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Nearly 10,000 pages of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy were released on Friday, shedding new light on the mind and motives of his convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, The Associated Press reported. The files, posted by the National Archives and Records Administration, include previously unseen material and build on a transparency push initiated by President Donald Trump. Here are the key takeaways from the document release:
- Handwritten Notes Reveal Possible Intentions
- One of the documents includes a chilling message scrawled on an envelope: “RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,” referring to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, the report said, adding that the return address on the envelope was from the district director of the IRS in Los Angeles.
- New Interviews Offer Insight into Sirhan’s Personality
- Investigative files include interviews with Sirhan’s classmates, coworkers, neighbours, and others.
- Descriptions of him range from “a friendly, kind and generous person” to a brooding, impressionable man with strong political beliefs, the report suggests.
- Some documents even mention a brief period during which Sirhan was interested in mysticism.
- Did Sirhan Express His Intentions Before the Shooting?
- According to the report, a garbage collector told investigators that Sirhan had expressed his plan to kill Kennedy after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.
- In response to the worker’s support for Kennedy, Sirhan allegedly said, “Well, I don’t agree. I am planning on shooting the son of a b***h”.
- Files Include Both Old and Undigitized Materials
- While many of the records had been public, some had never been digitized and were stored for decades in federal archives.
- A total of 229 files were posted to the public domain on the National Archives’ website, AP reported.
- Document Release Invites Both: Praise and Caution
- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late senator, welcomed the move, reportedly saying, “Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government.”
- Meanwhile, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, urged a careful review of the material, saying, according to AP, “I hope there’s more information. I’m doubtful that there is, just as I said when the JFK documents were released.”
- Sirhan’s Parole Status Remains Unchanged
- Though a parole board found Sirhan suitable for release in 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom denied the decision in 2022.
- In 2023, another panel rejected his parole again, reportedly saying he lacks sufficient insight into the reasons behind the assassination.
Trump ordered the release as part of his administration’s push to declassify documents tied to historic political assassinations. In January, he signed an executive order calling for the release of files related to the deaths of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. However, some redactions remain in the documents, including personal identifiers, reports say. Trump’s previous JFK file release drew criticism over the inclusion of unredacted Social Security numbers.
