For a short, swift moment, it seemed to the Americans that Robert Francis Kennedy was going to try on the presidential suit of his murdered brother John. Robert, whose name was associated with the great aspirations of all liberal America, appeared in a new role for himself as a young knight, who went on a crusade against America, divided into warring camps by the struggle for civil rights and the worsening situation in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, when Robert was gunned down two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King on June 4, 1968, three-quarters of Americans thought he was the victim of a conspiracy.
Crazy loner
On that day, Robert Kennedy won a key victory in the California primary, making him the main contender for the Democratic nominee in the upcoming presidential elections this fall. He celebrated his victory at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. At 12.15, when, surrounded by a crowd of supporters, journalists and bodyguards, he was leaving the hotel building through the pantry, someone's accurate shot overtook him. Then several more shots rang out, and Kennedy collapsed to the floor, bleeding. It was only then that the unknown Palestinian Serhan Bishara Serhan, who was still standing with a pistol in his hands, was stopped by the guards, who clearly failed to cope with the duties assigned to them to protect the life of the presidential candidate. The "lonely psycho" protesting against the intention of Robert Kennedy to sell American bombers to Israel,Serhan was sentenced to life in prison.
"Ragged" case
However, too many circumstances of the case simply did not fit together. First of all, there were too many bullets. Serhan's pistol held only eight rounds, but Robert Kennedy was wounded three times, one bullet hit his clothes, and five more people were injured - for a total of nine bullets. According to a statement made by the Los Angeles Police Department, there were indeed nine bullets. However, the Los Angeles Free Press, citing photographs as evidence, reported more shots, which were still visible in the pantry door frame. Indeed, the total number of shots reached thirteen. Thus, there was at least one other gunman. The journalists were able to establish that the police actually recorded these additional injuries,but did not disclose this information during the trial, after which both the door frame with traces of bullets and all other evidence were destroyed.
On this basis, in 1974, Congressman Allard Lowenstein made an unsuccessful attempt to reopen the investigation. He was later shot to death in his own law office by a “disgruntled client”.
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The Discovery Times TV channel aired a program in 2006 in which the public was given an audio recording of the shooting at the scene by one of the reporters. This piece of evidence has lain in state archives for almost forty years. Three audio experts confirmed ten to thirteen shots on this recording. They also found that the interval between some shots was too short for a single shooter.
Most important, however, was the statement made by investigator Thomas Noguchi that Robert F. Kennedy's death was due to a 22-caliber bullet wound to the back of the head. Gunpowder traces indicated that the shot had been fired almost point-blank. However, all the witnesses claimed that Serhan was several meters away from Kennedy, and no one said that Robert turned his back on him. Noguchi, who examined the bullet-riddled doorframe, later wrote: “The existence of a second shooter remains possible. Therefore, I never claimed that Serhan killed Robert Kennedy."
Although Serhan doesn't remember anything
After the trial, Serhan himself said that he did not remember anything about the shooting. Psychiatrist Bernard Diamond did not rule out the version that the accused was under the influence of hypnosis. However, the return of Serhan to a hypnotic state by various doctors did not allow him to awaken any memories of the shooting. Former FBI officer William Turner supported the theory that Serhan was a so-called Manchu candidate, or brainwashed assassin.
Half a dozen witnesses said they saw a "girl in a dress with polka dots" leaving the scene shouting: "We shot him!" To the question "who?" she replied, "Senator Kennedy!" Serhan's last memory is that he drank a cup of coffee with a woman who he said was wearing a polka-dot dress. This woman may have prepared Serhan just before the assassination with technology developed by the CIA under the MK-ULTRA program.
Bodyguard
Despite the fact that the future president was to appear in front of a crowd of two thousand people, his security was rather small. And behind him was Kevin Cesar, hired by a private security company. He was in the perfect position to kill Kennedy with a point-blank shot. However, although Cesar was a key witness, he was not called to testify at the trial against Serhan. He was subsequently subjected to a lie detector test. But perhaps Cesar was programmed the same way as Serhan?
CIA, Mafia and the military industry
So who could have wished for Kennedy's death? There is nothing impossible for the CIA to entrust this work to the mafia, just as there is nothing impossible in the fact that the mafia itself conceived and carried out an attempt. Gangsters hated Robert Kennedy for his fight against organized crime. In 1967, union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who worked with the mafiosi, told a whistleblower that he had a contract to kill Robert Kennedy, and that he was doomed to die if he won the primary.
Another suspect was the military-industrial complex, which did not want Kennedy to end the highly lucrative Vietnam War. Finally, the neo-Nazis also did not want the presence of a supporter of the struggle for civil rights in the White House, and they could well get the support of the head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover.
Columnist Shane O'Sullivan on the BBC's Newsnight program in November 2006 presented to the public old footage and photographs taken in and around the hotel lobby before and during the shooting. They, in particular, capture David Sanchez Morales and two other people who worked with him at a secret CIA base in Miami. According to Sullivan's sources, Morales once, while drunk, boasted to his CIA friends: “I was in Dallas when we got this son of a bitch (John F. Kennedy) and I was in Los Angeles when we got this little bastard. (Robert Kennedy. - Ed.) . Most intriguing is the fact that one of those agents acted as a CIA spokesman in the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Morales was called in to testify, but died several weeks before the due date.
Case not solved
Whoever was behind the assassination of Robert Kennedy - and whoever was behind him when he was assassinated - Serhan continues to protest his charge from prison. In the minds of many Americans, the case remains unsolved. But the official version, confirmed at a reading in Congress in 1997, remains the same: the murder was committed by Serhan, and he did it alone.
Translated from English by Yuri MEDVEDEV. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 24 2009