Sirhan B. Sirhan

Sirḥān Bishāra Sirḥān سرحان سرحان
Mug shot taken on May 23, 1969
Born	(1944-03-19) March 19, 1944 (age 73) Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Occupation	Stable boy
Criminal charge	Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Criminal penalty	Death in 1969; commuted in 1972 to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole
Criminal status	Incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California

Sirhan Sirhan (/sɜːrˈhɑːn sɜːrˈhɑːn/; born سرحان بشارة سرحان, Sirḥān Bishāra Sirḥān, on March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. Sirhan was found guilty and is currently serving a life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.

Sirhan was born in Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine to a Christian family of Greek Orthodox background, although he attended a Lutheran school and is a strong opponent of Israel. In 1989, he told David Frost, "My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians." Some scholars believe that the assassination was the first major incident of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East.

Sirhan was born into an Arab Palestinian Christian family in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine. When he was 12 years old his family emigrated, moving briefly to New York and then to California. In Altadena, he attended Eliot Junior High School, followed by John Muir High School and Pasadena City College, both in Pasadena. Sirhan's father, Bishara, was characterized as a stern man who often beat his sons harshly. Shortly after the family's move to California, Bishara returned alone to the Middle East. Sirhan never became an American citizen, retaining instead his Jordanian citizenship.