Bobby Kennedy assassin brainwashed by 'girl in polka dot dress'

The man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 was brainwashed into shooting him by a mysterious girl in a polka dot dress, his lawyers have claimed.

UK Telegraph

By Andrew Osborn 2:01PM BST 29 Apr 2011

In a bizarre twist more than forty years after the high-profile killing, lawyers for Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian man convicted of the shooting, have submitted new evidence which they say shows their client was manipulated by the mystery girl and had no sense of what he was doing.

"I thought that I was at the (rifle) range more than I was shooting at any person, let alone Bobby Kennedy," Mr Sirhan told a hypnotist hired by his legal team to interview him about the murder. "I didn't know that I had a gun."

The papers, which have been filed in a federal court, suggest that Sirhan was used as a decoy and a second person actually shot and killed Kennedy.

The assassination of Bobby Kennedy at a hotel in Los Angeles on 5 June 1968 rocked the US political establishment, robbing the Democratic party of a promising presidential candidate and came just five years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was shot dead.

Now aged 67 and serving life in prison, Mr Sirhan is mounting a fresh attempt to portray himself as an innocent.

Under hypnosis, he said that a mystery girl had let him into the pantry of the hotel where the shooting had taken place and had pinched him on the shoulder, a gesture which he said had sent him into "range mode." In that mode, all he could see were circles with targets in front of his eyes as if he was on a firing range, he claimed. "I was fascinated with her looks," he said. "She never said much. It was very erotic. I was consumed by her. She was a seductress with an unspoken unavailability." Witnesses have spoken in the past of seeing a mystery girl running from the hotel shouting "We shot Kennedy" but she has never been identified.

Sirhan was denied parole in March by a panel that said he had not shown sufficient remorse for the killing.

RFK assassin in bid for freedom claims 'I was brainwashed' into killing

UK Daily Mail

• Sirhan Sirhan claims not to remember killing
• Lawyer claims he was 'brainwashed' and memory erased

The man who assassinated Robert Kennedy says he was ‘hypno-programmed’ into carrying out the attack.

The claim is at the centre of the latest appeal by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who shot RFK dead in a crowded hotel kitchen in Los Angeles in June 1968.

The murder changed the course of U.S. history. Kennedy was on course to win the Democratic nomination and may well have beaten Richard Nixon to the White House.

Freedom: Sirhan Sirhan will begin his bid for freedom in California on Wednesday

Caught: Sirhan is charged with the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy

His lawyer is expected to argue in a California parole hearing that he was a 'Manchurian Candidate', brainwashed into assassinating RFK in June 1968.

After years of hypnotherapy and psychological examination,attorney William Pepper said there was, 'no doubt he does not remember the critical events.'

Mr Pepper, who will argue for Sirhan's parole on Wednesday said: 'He is not feigning it. It's not an act. He does not remember it.

'It was very clear to me that this guy did not kill Bob Kennedy.'

Sirhan was convicted of shooting Robert Kennedy in the crowded kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Kennedy was there after claiming victory in the California presidential primary.

According to the New York-based lawyer, who also is a British barrister, there was a second gunman who shot and killed RFK.

Proponents of the second gun man theory contend that 13 shots were fired at RFK while Sirhan's gun held only eight bullets, and that the fatal shot appeared to come from behind Kennedy while Sirhan faced him.

Mr Pepper also suggests Sirhan was 'hypno-programmed,' turning him into a virtual 'Manchurian Candidate,' acting robot-like at the behest of evil forces who then wiped his memory clean.

The claims are however not expected to have any bearing on the outcome of the parole hearing.

The board is not being asked to retry the case and lawyers are not allowed to present evidence relating to guilt or innocence.

At issue is whether Sirhan, 66, remains a threat to others or to himself, whether he has accepted responsibility for the crime and expressed adequate remorse and whether he has an acceptable parole plan if he is released.

Stricken: Robert Kennedy moments after being shot

His lack of memory makes expressions of remorse and accepting responsibility difficult.

It is not known whether Sirhan will address the hearing at Pleasant Valley men's prison in Coalinga.

He has rarely commented during 13 past parole hearings and some instances has not shown up at all.

If Sirhan is released, he would be the first imprisoned political assassin to win parole in the U.S.

In one of many emotional outbursts during his trial, Sirhan blurted out that he had committed the crime 'with 20 years of malice aforethought,' a statement that could now come back to haunt him.

When arrested Sirhan also said: 'I did it for my country'.

Mr Pepper notes has a personal tie to Kennedy, having been chairman of his citizens' committee when he ran for Senate in 1964.

Dynasty: The Kennedy brothers, John F. Kennedy (left) Robert Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy (right). The 'curse of the Kennedy's' blighted promising careers

Pepper also represented Martin Luther King's assassin, James Earl Ray, through 10 years of appeals and a civil trial which he said proved that Ray was not King's killer.

David Dahle, head Los Angeles deputy district attorney for parole candidates serving life sentences, said his remarks at the hearing will depend on what is presented by the defence.

'At this point, I am sceptical that I will see something that will cause me to not oppose the grant of parole,' he said.

Few high profile prisoners have been released in the California system.

Charles Manson and his followers have been repeatedly turned down for parole.

Manson follower Susan Atkins attended her final parole hearing on a gurney dying of cancer but was denied release and died in prison three weeks ago.

DHS Issued Memo Admitting Mexican Narco Assassins Operate in Arizona

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
October 16, 2010

On Friday, Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu released part of the memo he received from the Department of Homeland Security. The memo warns about assassins crossing the border from the narco state of Mexico and killing anybody in the United States who interferes with the trafficking of drugs by the cartels.

“The competing cartels are actually working in concert together to protect drug loads in America,” Babeu told KSAZ Fox 10. The rival drug cartels held a meeting at Rocky Point, also known as Puerto Penasco, in Pinal County earlier this year, according to the Department of Homeland Security memo. Sheriff Babeu said Rocky Point is a dangerous place to visit.

Babeu confirmed that the memo came from Janet Napolitano’s office. Babeu said “this information came from Janet Napolitano’s office. She knows exactly what the citizens of Arizona are faced with, yet she continues to publicly state how much safer we all are.”

The DGS memo informed several local law enforcement agencies that assassins from the Mexican drug cartels were “being sent to take out bandits in Vekol Valley.” Vekol Valley is in a remote part of western Pinal County. Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll was shot in the area by drug smugglers on April 30. The DHS memo cites a “credible confidential source.”

According to the source, during the meeting at Rocky Point it allegedly had been decided “that the cartel would send a group of fifteen, very well-equipped and armed sicarios [killers] complete with bulletproof vests, into the Vekol Valley… [The cartel] will then send groups of simulated backpackers carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits…. Once the bandits have been identified, the sicarios will take out the bandits.”

“This particular information proved to be inaccurate,” Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said after Sheriff Babeu released the information. “At this time, DHS does not have any specific, credible information on intra-cartel violence taking place in Arizona. Over the past 20 months, this administration has dedicated unprecedented manpower, technology and infrastructure to the Southwest border.”

In September, Napolitano said an unprecedented amount of manpower and technology has largely secured the Southwest border and clears the way for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, according to the San Antonio Express-News. She said the border “is as secure as it has ever been,” and Congress should now pass and implement meaningful immigration reform.

“With the Obama administration’s refusal to secure our border, and their opposition to Arizona’s new immigration law, it has become painfully obvious that this president has made a conscious decision to abandon the American Southwest… the rest of the country can’t be far behind,” Dave Gibson wrote for the Examiner in June.

Mexican drug cartels now distribute illegal drugs across the United States in cooperation with criminal gangs such as MS-13, the Mexican Mafia, the Latin Kings, the 18th St. Gang, the Bloods, and Crips.

Mexico: Assassins on the 'Cheap'

Summary

Hired assassins in Mexico are willing to work for suppressed wages not so much out of economic desperation but because murder-for-hire has proven to be a gateway to more lucrative criminal activity. Factor in the uncontrollable flow of arms and the unlikelihood of criminal prosecution, and the assassination business is booming.

Analysis

How much does a hit man costs? “It depends on the type of hit man,” Alfredo Quijano, the editor of El Norte, a local newspaper from Juarez, México, said. “The good ones are expensive, but you can always find someone who would do the work for 75 or 150 euros.” For 150 euros, an inexpert gang member can get a low profile target killed; for 15,000, an expert can kill the chief of police in Mexico City, or at least that is what the hit man who killed Mr Robles Liceaga, the chief of police in Mexico City until 2002, said he was paid.

The cost of an assassination in Mexico is unusually low. Indeed, hired assassins in other regions of the world get much more. A study by the National Institute of Criminology in South Australia showed that the median salary of a hit man in Australia is 9,800 euros – although it can reach 60,000 per task. Hit men’s salaries in Spain are also high. According to government statistics, there are about 40 assassinations done by hit men a year, each one at a price of between 20 and 50,000 euros.

Indeed, developed countries tend to offer better salaries in all professions – not just to hit men. Yet, even when accounting for income differences, Mexican hit men are underpaid. In other Latin American countries such as Argentina, where the GDP per capita and income inequality levels are similar to those in Mexico, hit men are paid between 2,700 and 4,000 euros per event. Under any standard, assassination in Mexico is a bargain...

[Full Article]

Malcom X Assassin Granted Parole In New York

ALBANY, N.Y. -- One of three men convicted of killing Malcolm X 45 years ago was granted release from weekends in prison in his 17th appearance before a state parole board.

Thomas Hagan, 69, appeared before a parole panel March 3 and was granted release effective April 28, state Division of Parole spokeswoman Carole Weaver said Friday.

Until then, he'll remain at the Lincoln Correctional Facility in New York City, where he has been locked up two days a week for 22 years. The other five days, he's been allowed to work and live with his family...