Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Sirhan is a Jordanian assassin best known for the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. Born in Jerusalem into a displaced family following the Arab-Israeli War, Sirhan experienced significant turmoil and violence in his early life, which contributed to his intense political convictions and animosity toward Israel and key American figures. After emigrating to the United States in 1957, he became increasingly fixated on political assassinations, particularly in the wake of the Six-Day War, which deepened his frustrations with U.S. foreign policy.
Following the assassination, Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty. While serving his sentence, he has repeatedly sought parole, though these requests have largely been denied, including a notable rejection in 2022. Sirhan has remained a controversial figure, with ongoing debates around his motives and alleged connections to broader conspiracies surrounding the assassination, including claims of mind control. His case continues to evoke significant public interest and scrutiny, illustrating the enduring impact of political violence in American history.
Sirhan Sirhan
- Born: March 19, 1944
- Place of Birth: Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel)
Jordanian assassin
Major offenses: Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy; first-degree murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon
Active: June 5, 1968
Sentence: Death in the gas chamber; reduced to life in prison when the US Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia (1972) that the death penalty was being unconstitutionally applied by the states in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause
Early Life
Sirhan Sirhan (SEHR-han SEHR-han) was born into a Jordanian family in Jerusalem. In 1948, Sirhan’s family became displaced refugees because of the Arab-Israeli War, and he grew up witnessing horrific violence between Arabs and Jews, including the death of his older brother. From 1948 to 1957, the family lived in a poverty-stricken environment. As Israeli forces quickly began to dominate areas in the Middle East, Sirhan began to doubt whether he would be able to realize his dream of returning to his homeland in Jordan. In 1957, Sirhan and his family emigrated to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California. Sirhan’s father abandoned the family and eventually moved back to Palestine.
In high school, Sirhan was viewed as a quiet person with a good sense of humor. He was well liked and fairly popular with young women. He became intrigued by assassinations and once underlined sentences in a high school textbook regarding political assassination, writing in the margin that “many more will come.” As a young man, he viewed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 as the beginning of the end for the United States.
Political Convictions
Sirhan hated Israel with a passion. When Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula on June 5, 1967, the Six-Day War began, in which Israeli forces handily defeated the United Arab Republic, Syria, and Jordan. Sirhan was devastated emotionally because he then knew that he could never return to Jordan. He began to hate US politicians and the American media, which he saw as being controlled by wealthy Jews. In particular, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was a focal point for Sirhan’s hatred and frustration. As a journalist in 1948, Kennedy had covered the establishment of the new state of Israel for the Boston Globe, and a film documentary about Kennedy’s trip to Israel happened to air in Los Angeles prior to the 1968 California primary election.
As he campaigned for the presidency in 1968, Robert Kennedy sought to appease Jewish voters for at least two reasons. First, he had formerly worked for Joseph McCarthy, the senator who had vigorously investigated communist sympathizers in the 1950s. The lives and careers of many Jewish people were destroyed by McCarthy’s activities. Second, Joseph Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s father and US ambassador to Great Britain in the 1930s, had supported the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. As a US senator, Kennedy began to establish a strong voting record in favor of Israel; for example, he supported the sale of fifty jet fighters to that nation, which greatly angered Sirhan.
Criminal Career
In preparation for the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Sirhan began to practice mind control and self-hypnosis to make himself an instrument of assassination. He was known to have studied the occult sciences. Over a period of weeks leading up to the California presidential primary, Sirhan stalked Kennedy as he campaigned throughout the state. Sirhan became obsessed with killing Kennedy prior to June 5, 1968, the first anniversary of the Six-Day War. After Kennedy gave a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Sirhan fatally shot the senator with a .22 caliber handgun as Kennedy was leaving the hotel through a kitchen pantry area.
Legal Action and Outcome
Sirhan’s statements to police after the assassination indicated that his motive for the murder was political. Although a number of psychiatrists evaluating Sirhan questioned his sanity, he was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder on April 17, 1969, and sentenced to death by the gas chamber. Sirhan’s sentence was reduced to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional. Serving a life sentence in the California state prison at Corcoran, Sirhan sought parole numerous times during his prison sentence, but they were all denied. Following policy reform that compelled the panel to consider additional factors in their decisions, including health and age, they recommended Sirhan be released. Governor Newsom rejected this release in 2022. In March 2023, he was again denied parole.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, California state prison officials isolated Sirhan from other inmates for his own protection. He later told prison officials that he wanted to be housed with the general population, and he was moved to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County. In August 2019, Sirhan was stabbed by a fellow inmate and hospitalized. He recovered and upon returning to prison, was once again isolated from the general population, pending an investigation into the stabbing.
Impact
The assassination of Robert Kennedy cleared the path to the presidency for other candidates in 1968; the winner in that year’s election was Richard Nixon. On September 6, 1970, the hijacking of four commercial airplanes in Europe by Arab terrorists brought international attention to Sirhan Sirhan when the terrorists attempted to offer their captives in exchange for Sirhan’s release from prison. In the Arab world, Sirhan remains a symbol of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Like the assassination of John Kennedy, the murder of Robert Kennedy has spawned a belief in conspiracies. For instance, some have linked Sirhan to organized crime because he worked as a horse trainer at a racetrack in Santa Ana, California. Other conspiracy theorists have focused upon the mind control and self-hypnosis exercises practiced by Sirhan as circumstantial evidence that he may have been used by the intelligence community. No credible evidence has been introduced to prove any of the conspiracy theories.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s debated whether to investigate the murder of Robert Kennedy but decided instead to focus upon the murders of John Kennedy and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. The federal government had not conducted an official investigation into the assassination of Robert Kennedy as of 2006. Attorney Lawrence Teeter gained recognition because he tried to have Sirhan’s conviction overturned on appeal based upon faulty evidence introduced at the original trial. In 2018, one of RFK's sons, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reported that he had visited Sirhan in prison in December 2017. After the visit, Kennedy said he believed that a second gunman, not Sirhan, had killed his father. Kennedy also stated that he supported a reinvestigation of his father's assassination, and in 2023, advocated for Sirhan's parole.
Robert F. Kennedy's assassination has continued to intrigue the public. Sirhan's role likewise was often explored; numerous true-crime shows have examined the event. In 2024, for example, the series History's Greatest Mysteries aired an episode about the assassination and Sirhan.
Bibliography
Clarke, James W. “Sirhan Sirhan.” In American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics. Rev. ed. Princeton UP, 1990.
Francescani, Chris, and Santina Leuci. “Sirhan Sirhan Back in Prison after Surviving Stabbing: Attorney.” ABC News, 1 Sept. 2019, abcnews.go.com/US/sirhan-sirhan-back-prison-surviving-stabbing-attorney/story?id=65327829. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.
Jackman, Tom. “Who Killed Bobby Kennedy? His Son RFK Jr. Doesn’t Believe It Was Sirhan Sirhan.” The Washington Post, 5 June 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/05/26/who-killed-bobby-kennedy-his-son-rfk-jr-doesnt-believe-it-was-sirhan-sirhan. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.
Jansen, Godfrey. Why Robert Kennedy Was Killed. Third Press, 1970.
Kaiser, Robert Blair. “RFK Must Die”: A History of the Robert Kennedy Assassination and Its Aftermath. Dutton, 1970.
"Sirhan Sirhan." Internet Movie Database, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0802805/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.
Watson, Julie. "RFK killer Sirhan Sirhan denied parole by California board." AP News, 2 Mar. 2023, apnews.com/article/kennedy-assassin-sirhan-sirhan-parole-677c24ee621f6cb70b6165e741f87e65. Accessed 1 Sept. 2024.