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RFK, 55 Years Later
He was supposed to go to the right of the lectern at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. To answer questions from the waiting press about his win in the California primary. It was June 4, 1968 and Robert Francis Kennedy, the junior Senator from New York was now poised to win the Democratic nomination and defeat Richard Nixon in November, just as his brother did eight years earlier.
Instead, he went left, into the kitchen, to greet the staff, some of whom had kept the kitchen open for the entirety of his 36 hour stay. The ballroom had been packed with supporters and well-wishers and the LA County Fire Marshall had been called in to clear the room.
A busboy named Juan Romero was the last person to greet him and shake his hand. Kennedy had walked ahead of his body guard, former football player Roosevelt “Rosie” Grier, who was helping his pregnant wife, Ethel, through the narrow passage. He was three feet, a yard, behind Bobby. Famed author George Plimpton was in front, just about to open the door to the hallway.
For reasons still shrouded in mystery and conspiracy, a young, disaffected college dropout named Sirhan Sirhan came out of from behind a refrigerator and shot Kennedy three times. Once in the head and once in the arm and shoulder.
Romero held Bobby’s head up as he asked, “Is everyone OK?” Grier tackled Sirhan as he continued…
