This recently released book on the assassination of RFK is honestly my favorite. It is not meant to give an overview of the evidence/case so it is best if you read a classic such as “The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy” by Turner and Christianson. If you are not familiar with the evidence of a conspiracy some of the details may seem unbelievable. A review here in goodreads dismissed the existence of the girl in a polka dot dress and parroted the official line that only one or two people saw her. The evidence shows that there may have been at least 30 witnesses that saw the girl in the polka dot dress. It is strange that she shouted “We shot him, We shot him”, but considering the turmoil she appeared to have gone thru the day before the assassination, it is understandable she too may have been in shock when RFK was actually shot. It sounded like she wanted to escape the previous day, but she was being followed and who knows what her fate might have been if she didn’t follow thru on the operation.
This book was written by a reporter freelancing for Time or Life, I forget. He worked the case from the beginning but only just released his interview notes here in this book in 2016. He Just passed away this past April 2018. There is significant new information (extensive interview) on John Fahey, the salesman who spent the day before the assassination with the girl in the polka dot dress.

I knew this wasn't a great idea going in. I knew it. I believe I'm open-minded enough to consider the possibility of alternate answers to the big questions; heck, everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, amirite? I know nothing beyond the basics about the assassination of RFK – but I'm pretty solid on the <I>other</i> Kennedy assassination; there are a raft of documentaries every November, and King's <I>11/22/63</i>, and so on. And there's no doubt in my mind that what Stephen King called "one wretched waif" did it and did it alone. Basically, my opinion is … Occam's Razor. Which put another way is, basically, if you hear hoofbeats, don't jump to the conclusion that it's a zebra. Or a wildebeest.

In the brief section I read of this book, Faura was getting set to chase a wildebeest.

What made it harder to follow him on that hunt was, quite simply, the writing. Except among people who do it, I think it's generally accepted that speaking of oneself in the third person is an obnoxious habit – and Fernando Faura writes about Fernando Faura as Fernando Faura. "For readability". I'm not sure why pretending you're writing about someone other than yourself would be more readable than just saying "I did this, that, or the other"; the main thing it did in my case was to make me hyperaware of any adjectives Faura used to describe Faura.

The main thing that made me give up on the book as quickly as I did was that, five times in a very few pages, Faura described the girl in the polka-dot dress running out of the hotel shouting "We shot him"… and all I could think from the beginning (apart from YES I KNOW YOU SAID THIS ALREADY) was that they had one eyewitness account of this. Eyewitnesses – and "earwitnesses" – are notoriously unreliable. And the woman in the polka dots was described as Latina. So, between the commotion of the moment, the shock, and a possible accent on the part of that woman, isn't it possible that she wasn't confessing at all, but yelling "THEY shot him"? I mean … wouldn't it make a great deal more sense for someone to run out of a building crying out in fear and grief that some unknown persons just shot Bobby Kennedy than to run out announcing her own guilt?

It was also a bit annoying that in describing the eyewitness's actions – that she, a young woman who was working on RFK's campaign, did nothing to stop polka-dots but instead ran into the building – the author takes on a smug and tsking tone. Of course Faura would not have succumbed to fear and the need to know what was happening to someone for whom he'd worked for some time - <I>he</i> have known instantly what was up and would have detained the girl and there would be no mystery today.

Of course, I find it hard to swallow that there is a mystery at all. Wildebeest.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.