Original subtitles

What was your reaction to the shooting of Senator Kennedy?

Well, I woke up this morning by a telephone call from a friend of mine.

He told me, you know, I was just really shocked, and I turned on the television.

I watched the report come in, and the more I heard it, the more I

realized what was true, and I just couldn't believe that this could happen

our society today, especially after Martin Luther King and President Kennedy

before him.

It just shakes you up.

It's hard to believe that all this misfortune has happened to one family.

It's just tragic.

And I get over it. That's all.

Near the Kennedy compound at Hyannis this morning, Mrs. Rose Kennedy left

church, wrapped in the lonely sorrow of grief and the silent shock of yet

another son fell by an assailant's bullets.

At St. Francis Xavier's Roman Catholic Church, back at the family home on the

Cape, her husband, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Wept in his

What was your reaction to this event?

Well, it's still one of disbelief, of course, for everybody in this country

for those of us in Virginia.

We still, this morning, wish we could wake up from this nightmare that the

country and the world are set by today.

about all these past events that have happened of this nature that just

seems to be like a pattern like but look as if in any time you're doing

something for poor people or something uh you're shot i can't understand what's

happening to this country you get up in the morning and you hear things like

this you can't run for president you can't walk the streets you might as well

barricade yourself what about the country oh i think everything's all

Won't you?

The gentleman we have in custody is Sirhan Bishara, B

-I -S -H -A -R -A, Sirhan.

It's our understanding that Sirhan was living with his brother Munir, M -U -N

-R.

The day of the assassination, I went to work.

On my arrival to work, there's a small coffee table with a TV on it, and

everybody was eyeing the TV.

So I went and got my cup of coffee.

The minute I sat down, I heard that Senator Kennedy has been shot, and then

showed a picture of my brother, Sirhan.

24 -year -old Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He was born in Jordan in 1944.

and was admitted to the United States as a permanent resident in January of

1957. He is not a United States citizen.

When I first saw that on the TV, my heart was running and running and

and running.

I couldn't believe it.

I ran, ran down to the police station and went up to the desk and said, I

think my brother shot Senator Kennedy.

You know, it's a different world, different world.

This morning, police searched Sirhan's residence in Pasadena and found a

notebook in the suspect's room mentioning the, quote, necessity to

Senator Kennedy.

He seemed very quiet, what you might call a clean cut.

He just made you feel uncomfortable when he was around. He never talked to you,

just hello.

Here in the Los Angeles County Central Jail, 24 -year -old Sirhan Bashara

entered the courtroom.

The judge ordered the reading of the indictment, the one count of murder of

Robert Francis Kennedy, and counts two, three, four, five, and six of assault

with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder.

With Sirhan Sirhan having given up the right to be brought to trial within 60

days after his arraignment, it appears now that he won't be brought before the

courts before September.

It was awful. I couldn't even say the name of the accused.

I just said that this country can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.

I was in a deep, dark, bad place.

Then the next question is, all right, now what do we do? So we regrouped. We

a couple of, we called it the Kennedy Action Corps that tried to keep us all

together.

Excuse me, sir, would you like to talk?

Not right now.

Okay, fine, thank you.

We did our best, but our hearts weren't in it.

Somehow, in some way, I made a decision that I would not become bitter or

hostile, that I would just throw myself in...

In the fight, I went back to Georgia and I ran as a delegate to the

Democratic Convention that was held in Chicago.

Good evening from Chicago where the 35th National Democratic Convention opens

tomorrow with the promise of turmoil inside this hall and a threat of

without. Some 6 ,000 crack army troops, riot trained and ready for action, moved

out to secret locations around the city.

They will stand by for duty if the 15 ,000 Chicago police and Illinois

Guardsmen cannot control the invading anti -war, anti -Humphrey forces.

There had been warnings that the hippies, the yippies, and various

of far -out leftists and anti -war groups would storm the convention and

it from nominating a candidate for president of the United States.

Bobby's death left a tremendous vacuum in the Democratic Party.

So Hubert Humphrey went to Chicago assured of the nomination.

Humphrey arrived in Chicago this afternoon smiling and confident.

The big question became the party's position in Vietnam.

So I went to Chicago and I played a role in leading the anti -Vietnam War

platform discussions.

Vietnam has been grabbed by McCarthy's strategists as their crowbar to break

apart this Humphrey Convention.

In addition, there remains the strong influence of the Kennedy way, which

generally has coalesced behind Senator McGovern. Those were the twin goals to

which Senator Kennedy gave his life. An end to the slaughter of fraud, but of

equal importance, an end to injustice, a healing of the divisions in our own

society here.

Almost immediately, the convention spun out of control.

It's been like this for three straight nights.

Confrontations between youthful demonstrators in Chicago's police

Go ahead! Come on! Do it, officer!

The federal

commission later called it a police riot.

We lost Robert Kennedy on a kitchen floor.

Then these old men who run the Democratic Party dug in and put their

like buffalo.

These old Democrats are occupational illiterates.

Now, when they're old, they resist the new.

I just, the leading senator from Louisiana said to me, there's only one

can win this election, and that's Ted Kennedy.

Then we met with Eugene McCarthy, and McCarthy said, you know, I will step

and have Ted Kennedy nominated, and I think we can do that.

So I called Teddy and told him that there's a great deal of feeling that I

see that if you were available, you'd be nominated tomorrow night.

Teddy told me that Hubert Humphrey had come to see him in Washington before the

convention and had offered to nominate him as vice president and that Humphrey

would serve one term and let Kennedy carry on from there.

Our delegation was part of a challenged delegation.

I had a half vote.

And I cast my half vote for T .A. Kennedy,

almost as a memorial to Robert Kennedy.

He said he didn't want it.

Yeah, that's what he said, no.

The pain, the grief was all too fresh.

All too fresh.

the nomination of our party.

The events of the past two days speak louder than anything we can say.

I am breathed tonight by the memory of great Americans departed who sit on my

back and watch over all of us because we're Democrats because of them.

my heart to Eleanor Roosevelt and what she was to the Democratic Party. And I

worry and grieve over Bob Kennedy and what he would be feeling and saying,

he here tonight and all the things that he did to try to build bridges between

our people to end in the kind of shambles that was perpetrated tonight

and in this convention hall.

So tonight, Hubert Humphrey accepts their nomination.

He will run against Richard Nixon in the race the young people sneer at.

The convention cost the Democratic Party.

Richard Nixon was campaigning on law and order.

Never in this century has there been a campaign in which the American people

a clearer choice than in the campaign of 1968.

He elected Richard Nixon.

So help me God.

Athol Kennedy gave birth to a baby girl this morning at 8 .40 a .m. here in

Georgetown University Hospital.

And the condition of both Mrs. Kennedy and the baby is excellent.

We want to say how happy we are today. And I

told Ethel that I think Joan and I are going to take this baby home. We think

Ethel has enough of them.

After the shooting, I had a long recovery period.

I actually took off work for four or five months. I was weak and out of it.

I just wanted to stay away from everything.

The loss was so terrific.

I was staying at my parents' place in Oceanside, California, but I came back

L .A. because I was scheduled to testify in the trial of Sirhan Sirhan.

After numerous delays, the trial of Sirhan began almost seven months from

day Robert Kennedy was shot.

The prosecution is said to be trying for the death penalty.

The defense is said to be trying for a murder without malice verdict.

We'd be naive if we weren't aware of the fact that this trial

will be.

observed and the investigation observed by millions of people.

It was the highest security trial I ever saw.

I was frisked five times in the first day or so.

They were so worried about what would happen to Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas.

They wanted no repeat of that.

There were three defense lawyers rounded up by the ACLU, led by a veteran Los

Angeles murder defense attorney named Grant B. Cooper.

You know what you remind me of? It's like that woman that was underneath the

cow. Just a minute, boys. I'll take you on one at a time.

Thank you very much.

The very first time I met Cooper, we sat in his office.

He was a pipe smoker. He liked his pipe.

There was two newspaper publications at his.

And he said, everybody says he did it.

The papers say he did it. I can't deny it.

I think everybody knows how it happened. We've read about it in the papers.

We've seen it on TV.

That's not going to be a real issue in the case.

We have to plead him guilty, try to save his life.

Go ahead, go ahead, go over, right?

Don't fight over me, girls. I'll go home alone.

The defense lawyers were really working.

to get to a plea deal with the prosecution, to get death off the table.

But you also have to realize that you may not get to that point, and so you

to go on a parallel track and say, what am I going to do not only to investigate

this case and protect my client, but also be prepared to try this case. But

defense team was so focused on the negotiation track, they were ignoring

trial track.

And doing things that I think are questionable at best.

Because they're almost awake.

One, two, three, four, five.

Probably going to a very light sleep, that's it.

Now try to picture in your mind the scene.

Before the trial, they had the psychiatrist hypnotizing Mr. Searhan and

not eliciting from him, they're actually putting words in his mouth.

You're in the kitchen there. You're standing in the corner. There's lots of

people around.

A lot of noise.

And you see Kennedy coming.

Now, what do you see, sir? You're back in the kitchen. Now, what do you see?

You're back in the kitchen, sir, and Kennedy is coming towards you. Look at

face. Take the gun out of your pants.

You've got the gun in your hand now.

Let me see you shoot the gun, sir. Shoot the gun.

Shoot the gun.

The entire episode was problematic.

And when the plea agreement wasn't accepted, they had to scramble to

get ready for trial.

And they had put their client in such a bad position.

Don't blame the defense for this, because we agreed to plead guilty to

-degree murder and take life, and the judge wouldn't do it. It was not our

fault.

Finally, the trial started, and the prosecution had to reconstruct the

A model was made to show where every witness stood in the kitchen at the time

the crime.

As he was coming along, he was reaching over, shaking hands with the different

kitchen help and continued shaking hands and walking this way. When he reached a

point somewhere in here, he reached over to shake hands with one of the kitchen

help, and the suspect apparently came from back over in this area and

approached.

and reached up and fired at the senator at fairly close range.

When I walked into the trial, I testified of what I knew, which wasn't

much. I really was hit very early and went out, and so I had no impression

was a gun or anybody shooting at us until I was told that after I regained

consciousness.

When I looked at Saran...

I didn't have any hate feelings at all. I just wanted to understand what was

going on more with him and what he had against Kennedy.

At this critical point in the trial, there were so many things the defense

have pursued and didn't. Mr. Cooper, what was your strategy in neglecting to

cross -examine the last three witnesses? Can you see what advantage it would

have been to cross -examine them?

Could we have developed anything? They told the truth.

When you look at the medical examiner's testimony in the courtroom, he talked

about gunshot residue on Senator Kennedy's ear.

The muzzle distance would be one inch from the

right ear and no more than three inches.

Witnesses said that he was three feet away, maybe ten feet away.

How far would the gun muzzle be from Senator Kennedy's head?

About a foot and a half, I would say a foot and a half, two feet.

There's an indication there might be multiple people, multiple shooters.

If there were two people, that would account for the seemingly sequence of

shots. Some witnesses said that there was a woman in a polka dot dress who was

near Sirhan Sirhan.

This girl said, we've shot him, we've shot him.

Shat on a white dress with polka dots.

Next thing I knew, I was in a room with other people waiting to be interviewed

by LAPD. It was very stressful, just horribly, horribly stressful.

They did not want to follow up on anything.

They wanted to wrap it up. They didn't want another Dallas.

You know, they didn't want a lot of people going out there talking about

conspiracy theories.

Did anybody from the defense team ever contact you?

No one from the defense team, no one from any team contacted me.

Good morning, gentlemen.

Good morning.

The defense testimony started with the...

description of what was happening in the Middle East when Sirhan was growing up

as a child. He testified to the living conditions, how the people died of

starvation, that they didn't have enough food.

He was a refugee in the 1948 Arab -Israeli war.

He became anti -Israel, anti -Zionist.

The life of this puzzling young man is slowly and painstakingly being

reconstructed. The surface facts are easily gathered. He lived in this small,

unassuming home. He walked the streets daily of this quiet, working -class

Pasadena neighborhood.

The family has lived in this house since 1962.

Look at the lemons here.

This thing's got to be...

Over 100 years old.

Sirhan used to like to sit under here, and every time I'd work on the lemon

tree, I'd think of Sirhan.

We were very joyful. The whole family had come to America, except Sirhan.

The night that we were to leave to come to America, he ran away.

Finally, early morning, about a half hour before we were to get on the ship

come here, we finally found him.

We all arrived here as a family.

In the beginning, it was a struggle, but we were happy.

We were making progress.

You know, we were getting there.

We used to rent, and we bought a home eventually.

We had a lot of friends.

And then Senator's death occurred.

The family was so shocked.

And each of us, you know, like, what did we do?

Is it something I did? Is it something Mother did? Is it something Adele did?

that resulted in Sirhan doing what he was doing. We were guilt -ridden.

Not now. So many memories, good and bad.

We have the touring buses that come here.

You know, they come by and people come out.

They snap pictures. They take around for about five or ten minutes.

One fellow asked me, hey, is this the Sirhan house?

I just kept, you know, walking. No English, no English.

No English.

Mr. Cooper?

Mr. Cooper, can I talk to you for a second?

Grant Cooper evolved a defense of what's known in California law as diminished

capacity or diminished responsibility, basically trying to portray Grant was

mentally ill.

The defendant, by reason...

Of mental illness, intoxication, or any other cause, cannot maturely or

meaningfully premeditate and deliberate.

Mr. Sirhan is a borderline personality with marked paranoid features.

His condition started to deteriorate to a schizophrenic illness.

Sirhan just hated the attorney's strategy of diminished capacity.

I assume that he felt that it demeaned him.

There were a couple of times where Sirhan had outbursts in the court. One

he was so angry at ruling by the judge, letting in his journals as evidence, the

journals that said RFK must die.

On May 18th of this year, you were sitting writing in a notebook in your

and your words are, my determination to kill RFK is becoming

more and more an obsession.

Then you fill the page with Robert F. Kennedy must die, RFK must die, Robert

Kennedy must be assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated.

You were planning to kill Senator Kennedy.

Only in my mind.

Well, that's the only place you can plan it.

Not to do it physically.

I never thought of doing it. I don't see myself as doing it. I don't have the

guts to do anything like that.

When we get to the point where they make the decision to put Sirhan Sirhan on

the stand, it's just a mind -boggling choice. And they knew that all he could

say was that, I don't remember.

It did nothing to create a feeling of empathy in the jury.

All right, Sirhan, now, on the night of the assassination, you said you went to

the Ambassador Hotel, had a few drinks, and you said you were too drunk to drive

home, didn't you?

Yes, sir, I did. And what happened?

I started searching for coffee.

That was all that I wanted to do.

And I found some.

Out in the kitchen area?

But where, I don't remember, sir.

In a kitchen -type room? I don't remember where I saw it. But I remember

the cup. It was a shining... Large urn? Urn.

And there was a girl there.

After you poured coffee for the girl, then, what happened?

No, no, no. I don't remember much what happened after that. You don't remember

much what happened? I don't remember.

Do you remember anything that happened after that?

Other than the choking and the commotion. I don't remember that. The

choked. The being choked, yes.

Your job as a defense lawyer really is to contest the evidence, to

question it, to poke holes in it.

These lawyers just did not do that.

Sir, if you had three wishes now, what would they be?

First wish, I wish that Tanner Kennedy was still alive.

I wish that every day that I've been here.

Second one,

It was sort of like after lunch, kind of a sleepy part of the afternoon, maybe 1

p .m., when there was a buzz from the jury room.

Word soon came that a verdict had been reached.

Everybody streamed into the courtroom. There was a very, very high tension.

As we waited for Sirhan to be brought in.

Simply told them that no matter what happened, not to make a fuss and to act

like a man.

It was kind of a no -brainer, I think, for the jury.

The jurors were looking at their faces, and all of them were just looking at him

like, what do you take us for, a bunch of suckers?

The court clerk read the verdict and was guilty.

And then what is the sentence?

Life or death?

This morning, a letter from Senator Kennedy was delivered to me.

Senator Ted Kennedy says he would not have wanted his death to be a cause for

the taking of another life. My brother was a man of love and sentiment and

compassion.

It amounts to a recommendation that Saran not be executed.

After all was said and done, he got the death penalty.

We...

We sensed that it was coming, but we were hoping that it wouldn't. It was

maximum penalty for a maximum crime.

What one thing, if you can put it or assess it this way, do you think gave

the case to the prosecution? I think it was the underlying and overriding...

feeling of the community, the entire United States, of law and order.

I think it's the unrest in the universities that have caused a backlash

that has subconsciously seeped into the minds of the jurors.

Now, for the first time, they are called upon to uphold the law.

And I feel, without any sense of criticism of the jury, that...

It was up to them to do their duty to uphold the law to the fullest.

The problem that we had in the Sirhan trial was that after all of the

assassinations and all of the conversations about conspiracies, we

stop. We wanted to find one person who did it and hold him liable for it and

then put him away.

And so...

We don't know what happened.

We are left with so many questions about what went on, and we will never know

because we actually didn't take the time when we could to figure out what was

going on. We were duped as a public that wanted answers, and we didn't get them.

From 1958 to 1976, politics changed, the country changes,

the light just kind of gradually dims.

My fellow citizens, this morning I entered a plea of guilty to the charge

leaving the scene of an accident.

On Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, I attended on Friday evening,

July 18th, a cookout.

for a devoted group of Kennedy campaign secretaries.

When I left the party around 11 .15 p .m., I was accompanied by one of these

girls, Miss Mary Jo Kopechny.

Mary Jo was one of the most devoted members of the staff of Senator Robert

Kennedy and was broken up over his death.

A little over one mile away, a car that I was driving on an unlit road went

off a narrow bridge.

The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled with water. But

I struggled to the surface alive.

I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong

and murky current that succeeded only in increasing my state of utter

exhaustion.

I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the

police. Immediately.

All kinds of scrambled thoughts went through my mind during this period.

Including such questions as whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out

of that immediate area.

Whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.

Nearly half a million kids jammed onto a 600 -acre dairy farm near Woodstock,

New York, in August 69.

What's happening for America?

I tend to believe that America's lost its way.

I think that we're off the track. We're not sure what our direction is.

People are restless. They have a sense of discontent, and I think for good

reason. I think people have a feeling that they've been dehumanized.

There's a general revulsion against politics and against politicians.

We seem to have introduced political assassination into our culture.

Violence is becoming an increasing part of our lives.

Kent State University in Ohio has had campus violence for three nights, and

today the guardsmen opened fire on the students.

All of a sudden I heard them shooting, and then I saw people dropping to the

ground.

The early 70s was a horrible time.

After Turhan's trial, I sort of just leveled off and tried to forget about

There was a long period when I just couldn't handle it.

I broke up a relationship.

I lost my job in the union.

I went back to work in the factory.

But nearly two years afterwards, I went to see Cesar Chavez in jail in Salinas,

California.

There was a big rally outside the hill, and we got Yussel to join us.

Farm workers always had big masses at all their meetings.

And she punched me in the ribs when we were standing together on the back

flatbed truck and said, what's that for? She said, this is the second bass I've

been to today, Paul.

She was fun to be with.

There was a little fracas.

Growers and their allies, the teams, just throwing their picket signs at us,

spitting at us.

We got into jail.

We went through the cell block.

Viva Chavez, viva Ethel.

And Ethel at the car says, boy, you show some weird parties out here, Paul.

It was a really hard time.

I know in the Chicano movement, a lot of people became cynical.

They didn't want to get involved in politics anymore.

They just felt that it was just hopeless.

We saw the disparagement of the integrity of the American democratic

an administration that ended up in disgrace.

The Watergate scandal broke wide open today. Five men were arrested early

Saturday while trying to install eavesdropping equipment at the

National Committee. The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most

serious constitutional crisis in its history.

I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.

When Nixon went down, it was a sad time for America.

There were so many terrible things that were going on under the surface.

Good evening. The bad news on assassination plots was reported today

Senate Intelligence Committee.

The committee issued a report which says that officials of the United States

government initiated plots to kill two foreign leaders, were involved in plots

to kill two others, were implicated in another, and that the CIA was aware of

two more murder schemes.

What the government did, not just domestically, but in foreign policy, fed

the belief that all of the murders that took place in that period were part of a

conspiracy.

In Washington today, the House Committee just beginning a new investigation into

the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations.

And I do believe that some individuals in very high places of our government

were involved in this conspiracy that eliminated and destroyed President

Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, and Dr. King.

I'm convinced we need a new investigation with access to all the

the American people will ever know the truth.

A conspiracy is not always five guys in a room plotting.

A conspiracy can be the conspiracy of the culture.

Wouldn't it be horrendous to go into another presidential election without

knowing whether a group of conspirators may exist in this country who, at

moments of political decision, influence the course of events improperly?

In 1974 -75, Allard Lowenstein came to me and said, We think there's something

else happening in the Robert Kennedy case.

Now, what I found when I started to look at this case is clearly the tip of

something. Whether it's an iceberg or whether it's a simple pin that has a

I don't know.

We began questioning what really happened that night.

The autopsy says that the bullet that killed Senator Kennedy entered at one

from behind his right ear and that he was hit by three bullets. All of them

fired at point -blank range.

A fourth went through his right shoulder pad.

The eyewitnesses, every credible eyewitness, insists that what they saw

Sirhan was standing at an average of two feet to a yard away and in front.

And when you tell them that the bullet went in from behind at an inch, they

flatly say that there is no way Sirhan could have fired those bullets.

Isn't it difficult to suppose?

that somebody else getting that close to Kennedy would not have been noticed.

Actually, he was noticed, and he was that close. The man's name, the guard

you're talking about, was, by his own testimony, holding Kennedy's elbow,

standing precisely at the place from which the bullets entered Senator

He also acknowledges pulling his gun and says he didn't fire it.

Thane Eugene Caesar, a plumber by trade, moonlighting out of the Ace Guard

service, entering the pantry at Kennedy's side.

When the shots were fired, when I reached for my gun, and this one I got

down. Got back up, I had my gun out, but they already had him restrained.

At his request, Caesar was never asked to take the witness stand.

I told him, if it's all possible, I just may not be involved.

Caesar made terrible remarks about the Kennedys.

I definitely wouldn't have voted for Bobby Kennedy because he had the same

as John did, and I think John sold the country down the road. He gave it to the

commies. He gave it to whoever he wanted to. He literally gave it to the

minority.

But if Caesar was carrying a .38 and it was .22 caliber bullets found in the

victims, how could Caesar be involved?

We had a lot of questions, but we couldn't get into the files.

So we asked for a meeting with the chief of police, Chief Davis.

Chief Davis said, okay, give us your...

Questions in writing, which Allard and I put together, filed with the chief, and

never got an answer.

Allard called again, and still no answer. Calls, no answer, no answer, no

answers. This was obviously an open and shut case right from the beginning

with all of the witnesses and the physical evidence.

So we did a press conference.

I was nearly killed that night, and as I told the police commission, I have a

legal right as well as a moral right to that information.

As long as they participate in the refusal to grant access to this

they are participating in a cover -up of information which we have a right to

have, which the public has a right to have, because we have a right to know

went on on June 5, 1968.

We got into court on a couple of issues and more information.

This is what it's all about.

the evidence collected in the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy

years ago, evidence shown in public in Los Angeles Superior Court this

afternoon. The gun Sirhan Sirhan used to shoot the senator, the bullets

recovered from Kennedy's body and from other victims.

All this evidence will now be reexamined by a panel of nationally known experts.

They will attempt to resolve some unanswered questions about the Kennedy

shooting, whether there was more than one gun and more than one assassin.

The ballistic evidence was checked as a result of a suit filed by Paul Schrade,

a former union executive who was wounded when Robert Kennedy was killed.

I prefer that we approach this thing cautiously. We have to do a good job on

these tests or people are again going to lose confidence in what the authorities

are doing.

We found out really scandalous activity on the part of the police department.

There was key evidence, crucial evidence destroyed.

Two Los Angeles police officers claim they examined what appeared to be a

caliber bullet embedded in a door jam in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel.

It could add up to nine bullets fired in the pantry.

Sirhan's gun could shoot only eight. The door jam itself has since been

destroyed. Assistant Police Chief Daryl Gates told the city council police

destroyed bullet -marked panels from the Ambassador Hotel ceiling, along with x

-rays of the panels and the x -ray record.

What was the reason for the destruction of the panels? The reason for the

destruction was that there was simply, that the materials simply had absolutely

no bearing on the case.

It seems to me that at that point in history, when there were so many rumors

kooks running around the country talking about conspiracy in Dallas, that we

would have kept that kind of evidence on hand just to answer these kinds of

questions. We kept fighting, but we couldn't get anyplace.

The object being pointed to in an AP photo, an object identified back in 1968

a bullet, appears to have been a nail.

And today, firearms experts rendered their opinion.

Unanimously, they found no evidence to support the so -called second gun

My basic conclusion is that Sirhan Sirhan acted alone in the murder of

Kennedy. I have found no evidence of a second gunman or of any conspiratorial

activity.

The court system wasn't working, but we began getting political support from

members of the city council to get into the files.

And in 1988...

The police commission finally decided to release the files.

They are reminders of a national tragedy and a controversy.

50 ,000 documents collected by the Los Angeles police after the murder of

Kennedy. State archives officials say that a bullet taken from Sirhan's pocket

is gone and that police destroyed more than 2 ,400 photographs.

Scholars who question the lone gunman theory say they are shocked.

There's even more evidence destroyed than we already knew about.

What is not here has renewed the controversy.

Was there a second gun?

Was there a conspiracy?

Conspiracy theory is a very convenient way of thinking about problems.

But I really want to get at the truth.

It's been a long, hard struggle getting those files.

And I'm still finding out information where they destroyed evidence.

withheld evidence.

I have the responsibility of Robert Kennedy as part of his legacy of justice

know the truth about this.

If we don't search for the truth, we are not providing him with justice.

So it's my job as a citizen, as a friend of Robert Kennedy's, and just as a

person.

What I want is a new investigation.

The problem is we've always gone and said, you know, would you please reopen

case? But it hasn't worked.

It's really disappointing, but it just means we've got to keep going with a

different strategy and keep working on it.

And that different strategy has exposed the fact that Sirhan was convicted

without all the evidence.

Hello? Hi, Paul.

Laurie speaking.

Hi, Laurie.

How are you?

Okay. I've got some news. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday

that they still didn't see where any of Sir Ham's constitutional rights were

violated. That's the court system for you.

The Ninth Circuit has denied us. Under the Ninth Circuit, you can actually put

into evidence evidence that was available at the time of trial but was

submitted, not just evidence that was found afterwards.

So we were able to... put into evidence things that were available that Grant

Cooper never submitted.

And yet we still were not successful.

The next court then would be the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court's not

going to hear this case.

We didn't expect to win in the Ninth Circuit, but we don't have a solid plan

as to how we're going to proceed.

Do we need something radical? Yes, we do.

I think that we might have leverage at this point with a new attorney general.

We have this information that we can toss at the police chief.

My major concern is every time you deal with the Los Angeles Police Department

or the state of California, it's like a fraternity.

And they protect themselves.

And they're still protecting themselves 48 and a half years later.

So I don't know how far you're going to be able to go on that.

Do I think that Sirhan is going to be released from prison? No, I don't.

Do I think that there's hope that we're going to get at some of the truth?

Yes.

Otherwise, I wouldn't continue to do it.

Sirhan Sirhan has been in San Quentin since May of 1969.

In 1972, California did away with the death penalty, and Sirhan became a life

prisoner. The California Parole Board today canceled the 1984 parole date for

Sirhan Sirhan, the man who killed Bobby Kennedy.

This is a subsequent number 13 parole consideration hearing. You would

yourself next by stating your first and last name.

I'm Sirhan Sirhan, S -I -R -H -A -N -B -2 -1 -0 -1 -4.

Thank you. Well, what do you remember about the shooting, if you're willing to

talk about that?

I would say I was there.

But I don't remember the exact moment.

I don't remember pulling my gun out of my body or wherever it was located.

And I don't remember aiming at any human being. I don't remember any of that.

If I was to give you a piece of paper and a pencil and I said, take a list of

the people that maybe you feel that you've harmed.

Who would be number one on the list? Well, definitely the Kennedy family and

Kennedys. I would say I would treat them all equally, and the victims who were

injured, and the public, and Bobby Kennedy's friends, and the people who

for him. This whole thing was a horrible nightmare, really, not just for me, but

for you people, for the whole country, and especially for the family members.

I understand this crime was huge.

It wasn't just a man dying or five others being injured.

It had much greater impact.

You need to be able to demonstrate that you understand that.

So with that, sir, you have a five -year denial.

The hearing is now concluded. The time is 549.

and trying to maintain my health.

I had a sister who died of a heart attack. She was 80, so generally I'm

want to stay that way, but it also tells me that I've got to get this job done.

And even though I'm very slow and criticize myself critical about it,

I've got to get it done.

I'm not really moving as quickly as I want to.

That photo in particular, why don't you put that away?

Because there's evidence.

Emotionally, it doesn't bother me anymore.

It's useful in doing what I'm trying to do, and that's finding justice for

Robert Kennedy.

Paul? Hi, Juan.

Very glad to meet you. You're bigger than I remember.

Thank you for coming.

You have a lot more gray hair than I remember.

Yeah,

no, you look good, though. Oh, thank you, thank you. Very good.

Very happy to be here. You too.

So what time we met? Because I remember you being so small.

Yeah, skinny.

And skinny as a bum boy.

Can I take a look at this?

Yeah.

A little inscription on it, it's from Ethel. So this is from Ethel, huh? Yeah,

from Ethel. It's a picture of Chavez.

Yep.

Wow.

I don't know if you can handle this, but this is... Oh, no, no, I can do it now.

Okay, this is a picture of you.

Yeah.

Meeting Bobby Kennedy changed my life.

As an immigrant teenager, living in the barrio, living in the projects.

I had resigned to that fact that I was either going to end up in jail or in a

gang or dead.

Bobby gave us hope that no matter religion, color, or age, or whatever, he

showed me that I mattered.

And, of course, when I seen him on the floor, just

hope seems to be dying with him, you know?

And it just felt like, yeah,

nobody was there for us anymore.

Well, I remember seeing you when you were shaking hands with him.

You could see that there was something happening. I could feel your, because

way you looked and then the way he looked, you're important to Robert

You were there when he needed somebody.

This is really what Robert Kennedy wanted.

This is the Robert Kennedy School.

Wow.

So how old is this place now?

The whole thing was dedicated to 2013.

But I got involved in 87.

The school was built on the Ambassador Hotel site.

Donald Trump owned the property.

Oh, did he? Oh, yeah.

We took it away from him. We fought him in court.

So there are five high schools.

Wow. The kids in this neighborhood, mostly Latino kids, some African

kids, needed a school built.

So this is your old workplace.

I was amazed how they kept it, you know. So this was the embassy

ballroom. That's where Bob made his victory speech.

Speaker's platform was right here. And the pantry behind those walls.

I could hear the crowds chanting, Bobby, Bobby.

The fact is that

all of us are involved in this great effort.

It's a great effort on behalf of the United States, on behalf of our own

on behalf of mankind all around the globe and the next generation.

And that's the mural you were talking about? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah.

It's a mural showing things about Robert Kennedy's life, all kinds of social

issues.

So there's the end of the fast.

And Dolores Fuera behind.

Right behind where Robert Kennedy is sitting. That's

me holding a strike meeting.

And isn't that you over above, left shoulder?

Huh? Huh?

You think?

Yeah, I didn't notice that.

This is unbelievable.

This is unbelievable.

How would you like to be remembered?

I mean, what would you like the first line of a history book about Robert

Kennedy to say?

After the assassination of both Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, I said to myself,

you must try to pick up where Robert Kennedy left off.

And sometimes when I'm sitting on the house floor or in a meeting,

What would Robert Kennedy do?

What would Robert Kennedy do?

We're still struggling here to end child poverty in this rich nation.

We're struggling against people who want to take health care and food out of the

mouths of children and give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. It's

indecent. It's wrong.

And everybody should be up in arms.

And so the question is kind of who in the world are we as a people?

If Lincoln didn't get us there, and Dr. King didn't get us there, and Bobby

Kennedy didn't get us there, what the hell else is left to say?

That's going to have a rude awakening to make a nation alive and ready to greet

the better part of itself.

But we have got to keep trying, and that's what Bobby Kennedy was really

He was trying to find solution.

One thing that Robert Kennedy taught me, Robert Kennedy would say the word idiot

in Greek, you know what it means?

One who is not involved in politics.

But he instilled in me that you must be involved in politics, must, must, must.

You cannot be on the sidelines.

Come on up, brothers! We are waiting for you!

So if we give up, then everybody loses.

That's one of the phrases that I love most about Cesar, because he would

say, the only time you lose is when you quit.

As long as you keep working, you keep going forward. You will win at some

the lights begin to twinkle from the rocks the long day wanes the slow moon

climbs the deep moans round with many voices come my friends it is not

too late to seek a newer world