The lyrics focus on atrocities in the history of mankind from Satan 's point of view including the trial and death of Jesus Christ ( " Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands to seal his fate " ) , European wars of religion ( " I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made " ) , the violence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the 1918 shooting of the Romanov family during World War I ( " I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change/Killed the Tsar and his ministers/Anastasia screamed in vain " ) , and World War II ( " I rode a tank , held a general 's rank when the blitzkrieg raged , and the bodies stank " ) . The song was originally written with the line " I shouted out ' Who killed Kennedy ? ' " After Robert F. Kennedy 's death on 6 June 1968 , the line was changed to " Who killed the Kennedy '' 's ' '' ? " . And the answer is " when after all it was you and me " , which is a way of saying that " the devil is not the other one , but eventually each one of us . " The song may have been spared further controversy when the first single from the album , " Street Fighting Man " , became even more controversial in view of the race riots and student protests occurring in many cities in Europe and in the United States
death on 6 June 1968
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Sympathy for the Devil