sirhan began shooting and another dark haired man in a black business suit firing a handgun into the ceiling and then running away from the scene.
Sirhan's motivations
Mel Ayton of Frontpage Magazine argues[6] (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18020) that Kennedy was shot not on the orders of the PLO but by Sirhan Sirhan for reasons of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and Palestinian nationalism. Sirhan, a lifelong Roman Catholic (not a Muslim as many mistakenly assume), had immigrated to Los Angeles from Palestine with his family as a young boy. Friends, neighbors and family had reported Sirhan had expressed no political ideas of any kind. Sirhan's parents themselves expressed strong anti-Israeli sentiments, and Sirhan expressed admiration for a teacher in Jordan who urged his students to be like Saladin.
Brainwashing
Sirhan claimed he acted unconsciously, and that he has no memory of the event. This has led to speculations that he was acting under the influence of "hypnotic brainwashing" which many attribute to the CIA's MK-Ultra program (similar to the plot of The Manchurian Candidate). Author George Plimpton, one of the four men who had initially subdued Sirhan, commented that Sirhan had maintained a calm, peaceful, dreamlike expression on his face amid all of the terror and confusion.
References In Popular Culture
The Rolling Stones were recording Beggar's Banquet when Robert Kennedy was shot. A lyric in "Sympathy for the Devil" was subsequently changed from "I shouted out, 'Who killed John Kennedy?'" to "I shouted out, 'Who killed the Kennedys'"
External links
- The official site of Lawrence Teeter, attorney for Sirhan Sirhan (http://www.reopenrfkassassinationcase.com/)
- Los Angeles Police Dept. Records (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf387002h3) -- From the Online Archive of California
- Who Killed Robert F. Kennedy? (http://www.patshannan.bizland.com/assassinationsrobertkennedy.html) -- From conspiracy theorist Pat Shannan
- Articles about the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (http://www.webcom.com/ctka/rfkarticles.html) -- From Citizens for the Truth about the Kennedy Assassination
- Bobby, I didn't know! (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/rfk.html) -- From Mike Ruppert
- FBI report summary (http://www.fbi-most-wanted.com/robert-kennedy-assassination/) -- Released under the Freedom of Information Act
- The Assassinations (http://www.theassassinations.com/index.htm) -- Book on the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X
- Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Collections (http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/assassinations/rfk.htm) -- Articles disputing that Sirhan killed Kennedy
- The RFK Assassination (argues in favor of a conspiracy) (http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~dlewis/)
- FrontPage magazine.com :: The 'Unaffiliated' Terrorist by Mel Ayton (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18020)
- FrontPage magazine.com :: Did the PLO Kill RFK? by Mel Ayton (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17503)