Gov. Gavin Newsom Denies Parole for RFK killer Sirhan Sirhan

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday reversed the state parole board's decision to grant parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of killing Robert F. Kennedy more than 50 years ago, saying he remains a threat to society.

Sirhan was convicted and originally sentenced to death but was commuted to life in prison for fatally shooting Sen. Robert Kennedy, the former attorney general under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, on June 5, 1968, at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. Five bystanders were also shot, all of whom survived.

The presidential hopeful was slain in front of his family, friends and media after winning the California Democratic presidential primary, and his death sent shockwaves across the nation still reeling from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nine weeks earlier and that of his brother while a sitting president in 1963.

After more than five decades in jail, Sirhan was recommend for parole in late August during his 16th hearing that was absent a prosecutor for the first time following the abolishment of the longstanding practice for one to appear at parole hearings to argue against the release of inmates.

Newsom said he decided to reverse the parole board's decision following an extensive review of Sirhan's case, finding he "poses an unreasonable danger to society."

Sirhan, 77, refuses to accept responsibility for his crime, fails to disclaim violence committed in his name and has not done enough to mitigate his risk factors, Newsome said.

"After decades in prison, Mr. Sirhan has failed to address the deficiencies that led him to assassinate Sen. Kennedy," Newsom wrote in the order. "Mr. Sirhan lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the same types of dangerous decisions he made in the past."

As evidence, Newsom pointed to Sirhan's "shifting narrative" of the crime as he stated in court that he killed Robert Kennedy to telling a board psychologist that he didn't intend to commit homicide but only sought attention to "the plight of his fellow countrymen." In a 1985 parole hearing, he blamed alcohol for the crimes and in 2021, portrayed himself the victim of being "in the wrong spot at the wrong time," the order states.

The shooting coincided on the one-year anniversary of the Six-Day War, and he has said he committed the crime in objection to Kennedy's support of Israel.

In an op-ed published Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, Newsom explained Sirhan remains a potent symbol of political violence and in the past terrorists have taken hostages, some of whom were killed, in his name -- acts Sirhan has not tried to distance himself from.

"Recently Sirhan laughingly dismissed the current relevance of his status as an ideological lightning rod," Newsom wrote in the paper. "He does not understand, let alone have the skills to manage, the complex risks of his self-created notoriety. He cannot be safely released from prison because he has not mitigated his risk of fomenting further political violence."

The family of Robert Kennedy issued a statement of gratitude for Newsom's decision to deny parole, stating without identifying Sirhan by name that he must "transform himself" and that time alone is not a measure of rehabilitation for premeditated murder.

They said the pain of reliving Robert Kennedy's last moments is "simply unbearable" and instead of contrition Sirhan seems to suggest the time he has spent in jail is enough punishment for his crimes.

"The political passions that motivated this inmate's act still simmer today, and his refusal to admit the truth makes it impossible to conclude that he has overcome the evil that boiled over 53 years ago," they said. "After decades in prison for a horrific crime, it is difficult to imagine that he ever will. He remains a danger to public safety and must continue to be incarcerated for the protection of the community."

“Didn’t Sirhan admit to killing Kennedy?”

Interesting that Sirhan admitted at his trial in 1969 that he shot Kennedy. But he, also, claimed from the start that he had no memory of doing so. And the evidence should have proven him wrong.

One of the main things that never came out was that the bullet count was wrong.

Sirhan’s .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet revolver contained eight rounds, which were all fired. Since the assassination took place in a tight, confined pantry, all bullets became embedded in the walls, the ceiling, and the victims. Three bullets hit Kennedy; two stayed in his body and another tore through his arm. The five bullets that hit the other five victims stayed in their bodies, meaning one bullet (that passed through Kennedy’s arm) would have been lodged in the room itself. The LAPD found three bullet holes in the foam ceiling, and concluded that a bullet must have ricocheted through the ceiling before turning back and hitting a person. Martin Patrusky, a hotel waiter, remembered being told by officers that they had removed two bullets from the door frame. The LAPD removed the door frame and the ceiling tiles and later incinerated them. Robert Kennedy’s son, Robert Kennedy Jr., later said that “There were too many bullets”, and that “You can’t fire 13 shots out of an eight-shot gun”. And again, Sirhan was in front of him, not behind his right ear and never on film within a reaching point of one inch. But there’s a lot more to this not public unless you try to find it.

In late 1975, a Los Angeles judge convened a panel of seven experts in forensics to examine ballistic evidence. They found that the three bullets that hit Kennedy were all fired from the same gun, but could not find a match between these bullets and Sirhan’s revolver. They accused DeWayne Wolfer, the lead crime scene investigator who had testified at trial that a bullet taken from Kennedy’s body was from Sirhan’s revolver, of running a careless investigation. The forensic experts urged further investigation.

An internal police document, which was later released, concluded that “Kennedy and Weisel bullets not fired from same gun” and “Kennedy bullet not fired from Sirhan’s revolver.”

In 2007, analysis of an audio recording of the shooting made that night by freelance reporter Stanislaw Pruszynski appeared to indicate, according to forensic expert Philip van Praag, that at least 13 shots were fired. Van Praag also said the recording revealed at least two instances in which the time between shots was shorter than humanly possible and that different resonances indicated there was more than one gun. According to Van Praag, the firing of more than eight shots was independently corroborated by forensic audio specialists Wes Dooley and Paul Pegas of Audio Engineering Associates, forensic audio and ballistics expert Eddy B. Brixen, and audio specialist Phil Spencer Whitehead of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On November 26, 2011, Sirhan’s defense attorneys William F. Pepper and Laurie Dusek filed a 62-page brief in federal court asserting that a bullet used as evidence to convict Sirhan was switched with another bullet at the crime scene. The brief claims that this was done because the bullet taken from Kennedy’s neck did not match Sirhan’s gun. Pepper and Dusek, Sirhan’s attorneys, claim that the new evidence is sufficient to find Sirhan not guilty under the law.

Here’s an interesting piece of film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSxVHk5IqX4

So it comes down to who I think killed him. Read this article and you’ll get a different look. It’s a little long, but it ties things together.

http://www.cosmosclub.org/journals/1996/goldfarb.html

Another is here:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tina-sinatra-mob-ties-aided-jfk/

A note here, right before the 1960 election there was a deal made with Sam Giancana to assist in getting JFK elected, and thus RFK into the AG slot. That was the year a number of dead people voted in Chicago for JFK and he landed the electoral votes in Illinois. He won by less than .2%, JFK - 49.98% Nixon - 49.80%.

The investigations on the Chicago mob and Sam Giancana started shortly after the election. And that’s what got the Kennedy brothers killed. They broke their promise to the wrong guy.

wy69

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