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Sirhan Sirhan says woman in polka dot dress got him to shoot Robert Kennedy
FILE - This March 2, 2011 file photo shows Sirhan Sirhan, 66, convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, speaking during a Board of Parole Suitability Hearing at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, Calif. Lawyers for Sirhan claim in new legal papers that he was manipulated by a seductive woman in a mind-control plot to kill Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. But the lawyers say Sirhan's bullets did not kill Kennedy.
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AP Photo/Ben Margot, File
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Sirhan Sirhan says woman in polka dot dress got him to shoot Robert Kennedy
New legal papers lay out a bizarre new story about Sirhan Sirhan’s role in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. The documents are part of filing from the attorneys trying to win Sirhan’s release after more than 40 years in prison.
In court 42 years ago, Sirhan said he’d shot and killed Robert Kennedy. His diary, part of the evidence, said he would. The verdict was “guilty” – the sentence was death, later commuted to life in prison.
But court papers from his lawyers tell a strange new tale: a seductive woman in a polka dot dress manipulated Sirhan in a mind-control plot to kill Senator Kennedy. This story apparently was pieced together from extensive interviews with Sirhan, some conducted under hypnosis.
The papers claim the mystery woman “pinched” Sirhan’s shoulder. That got him to shoot at but miss Kennedy at L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel on the night of the California presidential primary in June 1968.
Sirhan now claims he thought he was at a firing range – and saw circles with targets before his eyes. His lawyers say he never planned to kill Kennedy; another gunman did that, with Sirhan as a diversion. The parole board denied Sirhan – again – last month.
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