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Title: The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity by Dan E. Moldea ISBN: 0-393-31534-7 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.85 (13 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Somewhat Disappointing
Comment: My first adventure in investigative journalism, I was immediately captivated by the beginning: cast of characters, general overviews, and the excitement that, based on the overview of how the book was to go, it was worth reading. The material was well written in that Mr. Moldea went into fine and captivating detail asto what the investigators were thinking, what EVERYONE was thinking. I was a little suspicious of the passage where he describes visiting with Sirhan Sirhan, and given the result of the encounter, maybe made the author a little biased asto how his investigation would lead to. The ending left me in a completely different place, where I believe the author's evidence lead me to. His conclusions were not anything I had agreed with. I feel he made the evidence ultimately fit the official version of the tragic downfall of RFK that fateful June evening in 1968.
Rating: 4
Summary: Motive, Means, and Opportunity
Comment: The author of this very readable book has specialized in reporting on organized crime since 1974. He re-investigated the assassination in 1987, and began to accumulate evidence from the police investigators. Robert Francis Kennedy earned a reputation as an enemy of mobsters and labor racketeers while chief counsel of the Senate Rackets Committee (p.17). No one has ever prosecuted organized crime more than RFK did while Attorney General.
June 4, 1968 was primary day in California. At first RFK was trailing, then he and his friends went to the Ambassador Hotel to await results. When the results showed RFK ahead, he went to the Embassy Room to make his victory speech. They then retraced the same route to return to the hotel suite. Sirhan was able to get into the kitchen although he didn't belong there. When RFK walked there, Sirhan opened fire. None of those shot admitted to seeing the gunman (p.43)!
Pages 85-89 discuss the 8 shots, and the other five victims. RFK was shot from a gun at his right rear side angled upwards, not from his front at 1 to 3 feet away. The fatal wound behind his right ear came from a one inch distance. There are discrepancies between the testimony of the eyewitnesses and the coroner's analysis from the autopsy (p.91). This is critical evidence (pp.95-98). The history of Sirhan is on pages 101-109. Two weeks after the shooting Sirhan was represented by a lawyer who formerly represented mobsters (p.116). The Defense and the Prosecution agreed to a guilty plea and a life sentence (p.120). The judge wouldn't allow this. Sirhan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death (p.123).
The next month the 'Los Angeles Free Press' printed an article that cast doubt on the official theory (p.13). Extra bullet holes suggested a second gunman. There was a discrepancy between eyewitness testimony and the muzzle distance. A criminalist and firearms expert disputed the claim of a lone gunman (pp.138-9). The Coroner said there was no eyewitness to testify Sirhan fired at point-blank range (p.159). The American Academy of Forensic Sciences recommended a re-examination of the physical evidence (p.170). A court-authorized study concluded the original bullets were matches, but could not be matched to Sirhan's gun (p.175)! Note 123 tells about the traces of wood found on spent bullets in Sirhan's car (p.176). Chapter 19 says the case was badly mishandled by the LAPD in regard to physical evidence (p.192). There was a report of removing two bullets from a strip of molding (p.263). A former FBI special agent said he saw two bullet holes in the center divider (p.269).
A polygraph test was administered to the guard; he passed and could not have been involved (p.290). DEM interviewed Sirhan" he doesn't remember the shooting, only what happened after (p.299).
What really happened? "Complicated investigations sometimes have very simple solutions" (p.305). DEM thinks the LAPD and FBI erred in not thoroughly investigating organized crime as a possibility; they had the strongest motive, means, and opportunity (p.307). Chapter 30 provides his answer: Sirhan alone did it. DEM acknowledges the LAPD's error of omissions, and tries to explain the discrepancies between the eyewitnesses and the physical evidence. Sirhan's story of drinking and of amnesia are just a way to escape responsibility.
Page 313 claims there were no bullet holes in the door frames; those who say different were mistaken. But earlier DEM wrote of bullets with traces of wood on them (p.176); could the many police officers there have all been mistaken?
Rating: 5
Summary: Moldea gets it right!
Comment: As a 10 year student of the RFK assassination,I was eager to get ahold of Dan Moldea`s work on the case.A prior magazine article of his had been primarily responsible for the release of the long witheld LAPD files on the case.
The book does not dissapoint.Moldea carefully and articulately moves through the entire case and looks under every stone in the search for answers.NO other researcher has interviewed so many personnel connected with the case.He is not biased to any side,as the reader can easily see in Moldea`s scathing comments on LAPD,and in his meetings with Sirhan.
Moldea`s thoroughness had me enthralled and by the time the dramatic end arrived I realised that I simply had to read it again...it was that good...and most of all,it closed the door on my research into the case.This account of the RFK case cannot be bettered,in my opinion.
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