In June 1987, Dan E.
Moldea published a cover story forRegardie'smagazine
about the June 1968 murder of Senator Robert Kennedy, hoping
to help force open the official case file, which had been
sealed by the Los Angeles Police Department for nearly twenty
years. At first look, the LAPD's probe of the Kennedy
murder appeared to provide extremely persuasive evidence of
convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan's guilt. But,
simultaneously, a close study of the controversies in the case
appeared to provide equally persuasive evidence that a second
gun may have been fired at the crime scene. This
evidence consisted of:
* A flawless coroner's autopsy and the LAPD's own muzzle
distance tests, which demonstrated that Kennedy's wounds had
been caused by a weapon fired from point-blank range--six
inches or less. Yet, not a single eyewitness at the
crime scene ever saw Sirhan's gun get that close.
* An official FBI report and accompanying photographs taken at
the crime scene, which indicated that four bullet holes had
been discovered in Sirhan's line of fire. Sirhan only
had an eight-shot revolver, and all eight bullets had been
accounted for: three shots hit Kennedy; one bullet was
removed from each of the other five victims, all of whom
survived.
* A court-appointed firearms panel that refired Sirhan's gun
seven years after the murder. Although the experts could
match the three intact victim bullets with each other, they
were unable to match any of these victim bullets with the 1975
test shots.
* The presence of a security guard--who admitted to extreme
right-wing views, worked for George Wallace, and hated the
Kennedy family--standing directly behind Senator Kennedy with
a gun in his hand and powder burns on his face. In theRegardie'sarticle,
Moldea published his exclusive interview with the guard, who
clearly had motive, means, and opportunity.
While the article was still on newsstands, the City of Los
Angeles finally announced that it would release the
50,000-document investigative file on the Kennedy case.
However, after the files were made public, it became clear
that many documents and photographs were missing or had been
mysteriously destroyed; thus, suspicions about the LAPD's
investigation and ultimate conclusions continued.
After being criticized by LAPD homicide detectives for relying
on the statements of eyewitnesses who "are not trained or
experienced or qualified to make judgments" about what they
saw at the crime scene, Moldea began locating and interviewing
over a hundred law enforcement personnel who were "trained,
experienced, and qualified" and directly involved in the
original, official investigation.
To his surprise, he received nearly all of his best evidence
of a possible second gunman from many of these officials--who
identified what appeared to have been extra bullets at the
crime scene, essentially corroborating the earlier official
FBI report and its accompanying photographs.
On the basis of this new evidence, Moldea wrote a second story
for theWashington Poston
May 13, 1990, "RFK's Murder: A Second Gun?" In this
article, Moldea concluded: "[I]t would be a mistake to rush to
quick or simplistic judgments concerning the origin of
additional assassination gunshots. The importance and
complexity of this matter demand that it be examined
impartially be a reconstituted official investigation."
Also, three days later, this article served as the foundation
for a half-hour segment on NBC'sUnsolved
Mysteries.
However, it was not until he received the backing of a major
publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, that he could do what
was necessary to resolve his own questions about this case.
Released by Norton in June 1995, Moldea'sThe
Killing of Robert F. Kennedy:An Investigation of Motive,
Means, and Opportunitychronicled the
official case history, the subsequent controversies, and,
finally, the author's own investigation, which included the
police interviews, a polygraph test with the security guard,
and a series of exclusive prison interviews with Sirhan
Sirhan. After explaining the reasons for the conflicting
evidence in the case in the book's final chapter, Moldea
concluded, "Sirhan Bishara Sirhan consciously and knowingly
murdered Senator Robert Kennedy, and he acted alone."
Norton published the trade-paperback edition in March 1997 and
a third printing in August 2006. After the rights
reverted, Moldea self-published the fourth edition in March
2018--for the 50th anniversary of the murder--which included
the Kindle version.
In a major news story,Newsweekstated,
"If there had been a conspiracy to assassinate Robert F.
Kennedy, as many people believe, Dan Moldea probably would
have found it. . . . Moldea shows that simple (and sometimes
hilarious) human error explain these suspicious coincidences.
. . . If this reporting doesn't seal the case, Moldea's
chilling prison interviews with Sirhan do." TheBoston
Globewrote, "Resisting the temptation
to trade in today's hot market for conspiracy, Moldea crafted
instead a nonfiction version of aColumbomovie,
in which the murderer is known from the opening scene and the
grip of the story comes from the twists and turns of his
investigation: a howdunit more than whodunit. . . . That
Moldea could carry off such a trick is a testament to his
skill as a writer and investigator." TheSt.
Louis Post-Dispatchsaid, "The book is
a triumph in several ways. The first triumph is stylistic. . .
. The second triumph is ethical. . . . The third triumph is
substantive. . . . Readers who want to reward responsible
investigative journalism ought to buy this book." TheSan
Francisco Chronicleadded, "Moldea's
book is an act of courage. . . . Many writers would have
simply abandoned the project when they discovered that their
fundamental views about a subject they had researched for
years were wrong. That Moldea did not is greatly to his
credit. His book will serve future historians
well." TheSan Francisco Examinercommented,
"[Moldea's] research is impeccable . . . the legwork in
first-rate."Booklistsaid,
"Detailed and definitive, Moldea's investigation might close
the book on the tragedy."
And theNew York Times, in a major
daily review by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on May 25, 1995,
described the book as, "Carefully reasoned, ultimately
persuasive, dramatic. . . . The author meticulously dissects
how the various disputes arose and how critics were drawn into
the orbit of the case. . . . The cleverness of [Moldea's]
strategy in the book lies in his playing so effectively the
part of devil's advocate. . . . His book should be read, not
so much for the irrefutability of its conclusions as for the
way the author has brought order out of a chaotic tale and
turned an appalling tatter of history into an emblem of our
misshapen times."
A second review in theNew York Times
Book Reviewdescribed the book as "a
persuasive reexamination of the assassination . . . amply
supported by prodigious research," adding, "Beyond presenting
what is likely to be the best understanding of what actually
happened on June 5, 1968 . . . [t]his book presents a
remarkable turnaround for a writer who had partly staked his
reputation on the existence of a second shooter. But
because of the honesty and logic with which he approaches his
study, Mr. Moldea's journalistic instincts have never looked
sharper. . . . [T]his is the best written of his books,
finished in a clear and easy style."
In Evan Thomas's
2000 bestseller,Robert Kennedy:
His Life, the author wrote: "There are various
conspiracy theories about RFK's assassination. I was
persuaded by Dan Moldea'sThe Killing of
Robert F. Kennedythat they are
bogus."
Video: DEM on the RFK case
Dan
Moldea, author of the 1995 book, The Killing of Robert F.
Kennedy, makes his case that Sirhan Sirhan committed the
murder and acted alone on KNBC
News Conference with legendary television anchorman
Jess Marlow in Los Angeles, June 2, 1995. (There
are blackouts between segments where commercials appeared
during the original broadcast. The entire recording is
26 minutes, 30 seconds.)
* For an excerpt of Moldea's
interviews with Sirhan Sirhan, see Confessions of a
Guerrilla Writer, Part Seven,
Chapter 8.
* Read Moldea's response to a January 17, 2000, documentary
about the RFK case on The History
Channel, specifically dealing with the issue of alleged
extra bullets at the crime scene.
* How do Sirhan's apologists explain
the convicted assassin's "Hey Punk"
letter to his attorney, which Moldea revealed in his
book?
--Jefferson Morley and David Talbot, Mary Ferrell
Foundation, "The
BBC's Flawed RFK Story," July 19, 2007. (On
Shane O'Sullivan's erroneous claims about alleged CIA agents
at the RFK crime scene.)
History
Channel, Conspiracy?:The
Robert F. Kennedy Assassination,
December 20, 2004 (Towers Productions)
In preparation for the 50th
anniversary of the murder of Senator Kennedy, below is
what appears to be an abridged six-part version of the
above program, which includes several professionally
produced scenes with high-tech equipment, demonstrated
in a very legitimate replica of the crime scenethe
kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. .
. . I am featured throughout this documentary,
particularly in parts 5 and 6.
