Victim in Bobby Kennedy Assassination to Sirhan Sirhan: 'You Were Not the Gunman Who Shot Robert Kennedy'

Paul Schrade, who died in 2022 at age 97, remained convinced to the end that Sirhan Sirhan did not kill Robert F. Kennedy.

Not that long ago, I wrote about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, which I discovered was not as clean cut as once believed.

First, as I explained, there was the fact that Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who performed the official autopsy of Robert Kennedy, refused to declare the convicted assassin (Sirhan Sirhan the) the killer.

Noguchi, the former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, explained that the official evidence pointed to the presence of a second gunman.

“Thus I have never said that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy,” Noguchi bluntly stated in his 1983 memoir Coroner.

One of the people convinced that there may be more to the assassination than was revealed is RFK Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew to JFK, who in 2018 visited Sirhan in prison.

“I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence,” Kennedy told the Washington Post. “I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father. My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country. I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.”

Many today dismiss the suspicions of RFK Jr., who is currently running for president.

One person who did not is Paul Schrade, a prominent union official and RFK confidant who was wounded when Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles while campaigning for president in 1968.

Schrade, who was about six feet behind Kennedy when shots rang out in hotel kitchen, was struck by a single bullet just above the forehead. Yet the bullet failed to fully penetrate his skull and reach the brain.

Following his recovery, he became convinced that a second gunman was present during the firing. In 2016, he even wrote a letter to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where Sirhan was being held, saying he forgave Sirhan for his role in the assassination (and for shooting him in the head).

Below is an excerpt from Schrade’s testimony to the parole board, in which he recommended the release of Sirhan.

I am Paul Schrade of Los Angeles. I am 91-years-old. And back when I was 43, I was among six persons shot at the old Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at just after Midnight on June 5th, 1968.

I was shot along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who had just won California's Democratic Primary Election for the Presidency of the United States. Five of us survived our wounds. And as history knows, Senator Kennedy was fatally wounded.

I am here to speak for myself, a shooting victim, and to bear witness for my friend, Bob Kennedy.

Kennedy was a man of justice. But, so far, justice has not been served in this case. And I feel obliged as both a shooting victim and as an American to speak out about this -- and to honor the memory of the greatest American I've ever known, Robert Francis Kennedy.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was originally scheduled for release in 1984 but, after intense political pressure, his parole date was rescinded and he has since been denied 14 times.

In order for you to make an accurate determination of Sirhan Sirhan's parole, you need to know my feelings on this case and the full picture of what actually happened.

Sirhan, I forgive you.

The evidence clearly shows you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy. There is clear evidence of a second gunman in that kitchen pantry who shot Robert Kennedy. One of the bullets -- the fatal bullet -- struck Bob in the back of the head. Two bullets struck Bob literally in his back. A fourth bullet struck the back of his coat's upper right seam and passed harmlessly through his coat. I believe all four of those bullets were fired from a second gunman standing behind Bob. You were never behind Bob, nor was Bob's back ever exposed to you.

Indeed, Sirhan, the evidence not only shows that you did not shoot Robert Kennedy but it shows that you could not have shot Robert Kennedy.

Gentlemen, the evidence clearly shows that Sirhan Sirhan could not and did not shoot Senator Bob Kennedy.

Paul Schrade died in 2022 at age 97.

A New York Times article published after his and death (and other reports) shows that Schrade believed to the end that Sirhan did not kill Robert Kennedy, though he conceded Sirhan was involved in the shooting.

“Yes, he did shoot me. Yes, he shot four other people and aimed at Kennedy,” Schrade told The Washington Post on the 50th anniversary of the assassination. “The important thing is he did not shoot Robert Kennedy. Why didn’t they go after the second gunman?”

In August 2021, following no fewer than 15 parole denials and 53 years in prison, Sirhan was recommended for parole by the California parole board.

That recommendation was denied months later by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Today, Sirhan remains in prison against the wishes of Paul Schrade, who died convinced Sirhan did not kill Robert Kennedy.