Our Nation enjoys (or hates) the Presidential Elections every four years. Well, 2024 is no different. This term, we find people from third-party groups and even “No Labels” candidates vying for the top job in our country.
Most candidates will fall away and never heard from again, while other names linger and follow us through history. One such name is Senator Robert Kennedy Sr (RFK). With the entrance of his son, Robert Kennedy Jr., into the spotlight, we can’t help but recall the tragedy he and his family faced the day Sirhan Sirhan took the life of his father.
It is no surprise that we find new information emerging about that horrific scene over 50 years ago. On June 5, 1968, RFK won the California Presidential Primary. After giving his acceptance speech, RFK’s team ushered him out of the ballroom and into the kitchen, where they believed he would find a safe path to the elevator.
Meanwhile, a twenty-year-old campaign worker named Sandy Serrano found a place to rest her feet on an outside stairwell. When a kerfuffle chimed throughout the building, two people raced down the stairs and announced they had shot RFK. The woman wore a polka-dotted dress; the second was a young Palestinian man. Serrano would tell her story to the authorities, who later tried to coerce her to confess she lied and made up the whole incident for attention. However, 25 other witnesses reported that a woman stood behind Sirhan in the kitchen. The authorities could never locate the woman with the polka-dotted dress or anyone else who matched her description.
In the kitchen, RFK’s small security helped navigate the Senator through the area. However, Sirhan stepped forward and fired eight shots with his .22 caliber Iverson Johnson Cadet revolver. Three shots hit RFK, and the remaining bullets injured others standing by the Senator. Soon, the authorities seized Sirhan, and the shots stopped.
So, we thought.
Witnesses in the kitchen also tell of a security guard named Thane Cesar standing behind RFK. Cesar, who was not a supporter of the Kennedys for their advocacy of Civil Rights for blacks, took RFK by the elbow and led him toward Sirhan. Many people say Cesar had drawn his gun. But when RFK fell backward and landed on him, the confusion covered any evidence of whether he fired the pistol at RFK. Cesar changed his story many times and told police he had a .36 and not a .22 caliber pistol. However, reports show that Cesar owned a .22 but sold it to a coworker a week later.
RFK’s autopsy report shows three wounds: one to the side of his head, one at the back of his neck, and one on his back. In 2005, Los Angeles Coroner Noguchi stated eyewitnesses put Sirhan approximately 18 inches opposite RFK. The fatal gunshots occurred one to one-half inches from the right side of the head. Further, the Coroner found gunpowder in RFK’s hair, adding evidence of a close shot to the head.
The authorities sentenced Sirhan Sirhan for the crime after he confessed to the shooting. The many inconsistencies have bred stories of CIA involvement and that Sirhan was a Manchurian Candidate and hypnotized to kill the Senator. Many people also believe that during his trial, Sirhan underwent hypnosis again. Sirhan pleaded insanity during his trial and claimed not to remember anything.
There is a claim that I haven’t been able to source from the TV show Greatest Mysteries, which states the CIA destroyed the walls and molding at the hotel where the bullet holes remained. If that is so, then some of the wild conspiracy theories may not be too farfetched.
So, what do you think? Is there enough evidence to reopen this case? Was there a second shooter? Do you think Thane Cesar shot at RFK? Was it an accident or something more sinister?
Let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.
Harper Gale
HARPER GALE BOOKS 