Catalog to my ten-part series on the RFK murder

Establishing my credentials before addressing RFK Jr’s false claims

To establish my credentials for this MOBOLOGY site on Substack, I have created an archive of my work that details the research behind my books, articles, and investigations, hoping to earn the loyalty, respect, and trust of my subscribers as I present new content.

(Return to The Works of Dan E. Moldea)

DEM in the RFK crime scene at The Ambassador Hotel (Greg Stone, 1987)

     In June 1987, I published a cover story for Regardie's magazine about the June 1968 murder of Senator Robert Kennedy, hoping to help force open the official case file, which had been sealed by the Los Angeles Police Department for nearly twenty years.  At first look, the LAPD's probe of the Kennedy murder appeared to provide extremely persuasive evidence of convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan's guilt.  But, simultaneously, a close study of the controversies in the case appeared to provide equally persuasive evidence that a second gun may have been fired at the crime scene.  This evidence consisted of:

     * A flawless coroner's autopsy and the LAPD's own muzzle distance tests, which demonstrated that Kennedy's wounds had been caused by a weapon fired from point-blank range--six inches or less.  Yet, not a single eyewitness at the crime scene ever saw Sirhan's gun get that close.

     * An official FBI report and accompanying photographs taken at the crime scene, which indicated that four bullet holes had been discovered in Sirhan's line of fire.  Sirhan only had an eight-shot revolver, and all eight bullets had been accounted for:  three shots hit Kennedy; one bullet was removed from each of the other five victims, all of whom survived.

     * A court-appointed firearms panel that refired Sirhan's gun seven years after the murder.  Although the experts could match the three intact victim bullets with each other, they were unable to match any of these victim bullets with the 1975 test shots.

     * The presence of a security guard—who admitted to extreme right-wing views, worked for George Wallace, and hated the Kennedy family—standing directly behind Senator Kennedy with a gun in his hand and powder burns on his face.  In the Regardie's article, I published his exclusive interview with the guard, who clearly had motive, means, and opportunity.

     While the article was still on newsstands, the City of Los Angeles finally announced that it would release the 50,000-document investigative file on the Kennedy case.  However, after the files were made public, it became clear that many documents and photographs were missing or had been mysteriously destroyed; thus, suspicions about the LAPD's investigation and ultimate conclusions continued.

     After being criticized by LAPD homicide detectives for relying on the statements of eyewitnesses who "are not trained or experienced or qualified to make judgments" about what they saw at the crime scene, I began locating and interviewing over a hundred law enforcement personnel who were "trained, experienced, and qualified" and directly involved in the original, official investigation.

     To his surprise, he received nearly all of his best evidence of a possible second gunman from many of these officials—who identified what appeared to have been extra bullets at the crime scene, essentially corroborating the earlier official FBI report and its accompanying photographs.

     On the basis of this new evidence, I wrote a second story for the Washington Post on May 13, 1990, "RFK's Murder: A Second Gun?"  In this article, I concluded: "[I]t would be a mistake to rush to quick or simplistic judgments concerning the origin of additional assassination gunshots.  The importance and complexity of this matter demand that it be examined impartially be a reconstituted official investigation."  Also, three days later, this article served as the foundation for a half-hour segment on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries.

     However, it was not until I received the backing of a major publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, that I could do what was necessary to resolve my own questions about this case.

     Released by Norton in June 1995, my fifth book, The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy:  An Investigation of Motive, Means, and Opportunity, chronicled the official case history, the subsequent controversies, and, finally, my own investigation, which included the police interviews, a polygraph test with the security guard, and a series of exclusive prison interviews with Sirhan Sirhan.

     After explaining the reasons for the conflicting evidence in the case in the book's final chapter, I concluded, "Sirhan Bishara Sirhan consciously and knowingly murdered Senator Robert Kennedy, and he acted alone." 

     Norton published the trade paperback edition of the book in March 1997.

     In a major news story, Newsweek stated, "If there had been a conspiracy to assassinate Robert F. Kennedy, as many people believe, Dan Moldea probably would have found it. . . . Moldea shows that simple (and sometimes hilarious) human error explain these suspicious coincidences. . . . If this reporting doesn't seal the case, Moldea's chilling prison interviews with Sirhan do." 

     The Boston Globe wrote, "Resisting the temptation to trade in today's hot market for conspiracy, Moldea crafted instead a nonfiction version of a Columbo movie, in which the murderer is known from the opening scene and the grip of the story comes from the twists and turns of his investigation:  a howdunit more than whodunit. . . . That Moldea could carry off such a trick is a testament to his skill as a writer and investigator." 

     The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, "The book is a triumph in several ways. The first triumph is stylistic. . . . The second triumph is ethical. . . . The third triumph is substantive. . . . Readers who want to reward responsible investigative journalism ought to buy this book." 

     The San Francisco Chronicle added, "Moldea's book is an act of courage. . . . Many writers would have simply abandoned the project when they discovered that their fundamental views about a subject they had researched for years were wrong.  That Moldea did not is greatly to his credit.  His book will serve future historians well." 

     The San Francisco Examiner commented, "[Moldea's] research is impeccable . . . the legwork in first-rate." Booklist said, "Detailed and definitive, Moldea's investigation might close the book on the tragedy."

     And the New York Times, in a major daily review by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on May 25, 1995, described the book as, "Carefully reasoned, ultimately persuasive, dramatic. . . . The author meticulously dissects how the various disputes arose and how critics were drawn into the orbit of the case. . . . The cleverness of [Moldea's] strategy in the book lies in his playing so effectively the part of devil's advocate. . . . His book should be read, not so much for the irrefutability of its conclusions as for the way the author has brought order out of a chaotic tale and turned an appalling tatter of history into an emblem of our misshapen times."

     A second review in the New York Times Book Review described the book as "a persuasive reexamination of the assassination . . . amply supported by prodigious research," adding, "Beyond presenting what is likely to be the best understanding of what actually happened on June 5, 1968 . . . [t]his book presents a remarkable turnaround for a writer who had partly staked his reputation on the existence of a second shooter.  But because of the honesty and logic with which he approaches his study, Mr. Moldea's journalistic instincts have never looked sharper. . . . [T]his is the best written of his books, finished in a clear and easy style."

     In Evan Thomas's 2000 bestseller, Robert Kennedy:  His Life, the author wrote:  "There are various conspiracy theories about RFK's assassination.  I was persuaded by Dan Moldea's The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy that they are bogus."

     Here are some of the other key reviews of my work:  https://www.moldea.com/RFKReviews.html.  

     Along with my friend and colleague, British historian Mel Ayton, I am among the top experts on this crime. 

     Here is a catalog of my ten-part inside history of my investigation of the murder of Senator Robert Kennedy, excerpted from the third edition of my memoir, Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer.   

Catalog

1/10:  An appearance of conspiracy

2/10:  Releasing the LAPD's files

3/10:  Interviewing the cops

4/10:  The suicide of Greg Stone

5/10:  Back in the game

6/10:  Getting to Sirhan

7/10:  Doubts

8/10:  Confronting Sirhan

9/10:  When wisdom comes late

10/10:. Bad photograph, great review

     In the “everything old is new again” department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has announced his decision to challenge President Joe Biden and seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for his job, has resurrected the controversy over the 1968 murder of his father, Senator Robert Kennedy, by declaring that the convicted and confessed assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was not the killer. 

     In short, I have decided to enter the current fray and challenge RFK Jr’s screwball ideas about his father’s murder.

Gavin Newsom: On RFK Jr. (September 10, 2023)

RFK Jr. on his father’s murder: A fantasy (Part 2) (June 28, 2023

RFK Jr. on RFK’s murder: False facts and half-baked opinions (Part 1) (June 22, 2023)

     To be clear, I view Robert Kennedy Sr. as the greatest crime fighter in American history.  As chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Rackets Committee (1957-1960), he ate Mafia guys for breakfast.  As U.S. Attorney General (1961-1964), he was eating them for lunch and dinner, too. 

     My mentor during my investigation of the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa was Walter Sheridan, a top Kennedy lieutenant at both the committee and the Department of Justice and one of his best friends.  I honor Kennedy and Sheridan, as well as their proud legacy.

     I hope you enjoy this series.  I am available to answer questions about this tragic case.