Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

1968MajorContested

Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles minutes after winning the California Democratic primary. Coming two months after King's death, it deepens the turmoil of 1968.

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Contested history

Consensus: Sirhan Sirhan shot Kennedy in a hotel pantry on 5 June 1968 and was convicted of first-degree murder in 1969.

Sirhan was the gunmanEstablished

Many witnesses saw him fire and he was wrestled down still holding the revolver.

A second gunman fired the fatal shotMinority view

The autopsy placed the fatal wound behind the ear at point-blank range while witnesses put Sirhan in front; an acoustic analysis claiming 13 shots is disputed.

Sirhan was hypnotically programmedUnsupported

The claim rests on his professed lack of memory of the shooting; no evidence of such programming has been documented.