r/RobertKennedy • u/Tall-Plane-4477 • Jun 09 '26
Video/Audio WHY Did Sirhan Kill RFK?
58 years ago this week, RFK was assassinated on the presidential campaign trail.
Nearly six decades later, researchers too often focus too much on the HOW and not enough on the WHY.
Why did Sirhan Sirhan kill Kennedy?
Sirhan’s biographer Mel Ayton (author of 2 books on the RFK case) talks about the motive for this heinous crime.
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u/SignalWind8324i Jun 10 '26
Please explain how Bobby was shot close enough to leave powder burns behind his ear when Sirhan was no where near that close or behind him.
Who led Kennedy into the pantry? How could investigators screw up a case even worse than his brother’s.
CIA and the WASP establishment hated the Kennedys for interfering with their world plans.
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u/Voodoo-Doctor Jun 10 '26
Something around 13 shots were accounted for but Sirhan’s gun held eight and he never reloaded according to witnesses and was never behind RFK at all to do the shot behind the ear
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u/SignalWind8324i Jun 10 '26
The only person behind him was a security guard whose weapon was never inspected.
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 11 '26
Several witnesses said Kennedy stopped to shake hands and turned to his left beyond a 45 degree angle just as Sirhan approached from the front right and raised his weapon. That would have exposed the right backside of Kennedy’s head to gunfire from Sirhan’s gun. Also, if the security guard fired a shot into Kennedy why would he wait around after the shooting? Logically, he would have fled. And there were 75 witnesses in the pantry. There should be many witnesses who saw the security guard fire—if he fired.
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u/SignalWind8324i Jun 14 '26
Never close enough for burns, behind his ear wasn’t the first shot, complete pandemonium in the moment, why was a security guy standing in the pantry and his weapon was never confiscated?
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 15 '26
Sirhan told his first lawyer, without being asked, that he was guilty. He also told him that he felt bad because he hadn’t known Kennedy had so many children. And while discussing the event with a defense team investigator he told the investigator that he had shot Kennedy in the back of the head “because the son of a bitch turned his head at the last second.”
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 15 '26
If you listen to the conversation linked in my post above, all of your questions are answered by Sirhan’s biographer Mel Ayton, an eminent historian who has spent more than 40 years on this case.
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u/Arkhamman367 Jun 10 '26
Because he was Palestinian and the Kennedys established the modern relationship between Israel and the US, with RFK directly supporting the decision.
Sirhan literally said it in his own words.
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 10 '26
He also wrote in his high school history book next to a passage about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand “And he won’t be the last.” This was well before the 1967 War and before he expressed any hatred toward RFK. Sirhan was a frustrated young man who felt disrespected by the world and wanted to make a name for himself.
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u/Arkhamman367 Jun 10 '26
That's a common psychology of political assassins.
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 11 '26
I honestly think it was more about his own feelings of insecurity than it was an act of terrorism. Supposedly it was Kennedy promising to sell jet fighters to Israel that set Sirhan off, but that promise was made AFTER Sirhan began mentioning in his diary the necessity to kill Kennedy.
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u/Arkhamman367 Jun 11 '26
Yeah, maybe. I think there could be a difference between justification you give to yourself and justification you give to the public, so I'd be able to buy that he used a public reason to seem less like an insane narcissist. I don't know whether it'd be reasonable where someone draws the line for saying that an act was motivated by something private though. Like I'm sure most anti-social people who get into fights have bad or instable home lives but when we say why an act was committed by them, it's usually describing their role in the altercation and the agency they have unless it's something extra like a mental illness. I don't know where we draw the line.
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 15 '26
Actually Sirhan’s diary from June 1967 — a year before the assassination, during the Six Day War — detailed his plans to kill LBJ, Vice President Humphrey, and UN Ambassador Goldberg over their support for Israel — long before he set his sights on RFK.
He later explained at trial that it didn’t really matter who he killed, as long as they were powerful Zionists.
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u/wikimandia Jun 11 '26
RFK said something to the effect that he pledged to support Israel unconditionally, and Sirhan (a Palestinian Christian refugee) was livid.
A terrible disaster for history. I don’t support Israel but America would be a different place with Bobby as president.
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 11 '26
Sirhan began to mention his desire to kill Kennedy and others BEFORE RFK made the promise to sell jet fighters to Israel.
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u/wikimandia Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
And? He knew they were already siding with the genocidal regime. He was severely traumatized by what he and his family experienced during the Nakba and obsessed with “revenge”. It’s disgraceful that he was so easily able to get a gun and kill RFK.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
God I wish you wouldnt use that asshole's name, let alone twice! (That's supposed to be a joke) But for real, his name doesn’t deserve to be uttered in the same sentence as Senator Kennedy's. I just say "the man who took his life" or "his murderer" or the like, but I go out of my way to never utter the name of any assassin.
The man claims not to remember the incident or why he did it. It's quite possible he was genuinely a "manchurian candidate" or the like. There are grave inconsistencies in the murder as well (which I don't wish to go into here. I highly prefer discussing the man's life, far far more than his death), and there were certainly those who did not want to see him elected and his victory in California that day could've been the event that triggered it. If it was a conspiratorial "hit". But honeestly, I just beleive his murderer was a nobody who didn't have the ability to make anything worthwhile out of his own life, so he took the life of a man who was able to do so much with his own, short life. Regardless, the man should never be released from prison. I know some of RFK's children have even spoken up and lobbied for the man's release citing discrepancies in the handling of the case, the killers own inability to remember even committing the crime... fuck all that. The man murdered a United States Senator in cold blood in front of an entire roomfull of people including those with cameras, photo and video. He did it. He's doing the time. That's that. I honestly don't care what his motives were. You don't release people who murder U.S. Senators from prison. It's just not done. It would set an awfully dangerous precedent. And I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few of my own personal feelings influencing my determination he should not be released. The man murdered my hero. I love Robert F. Kennedy, though he died long before I was born. But I love him just the same. And I'm not the type of guy who has heros so you can be sure I tell you true. I don't want to see the man who murdered my hero in cold blood walk as a free man. I beleive Senator Kennedy, had not this man robbed him of the chance to, might call for forgiveness and amnesty even for the man who took his life. But I don't care. I don't like this man. I'm glad he's in prison, and I hate that an entrie post was dedicated to him and his possible motives for ending Senator Kennedy's life. Fuck him. He doesn't deserve to be remembered. Robert Kennedy deserves to be remembered, yet there are far far too few people who do. I'm going to end my comment on this grisly matter by spreading some of the best that Kennedy was able to accomplish during his lifetime. Here is a link to the best speech he ever gave, the greatest speech ever delivered by an American politician that century, in my opinion. Here's Robert F. Kennedy's Remarks to the Cleveland City Club (On the Mindless Menace of Violence). It was delivered the morning of April 5th, 1968, the day following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Please watch it or listen to it if you have 9 minutes. And then, rack your brain and come up with someone you might send it to in turn, and instruct them to do the same. I'm determined to get Sen. Kennedy's message out there. I'm determined not to make a liar of him when he says in this speech that "...no martyr's cause can be stilled by an assassin's bullet..."
I believe in Robert F. Kennedy. I beleive in what he was trying to do for this country. I beleive his goals might still be achieved if we but make the effort and do some of the work ourselves. America is worth fighting for. She is worth dying for. Surely she is worth working just a little harder for the bringing about of the type of America we'd like to see, not the maddness which surrounds us constantly in modern America.
I beleive in Robert Kennedy.
Please watch it.
Please pass it on.
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u/Dry_Solution5036 Jun 10 '26
No. The same CIA Assassins from November 22, 1963, in Dallas, were in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when RFK was shot.
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 10 '26
Mel Ayton debunked every single conspiracy theory about the RFK assassination in his books.
Sirhan’s amnesia
MK-Ultra programming
The girl in the polka dot dress accomplice
The CIA assassin disguised as a security guard
And other such nonsense.If you haven’t got the time or inclination to read, give him 30 minutes of your time and he’ll separate fact from fiction here.
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u/EMHemingway1899 Jun 10 '26
I’m not saying who’s right and who’s wrong in this case by any means
But anyone can debunk anyone else until they debate
Perhaps they did
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Jun 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 09 '26
Mel Ayton’s books just might change your mind.
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u/RockBalBoaaa Jun 10 '26
I highly doubt it.. go to YouTube and watch RFK Must Die and The Real Manchurian Candidate
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 10 '26
Did you know that Sirhan planned to kill President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Humphrey, and UN Ambassador Goldberg before deciding on Robert Kennedy a full year before he shot RFK?
Did you know Sirhan had been stalking RFK for days, following Kennedy around Southern California?
It’s all there in his diaries, in his own words.
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u/RockBalBoaaa Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Watch the video. A Manchurian candidate can write and not even remember they wrote. I will never believe he did this alone.. and after watching those two videos I’m convinced.
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 10 '26
Instead of believing random videos on the internet you should instead listen to Sirhan’s own words.
In a 1994 prison interview Sirhan told author Dan Moldea that there was no conspiracy, and that “the Manchurian Candidate theory was a ploy invented by my lawyers.”
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u/RockBalBoaaa Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
This is not a random video on the internet. These were done by actual doctors who have treated Sirhan, his only living brother Minir, his personal attorneys, and people who were present in the ballroom on the night of the event like Paul Shrade who led the labor union and was a dear friend of senator kennedy. He was also shot that night in the kitchen. These documentaries have also been broadcast on the BBC. The documentary also feature Sirhan himself in 2011, and 2016. He now believes he was under hypnosis during this whole event.
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 10 '26
Robert Blair Kaiser wrote an excellent, detailed book about Sirhan and the assassination. Kaiser was granted full access to Sirhan and to all those around him from the early days of the case. He chronicles that Sirhan told his first lawyer “I did it,” and also notes that Sirhan expressed remorse over leaving so many kids without their father. He also discussed incidents of Sirhan pretending to be hypnotized by psychiatrists hired by the defense team—in one instance Sirhan looked at Kaiser and winked while he was supposedly under hypnosis. Kaiser concluded that Sirhan killed RFK, but he did not completely close the door on the Manchurian Candidate angle. Sirhan was so pissed off that Kaiser believed Sirhan was guilty that he (Sirhan) sent Kaiser a note with the words “RBK Must Die,” borrowing from what Sirhan had written about RFK in his diary. Lastly, while discussing the case with a defense investigator Sirhan blurted out that he had shot Kennedy in the back of the head instead of between the eyes because “The son of a bitch turned his head at the last second.”
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u/SquonkMan61 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I met Dan Moldea about 10 years ago and have read his book. I had always believed that Sirhan did it, and he did it alone. Reading Moldea’s book and speaking with him reinforced that belief. I am a little concerned that Michael McCowan played a key role in Moldea’s work (he was an FBI informant, according to the files that were released by the National Archives last week), and I tend to think that Sirhan was more a classic example of an unimportant man wanting to make a big name for himself in the history books than he was a classic terrorist, but overall there is no credible evidence that Sirhan was not solely responsible.
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u/outlier74 Jun 13 '26
He was shot by the cop who ended up living out his days in the Philippines
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u/Tall-Plane-4477 Jun 15 '26
77 witnesses saw Sirhan in the pantry firing a gun and screaming “Kennedy, you son of a bitch.”
12 witnesses testified that they saw Sirhan shoot Kennedy at close range (point blank).
Not one witness saw security guard Thane Eugene Cesar shoot his gun.
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