b. 1944
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was
convicted and sentenced to death for the June 5th, 1968
assassination of U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
Robert F. Kennedy. Sirhan's sentence was later
commuted to life imprisonment.
Sirhan was born in Palestinian Jerusalem. His family emigrated to the U.S. when he was 12 years old. He apparently suffered an abusive childhood and his father eventually abandoned his family and returned to Palestine.
There is some question about Sirhan's guilt; the autopsy and eyewitness reports make it almost impossible for him to have fired the shots that killed Kennedy. That Sirhan tried to shoot Kennedy is without doubt - whether he succeeded or whether another gunman actually accomplished the assassination is debatable. LAPD mishandling and/or destruction of evidence means that we may never know the full story.