Television Reviews : Fox TV’s ‘The R.F.K. Story’: Brief, but Biting

It’s incredible and shocking and sad, but the murder of Robert F. Kennedy increasingly appears to be surrounded by the same sort of questions, mysterious circumstances, contradictory testimony, police foul-ups and destroyed evidence that haunted the assassination of the senator’s brother, President John F. Kennedy.

At least that’s the impression you get from watching “The R.F.K. Story,” the sketchy but skillful, sensational-toned but serious-minded study that Fox Television is presenting tonight at 10:30 on Channel 11. This half-hour has only one big fault: the fact that it is only a half-hour--an amount of time not nearly sufficient for the subject.

Sunday marked 20 years since R.F.K. was shot down in the kitchen of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. Those skeptical of police procedures and findings in the case were largely ignored by the media until early May, when possibly key material--including physical evidence and thousands of photographs--were discovered to be missing as the LAPD turned over “everything that we had” regarding the case to a Kennedy archives.

The Fox program begins by replaying horrifying news films of that initially celebratory night. Most of us have seen this material before and aren’t too crazy about being put through it again. However, there’s some startling additional material--notably the recorded (and frustrated) attempts of a hotel switchboard operator to contact police and get an ambulance.

The second third of the program is devoted to the case’s controversies--including contradictions between autopsy and police determinations, suspicion that there might have been another assassin beside Sirhan Sirhan, reports about a woman in a polka-dot dress who may have been involved, and convoluted police explanations about the missing evidence.

While there’s an impressive parade of facts, speculations and interviewees, the brevity of comment on each aspect is frustrating. In 30 minutes, producer Bill Cunningham and host Bill Redeker (they co-wrote the program) are able to only scratch the surface--especially since the last third of the half-hour is devoted, not unfittingly, to praise for Kennedy from those who knew him.

This last section gives a strong sense of what America lost when R.F.K. was taken from us; it’s just too bad that the tribute couldn’t have ended an hour, hour-and-a-half or even two-hour documentary which could have conducted this troubling, important re-examination with the appropriate length and depth.