Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Palestinian militant who was found guilty of assassinating United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy know all about him as his Family, Parents, Age, Ethnicity, Nationality, Imprisonment and Parole
| Bio | |
| Name | Sirhan Bishara Sirhan |
| Birthdate ( Age) | 19 March 1944 |
| Age | 77 |
| Place of Birth | Taibe |
| Nationality | Palestinian, Jordanian |
| Parents | Mary Muzhea, Bishara Sirhan |
| Last Update | August 2021 |
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Palestinian militant who was found guilty of assassinating United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 1968; Kennedy died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital. Sirhan was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.
On August 27, 2021, Sirhan was recommended parole by a California parole board. Prosecutors declined to participate or to oppose his release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform.
Early Life and Family
Sirhan was born into an Arab Palestinian Christian family in Mandatory Palestine, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Musrara, and became a Jordanian citizen following the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank.According to his mother, as a child 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 Jordanian military vehicle that was swerving to escape Israeli gunfire.
When Sirhan was 12 years old, his family immigrated to the US, moving briefly to New York and then to California. In Altadena, he attended Eliot Junior High School, followed by John Muir High School and Pasadena City College, both in Pasadena. Sirhan’s father, Bishara, has been characterized as a stern man who often beat his sons harshly. Shortly after the family’s move to California, Bishara returned alone to the Middle East. Standing 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) and weighing 120 pounds (54 kg) at 20 years old, Sirhan moved to Corona to train to be a jockey while working at a stable, but lost his job and abandoned the pursuit after suffering a head injury in a racing accident.
Why Did Sirhan Sirhan shoot Robert Robert F. Kennedy
A motive cited for Sirhan’s actions is the Middle East conflict.After his arrest, Sirhan said, “I can explain it. I did it for my country.” Sirhan believed that he was deliberately betrayed by Kennedy’s 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 rage at Kennedy; his journals also contained many nonsensical scribbles that were thought to be his version of “free writing”. He wrote in support of communism: “Long live Communism… I firmly support the communist cause and its people… American capitalism will fall and give way to the worker’s dictatorship.”
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.”
Around 12:15 a.m. PDT on June 5, 1968, Sirhan fired a .22 caliber Iver-Johnson Cadet revolver at United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the crowd surrounding him in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after Kennedy had finished addressing supporters in the hotel’s main ballroom. Authors George Plimpton, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, professional football player Rosey Grier, and 1960 Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson were among several men who subdued and disarmed Sirhan after a struggle.
Sirhan Sirhan Imprisonment
In 1971, Sirhan was housed in the Adjustment Center at San Quentin State Prison.He was subsequently transferred to the Correctional Training Facility (CTF) in Soledad, California, where he was confined until 1992.From 1992 to 2009, he was confined at the California State Prison (COR) in Corcoran, California, and lived in COR’s Protective Housing Unit until he was moved to a harsher lockdown at COR in 2003.In October 2009, ostensibly for his safety, he was transferred to the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California, where he was housed in a cell by himself.He was subsequently moved back to Corcoran.
On November 22, 2013, Sirhan was transferred from Corcoran to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County. The transfer occurred on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said that the transfer was “a routine matter of housing allotments” and its timing was “simply an unfortunate coincidence”.On August 30, 2019, Sirhan was stabbed multiple times by another prisoner.He was taken to a hospital, where his condition was reported as stable.He returned to the prison two days later, after his discharge from the hospital.
Sirhan Sirhan Parole
On August 27, 2021, in his 16th appearance before the parole board, Sirhan was recommended for parole. He has served 53 years in jail. Two of Kennedy’s surviving sons, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, offered their support for parole during Sirhan’s appearance before the parole board. The decision is subject to a 90-day review by the California Board of Parole Hearings after which Governor Gavin Newsom, has 30 days to grant, reverse, or modify the decision.
