Newly released RFK assassination files reveal curiosity and concern over Sirhan Sirhan's Palestinian roots

Documents suggest jailed killer was motivated by presidential candidate's stance on Israel

Sirhan Sirhan with his lawyer Russell E Parsons, left, leaving Los Angeles Hall of Justice in California, in 1968. Getty Images

Newly unclassified documents have piqued interest in Sirhan Sirhan, the Christian Palestinian who emigrated from Jordan to the US and later assassinated presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy.

Some of the many previously classified documents released on Friday show a scramble by US investigators, lawyers, reporters and others to learn anything and everything about Sirhan's Palestinian background before his move to the US in 1956 at the age of 12.

Several weeks ago, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard touted the release of documents related to the 1968 assassination that had been “sitting in boxes for decades”.

In just one of the thousands of pages of previously redacted documents that have been released, a letter from a lawyer addressed to the then US secretary of state Dean Rusk expresses concern about Sirhan's political motives based on his Palestinian background.

Investigations by the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI indicated speeches given by Mr Kennedy on the campaign trail in support of Israel fuelled Sirhan's motivation that night in June, after RFK won the 1968 California Democratic primary in his pursuit of the White House.

“RFK must die,” he wrote over and over in a diary found by investigators.

Friends and acquaintances of Sirhan also said at the time that he had became obsessed with RFK due to his stance on Israel, with the killer frequently and overtly expressing anger.

“Many Arabs like Sirhan have been misled to believe that Israel is the enemy and the cause of their enslavement and poverty,” reads the letter from the attorney based in Detroit, Michigan.

“This Nazi-type of propaganda has led many irrational acts of violence and tragic murders similar to the recent Kennedy assassination,” the letter continues, adding that the guilt for RFK's assassination also sits with “those who triggered Sirhan's mind to act and caused him to suffer from irrational impulses.”

Another recently unclassified document details a reporter, Salah Abd as-Samad, who met Sirhan's father in Amman, Jordan, shortly after his son was accused of shooting RFK.

“I believe that the imbalance in Senator Kennedy's speeches while electioneering for the presidency was the primary cause of what happened,” the reporter recounted Sirhan's father as saying during an interview.

“This is what pushed my son to act as he did. Had the late senator been reserved and merely called for peace in the Middle East, nothing would have happened.”

The new information is the latest in a series of recent developments which have thrust Sirhan back into the public consciousness.

Previously classified documents related to the RFK assassination show the US government's interest in Sirhan Sirhan's life in the Middle East

Just before the release of new documents related to RFK's assassination, Sirhan's lawyer Angela Berry said she was forced to speak out about her client, in part because of how he was mentioned in a statement by Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who she claimed used Sirhan's situation to justify his attempts to keep Erik and Lyle Menendez in prison.

The brothers, who shot and killed their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in the family's Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, have been appealing against their life sentence for years.

Renewed interest in that case has caused a groundswell of support to review the case and potentially grant the brothers parole. Mr Hochman said that while Sirhan accepted responsibility for killing RFK, the Menendez brothers never apologised for their crime.

“If Sirhan remains an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety, then so, too, do the Menendez brothers – who have never come fully clean of their lies in over 30 years,” Mr Hochman told celebrity news site TMZ.

Those comments annoyed Sirhan's lawyer, who has been working towards parole for her client.

“On multiple occasions, my client has said that he doesn’t remember shooting Robert F Kennedy,” Ms Berry told The National in a phone interview.

Sirhan was granted parole in 2021 but ultimately that decision was overturned by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who said the assassination was one of the most notorious crimes in US history. Sirhan was denied parole in 2023, his 17th unsuccessful attempt.

Robert Kennedy addresses supporters in the Ambassador's Hotel, Los Angeles, in 1968. Mirrorpix via Getty Images

His lawyer said Mr Hochman's comments reinforced many misconceptions about what her client did and did not say in the years since RFK's death.

“I am of the strong opinion that it’s a poor comparison,” she said, reaffirming her claim that Sirhan did not remember the assassination so could not confess to the crime. “It’s disingenuous and feeds into this false narrative that’s built up over the last 50 years.”

During interrogations shortly after RFK's assassination in 1968 and in several outbursts throughout the trial the following year, records show Sirhan did confess several times.

Yet despite the confessions, evidence and ultimate conviction, a cottage industry of conspiracy theories has fuelled considerable speculation about who killed Mr Kennedy. Many insist there was a second shooter, with others implying Sirhan had been hypnotised to commit the act.

Making matters more complicated, throughout the years Sirhan has also flip-flopped on his confessions, occasionally claiming that he didn't remember the assassination, while at the same time expressing remorse for Mr Kennedy's death.

In 2019, he was stabbed in prison by an inmate but recovered. Now 81, Sirhan's diminished mental state has further clouded his memory and added to the uncertainty over whether or not his words are genuine.

Sirhan Sirhan arrives for a parole hearing on August 27, 2021 in San Diego. AP

Amid the doubt, alternative narratives have continued to flourish. In his book that seeks to debunk the conspiracy theories, The Forgotten Terrorist: Sirhan Sirhan and the Assassination of Robert F Kennedy, author Mel Ayton does not mince words.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence against Sirhan, some conspiracy advocates use tactics similar to those used by OJ Simpson’s defence team – eg, discrediting witnesses, pouring scorn on scientific evidence and otherwise building a smokescreen to hide the assassin’s guilt – to allege that Sirhan is innocent,” one passage says.

In an email to The National just before the new Sirhan documents were released by the US government, Mr Ayton speculated about what to expect.

“There will likely be information from the CIA about intelligence inquiries regarding possible Sirhan Middle East connections. There were none – apart from information about extended family members who lived in the West Bank,” he wrote.

“We'll also likely learn more about the FBI and LAPD's methods of surveillance (after the assassination)”.

During a recent interview with comedian and commentator Bill Maher, Robert F Kennedy Jr, son of RFK, said he believed Sirhan was involved in the murder but did not fire the shots.

He also claimed he visited Sirhan in a California prison and that after the meeting he became convinced there was another shooter who killed his father.

Since the interview on Maher's show, Mr Kennedy Jr has been appointed Health Secretary in US President Donald Trump's administration.

Robert F Kennedy Jr said he believes Sirhan Sirhan was involved in his father's murder but did not fire the shots. Getty Images via AFP

Ms Berry said Mr Kennedy Jr, in his new position, could try to exert pressure to obtain parole for Sirhan, although the odds of success are limited. Because it is not a federal case, there is little Mr Trump could do if he became involved. “It's not a federal issue, it's a state issue, and it's up to those in charge in California,” she said.

In January, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing US intelligence agencies to release previously withheld files connected to the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy, and those of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Amid much anticipation, files relating to the JFK assassination were released last month but failed to unveil any game-changing discoveries.

In an interview with The National, award-winning investigative journalist and author Dan Moldea said he doubted anything of significance would come to light from the release of more RFK assassination documents, although he had yet to go through the documents at the time of the interview.

“I'm sure there will be new things that have come out that are interesting but nothing that's going to determine that Sirhan didn't do it,” he said.

Mr Moldea, who wrote the book The Killing of Robert F Kennedy, dismissed claims made by some that more bullets were fired during the assassination than Sirhan's gun could hold.

“The initial FBI report was wrong,” he said. Incorrect and rushed assessments of the crime scene had misidentified what investigators thought were bullet holes, he added.

He said irresponsible reporting on the assassination, coupled with Mr Kennedy Jr's recent claims, have “created a QAnon, pro-Sirhan Sirhan cult” that pushes for his release from prison.

“What RFK Jr has done is irresponsible and the damage he has done by resurrecting all of this, when we thought it was all put to bed, is also irresponsible,” Mr Moldea said.

Regardless of what the new documents reveal, there is already a significant amount of information on RFK's assassination and Sirhan in the public domain, readily accessible through the US National Archives.

Additionally, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, has what it describes as “the world’s largest, most complete compilation of materials” related to the killing.

Its collection contains manuscripts, photographs, audio interviews, videos, news clippings and research notes complied by various contributors and journalists, as well as documents obtained from the US government.

Meanwhile, the fascination with Sirhan and RFK's assassination shows no sign of diminishing.

But as the theories continue to circulate, Sirhan has remained in prison for 56 years. He will next be eligible for a parole board hearing in 2027.