RFK Assassination Essay

RFK Assassination

Joseph Geringer stated “Human nature loves a conspiracy. That is why, 31 years later, doubts continue to plague the accepted history of the assassination of Robert Francis Kennedy. When Palestinian-born Sirhan Sirhan's .22 caliber pistol ended the life of the New York senator; with the echo of his gunfire came a discordant series of questions.” It was a night of celebration for Robert F Kennedy (RFK), who won the California elections. A shadow slithered towards him without warning or any announcement of the catastrophic event that was to happen next. Sirhan sneaking around, walking towards RFK pulled out his revolver and fired the trigger. Although Sirhan was convicted, conspiracies and questions still have yet to be fully affirmed why Sirhan killed Robert F Kennedy.

It was June 5, 1968 the night RFK was murdered. It began when Kennedy won the California elections and soon afterward celebrated his victory at a Los Angeles hotel. The Senator went to meet fellow citizens to discuss his reelection, when a man walked towards him. Kennedy just thought it was another guest that wanted to shake his hand, and say congratulations, but this was not the case. In a split second the man known otherwise as Sirhan Sirhan took his gun and shot the Senator. Sirhan was a Palestinian immigrant that moved to the United States as a child. It was believed Sirhan shot Kennedy as the candidate showed support for Israel, but conspirators believe otherwise (The Robert Kennedy Assassination).

The first theory proposed was the Manchurian Candidate hypnosis theory. This idea suggests Sirhan was brainwashed into become a killing machine. Two hypnosis experts, Dr. Milton Kline and Dr. Herbert Spiegal, believed “’under the right circumstances it is definitely attainable. Sirhan being an outstanding hypnotic subject was probably programmed through hypnosis to shoot Senator Kennedy and to experience a genuine amnesia of the shooting’” (Ayton). Not even psychologists have ever figured out how hypnosis works, except it is a type of behavior that is learned. The CIA conducted a study to create a Manchurian Candidate assassin. Eventually the CIA found that “’All experiments beyond a certain point always failed because the subject jerked himself back for some reason or the subject got amnesiac or catatonic”’ (Ayton). Mind control techniques to completely manipulate a person still are considered speculative.
Sirhan denied the fact of shooting RFK let alone ever being at the hotel, or writing “RFK must die” (Stengle) in his notebook. He told investigators he could not recall any memory of that night. According to Dan Moldea in his interview with Sirhan, he believes his memory loss was caused by alcohol intake. Sirhan contradicted himself when Michael McCowan, detective in the RFK case, asked Sirhan, “’Then why Sirhan, didn’t you shoot him between the eyes?”’ Sirhan replied, ‘”Because that son of a bitch turned his head at the last second ”’(Ayton). Although this statement was not presented at trial, if Sirhan can remember him turning his head as he shot, then he could not have suffered from amnesia as he never remembered firing the gun. This has not been the only time Sirhan lied about his memory lapse. Sirhan stated, “He could not remember writing in his notebooks ‘RFK must die’ ” (Michael). But FBI handwriting analysis concluded that “Sirhan had written the entries, albeit haphazardly, jumping around from page to page in the

notebook, and that he had not written them when under the influence of a

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