Sirhan Sirhan
Reader comment on article: Faces of American Islam[: Muslim Immigration]

Submitted by Cee Gee Dee (United States), Jan 17, 2005 at 21:18

Do you think Sirhan Sirhan was the lone assassin of Bobby Kennedy or were there others involved?

Your thoughts.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Having read Dan E. Moldea, The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means and Opportunity (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), I have no doubt that Sirhan acted alone.

Incidentally, Moldea initially distrusted the official version that the convicted killer, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, acted alone and instead accepted the conspiracist belief in a second gun and a wider conspiracy. But thorough research, including a revelatory interview with Sirhan himself, led him to conclude that Sirhan did act alone. "I now realize that even law-enforcement officials . . . do make mistakes." Moldea found he had previously expected too much of the authorities: "if one does not account for occasional official mistakes and incompetence, then nearly every . . . political murder could appear to be a conspiracy, particularly if a civilian investigator--with limited access and resources--is looking for one" (p. 307).

DP