More than 10,000 pages of records related to the investigation into the 1968 assassination of Robert F Kennedy have been released, giving sleuths new details about the senator’s death to pore over.
Among the trove of documents released were the FBI’s witness and evidence reports from the night of the assassination, letters of remorse from ambassadors and world leaders to the Department of State and official correspondence about the killer’s trial.
Kennedy, the brother of former president John F Kennedy, was killed while serving as the Democratic senator of New York and campaigning for president.
The assassination occurred just after midnight on 5 June. Kennedy was departing from a ballroom inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after winning the California primary and seizing momentum in the race when he was shot multiple times in the kitchen by 24-year-old Sirhan Sirhan.
The records were released after President Donald Trump signed an executive order declassifying documents related to events and investigations of public interest such as the assassinations of RFK, JFK, civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr and more.
“Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to@POTUS leadership and commitment to maximum transparency,” the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, wrote on X.
Secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is the son of the late senator.
As with the aftermath of JFK’s assassination, his brother’s murder sparked various conspiracy theories, such as allegations that there was a second gunman or that the CIA was involved.
Even Kennedy’s own son, RFK Jr, has propagated conspiracy theories about the event, namely that Sirhan could be innocent.
Sirhan, a Palestinian-Jordanian man, fired shots at Kennedy with a .22-caliber revolver. In addition to killing Kennedy, five other people were injured.
Sirhan has admitted killing Kennedy and said he was motivated by the senator’s support of Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. However, Sirhan has also made conflicting statements over the years about the shooting. Ultimately, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, although that was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Sirhan, now 81, has unsuccessfully sought parole at least 17 times over the past 56 years, the most recent being in August 2024.
