Who Killed Robert Kennedy?

This effort, by the organizer of the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives at the University of Massachusetts, is a persuasive brief for looking more closely at RFK's killing. Based mainly on Los Angeles Police Department and FBI files declassified in the late 1980s, the book argues against the exclusive focus on the convicted assassin, Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, though submitting that he may have been part of an assassination plot. Autopsy results and witnesses suggest the presence of a second gunman; several witnesses identified a ``woman in the polka-dot dress'' as a Sirhan accomplice; and as for motive, while Sirhan was apparently angered at Kennedy's position on Israel, his acquaintances said Sirhan never spoke of that issue. The author, in what may be a stretch, argues that the most plausible explanation is that Sirhan was programmed by a mind-control expert to shoot Kennedy. Melanson ( Who Killed Martin Luther King? ) identifies those with possible motives to kill Kennedy, among them the Mafia, J. Edgar Hoover, elements of the CIA, Jimmy Hoffa, right-wing and racist groups, and hard-line cold warriors. Photos not seen by PW. (July)