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Cody Combs, ''The National'', June 12, 2025.</ref>}}
Cody Combs, ''The National'', June 12, 2025.</ref>}}
==Ideology, hatred + grandiosity==
===Early life and reported ambitions===
A 1968 profile published in ''The Sunday Sun'', drawing on reporting from the London Sunday Times, described Sirhan as a child who expressed strong ambitions for personal greatness. He reportedly questioned whether he was “cleverer” than his siblings and was told by his father that he might one day attend university in England. According to the report, Sirhan reacted with excitement to this possibility, which his father described as making him “so happy” and “so big.”<ref name=sundaysun>{{cite news |title=Sirhan Fits Classic Image of Unbalanced Assassin |newspaper=The Sunday Sun |date=11 June 1968 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5ZlAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA13}}</ref>
The same article suggested that the later contrast between these ambitions and his employment in low-wage work in Los Angeles may have contributed to feelings of frustration and resentment.<ref name=sundaysun/>
===Political views and reported Hitler admiration===
The 1968 Sunday Sun report stated that Sirhan “often said he admired Hitler.” It quoted his father as recalling Sirhan saying:
“Hitler was a big man, a great man, and he had good ideas. In the end he was wrong because he did terrible harm to his country.”<ref name=sundaysun/>
The article characterized Sirhan as having a “streak of latent fanaticism,” particularly noting admiration for authoritarian figures.<ref name=sundaysun/>
The U.S. congressional memorial volume for Robert F. Kennedy later referenced these reported statements in the context of warnings about extremist ideology and the spread of hate propaganda.<ref>{{cite book |title=Memorial Services in the Congress of the United States and Tributes in Eulogy of Robert Francis Kennedy |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1968 |page=248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTF3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA248}}</ref>
===Ideology, nationalism, and radicalization===
Michael Ayton’s 2022 study compiled testimony from acquaintances and associates describing Sirhan’s political views as increasingly militant in the period following the [[Six-Day War]].
According to these accounts, Sirhan expressed strong Arab nationalist views, hostility toward Zionism, and support for political violence as a legitimate tool.<ref name=ayton>{{cite book |last=Ayton |first=Michael |title=The Kennedy Assassinations: JFK and Bobby Kennedy—Debunking The Conspiracy Theories |year=2022 |publisher=Frontline Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWiIEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT235}}</ref>
Witnesses cited in the book described him as becoming increasingly intense in political discussions and viewing himself as a revolutionary figure committed to the Palestinian cause.<ref name=ayton/>
===Anti-Semitic beliefs===
The same source also reports testimony from acquaintances stating that Sirhan expressed anti-Jewish views in political discussions and believed Jews were responsible for political grievances affecting Arab populations.<ref name=ayton/>
Some accounts describe him as increasingly rigid in his ideological views following the 1967 war.<ref name=ayton/>
===Statements made in custody===
A 1970 United Press International report published in the ''Ludington Daily News'' stated that while in custody Sirhan wrote during a hunger strike:
“Hitler had more mercy than you do.”<ref name=ldn>{{cite news |title=Meanwhile, Life on Death Row… |newspaper=Ludington Daily News |date=24 April 1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJBaAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3}}</ref>
The remark was made in the context of complaints about prison conditions during his incarceration.<ref name=ldn/>
==1972+==
After being convicted of the crime in 1969 and initially sentenced to death in the gas chamber, his sentence was commuted in 1972 to life in prison at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, [[California]].
After being convicted of the crime in 1969 and initially sentenced to death in the gas chamber, his sentence was commuted in 1972 to life in prison at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, [[California]].