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Who Killed Bobby?: The Unsolved Murder of Robert F. Kennedy | 
 enlarge | Author: Shane O'sullivan
Publisher: Union Square Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.85
You Save: $11.10 (44%)
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 256680
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 560
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 1402754442
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1524092
EAN: 9781402754449
ASIN: 1402754442
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On June 5th, 1968, at L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel, Robert F. Kennedy celebrated his victory in the California Democratic primary with a rousing victory speech anticipating a successful run for the presidency. Moments later, gunshots shattered that dream: like his brother before him, Bobby Kennedy lay mortally wounded at the hand of an assassin. The police quickly apprehended Sirhan Sirhan, who the world believed had single-handedly masterminded the shooting. Shockingly, that may not be so, as documentary filmmaker Shane O' Sullivan presents powerful new evidence to the contrary.
In Who Killed Bobby? O'Sullivan makes a stunning case that will fundamentally alter the way the public views Bobby Kennedy's death. Based on research he undertook for a documentary that will debut this year, O'Sullivan poses such key questions as:
"Could Sirhan have fired the fatal shot?" After the autopsy LA County Coroner Thomas Noguchi concluded that the deadly shots had been fired from an inch behind Kennedy's right ear; yet not a single witness placed Sirhan this close; most placed his gun several feet away, and in front of the senator. Who was the girl in the polka-dot dress? Vincent Di Pierro saw Sirhan with a girl in a polka-dot dress in the pantry. And Sandra Serrano described a similar woman fleeing down a fire escape, exclaiming, "We shot him! We shot him!" O'Sullivan presents new interviews with these key witnesses and details how the LAPD browbeat them into changing their stories, while investigators also insisted to the press that "no such person ever existed."
Was Sirhan an unwitting assassin operating under the direction of unseen manipulators? Sirhan repeatedly scrawled "RFK Must Die" in his notebook and recreated the same kind of automatic writing when later hypnotized by his defense team. O'Sullivan cites psychiatric evidence that Sirhan was an extremely susceptible hypnotic subject, whose behavior on the night of the shooting fit the profile of a programmed assassin. Was Sirhan programmed to be a decoy for the real killer of Bobby Kennedy? The recent release of the film Bobby, the 40th anniversary of the shooting, and O'Sullivan's upcoming documentary have created renewed interest in the subject, and readers who accepted the conventional wisdom will have their beliefs shaken.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 An amateur looks at RFK December 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Shane O'Sullivan, a screenplay writer, has taken a bite of the RFK conspiracy. The book is narrated by O'Sullivan who explains his entry into this subject and field. O'Sullivan, whose from Ireland, had not real knowledge of Bobby Kennedy. His wife turned him onto the subject and thought it would make a good screenplay. When he was finished, he realized he had a documentary instead.
O'Sullivan's narrative is fairly easy to follow. He covers the subject with a fair degree of completion. He admits in the preface there was not enough space for everything. Unfortunately, he leaves out Jerry Owens, the walking Bible from Turner and Christian's book, "The Assassination of RFK". This to me is a fatal flaw as Turner and Christian's book would make a more fascinating screenplay (not to mention their excellent investigative reporting).
O'Sullivan delivers the essential facts of the RFK case. He presents the facts in a very fair manner. His conclusions are logical. Unlike many conspiracy writes, O'Sullivan doesn't jump off the deep end in order to force a conclusion. To his credit, he admits his own mistakes: the David Morales red herring. O'Sullivan believed CIA hitman David Morales was in the Ambassador hotel on June 4, 1968. He thoroughly investigated this premise. But reluctantly abandoned the position because the evidence was not conclusive.
In the end, O'Sullivan presents the acoustical evidence which shows 11 shots were fired in the pantry. This is reminscent of the dictabelt recording from the HSCA from 1978. The hotly contested conclusion of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (hotly contested by the Oswald-did-it-alone crowd) will probably precipitate the same for O'Sullivan's case here.
Having watched his documentary and read the book, I believe O'Sullivan has some more RFK investigating in him. I predict his next book will be a better.
 Hard to Follow November 18, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of 3 books released this year regarding Kennedy, O'Sullivan's work is mostly a regurgitation of material previously published. He does attempt to conduct new interviews with subjects but no insight is gained from those willing to talk.
I just finished Bill Eppridge's A Time it Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties and found out how flawed witness testimony can be regarding this tragedy. When decades are allowed to pass, perception will change. Everyone was in complete shock at the time and several people have changed their story.
Those who were in the kitchen can't even agree on what Kennedy's last words were, let alone anything else. There are widely varying reports of which direction he was facing (key information for ballistics) but no one, not even O'Sullivan, explores the direction Kennedy's body was facing as he lay on the floor.
Eppridge has an actual photograph of some of the gunfire and distinctly recalls 8 shots. It may have been helpful for ballistics experts to have the photograph to examine, but Mr. O'Sullivan was perhaps unaware of it's existance and Mr Eppridge possibly never saw the relevance. We can only wonder what other puzzle pieces may be out there.
While very thorough in his examination of witness testimony and all available evidence, O'Sullivan's book is difficult to follow given the sheer volume of information which leaves the reader easily lost in a sea of suspects and details. The photographs and diagrams are of no help in trying to understand where everyone was standing or which direction people were facing.
There's an entire chapter on The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress but you wont find any mention of Kathy Ainsworth, whom several conpiracy theorists believe may have actually been the girl in the dress. Ainsworth had motive, fit the physical description, and died mysteriously just weeks after Kennedy. Sirhan's interviews are explored and he is asked what the name of the girl was. A photo shows his written response to that exact question indicating the name "Kathleen." O'Sullivan overlooks this entirely.
At times sweeping conclusions are drawn to suit the author's own theories. A suspect's family member refuses to comment when O'Sullivan attempts to ask questions so he finds her "defensive" and automatically concludes she must have something to hide. When another person refuses to comment, stating that he doesn't answer questions, that's fine. This book may have worked better as an unbiased piece.
One alarming discovery for me was in the bibliography where O'Sullivan actually used David Heymann's work as a point of reference. Heymann has speculated, with no credible evidence whatsoever, that Kennedy killed Marilyn Monroe. It reflected quite negatively on O'Sullivan that he didn't choose a more reliable source.
There's a wild chapter on security at the hotel the night Kennedy died but no mention that for security reasons you never leave the way you came in! The author points fingers about who "led" Kennedy into the pantry but it was quite clearly a random judgment for which no one was at fault. You Tube footage of Kennedy leaving the podium shows him stop (listening to no one) considering one exit, then choosing another.
It's an interesting, albeit difficult read, but it doesn't answer any questions for me or even raise any new ones. We all have a general idea of who did it. Maybe a better title would've been "Why Aren't They in Prison?"
Reality Check October 11, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
For those interested in the RFK assassination, the book and its companion video ("RFK Must Die") are probably worth buying. Unfortunately, there is nothing presented here that would persuade an objective observer of the case made by the author. Despite the obvious holes in the LAPD case, one is continually drawn back to Sirhan's simple answer to the question posed to him by Jess Unruh as he was being taken away from the Ambassador Hotel. When Unruh asked "Why did you do it?," Sirhan responded calmly "What, so you can use it against me in court?" This answer is important for the simple reason that it shows that Sirhan was aware of what had taken place. After all, if he had been hypnotized and unaware of his surroudings at the time of the shooting, the logical response to Unruh's question would be "Did what?"
Thin. Very thin. August 19, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I'm a huge fan of RFK and I am ready to be convinced that there was more to his murder than one crazed lonely man. I expected this book to provide facts to support a conspiracy theory, but with it's weak reasoning, logical flaws, repetition, poor writing, and laughable straw-grabbing, I am now convinced that Sirhan acted alone for his own demented reasons. A girl in a polka dot dress runs out yelling "We did it!"?? Yeah, all great conspiracies end with a public announcement to strangers, by the conspirators. You have Sirhan writing "It is my obsession" to kill RFK, days prior to the assassination. Sure he claims not to remember the killing - and his claim of no memory is accepted wholesale by the author here. It is a premise the author relies upon and focuses on toward the end (paying lip service to, but quickly dismissing, the thought that Sirhan is faking.) Despite his efforts to raise doubts in favor of a conspiracy, or at least a "second gun," this author has shown that such concepts are unsupported in this instance. Sirhan was a lone gunman.
 Sullivan Accounts for RFK Evidence June 14, 2008
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
As an avid researcher of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, I enjoyed Sullivan's chronology of this event and what official investigators and researchers have determined. He covers possible answers thoroughly, but I wish he would consider the idea that Sirhan fired blanks more as Sullivan acknowledges no bullet has been tied to Sirhan's gun.
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