The Forgotten Terrorist

by Ayton, Mel

• ISBN13: 9781597970808
• ISBN10: 1597970808
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-15
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968 seemed like it should be an open-and-shut case. Many people crowded in the small room at Los Angeles's famed Ambassador Hotel that fateful night and saw Sirhan Sirhan pull the trigger. Sirhan was also convicted of the crime and still languishes in jail with a life sentence. However, conspiracy theorists have jumped on inconsistencies in the eyewitness testimony and alleged anomalies in the forensic evidence to suggest that Sirhan was only one shooter in a larger conspiracy, a patsy for the real killers, or even a hypnotized assassin who did not know what he was doing (a popular plot in Cold War'era fiction, such as The Manchurian Candidate). Mel Ayton profiles Sirhan and presents a wealth of evidence about his fanatical Palestinian nationalism and his hatred for RFK that motivated the killing. Ayton unearths neglected eyewitness accounts and overlooked forensic evidence and examines Sirhan's extensive personal notebooks. He revisits the trial proceedings and convincingly shows Sirhan was in fact the lone assassin whose politically motivated act was a forerunner of present-day terrorism. The Forgotten Terroristis the definitive book on the assassination that rocked the nation during the turbulent summer of 1968.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Time Line	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Ambassador Hotel	p. 13
RFK and Israel	p. 29
Sirhan and Palestine	p. 49
The Shooting	p. 73
The Trial	p. 91
Controversies: The Physical Evidence	p. 107
Controversies: The Witnesses	p. 141
Distorted Truths	p. 163
The Manchurian Candidate Assassin	p. 183
Sirhan's Obsessions	p. 205
The Unaffiliated Terrorist	p. 227
Why Did He Kill?	p. 247
Afterword	p. 265
Report on RFK's Wounds by Ballistics Expert Larry Sturdivan	p. 273
Analysis of "The Pruszynski Tape" by Acoustics Expert Philip Harrison	p. 279
Excerpts from Sirhan Sirhan's Notebooks	p. 291
Notes	p. 295
Bibliography	p. 325
Index	p. 339
About the Author	p. 345
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