The forgotten terrorist : Sirhan Sirhan and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy / Mel Ayton ; foreword by Alan Dershowitz ; with a new afterword by the author.
Originally published: 2007. Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-368) and index.
Contents:
The Ambassador Hotel -- RFK and Israel -- Sirhan and Palestine -- The shooting -- The trial -- Controversies: the physical evidence -- Controversies: the witness -- Distorted truths -- "The Manchurian candidate" assassin -- Sirhan's obsessions -- The unaffiliated terrorist -- Why did he kill? -- Afterword -- Afterword to the second edition.
Summary:
Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968 seems like it should be an open-and-shut case. Many people crowded in the small room at Los Angeles's famed Ambassador Hotel that fateful night saw Sirhan Sirhan pull the trigger. Sirhan was also convinced of the crime and still languishes in jail with a life sentence. However, conspiracy theorists have jumped on inconsistencies in the eyewitness testimony and alleged anomalies in the forensic evidence to suggest that Sirhan was only one shooter in a larger conspiracy, a patsy for the real killers, or even a hypnotized assassin who did not know what he was doing (a popular plot in Cold War-era fiction, such as "The Manchurian Candidate"). The author profiles Sirhan and presents a wealth of evidence about his fanatical Palestinian nationalism and his hatred for RFK that motivated the killing. The author unearths neglected eyewitness accounts and overlooked forensic evidence and examines Sirhan's extensive personal notebooks. He revisits the trial proceedings and convincingly shows Sirhan was in fact the lone assassin whose politically motivated act was a forerunner of present-day terrorism. This second edition features a new afterword containing interviews and new evidence, as well as a new examination of the RFK assassination acoustics evidence by technical analyst Michael O'Dell.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.