The Man Who Killed Robert F. Kennedy Is Still in Prison — RFK Jr. Thinks He Should Be Out

It was barely June 6, 1968, when presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy stepped off the makeshift stage erected at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. According to ABC News, the younger brother to John F. Kennedy was celebrating a victory the night before. He had just won primaries in South Dakota and California and was well on his way to becoming the Democratic nominee.

He thanked the crowd and headed out of the ballroom and through a door into the hotel's kitchen where Kennedy began shaking hands with the staff. It was at that moment that a 24-year-old Palestinian-Jordanian man walked up to the former United States attorney general, and shot him three times. Kennedy was pronounced dead a few hours later. The shooter was arrested. Where is Sirhan Sirhan now? He insists he's a changed man.

Sirhan is serving his life sentence at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, Calif., after being transferred there in 2013. He was originally given the death penalty but that was commuted in 1972. His next parole suitability hearing is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 16, 2024.

In a 1989 interview with British broadcaster David Frost for Inside Edition, Sirhan was asked why he assassinated Kennedy. "My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians," he said, referring to a speech Kennedy had given in support of sending U.S. fighter jets to Israel. Sirhan then added, "I was not doing it out of personal malice toward the man, but out of concern for other people." Sirhan also expressed his sorrow and remorse over what he did.

In December 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle stating he thinks Sirhan should be released from prison. The former presidential candidate was only 14 years old when he lost his father and, like many, was convinced it was Sirhan. Then, in 2016, he was convinced by a friend to look at Kennedy's autopsy report as well as other evidence from the assassination.

That friend was Paul Schrade, the trade union activist who was also shot that night, though he survived. Robert realized that Sirhan only shot two bullets at his father before he was tackled. One hit Schrader in his head but Robert says the other probably got lodged in a door jam behind Kennedy. After five men tackled Sirhan and diverted his gun away from Kennedy, Sirhan got off six more shots. That's eight shots total but in a recording Robert listened to, 13 shots can be heard. The Los Angeles Police Department apparently hid this audiotape while Sirhan was on trial. Later, FBI agents would confirm more shots were fired.

Robert said that he believes the fatal shots came from a recently hired security guard named Thane Eugene Cesar, who was standing behind Kennedy when Sirhan shot at him.

"According to the autopsy, all four shots that struck my father (one shot passed harmlessly through his suit) were fired from behind at a steep upward angle toward the ceiling," wrote Robert. "All shots were from within a few inches, with two leaving gun powder residue in the wounds, suggesting that the assassin was standing close behind my father, shielding his weapon with his body while all attention focused on Sirhan."

Cesar was never officially looked into though Robert desperately tried to speak with him, until he fled to the Philippines. He reportedly died in September 2019. Robert continues to advocate for Sirhan's release.