(Newser)
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It might have been a more convincing story 43 years ago, but Sirhan Sirhan now says he was brainwashed into assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, has no memory of the 1968 shooting, and did not act alone. "There is no question he was hypno-programmed," Sirhan lawyer William F. Pepper tells ABC. "He was set up. He was used. He was manipulated." Sirhan goes before an LA parole board today; Pepper says he also plans an appeal.
"Ten independent witnesses say Sirhan was always in front of Bobby," said Pepper, "but the autopsy says Bobby was shot at close range from behind the right ear." A forensic pathologist who examined RFK's body concedes a second gunman could be possible, and a Harvard psychologist who examined Sirhan found he was "easily hypnotized." But the move is an about-face, notes ABC, from the Sirhan who declared at his trial that he had shot Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought."
