Robert F. Kennedy Assassination

by Philip H. Melanson

Book Overview

A reexamination of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy presents new evidence that suggests that Sirhan could not possibly have acted alone and calls for a reopening of the case. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561710369
• ISBN13: 9781561710362
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: S.P.I. Books
• Length: 442 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Concise and persuasive

This is a tremendously worthwhile book for students of this topic. Philip Melanson was extremely measured and fair-minded in his research, and he strongly believed that the discrepancies in the RFK case warranted its reinvestigation by an impartial governmental body. Some of these discrepancies were: --too many bullets for Sirhan to have acted alone; --the back-to-front problem revealed by the autopsy; --the strong evidence of a female companion to Sirhan; --the LAPD's destruction of evidence; --the LAPD's lone-gunman bias and persistent squelching of any evidence to the contrary; --the LAPD's cozy relationship with government intelligence agencies; --Sirhan's bizarre mental state on the night of the shooting. Taken together, these are a powerful indictment of the LAPD's investigation, and suggest that we do not know the full story behind the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Given the passage of time and willful destruction of evidence we will probably never know--but we could know more than we do, and that is a good thing in any case. Both left and right may have their reasons for preferring the theory that Sirhan Sirhan acted alone, but the preponderance of the evidence suggests that he did not. A desire to know the truth in a murder case should not be related to one's opinion of the victim. Political murder is the opposite of democracy, and must be discouraged in every instance--and the best way to discourage it is by thorough, impartial, and swift investigation when it happens. Any other stance is morally bankrupt.

"Saw War And Tried To Stop It"

When some tired old celebrity or politician expires the media is replete with somber expressions like, "We have lost a great ..." etc., but with the death of Professor Melanson those of us who refused to be deceived about the circumstances and effects--even today--of the cycle of 60's assassinations really have lost an essential voice: firm, clear and incisive. I quote Edward Kennedy's eulogy with the notion that those researchers like Melanson who have sought the truth about our history also, as a consequence, were looking for a better world, one with a citizenry less prone to deceive and be deceived.

Outstanding!

RFK's assassination has been given short shrift by book publishers despite there being just as much evidence of a conspiracy as there is in his brother's murder. Philip Melanson attempts to answer many of the questions in this updated version of a previous work on the subject and succeeds admirably. Melanson will leave no doubt that there was a conspiracy and that the LAPD covered it up. This is quite possibly the definitive work on the RFK assassination and definitely worth picking up.

Starting to Believe that LBJ was behind RFK's death

I have been a buff at the JFK assassination for years now but never taken any focus on the murder of his brother. But with all the bad things and corrupt politics that have happened these last couple of years, I am starting to have second opinions about important events that have occurred in the last forty years. The RFK assassination is one of them. There is one thing about the murder that I'm consdering and it is that there was a conspiracy and I think the person that planned it was Lyndon Johnson. And it was no secret that Kennedy hated Johnson and vice versa (read "Mutual Contempt; their feud plays like Hamlet). While some people think he was behind JFK's death (which I don't believe) I believe that he not only was involved in RFK's death but also the death of Martin Luther King because it makes perfect sense: President drops out of the Presidental Election and asks his advisors to take out the two biggest peacekeepers in America while as the "Lame-Duck" President. I believe that Johnson is hands down the most corrupt President after Kennedy and I think his initals of LBJ should stand for "Lying Bastardly Jackass" which strangely enough is the animal for the Democratic Party. Also, is everyone getting the feeling that George W. Bush is becoming the son that Johnson never had? There is also another good reason why Johnson got involved: Earlier that year in 1968 Johnson threatening RFK by saying if he ran for President he would drop out. And what did Robert Kennedy do? He ran for President and he dropped out. It also makes sense that Johnson was not only creating a murder, but he was putting on "a show": In front of people (Ambassator Hotel), a hired assassin from a foreign country (Sirham Sirham), female motive only known for wearing a pokadot dress; they were working for Johnson, weren't they? They talk about getting moral values back these days. Sorry, but they used all their lifelines forty years ago when they put those two Kennedy brothers in their graves.

An Expose of the Cover-Up of the Conspiracy

Philip H. Melanson is a professor of political science and a specialist in the study of political violence. This book is an authoritative expose of brazen official manipulation of the legal process used to cover-up the conspiracy to kill RFK. The numerous glaring and unanswered questions in this case, with the simplistic official solution, caused the author to research for additional unexamined evidence. He spent many years investigating the facts, interviewed dozens of witnesses, law enforcement officials and other sources, and analyzed hundreds of LAPD and FBI files released by 1991.Philip H. Melanson provides evidence that Sirhan did not act alone, and, the official investigation authorities (LAPD, FBI) covered up evidence that suggested conspiracy (p.4). He was the first author to have access to most of the existing LAPD files on the case. He and his team found that the LAPD had altered, suppressed, and destroyed vital evidence in the case (p.6).The investigation assumed a "lone gunman" immediately. The trial was only concerned with Sirhan's state of mind (pp.24-25). The number of shots fired, the bullets matched to the wrong gun, were all skipped over. The LAPD's conclusions, its methods and its competence were not tested in an adversarial proceeding. The tapes of Sirhan's interrogations were never released to the defense. The profound discrepancies and conflicts in the evidence were suppressed or ignored by the LAPD and were never addressed by the judicial process.What made this case so hot that the 1997 Congressional Investigation wouldn't touch it? Will the assassination of RFK ever be reinvestigated by a Congressional Committee? We've also learned a lot since 1991 about the LAPD and the FBI: the Trial of OJ Simpson, and the Inspector General's report on the FBI. (Read "Tainting Evidence: Inside the FBI Crime Lab Scandals" by Kelly and Wearnes.)