RFK assassin’s warning note made public by White House

Documents released by President Donald Trump include a note written by Sirhan Sirhan, who shot Robert F. Kennedy dead in 1968.

Robert F Kennedy speaking in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, moments before his death. Picture: AP

A handwritten note by Robert F Kennedy’s assassin warning that the senator “must be disposed of like his brother was” was revealed in documents made public by the Trump administration on Friday.

Some 10,000 pages of records related to Kennedy’s 1968 assassination were published on the National Archives website as part of a disclosure of national secrets ordered by President Donald Trump.

Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary.

His killer, Sirhan Sirhan, who was 24 at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.

Sirhan Sirhan in 1968. Picture: AP

Sirhan at a parole hearing in 2016. Picture: Gregory Bull/AP

“RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,” read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope with the return address of the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles. John F Kennedy, the president, was shot dead in November 1963 while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.

Some scholars believe that the assassination carried out by Sirhan, a Palestinian, was the first major incident of political violence in the US stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sirhan has admitted killing Kennedy and said he was motivated by the senator’s support of Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. However, Sirhan, now 81, has also made conflicting statements over the years about the shooting.

Much anticipation had built up ahead of the release of the files, but observers hoping for a smoking gun were let down last month after the first tranche contained some new details but no key information.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, Kennedy’s son and Trump’s health secretary, backed the release of the files, insisting Sirhan might be innocent. “Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” he said in a statement.

Trump has been deeply suspicious for years of the government’s intelligence agencies. His administration’s release of once-hidden files opens the door for additional public scrutiny and questions about the operations and conclusions of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI.

The Times