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The senator was shaking hands with a busboy in the kitchen of a hotel when the assassin charged forward, firing a .22-caliber pistol rapidly. The attacker got off eight shots, three of which hit his target: Robert F. Kennedy, a contender for the office of President of the United States.
The assassination was one that altered the course of history, 50 years ago this month. It happened in full view of dozens of people, but conspiracy theories doggedly maintain there was a second shooter in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel at 12:15 a.m. on June 5, 1968. (The latest to promote this theory of an unseen and unheard second killer is the senator’s own son, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.)
The first full medical review of the murder, published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery, reviews what has been called “the perfect autopsy.” The new review concludes that Kennedy received the best medical treatment available at the time—and though there were some delays in getting him to surgery, he would have died as surely in 2018 with the best trauma care as he did in 1968.
It also concludes that a second shooter is extremely unlikely.
“Although this story has been repeated in the press and recounted in numerous books, this is the first analysis of the senator’s injuries and subsequent surgical care to be reported in the medical literature,” write the four doctors, from Duke University School of Medicine.
Kennedy was shaking hands with a busboy Juan Romero when Sirhan Sirhan, a 25-year-old immigrant from Palestine, rushed forward and fire eight shots out of his Iver...