How an article I wrote in 1987 triggered the release of the LAPD's entire file on the RFK assassination
In anticipation of the disclosure of the JFK-MLK-RFK records, note that the key files in the RFK case have already been released
As the world awaits the public release of the JFK, MLK, and RFK assassination files, please allow me to trumpet that the Los Angeles Police Department’s records in the RFK investigation were released shortly after a 1987 article I published about the murder that included my appeal for those same files to be released.
The LAPD was the lead law-enforcement agency in the official investigation.
Significantly, the errors in the FBI’s shadow investigation helped to provoke and supercharge scores of conspiracy theories. In the forthcoming federal release, I fully expect that those provable mistakes will likely be downplayed if mentioned at all.
In the end, I was responsible for explaining and correcting the major flaws in the FBI’s investigation in my 1995 book, The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy: An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity (W.W. Norton).
In that book, I concluded that Sirhan Sirhan did it, and he did it alone—although it took me some time to get there.
My article, "Who Really Killed Bobby Kennedy?," appeared on the cover of the June 1987 issue of Regardie's, which hit the newsstands on May 20, featuring the inconsistencies with the LAPD's case. In addition to examining the problems with the official version of the killing, the story also contained my exclusive interview with Thane Eugene Cesar, the controversial security guard whom Bobby Kennedy Jr. now believes killed his father.
I concluded the article with the following observation:
Gene Cesar may be the classic example of a man caught at the wrong time in the wrong place with a gun in his hand and powder burns on his face—an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of history. However, considering the current state of evidence, a more sinister scenario cannot be dismissed. Until the City of Los Angeles complies with its repeated promises of full disclosure of the murder investigation, monumental questions about the most basic issues surrounding the case remain. And after nineteen years these issues deserve to be resolved. (Emphasis added)
What had become clear at the time of the publication of my Regardie's article was that there could not be a truly legitimate appraisal of the crime‑scene evidence until the release of the LAPD's investigative files in the case. Thus, I neither publicly advocated nor advanced any theory about what had happened on the night of the shooting—although I did believe back then that two guns had been fired with Cesar as my top suspect as the second gunman.
Bolstering the impact of the Regardie's article, an Associated Press wire story and two surprisingly strong reviews supporting my work appeared in two unlikely publications, both of which had long defended the official version of the case: the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
On May 26, Charles Trueheart of the Washington Post stated:
Moldea, whose appetite for byzantine intrigue is no secret, has exercised considerable restraint in not taking his speculation beyond the evidence. He portrays no conspiracy as such, but illuminates those elements of the case and investigation that make it implausible that Sirhan was the only assassin at the scene.
For the questions that are not likely to be answered—ever—Moldea believes we have the Los Angeles Police Department to thank. Some critical evidence in the case was destroyed long ago. But the vast majority of it remains under seal. Moldea, with the magazine's second, moves that the case be reopened. Witnesses and victims at the scene, as well as members of Robert Kennedy's court, reportedly agree.[1] (Emphasis added)
On June 2, an Associated Press wire story reported:
Moldea says Cesar may have been an innocent bystander but “considering the current state of evidence, a more sinister scenario cannot be dismissed.” He says the questions will remain until Los Angeles authorities make good on their promise to release the full file on the investigation.[2] (Emphasis added)
Then, on June 12, Bill Steigerwald of the Los Angeles Times said of the Regardie's article:
Moldea makes a convincing case that the official story is rife with crucial inconsistencies and unanswered questions and remains an unsolved mystery. Moldea marshals a great deal of evidence to support his claims that the LAPD botched its original investigation.[3]
Steigerwald had called the LAPD for comment, adding:
[Commander] William Booth of the LAPD, who had not seen Moldea's piece, said that all the material that can be released has been released and that "everyone has access to the same evidence and they can come up with their own theories." The LAPD's position, he said, is summed up by the fact that Sirhan Sirhan was tried and convicted and is still in prison. (Emphasis added)
Booth's statement infuriated Greg Stone, then the top civilian researcher in the RFK case. Greg believed that the LAPD appeared to have altered its position once again, now insisting that no more files would be released. But while the LAPD seemed to be backsliding, Stone and other advocates of full disclosure—those who had originally brought me into the case in 1985—were buoyed by the sudden public clamor for the release of the files in the wake of my story's publication.
Using my article as his cudgel, Stone—with the active support of Paul Schrade, one of the five other people shot on the night Kennedy was fatally wounded—immediately launched a public attack on the LAPD for its continued efforts to conceal the files.
Then on or about June 25—while my Regardie's article was still on the newsstands—the city of Los Angeles reversed the LAPD's position, ordering the release of the entire Robert Kennedy murder case file.
On Friday, June 26, reporter Chuck Conconi of the Washington Post wrote in his column:
Nineteen years after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Los Angeles Police Department's investigative files on the case are about to be released. Ever since Washington investigative reporter Dan Moldea's article "Who Killed Bobby Kennedy?" was published in this month's issue of Regardie's magazine, interest in the murder case has had resurgence.[4] (Emphasis added)
And Kevin McManus of Insight magazine acknowledged:
The [Cesar] interview and subsequent [Regardie's] article appear to have had the result of forcing the Los Angeles government to do something others have been urging it to do for many years: open the police records on the assassination.[5] (Emphasis added)
As a result of the sudden release of the RFK files, I was asked to appear on a few radio and television programs to discuss the matter.
My big break occurred on June 30 when I received an invitation to be a guest on NBC's Today Show to take a bow for my work on national television.
Although I was excited about the offer, I soon learned that the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) had struck NBC and its owned‑and‑operated stations nationwide.
With no settlement by the time of my scheduled appearance—and inasmuch as I was a member of the National Writers Union—I refused to cross the picket line and did not appear on the program.
To this day, I have still never received the credit I deserve for my monumental accomplishment of triggering the release of the RFK files. . . . So, inasmuch as I am nearly 75, I‘m now claiming it.
Reporting on the final certification for the release of the files, reporter Susan Seager of United Press International stated in a wire story on August 4:
After nearly two decades of broken promises and delays, city officials said Tuesday they have signed an agreement that will make public the police files of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination.
The agreement marks the first time the city would allow the public full access to the Kennedy files since the Los Angeles Police Department completed its investigation in 1969. The New York senator was assassinated June 5, 1968, during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
City Clerk Elias Martinez said workers are busy completing their inventory of the more than 50,000 documents and will soon truck the files to the secretary of state's office in Sacramento, which will eventually make the files accessible to the public.[6]
Shortly thereafter, boxloads documents were transported to the California State Archives where the LAPD files were officially categorized and released by the state’s chief archivist, John Burns, in April 1988.
To those who benefited over the years from this major disclosure: "You're welcome."
The story above was an updated excerpt from Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer: Adventures in the Jungles of Crime, Politics, and Journalism (3rd edition, 2020).
ENDNOTES
[1] Charles Trueheart, Washington Post, “Did Sirhan Act Alone?” May 26, 1987.
[2] No byline, Associated Press, “‘Second Gun’ Theory Still Alive in Robert Kennedy Killing,” June 2, 1987.
[3] Bill Steigerwald, Los Angeles Times, “The Mystery Persists in R.F.K. Killing,” June 12, 1987.
[4] Chuck Conconi, Washington Post, “Personalities: RFK Files to Be Released,” June 26, 1987.
[5] Kevin McManus, Insight, “RFK Assassination Conspiracy Theory,” August 3, 1987.
[6] Susan Seager, UPI, “City Agrees to release Kennedy files,” August 4, 1989.
FINAL NOTE: My friend and colleague, British historian Mel Ayton, and I own the Robert Kennedy murder case. Later this year, Mel will release his fascinating new book, The Making of an Assassin: Why Sirhan Sirhan Murdered Robert Kennedy (Frontline Books).
https://open.substack.com/pub/jasonegenberg/p/the-most-dangerous-nominee-in-american?r=3nm35j&utm_medium=ios