A WILTSHIRE author who has co-written a book about the assassination of the US President J F Kennedy’s brother has been nominated for the prestigious 2018 People’s Book Prize.

Tim Tate, of Trowbridge, has been selected for his fascinating book The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, co-written with American journalist Brad Johnson.

Mr Tate, 62, a former TV documentary film-maker for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, says: “Brad and I are delighted and deeply humbled that our book has been nominated.

“We devoted many years to this investigation and are honoured that others share our belief in the need for justice. Brad and I believe the truth is beginning to emerge at last.”

The US Senator and American presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded shortly just after midnight on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Earlier that evening, the 42-year-old junior Senator from New York was declared the winner in the South Dakota and California presidential primaries in the 1968 US election.

He was pronounced dead at 1.44am on June 6 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in LA, about 26 hours after he had been shot with a .22 caliber handgun. The gunman was said to be 24 year-old Palestinian/Jordanian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan.

A freelance Canadian newspaper reporter recorded the shooting on audio tape and the aftermath was captured on film.

Following dual victories in the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination for US President, Senator Kennedy spoke to journalists and campaign workers at a live televised celebration from the stage of his headquarters at the Ambassador Hotel.

Shortly after leaving the podium and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired from a handgun.

In 1969, Sirhan was convicted of murdering the senator and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972.

Tate and Johnson’s book is the result of more than 25 years’ painstaking forensic work into the death of Robert F. Kennedy.

The authors scrutinised more than 150,000 official documents, located previously unknown recordings, and conducted original new interviews with key figures in the case.

The official history of the assassination pins the blame on Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who was captured in the pantry with a smoking gun in his hand, having fired eight shots in six seconds.

But Tate and Johnson have uncovered evidence that shows someone also shot Senator Kennedy five times from behind - making a total of 13 shots in all.

But now, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination, award-winning investigative journalists Tim Tate and Brad Johnson uncover the true story, showing that Sirhan could not have fired the fatal bullets.

The book reveals detailed evidence of a murderous conspiracy involving organised crime, and discloses CIA documents detailing successful experiments to create a hypno-programmed political assassin.

The book also unmasks the likely identity of one of the most enduring mysteries in the case – the name of the infamous ‘Girl in the Polka Dot Dress’.

Mr Tate, of Bradley Road, Trowbridge, said: “She was the hypno-trigger for Sirhan to commit the crime. Afterwards, he could remember nothing about the shooting, only that he had coffee with a girl in a polka dot dress.”

Their book, published by Thistle Publishing, has been serialised worldwide, with coverage in major newspapers in the UK and USA, and it has received glowing reviews.

The People’s Book Prize is the only major book prize in which the winners are determined solely by the public vote. The awards ceremony is on May 8 next year, hosted by Frederick Forsyth CBE, author of Day of the Jackal.