Robert F. Kennedy

On 5 June 1968, during his campaign for the Democratic nomination, Robert Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the murder and is serving a life sentence. Some of those close to Kennedy, including his former aide Paul Schrade, who was himself wounded that night, back the theory of a second gunman. In August 2021 a parole panel recommended Sirhan's release, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supported; California governor Gavin Newsom rejected it in January 2022.

State of the evidence

Sirhan's conviction final; second gunman not established.

Legal status — source text

Sirhan Sirhan convicted; parole denied in January 2022.

Attribution

Robert Kennedy was the victim of the assassination.

Person targeted by the proceedings

Sirhan Sirhan

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed his brother Robert, aged 35, Attorney General of the United States. The appointment was criticised as nepotism; in 1967 Congress passed a law barring federal officials from appointing close relatives, often linked to this appointment.

State of the evidence

Appointment and 1967 law documented.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Appointment to a cabinet post by his own brother.

Robert Kennedy investigated Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa in the Senate from the late 1950s and then as Attorney General; the animosity between the two men was notorious. In 1964 Hoffa was sentenced in Chattanooga to eight years in prison for jury tampering, largely on the testimony of an informant, Ed Partin, and then tried in Chicago in a second case. Hoffa's defenders and an academic accused Kennedy's Justice Department of illegal wiretaps and improper testimony; the trial prosecutor dismissed the claims.

State of the evidence

Hoffa's conviction established; alleged Justice Department misconduct not established.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings against Robert Kennedy; Hoffa convicted in 1964.

Attribution

Justice Department methods under his leadership against Hoffa.

In 1964 Robert Kennedy, who was not settled in the state, ran for the Senate in New York against Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating, who accused him of being a 'carpetbagger' who had come from elsewhere to take advantage of a favourable seat. He was elected in November 1964.

State of the evidence

Campaign documented by the press.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Candidacy in a state where he did not live.

At the request of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Robert Kennedy approved in early 1962 wiretaps on Stanley Levison, an adviser to Martin Luther King whom the FBI suspected of communist ties, and then, in October 1963, wiretaps on King's Atlanta home and the offices of his organisation, the SCLC. The wiretaps fed the FBI's surveillance of King.

State of the evidence

Authorisations documented in FBI records.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Approval of surveillance of a civil rights leader.

After the Bay of Pigs failure, Robert Kennedy pushed Operation Mongoose, a covert sabotage campaign against Cuba. According to the Senate's Church Committee (1975), he urged officials that 'a solution to the Cuban problem today carried top priority' and, with the president, berated the CIA for doing nothing about 'getting rid of Castro'. The committee could not determine who authorised the CIA's assassination plots against Castro.

State of the evidence

Facts established by a Senate investigating committee.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Role in covert operations against Cuba.

In 1953 Robert Kennedy became one of fifteen assistant counsels to the Senate investigations subcommittee chaired by Joseph McCarthy, the leading figure of the anti-communist hunt; he investigated in particular Western countries' trade with communist China. He resigned on 29 July 1953; the reasons for his departure are still debated.

State of the evidence

Career documented by biographers.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Work for the McCarthy committee.