# Robert Kennedy Jr: "Sirhan Sirhan didn't do it" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307 "2018-06-02T01:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/21 "2018-06-03T03:15:56Z")
To ISIS. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/22 "2018-06-03T03:22:34Z")
The “patriotic”\* Sirhan has [changed his tune](http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article59691361.html#storylink=cpy) markedly over the years. \*"During the (parole) hearing, the 71-year-old Sirhan stuck to his previous account that he did not remember the shooting in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after Kennedy won the Democratic presidential primary in California. He said he recalled being in the hotel then going to his car and returning after realizing he had too much to drink. He said he became interested in a female and they drank coffee in a hotel pantry. “It’s all vague now,” Sirhan told the parole panel. “I’m sure you all have it in your records. I can’t deny it or confirm it. I just wish this whole thing had never taken place.”\* [Weird conspiracy angles](http://abcnews.go.com/US/robert-kennedys-killer-sirhan-sirhan-brainwashed/story?id=13029050) have been proposed by Sirhan’s supporters before RFK Jr. got into the act. \*“There is no question he was hypno-programmed,” lawyer William F. Pepper told [ABCNews.com](http://ABCNews.com). “He was set up. He was used. He was manipulated.”…Pepper said he believes Sirhan was…essentially brainwashed to kill Kennedy and his memories were then erased." The lawyer’s tale has all the makings of a great conspiracy theory, if not a science fiction thriller akin to the “Manchurian Candidate.”…Pepper says he believes he knows who ordered Sirhan to shoot Kennedy, but won’t yet say who it is. "\* OOooooOOooooo. \*more like a confused and disturbed attention-seeker, similar to others who’ve targeted politicians and celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/23 "2018-06-03T03:26:00Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Sirhan Sirhan was an Orthodox Christian born in Jerusalem. He opposed RFK’s plan for the USA to take sides with the Zionists and supply American-made fighter jets to Israel. I’m not saying Mr Sirhan dealt with his anger at all well; but he was acting from patriotism. Calling him ISIS is really insulting. Considering that ISIS didn’t exist until nearly 40 years after the assassination, calling him ISIS is also stupid. But we’re talking right wing conspiracy theories here, which are both insulting and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/24 "2018-06-03T07:06:19Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > The left would love to dig up JFK so they could live it up again but all they have is this fruit fallen far from the tree. Nobody cares about JFK any more. He’s a Boomer relic with very little cachet among people under the age of sixty. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/25 "2018-06-03T07:55:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Nobody cares about JFK any more. He’s a Boomer relic with very little cachet among people under the age of sixty. Yeah the new President the left likes to idolize is Jimmy Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/26 "2018-06-03T10:23:34Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Yeah the new President the left likes to idolize is Jimmy Carter. We do? Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/27 "2018-06-03T11:00:51Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > We do? > > Cite? A lot of political podcasts basically claim he was “The Greatest President of the Past 50 Years” because he was “The Anti-War President” or “He never bombed anyone” despite the fact both are wrong. For some reason after being heavily disappointed in Obama’s hawkish war policies people began forming the Cult of Carter as the “peaceful alternative”, from “Chapo Trap House” to “The Dollop” the Cult of Carter has spread like wildfire the past eight years. Hell, I made a topic here about Jimmy Carter being overrated and people were coming out of the woodwork to defend him with those same wrong arguments. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/28 "2018-06-03T13:09:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Yeah the new President the left likes to idolize is Jimmy Carter. “New”? We’ve _always_ loved Jimmy and consider the treatment he received by the media incredibly unfair. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/29 "2018-06-03T16:20:33Z")
[1995 Op-Ed piece](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/06/04/for-the-last-time-who-killed-rfk/3293ac48-454f-4b9d-8467-0521300c65a1) in the Washington Post, by a guy flogging a book that there was a second gunman in the assassination of RFK. The points he makes, if true—specifically that there were more holes in things than Sirhan had bullets, and that RFK’s wounds’ gunshot residue don’t resemble wounds from a gun fired as far away as Sirhan supposedly shot—give some credence to the idea that there was a second gunman. Anyway, go read the op-ed. The rumor I’d heard of for the killing was that one of his bodyguards accidentally shot him in the head during the struggle with Sirhan and the general crush of bodies in the immediate shooting scene. He had a pistol in his hand when he was grappling, had his trigger finger in the trigger guard (trigger discipline wasn’t as monomaniacial for police/military in the late 60s as today), and ‘sympathetically squeezed’ a shot while his hand was near RFK’s head. Oops. Was RFK Jr at the scene when his father died? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/30 "2018-06-03T16:31:20Z")
This is just another case of “He was a great man, therefore a mere nutcase _couldn’t_ have done it-only a force equal to him could have taken him down!”. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/31 "2018-06-03T20:22:29Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > I have to go to the art show, but I’ll be back later to explain my convoluted thought process. In detail. > [@jaycat](#): > > I was at the art show, but I didn’t see you around. > [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > I was there, my wife bought a picture of a mushroom. I also saw carp feeding on surface vegetation - I always thought of them as bottom feeders. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Haven’t you ever seen feeding time at a koi pond? Or had a bowl of goldfish? Of _course_ they’re surface feeders. > > _Catfish_, otoh. Are you guys talking in code? Are you brewing up some evil conspiracy? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/32 "2018-06-03T20:30:05Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Nobody cares about JFK any more. He’s a Boomer relic with very little cachet among people under the age of sixty. I think the Kennedys still have some cache. I mean, more recent kennedys like JFK junior and Ted Kennedy were very much in the news in recent times. Ted Kennedy was one of Obama’s early supporters. I think talking about Kennedy is good for the Democrats, I think you could get a newer generation excited about JFK and anything related to him, revive the Kennedy brand so to speak. Or you could just grow algae in you fishtank with some driftwood you found on the Eastern Shore; I know what I’m doing. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/33 "2018-06-03T20:32:36Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > Are you guys talking in code? Are you brewing up some evil conspiracy? It involves carp . . . . . with LAZERRRS. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/34 "2018-06-03T20:38:18Z")
The possibility of a 2nd shooter is well known. There’s apparently evidence of unaccounted for shots. Either way, Sirhan was there and restrained holding a pistol. That’s pretty conclusive. I wish more care had been taken to investigate the possibility of a 2nd shooter. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/35 "2018-06-03T20:41:12Z")
Things Kennedys’ have: 1. Cash. Yes. 2. Cachet. Maybe. 3. Cache. Don’t know, don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/36 "2018-06-04T02:16:38Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > This is just another case of “He was a great man, therefore a mere nutcase _couldn’t_ have done it-only a force equal to him could have taken him down!”. Hear, hear. And well put. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/37 "2018-06-04T02:22:44Z")
Where was Ted Cruz’s father that evening? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/38 "2018-06-05T14:46:35Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > [1995 Op-Ed piece](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/06/04/for-the-last-time-who-killed-rfk/3293ac48-454f-4b9d-8467-0521300c65a1) in the Washington Post, by a guy flogging a book that there was a second gunman in the assassination of RFK. > > The points he makes, if true—specifically that there were more holes in things than Sirhan had bullets, and that RFK’s wounds’ gunshot residue don’t resemble wounds from a gun fired as far away as Sirhan supposedly shot—give some credence to the idea that there was a second gunman. Anyway, go read the op-ed. > > The rumor I’d heard of for the killing was that one of his bodyguards accidentally shot him in the head during the struggle with Sirhan and the general crush of bodies in the immediate shooting scene. He had a pistol in his hand when he was grappling, had his trigger finger in the trigger guard (trigger discipline wasn’t as monomaniacial for police/military in the late 60s as today), and ‘sympathetically squeezed’ a shot while his hand was near RFK’s head. Oops. > > Was RFK Jr at the scene when his father died? Moldea concluded that there was no conspiracy with RFK. His book is not the conspiracy tome you think it is. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/39 "2018-06-05T18:10:13Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Moldea concluded that there was no conspiracy with RFK. His book is not the conspiracy tome you think it is. I didn’t say there was a conspiracy. I personally don’t think there was a conspiracy to kill RFK. Which may or not be different than what his kid is telling the media in 2018. The question I was trying to answer with the cite was, “Might there have been a second gunman, even if only by accident?” I’ve not read the book that the guy in the op-ed was trying to sell, but I think the points this guy brought up seemed to say that there might have been a second guy shooting. I then gave the rumor I’d heard, many years ago, about if there’d been shots from another gun, how it may have happened. It sounds like you’ve read the book. What is the author’s thesis, in your opinion? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307/40 "2018-06-05T18:51:24Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > Are you guys talking in code? Are you brewing up some evil conspiracy? The duck flies at dawn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-kennedy-jr-sirhan-sirhan-didnt-do-it/815307.md?page=3)