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In Sirhan's '68 Notes, a Calculating Assassin

The picture they paint is not one of a brainwashed killer

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 7, 2011 12:34 PM CDT

(Newser) Sirhan Sirhan claims he was brainwashed into assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, but notes he purportedly wrote 42 years ago tell a different story. The handwritten four-page chronology, which he wrote in front of a member of his defense team, shows a more calculated approach. In it, Sirhan describes his visit to a target practice range and then his trip to the Ambassador Hotel, where he waited in the kitchen pantry area to shoot Kennedy. According to the press release, Sirhan even included a detailed floor plan.

The assassination "never seemed to me to be a conspiracy. He wanted to be a martyr for the Palestinian cause," says Michael McCowan, the last surviving member of Sirhan's defense team. He tells the Los Angeles Times, "Sirhan's not stupid. In his 10th-grade history book from his high school in Pasadena he'd underlined the assassination of President McKinley and on the next page of Archduke Ferdinand." The notes will be sold at auction next week, along with other materials including a telegram Lee Harvey Oswald's mother sent to Sirhan's mother.

Sirhan Sirhan, 66, convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, laughs during a Board of Parole Suitability Hearing March 2, 2011, at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, Calif.
Sirhan Sirhan, 66, convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, laughs during a Board of Parole Suitability Hearing March 2, 2011, at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, Calif....   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
A.NonyMouse
Apr 7, 2011 10:52 PM CDT
The problem with this story is the well established fact that Sirhan was in front of Kennedy several feet away when he was firing his gun. According to the autopsy report that Sirhan's incompetent defense team did not enter into evidence, Kennedy was shot from behind at a range of a few inches. His wounds were all in the back and with an upward trajectory. And it just so happens that there was an armed security guard right behind Kennedy with his gun drawn. Plus there were more wounds and bullet holes than could have been caused by Sirhan's gun. His defense team sold him down the river. All of this has been well know for years.
RinoHunter
Apr 7, 2011 3:56 PM CDT
And if he was born 40 years later he would have been brainwashed into being a suicide bomber?
godawgs
Apr 7, 2011 1:58 PM CDT
just remember bill ayers dedicated his book to sirhan sirhan among others....

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