Shortly after midnight Pacific time, 50 years ago, Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-NY, 42, thanked the crowd at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
He had just narrowly won the Democratic presidential primary in California.
He had just narrowly won the Democratic presidential primary in California.
“It’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there!” Kennedy said, referring to the delegate fight to come at the Democratic National Convention.
The mythology that has grown since then understates how difficult his task would be to build a winning coalition vs Humphrey and McCarthy.
The mythology that has grown since then understates how difficult his task would be to build a winning coalition vs Humphrey and McCarthy.
Jules Witcover recalled radio reporter Andrew West asking Kennedy, being led through the kitchen to the press room, how he would counter Humphrey’s delegate strength. “It just goes back to the struggle for it...” Kennedy began.
As he was talking, Kennedy was near a busboy he’d met during his stay at the hotel.
"I remember extending my hand as far as I could, and then I remember him shaking my hand," Juan Romero told @StoryCorps. “And as he let go, somebody shot him."
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"I remember extending my hand as far as I could, and then I remember him shaking my hand," Juan Romero told @StoryCorps. “And as he let go, somebody shot him."
npr.org/2018/06/01/615…
“I kneeled down to him and I could see his lips moving, so I put my ear next to his lips and I heard him say, 'Is everybody OK?'” Romero recalled. “I said, 'Yes, everybody's OK.'”
Evan Thomas writes that wife Ethel emerged from the crowd.
“‘Oh my God,’ she whispered. She lightly stroked his face and chest. He seemed to turn his head slightly to look at her. ‘Is everyone else all right?’ he whispered.”
“‘Oh my God,’ she whispered. She lightly stroked his face and chest. He seemed to turn his head slightly to look at her. ‘Is everyone else all right?’ he whispered.”
Caption from Life:
"Mrs. Robert Kennedy, who had been walking with the senator, crouched over her dying husband, whispering to him as he lay on the floor.” (footnote @BuzzFeed)
"Mrs. Robert Kennedy, who had been walking with the senator, crouched over her dying husband, whispering to him as he lay on the floor.” (footnote @BuzzFeed)
The shooter was Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who lived in Pasadena.
The Israeli Government had been asking the Johnson administration to sell them 50 F-4 Phantom jets. The Pentagon and State Department opposed the move. Some in Congress supported the sale.
Days before his assassination, on May 26, RFK told Temple Neveh Shalom in Portland, Or., “the United States must defend Israel against aggression from whatever source. Our obligations to Israel, unlike our obligations towards other countries, are clear and imperative.”
“The United States should, without delay, sell Israel the 50 Phantom jets she has so long been promised,” Kennedy pledged. A column in the Pasadena Independent Star-News criticized the senator for opposing war in Vietnam while supporting the sale of jets to Israel.
Some reports from the time suggest that the column from the Pasadena Independent Star-News was in Sirhan Sirhan’s pocket when he was arrested.
Sirhan in 1989 said that Kennedy, who fought for the downtrodden, was a hero and “to hear him say he was going to send 50 Phantom jets to Israel...to deliver nothing but death and destruction on my countrymen, that seemed like it was a betrayal.”
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google.com/amp/s/www.insi…
Those in the kitchen pounced on Sirhan, including author George Plimpton, left, and Kennedy aide J.W. Gallivan, Jr., right.
Sirhan was only 24 when he took his .22 caliber revolver and shot Kennedy.
Five others were wounded, including Kennedy aide Paul Schrade, now 93.
Five others were wounded, including Kennedy aide Paul Schrade, now 93.
Evan Thomas:
”The emergency crew arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher. ‘Gently, gently,’ said Ethel. Kennedy was heard to cry, ‘Oh, no, no, don’t…’ Then he passed out, never to awaken.”
”The emergency crew arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher. ‘Gently, gently,’ said Ethel. Kennedy was heard to cry, ‘Oh, no, no, don’t…’ Then he passed out, never to awaken.”
Kennedy was whisked to a trauma unit, Central Receiving, minutes after the shooting. He was in bad shape — comatose, weak pulse, blood pressure zero over zero.
He hung in there for more than a day. One bullet was lodged near his brain stem; another entered his right armpit and exited his chest; a third was in his neck.
He and Ethel had 10 children and she was pregnant with their 11th. Some of the kids on the trip: son Michael, 10, on Kennedy’s knee in the picture on the left. On the right: Kerry, 8, Courtney, 11, David, 12, and Michael, with their Aunt Jean Kennedy Smith.
Doctors did what they could and Kennedy recovered at Good Samaritan Hospital, where aides and family hovered.
At 5:30 pm Pacific, press aide Frank Mankiewicz announced that doctors were “concerned over his continuing failure to show improvement."
Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m., June 6, 1968.
As he once quoted Aeschylus: “And even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom — through the awful grace of God.”
RIP
As he once quoted Aeschylus: “And even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom — through the awful grace of God.”
RIP
