Poignant:What is it like to be brother of Robert Kennedy's assassin? The life of the other Sirhan

[hlthe2b]

I'll never have sympathy for Sirhan Sirhan, but I find the story of his younger brother and the impact this had on his life really touching.

What is it like to be the brother of Robert Kennedy’s assassin? The life of the other Sirhan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/what-is-it-like-to-be-the-brother-of-robert-kennedys-assassin-the-life-of-the-other-sirhan/2018/05/30/1fd3a38e-52f8-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html?utm_term=.5755205782cd


Munir Sirhan, 70, outside of his brother Sirhan’s room at the family home in Pasadena, Calif. He and brother Sirhan grew up in this house. They are the only remaining members of the family. (Philip Cheung/For The Washington Post)

One spring day 50 years ago, one of his older brothers left this house and eventually drove his pink-and-white ’56 DeSoto to the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles to shoot Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. At the time, Kennedy was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. To his supporters, he represented a chance to heal the torn and reeling country. On June 6, 1968, he died of a gunshot wound to the head. Sirhan Sirhan, this man’s brother, was sentenced to the gas chamber for the assassination — a sentence that was commuted to life in prison in 1972.

In the intervening years, Munir Sirhan has cared for another brother, Adel, who lived here before dying of cancer in 2001, and looked after his mother, who passed away in 2005, blind and deaf after years of illness. His father and three other siblings have died, too. Munir, three years younger than Sirhan, was the baby of the family. Now he and Sirhan are the only ones left.
...
There is no wife, there is no career, never has been. Sirhan’s crime has had a 50-year ripple effect on Munir. He leads a simple existence, keeping mostly to himself while he waits for his brother — who has been denied parole 15 times. “I just want to hear his footsteps on the porch,” Munir says. “I just want to hug him and tell him, ‘Welcome home.’ ”

[BeyondGeography]

1. Great read

However you feel about Munir’s theories on the case, he didn’t ask for this life. It was good to see that his neighbors never held it against him.

... Everybody was trying to be as helpful as they could. Our neighbor, Olive, Sirhan used to play Parcheesi with her. She and the rest of the neighbors said, ‘If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.’ ”

Olive is long gone, but Eileen Sloman, her husband, Peter, and son, Ernie, have lived in Olive’s old house for nearly 30 years. To Eileen, the man next door is just Manny. “I love Manny,” she says. “He’s a great neighbor, and when we’re gone he watches the house. When he’s gone we’ll watch his house. ... He’s a very soft-spoken person, and he’s a very private person. But at the same time, I know that he would do anything for me and my family, and that’s just the type of person he is.” When she moved in, she adds, “I think he maybe knew some way that I knew who he was. But just over the years, he kind of let me in, and trusts me.”

[hlthe2b]

2. Yes... I thought so too. It seems like the community has looked after him...

Just as he has had to do for his family.