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Sirhan Sirhan Biography

Assassin / Convict

At about 12:15 am on June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan shot presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy, who was leaving a campaign rally, was mortally wounded and died the next day. (Kennedy's death came just two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King by James Earl Ray.) Sirhan was an Arab who had emigrated to the United States in the 1950s and was reportedly disturbed by Kennedy's pro-Israel positions. After a 1969 trial lasting nearly four months, Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to death. That sentence was commuted to life in prison and Sirhan has been in prison in California ever since; his repeated applications for parole have been denied.

Extra credit: Sirhan was not related to the Sirhan Sirhan accused of the deadly attack on an Israeli kibbutz in November of 2002; early reports that the two were related were in error... Robert Kennedy's brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald... After Robert Kennedy's death, the U.S. Secret Service began offering protection to presidential candidates as well as sitting presidents.

Sirhan and RFK are part of our Who2 loop Autopsy by Noguchi.

Blog posts mentioning Sirhan Sirhan:

• Photo: Manson a Graybeard at 74
• RFK +40
• Kennedy and Sirhan