"been criticized as an oversimplification which ignores his psychological problems. Sirhan's lawyers attempted to use a defense of diminished responsibility during the trial, while Sirhan himself tried to confess to the crime and change his plea to guilty on several occasions. He testified that he had killed Kennedy ""with 20 years of malice aforethought"". The judge did not accept this confession and it was later withdrawn. Sirhan was convicted of the murder of Robert Kennedy on April 17, 1969, and was sentenced six days later, to death. In 1972, the sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility"
"June 5 '68."" Running on an anti-war ticket, Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary and was confident he would challenge Richard Nixon for the White House. As he walked through the hotel kitchen pantry, shots rang out and he fell to the floor, fatally wounded by a bullet to the brain, fired from an inch behind his right ear. Twenty-four-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of murder as the ""lone assassin."" The film investigates claims that witnesses placed Sirhan several feet in front of Kennedy and for forty years he claims he has never been able to remember"
"2002 Metzer attack On 2 November 2002 Israeli Kibbutz (community) Metzer was infiltrated by a Palestinian terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan, who murdered 5 residents. The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades claim to have carried out the attack. The attacker murdered filmmaker Revital Ohayoun, 34, and her two young children (Matan, 5, and Noam, 4), who were killed in their beds. Tirza Damari, 42, and Yitzhak Drori, 44, the kibbutz secretary, who was responding to the gunfire. Sirhan Sirhan (Arabic: سرحان سرحان, died 2003) was a Palestinian responsible for an attack on the Israeli Kibbutz (community) Metzer on November 10, 2002, in which"
"hearing, Sirhan was denied parole again in a federal courthouse in San Diego. One of Sirhan's shooting victims from that night, Paul Schrade, now aged 91, testified in support of Sirhan, stating his belief that a second shooter killed Kennedy and that Sirhan was intended to be a distraction from the real gunman by an unknown conspiracy. Sirhan also repeated his claim to have no memory of the shooting. In his testimony before the parole board, Sirhan recalled events before the shooting in some detail – going to a shooting range the day before, June 4, 1968, visiting the hotel"
"his supporters shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Leaving the ballroom, he went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut to a press room. He did this despite being advised by his bodyguard — former FBI agent Bill Barry — to avoid the kitchen. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Kennedy turned to his left and shook hands with busboy Juan Romero just as Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, opened fire with a .22-caliber revolver. Kennedy was hit three times, and five other people were"
"strongly anti-Zionist beliefs. A diary was found during a search of his home, and he wrote on May 19: ""My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession. RFK must die. RFK must be killed. Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated... Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before 5 June 68."" It has been suggested that the date of the assassination is significant because it was the first anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. When Sirhan was booked by police, they found a newspaper article in his"
"end of the trial. The defense based its case primarily on the expert testimony of Bernard L. Diamond, M.D., a professor of law and psychiatry at University of California, Berkeley, who testified that Sirhan was suffering from diminished capacity at the time of the murder. Sirhan's behavior during the trial was indeed bizarre; at one point, he became outraged during testimony about his childhood. Sirhan was convicted on April 17, 1969, and was sentenced six days later to death in the gas chamber. Three years later, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, owing to the California Supreme Court's"
"he and his aides then entered a narrow kitchen pantry on their way to a banquet room to meet with reporters. In the pantry Kennedy and five others were shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Rosicrucian Palestinian of Christian background and Jordanian citizenship, who hated Kennedy because of his support for Israel. Sirhan admitted his guilt, was convicted of murder, and is still in prison. In recent years some have cast doubt on Sirhan's guilt, including Sirhan himself, who said he was ""brainwashed"" into killing Kennedy and was a patsy. Political historians still debate whether Kennedy could have won the"
"Lawrence Teeter Lawrence George Teeter (December 12, 1948 – July 31, 2005) was an American lawyer best known for representing Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, from 1994–2005. Teeter died in Conchitas, Mexico of advanced lymphoma. Teeter signed on as Sirhan's lawyer in 1994 and repeatedly tried to get a retrial for his client in order to clear his name. However, he was unsuccessful in doing so right up to his death. Besides Sirhan's case, Teeter also handled other cases, without charging a fee for many of them. In 1982, Teeter unsuccessfully defended Norma Jean Almodovar"
"support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War, which had begun one year to the day before the assassination. During a search of Sirhan's apartment after his arrest, a spiral-bound notebook was found containing a diary entry that demonstrated that his anger had gradually fixated on Kennedy, who had promised to send 50 fighter jets to Israel if elected president. Sirhan's journal entry of May 18, 1968, read: ""My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming the more and more of an unshakable obsession...Kennedy must die before June 5th."" They found other notebooks and diary entries expressing his growing antisemitism"
"Satwant Singh Satwant Singh Agwan (1962 – 6 January 1989) was one of the Sikh bodyguards, who, along with Beant Singh, assassinated the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at her New Delhi residence on 31 October 1984. The assassination of Indira Gandhi was motivated as a revenge for the military operation carried out by the Indian government on Harmandir Sahib, in Amritsar, India which was occupied by the Sikh militants under the extremist Bhindranwale. The militants were flushed out and Bhindranwale was killed during the operation. The operation also caused damage to the temple premises and casualties on both"
"discuss the event with no one"". The person thought to be the first serial victim was Kazem Sami Kermani, an ""Islamic nationalist and physician"" who had opposed the Shah and served as Minister of Health in the brief post-revolutionary provisional government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. He was later a member of the first Majles where he criticized the government for its continuation of the Iran–Iraq War after the Liberation of Khorramshahr. He was murdered on 23 November 1988 in his clinic in Tehran by an ax-wielding assailant. On 20 December 1998, a statement was issued in Tehran by a"
"in the back of his neck. Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, he was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, nearly 26 hours after the shooting. Frank Mankiewicz left the hospital and walked to the gymnasium where the press and news media were set up for continuous updates on the situation. At 2 a.m. on June 6, Mankiewicz approached the podium, took a few moments to compose himself, and made the official announcement: Sirhan Sirhan (born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Arab with Jordanian citizenship, born in Jerusalem, who held"
"race after Johnson's withdrawal, making the 1968 Democratic primaries a three-way contest between Humphrey, Kennedy, and McCarthy. Kennedy cut into McCarthy's liberal and anti-war base, while also winning the support of the poor and working class. Kennedy won a series of primary victories, but was assassinated in June by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab nationalist. With Johnson's support, Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago in late August. The violent clashes in Chicago between anti-war protesters marred the convention. After the convention, polls showed Humphrey losing the general election by 20 points. Humphrey"
"mourning. Ethel sent Johnson a handwritten note on June 19, thanking him and his wife, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, for their helping of her and the Kennedy family. In 1969, Sirhan was convicted of Robert F. Kennedy's murder and sentenced to death. In 1972, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after the California Supreme Court invalidated the state's death penalty as it existed at that time. Following her husband's assassination, Ethel Kennedy publicly stated that she would never marry again. She was pregnant with her 11th child when he was killed, and she"
"and rage at Kennedy; his journals also contained many nonsensical scribbles that were thought to be his version of ""free writing"". The next day, on June 6, the ""Los Angeles Times"" printed an article by Jerry Cohen that discussed Sirhan's motive for the assassination, confirmed by the memos Sirhan wrote to himself. The article stated:When the Jordanian nationalist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, allegedly shot Kennedy, ostensibly because of the senator's advocacy of U.S. support for Israel, the crime with which he was charged was in essence another manifestation of the centuries-old hatred between Arab and Jew. M.T. Mehdi, then secretary-general of"
"was awarded all of the state's delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Around midnight on June 4, Kennedy addressed supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, confidently promising to heal the many divisions within the country. After addressing his supporters during the early morning hours of June 5, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Kennedy left the ballroom through a service area to greet kitchen workers. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian-born Jordanian, opened fire with a .22 caliber revolver and mortally wounded Kennedy. Following the shooting, Kennedy was rushed to"
"Kehar Singh Kehar Singh, an assistant in the Directorate General of Supply and Disposal, New Delhi, was tried and executed for conspiracy in the plot of the Indira Gandhi assassination, carried out by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. He was hanged in Tihar Jail on 6 January 1989. Beant Singh was the nephew of Kehar Singh. The assassination was ""motivated"" by Operation Blue Star, in which Indian Armed Forces personnel engaged an assault on the Golden Temple Complex at Amritsar. It was carried out starting on 3 June 1984. This was a military operation to control the Sikh armed rebellion"
"man with a mental deficiency, but when Judge Walker admitted into evidence pages from three of the journal notebooks that Sirhan had kept, it was clear that the murder was not only premeditated, but also ""quite calculating and willful."" On March 3, 1969, in the Los Angeles courtroom, Cooper asked Sirhan directly in testimony if he had indeed shot Kennedy. Sirhan replied immediately: ""Yes, sir,"" but then stated that he did not bear any ill will toward Kennedy. Sirhan also testified that he had killed Kennedy ""with 20 years of malice aforethought."" He explained in an interview with David Frost"
"pocket that discussed Kennedy's support for Israel; Sirhan testified at his trial that he began to hate Kennedy after learning of this support. In 1989, he told David Frost in prison: ""My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians"". Some scholars view the assassination as one of the first major incidents of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The interpretation that Sirhan was motivated by Middle Eastern politics has"
"1998 when Dariush Forouhar, his wife Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar, and three dissident writers were murdered over a span of two months. After the murders were publicized, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei denied the government was responsible, and blamed ""Iran's enemies"". In mid-1999, after great public outcry and journalistic investigation in Iran and publicity abroad, Iranian prosecutors announced they had found the perpetrator. One Saeed Emami had led ""rogue elements"" in Iran's MOIS Intelligence Ministry in the killings, but that Emami was now dead, having committed suicide in prison. In a trial that was ""dismissed as a sham by the victims' families"
"Takhat, Amritsar where tributes were paid to late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi's assassins. In 2004, his death anniversary was again observed at Akal Takhat, Amritsar, where SGPC, Shiromani Akali Dal and head priest of Akal Takhat paid tributes to Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh. Again, on 6 January 2008, the highest Sikh temporal seat (Akal Takhat, Amritsar) declared Kehar Singh and other assassins of former prime minister, Indira Gandhi; as martyrs of Sikhism. SGPC also paid homage to both Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh and called them ""martyrs of Sikh nation"". Shiromani Akali Dal observed their death anniversary"
"refusing their demands, he was hanged to death. Nidhan Singh Gudhan Nidhan Singh Gudhan was a communist activist, a central team member of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). He was tortured and then hanged by Khalistan movement extremists. At the time of his death, he was leading Kisan Sangharsh Samiti of Ropar district. He was the founding editor of the Journal ""Surkh Rekha"". He also held the president-ship of Punjab Kisan Union. During Punjab insurgency, Khalistan movement extremists kidnapped Nidhan Singh Gudhan. He was tortured as the extremists were trying to investigate the secrets of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)"
"sides which angered the Sikhs. Beant Singh drew a .38 revolver and fired three shots into Indira Gandhi's abdomen; as she fell to the ground, Satwant Singh fired all 30 rounds from his Sten automatic weapon into her abdomen (thus, 33 bullets were fired in total, of which 30 bullets hit her). Both assassins subsequently dropped their weapons and surrendered. Beant Singh was shot to death during interrogation in custody soon after the assassination. Satwant Singh was arrested and later sentenced to death by hanging along with co-conspirator Kehar Singh. The sentence was carried out on 6 January 1989. During"
"flying colors. Another conspiracy theory relates to a Manchurian candidate hypothesis, that Sirhan was psychologically programmed by persons unknown to commit the murder, that he was not aware of his actions at the time and that his mind was ""wiped"" in the aftermath by the conspirators so that he would have no memory of the event or of the people who ""programmed"" him. This theory was supported by psychologist and hypnosis expert Dr. Eduard Simson-Kallas after 35 hours of work with Sirhan in San Quentin prison in 1969. Sirhan claimed then, and has continued to claim, to have no memory"
"February 10, 1969, Sirhan's lawyers made a motion in chambers to enter a plea of guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for life imprisonment (rather than the death penalty). Sirhan announced to the court judge, Herbert V. Walker, that he wanted to withdraw his original plea of not guilty in order to plead guilty as charged on all counts. He also asked that his counsel ""dissociate themselves from this case completely."" When the judge asked him what he wanted to do about sentencing, Sirhan replied, ""I will ask to be executed."" Judge Walker denied the motion and stated, ""This court"
"hypnotized and framed, possibly by a government conspiracy. Sirhan was granted a June 30 hearing. During that hearing Teeter referred to testimony from the original trial transcripts regarding a prosecution eyewitness to the attack, author George Plimpton, in which he said that Sirhan looked ""enormously composed. He seemed ... purged."" This statement coincided with the defense's argument that Sirhan had shot Kennedy while in some kind of hypnotic trance. The motion was denied. Teeter died in 2005, and Sirhan declined other counsel to replace him. On November 26, 2011, Sirhan's defense teams filed court papers for a new trial, saying"
"from a three-year state prison term for pandering, arguing that the 1982 law specifying the sentence was unconstitutional, an argument that was refused by the California 2nd District Court of Appeal. In 2002, he helped a group submit legal opposition to a planned redesign of Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl. However, the redesign proceeded and the Bowl was reopened in 2004. Lawrence Teeter Lawrence George Teeter (December 12, 1948 – July 31, 2005) was an American lawyer best known for representing Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, from 1994–2005. Teeter died in Conchitas, Mexico of advanced lymphoma."
"send those 50 [fighter jet] bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians."" Some scholars believe that the assassination was the first major incident of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Sirhan was born into an Arab Palestinian Christian family in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine. As a child growing up in the West Bank, Sirhan was traumatized by the violence he witnessed in the Arab–Israeli conflict, including the death of his older brother, who was run over by a military vehicle that was swerving to escape hostile gunfire. When Sirhan"
"days later. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence later denied responsibility for these assassinations and claimed the Ministry employees had acted on his own accord. As of 2014, the government still refuses to allow the families of the victims to hold any vigils or ceremonies for their loved ones. Parvaneh Forouhar Parvaneh Forouhar () Eskandari () (20 March 1939 – 22 November 1998) was an Iranian dissident and activist who was murdered during the Chain Murders of Iran in November 1998. Dariush Forouhar's wife, she became a member of the Party of the Iranian Nation when she was a university student,"
"which took place in 1984, and is remembered as a propaganda subject by the PKK every year. Assassination of İsmail Özden The Assassination of İsmail Özden took place on 15 August 2018 in Sinjar, northwestern Iraq. İsmail Özden, alias ""Mam Zeki Şengali"", was a senior Kurdish nationalist leader, who stood on the most-wanted terrorists list of the Turkish government. He was killed by a cross-border airstrike of the Turkish Armed Forces as he was traveling in a car in Sinjar, northwestern Iraq. İsmail Özden was born as of, a Kurdish citizen of Yazidi origin in Batman, Turkey in 1952. Between"
"countries, including the murder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee regional director Alex Odeh in 1985, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, and a plot to assassinate Congressman Darrell Issa in 2001. Several JDL members and leaders died violent deaths, including Kahane himself, who was assassinated by an Arab-American gunman. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the JDL consists only of ""thugs and hooligans"". The group's founder, Meir Kahane, ""preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism,"" attitudes that were replicated by Irv Rubin, the successor to Kahane. In 1968, while Kahane served as"
"but Berman was able to get an acquittal on the most serious charges. In 1969, Berman was part of the defense team of Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Berman received criticism for defending an avowed anti-Zionist but countered his critics by stating that he was defending Sirhan's rights and not his beliefs. Emile Zola Berman Emile Zola Berman (November 3, 1902 – July 3, 1981) was an American criminal defense lawyer. He was named after the French novelist Émile Zola (1840–1902). During World War II he was an intelligence officer in the 10th Air Force in Burma"