June 5, 1968. Midnight had just passed in Los Angeles. Robert F. Kennedy, the charismatic Senator from New York who seemed destined to reclaim the White House for his family, was cutting through the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel. He had just finished a victory speech. The California primary was his.
Then came the cracks of a .22 caliber Iver Johnson revolver.
In the chaos, a 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant named Sirhan Sirhan was tackled, his arm twisted over a steam table as he continued to empty his weapon. While the world reeled from the second Kennedy assassination in five years, the question that immediately rose from the floor of that pantry remains one of the most debated pieces of American history: why did Sirhan Sirhan shoot Robert Kennedy?
Honestly, the answer isn’t a single thing. It’s a messy mix of Middle Eastern geopolitics, a specific date on a calendar, and a sense of personal betrayal that felt, to Sirhan at least, like a death sentence for his homeland.
The 50-Jet Betrayal
If you want to understand the "why," you have to look at what Robert Kennedy said on the campaign trail. Sirhan wasn't just some random guy with a grudge; he was a Palestinian Christian who had seen his family displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He grew up in the shadow of that conflict.
During the 1968 campaign, Kennedy made a specific promise that pushed Sirhan over the edge. He advocated for sending 50 Phantom fighter jets to Israel. To Kennedy, this was standard U.S. foreign policy and a way to secure the Jewish vote in New York and California. To Sirhan, it was a declaration of war.
In a 1989 interview with David Frost, Sirhan basically spelled it out. He said he felt "betrayed" by Kennedy. He had actually liked RFK before that. He saw him as a champion of the underdog—until those jets came up. Sirhan felt those planes would be used to "deliver nothing but death and destruction" to his people.
The Significance of June 5
The timing wasn't a coincidence. Not even a little bit.
June 5, 1968, was the first anniversary of the Six-Day War. That 1967 conflict had been a crushing defeat for Arab nations, and for Sirhan, the date was a scar. When investigators searched his notebook in his Pasadena home, they found chilling entries. One page had "Kennedy must die" scrawled over and over. Another entry specifically noted that Robert Kennedy must be assassinated before June 5, 1968.
He hit his deadline by minutes.
Why Did Sirhan Sirhan Shoot Robert Kennedy? (The Mental Health Angle)
While the political motive is the most documented, the trial brought up a lot of "nuance" that often gets ignored. Sirhan’s defense team didn't try to say he didn't do it. Instead, they argued diminished capacity.
Psychiatrists who examined him described a man who was profoundly traumatized. As a child in Jerusalem, he had witnessed horrific violence, including seeing his older brother run over by a military vehicle. Experts like Dr. Bernard Diamond argued that Sirhan was in a "dissociative state" or a trance during the shooting.
There's this weird detail about Sirhan practicing self-hypnosis and "mirror gazing" in the weeks leading up to the hotel shooting. He’d stare at himself until he went into a sort of trance. His lawyers argued he had basically programmed himself to kill. This is where the "Manchurian Candidate" theories usually start, though no hard evidence ever proved he was "programmed" by anyone other than himself.
The Conspiracy Question
You can't talk about why Sirhan shot Kennedy without mentioning the people who think he wasn't the only one. Even RFK's own son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has publicly doubted the official story.
The main sticking points?
- The Bullet Count: Some acoustics experts claim they heard 13 shots on a tape recording, but Sirhan's gun only held eight.
- The Angle: The Los Angeles Coroner, Thomas Noguchi, found that the fatal shot entered behind Kennedy’s right ear at point-blank range. Witnesses, however, mostly placed Sirhan in front of Kennedy.
- The Polka-Dot Dress: Several witnesses reported seeing a mystery woman in a polka-dot dress running from the scene shouting, "We shot him!"
Regardless of these theories, Sirhan himself admitted to the shooting in court. "I killed Kennedy with 20 years of malice aforethought," he famously testified, though he later claimed he had no memory of the actual event.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception is that Sirhan was a religious extremist. He wasn't even Muslim; he was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. His motivation was nationalism, not religion. He saw himself as a Palestinian patriot doing what was necessary to stop a man he believed would destroy his people.
Another thing? People forget how much Sirhan actually admired the Kennedys before the 1968 primary. He viewed the family as a symbol of hope. The shift from "hero" to "target" happened fast, fueled by the intense heat of the 1967 war and RFK's increasingly pro-Israel stance during the California primary.
Where Things Stand Now
Sirhan is still alive. As of early 2026, he remains incarcerated in California. He’s been denied parole dozens of times. Even when a parole board finally recommended his release in 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom blocked it, citing the fact that Sirhan still lacks "insight" into why he committed the crime and remains a threat to public safety.
Actionable Insights for History Enthusiasts:
- Read the Trial Transcripts: To get past the "AI-generated" summaries, look at the actual testimony of Dr. Bernard Diamond. It offers the best look at Sirhan’s psychological state.
- Compare the Dispatches: Read Robert Kennedy’s 1948 dispatches for The Boston Post about Palestine. It shows his long-term perspective on the region which eventually fueled Sirhan's rage.
- Verify the Ballistics: If you’re interested in the "second gunman" theory, look specifically at the Pruszynski recording, the only known audio of the shooting, which has been analyzed by several forensic audio experts.
Understanding this event requires looking at it as the first major instance of Middle Eastern political violence "exported" to the United States. It changed the way the Secret Service protects candidates and arguably changed the entire trajectory of the late 20th century.