Kennedy Jr wants fresh probe into father’s assassination

Washington: Sirhan Sirhan is serving a life sentence in a California prison for the murder 50 years ago of Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s son and namesake, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is not convinced the Palestinian- born did it, or at least not alone. RFK Jr wants a fresh investigation of the assassination – an appeal which is supported by only one of his eight surviving siblings.

Robert F. Kennedy, 42, was shot dead just after midnight on June 5, 1968 in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

The younger brother of president John F. Kennedy, cut down by an assassin’s bullets five years earlier, had just delivered a victory speech in the hotel ballroom after winning the California presidential primary.

The former US attorney general and New York senator died the next day. Sirhan, who was born in Jerusalem and moved with his family to the United States in 1956, was convicted of firing the fatal shots with a .22 caliber pistol.

Sirhan, who was 24, at the time, confessed to the murder at his 1969 trial but claimed he could not remember carrying it out.

Diaries in which he had written “RFK Must Die” were entered as evidence along with a motive of supposed hatred for Kennedy’s support for Israel. Sirhan was captured at the scene, the gun still in his hand, but there have long been claims a second gunman may have been involved.

Several witnesses and an acoustics expert believe that a total of 13 shots were fired although Sirhan’s gun only held eight bullets.

Also, Kennedy was hit behind the right ear by a bullet fired from pointblank range although Sirhan was said to be standing in front of him. RFK Jr, 64, an environmental lawyer who is the third- eldest of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 kids, is among those who entertain doubts. He revealed to The Washington Post last week that he visited Sirhan in prison in December of last year