Free Sirhan Sirhan
The backlash has already started against the recommendation by a California parole board panel to free Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968. But it's a long-overdue decision -- even if it was based largely on Sirhan's advanced age (77), instead of the fact that he is innocent of killing RFK. Yes, as Sirhan admitted to the parole panel, he is guilty of firing a gun in the crowded pantry of the Ambassador Hotel that night. But, as Sirhan repeated, he has no memory of the tragic events of that night. For good reason. Sirhan was a programmed decoy -- the true assassin fired the fatal bullet into the back of Kennedy's skull at point-blank range, while Sirhan was firing wildly several feet in front of the senator.
Eyewitnesses to the shooting of RFK, including those who wrestled Sirhan for his gun (two of whom I interviewed for my 2007 book Brothers), later stated there was no way that Sirhan was positioned to fire the fatal bullet. Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the Los Angeles County coroner who performed the autopsy on Senator Kennedy, came to the same conclusion. Writing in his 1983 memoir, which was ignored by the media, Dr. Noguchi stated that the forensics (including ballistics evidence showing at least 12 shots were fired that night, while Sirhan's gun held only 8 bullets) "indicated there may have been a second gunman... Thus I have never said that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy."
My own research has led me to the conclusion that RFK's assassination was organized by CIA contractor Robert Maheu, who recruited Mafia hitmen to kill Fidel Castro, among other tasks for the spy agency. Maheu (whom I interviewed in his Las Vegas home near the end of his life) also conveniently owned a private security firm that I believe was detailed to the Ambassador Hotel that night. The man who fired the fatal shot into the back of RFK's head was posing as a security guard. Maheu's gunmen were positioned all over the hotel that night, following Kennedy's victory in the decisive California presidential primary. There was no way that RFK was going to survive that night.
Most independent researchers who have closely studied the RFK case have concluded that despite the hypnotic actions of Sirhan that night, he is not the assassin of Robert Kennedy. These dogged authors and researchers who are still active (including Shane O'Sullivan, Lisa Pease and Paul Schrade, the UAW official who was struck in the head by a bullet during the wild fusillade but recovered) -- as well as two sons of RFK -- all support the release of Sirhan Sirhan.
The California parole panel's recommendation must be upheld by Governor Gavin Newsom, who has other things on his mind now. But as soon as Newsom withstands the loony Republican recall, he must do the right thing and free Sirhan Sirhan.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy declared victory in the 1968 California primary shortly before he was shot.