The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

Longlisted for the People's Book Prize 2018.

At 12.16am on Wednesday, June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded in the kitchen service pantry of the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. A little over 24 hours later, he was pronounced dead.

A 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was captured in the pantry with a smoking gun in his hand. Eyewitnesses had seen him step out in front of Kennedy and begin shooting with a small calibre revolver. In April 1969, Sirhan was convicted of Robert Kennedy’s murder and the wounding of five others. He was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He has been in prison – often in solitary confinement – ever since.

The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy is the result of more than 25 years’ painstaking forensic work that challenges some of the assumptions and conclusions around the murder. The authors have scrutinised more than 100,000 official documents, located previously unknown recordings, and conducted original new interviews with key figures in the case.

They show that Sirhan could not have fired the fatal bullets, reveal detailed evidence of a murderous conspiracy involving organised crime, and disclose CIA documents detailing successful experiments to create a hypno-programmed political assassin. The book also unmasks the likely identity of one of the most enduring mysteries in the case – the infamous ‘Girl in the Polka Dot Dress’.

Praise for The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy:

‘Meticulous and intense… a very credible investigation. Everything mentioned was cited, and the book was very thorough’ - Ethereal Pages

‘Kennedy Jr.'s pronouncement may finally give his father's case the attention and the serious analysis it deserves. Reading Tate and Johnson's book shows how poor of a job the mainstream media has done’ - Consortium News

Tim Tate is a multi-award winning documentary film-maker, investigative journalist and best-selling author. Over a 32-year career he produced and directed almost 90 films for all British terrestrial channels as well as Discovery, A&E & Court Television networks in the United States. His films have been honoured by Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, UNESCO, the International Documentary Association, the Association for International Broadcasting, the [US] National Academy of Cable Broadcasting and the New York Festivals.


Brad Johnson is an award-winning writer, editor, producer and television news anchor. After graduating from university with a BA in Political Science he spent 30 years as a journalist with CNN. Between 1985 and 2015 his work earned a succession of awards from the Peabody Trust, recognizing excellence in the American radio and television industry.