On June 4, 1968, just after he had declared victory in the California presidential primary, Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Captured a few feet away, gun in hand, was a young Palestinian-American named Sirhan Sirhan. The case against Sirhan was declared by the police to be "open and shut," and the court proceedings against him nine months later were billed as "the trial of the century" - American justice at its fairest, swiftest, and most sure.

But was it? Investigative journalist William Klaber and political science professor Philip Melanson have spent six years examining the crime. After poring over previously secret LAPD and FBI files, interviewing scores of witnesses and investigators, and talking with Sirhan in prison, the authors conclude:. Sirhan may not have acted alone, his gun may not have killed Robert Kennedy, and the police investigation and courtroom defense were deeply flawed.