In the summer of 1968 America was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, killed on Nov. 22, 1963, and the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., killed on April 4, 1968, when a third assassination shocked the nation. At 12:15 the morning of June 5, 1968, presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the late president’s brother, was shot at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after delivering a speech celebrating his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. He was shot three times by Sirhan Sirhan, the deadliest blow a bullet that penetrated his brain. Although he clung to life for nearly 26 hours Kennedy never regained consciousness, dying at 1:44 a.m. PDT on June 6. He was 42 years old.

The following three newspaper articles describe the death of Robert F. Kennedy and its impact. The first is a news account of his death, the second an account of his mother and father’s reaction, and the third an editorial on the nation’s loss.

This copyrighted article was published by the Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey) on the front page of its April 6, 1968, issue:

Kennedy Dead from Wounds

President Calls for Day of Mourning Sunday

Body to Be Flown to N.Y.C. Today

By Walter R. Mears and Joseph E. Mohbat, Associated Press Writers

Los Angeles—Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, felled like his President brother by an assassin’s bullet, died early today.

His mourning family prepared to take his body home to New York, across the nation Kennedy had hoped to lead as President.

And on Saturday, the senator is to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, probably at the hilltop plot which is the resting place of his brother, the late John F. Kennedy.

Robert Kennedy, 42, never regained consciousness, never showed signs of recovery after a savage burst of revolver fire sent a bullet plunging into his brain—at the pinnacle of his own campaign for the White House.

Kennedy, his pregnant wife Ethel at his bedside, died at 1:44 PDT, little more than 25 hours after the assault at the Ambassador Hotel.

Kennedy’s body was to be flown from Los Angeles to New York later today on a jet airplane provided by the White House.

Pierre Salinger, former presidential press secretary, said the body would lie in state Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

A requiem mass will be held there Saturday morning. Salinger said Kennedy would be buried late Saturday in Arlington, across the Potomac River from Washington, where an eternal flame flickers in memory of John Kennedy, slain four years and seven months ago.

Day of Mourning

In preparation for Kennedy’s last journey, a post mortem was underway at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles.

President Johnson, the man who succeeded President Kennedy, issued a proclamation calling for a national day of mourning for the senator next Sunday.

Gov. Ronald Reagan declared a state of mourning in California, for the period through the senator’s funeral.

As Kennedy died, the man accused of shooting him was under heavy guard at a downtown prison hospital, held in $250,000 bail for a court appearance which had been scheduled Monday.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was accused of wielding the .22-caliber revolver which cut down Kennedy and wounded five other people early Wednesday as the senator and his supporters celebrated victory in the California presidential primary.

Asst. Dist. Atty. William L. Ritzi said his office would ask the Los Angeles County Grand Jury to indict Sirhan on a charge of murder.

The Los Angeles sheriff’s office refused to say whether Sirhan had been advised that Kennedy was dead.

Sirhan, a Jordanian who had been living in Pasadena, was described by those who knew him as a man inflamed over the hostilities between his native state and Israel. A former employer said he might have been enraged by Kennedy’s past words of support for Israel.

Kennedy’s mother, Mrs. Rose Kennedy, was told of the death of her son by a niece, Ann Gargan. She was at Hyannis Port, Mass. Mrs. Kennedy—who had campaigned for Robert in the presidential primaries—went to mass at St. Francis Xavier Church.

The senator’s father, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, was not awakened immediately to be told of the death.

Mrs. Kennedy had talked by telephone with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the family’s lone surviving son, who was at Robert’s bedside at the end.

Kennedy was surrounded by members of his family when he died.

Salinger said Ethel, the widow, “is bearing up very well.”

Mrs. John F. Kennedy, widow of the assassinated President, was in her brother-in-law’s room when he died.

Children Nearby

Two of Kennedy’s sisters, Mrs. Stephen Smith and Mrs. Patricia Lawford, were there, too.

Salinger said three of Kennedy’s 10 children were in an adjacent room and saw their father before he died.

Pale and haggard, Frank Mankiewicz, Kennedy’s press secretary, announced the death to newsmen.

“Sen. Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today,” he began.

Then he answered questions. What was the specific cause of death?

Mankiewicz looked up numbly.

“The gunfire attack,” he said.

He said “the bullet that went into the head near the right ear” was the fatal shot. It entered Kennedy’s brain. Surgeons operated for three hours and 40 minutes to remove all but a fragment in a vain attempt to save the senator’s life.

But Kennedy never rallied.

“It was not a question of his sinking,” Mankiewicz said, “but of not rising. He needed a rally and steady improvement in his condition, and that did not develop.”

Salinger announced the body was to be taken from Los Angeles between 10 and 11 a.m. PDT. He said the family, friends and some staff members were to be aboard.

Among them, he said, would be Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr., whose husband fell prey to an assassin on April 4.

This copyrighted article was published by the Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey) on the front page of its April 6, 1968, issue:

A Mother Prays…
A Father Weeps

Hyannis Port, Mass. (AP)—Mrs. Rose Kennedy was told of the death of her son Robert F. Kennedy early today by her niece, Ann Gargan, and shortly after went to the 7 a.m. Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in nearby Hyannis.

More than 100 persons were at the little white church where Sen. Kennedy, even when he was attorney general of the United States, at times served as altar boy.

She appeared very shaken at being told that the third of her four sons had met death violently.

She had been in touch by telephone with her only surviving son, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who was at his older brother’s bedside when he died early today.

It was 6 a.m., a family spokesman said, when Miss Gargan awakened Mrs. Kennedy to tell her of Robert’s death.

His father, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, incapacitated by a stroke for the past 6½ years, was not awakened immediately to be told of the death.

He remained in seclusion at his Cape Cod home in the Kennedy compound of summer homes that overlook Nantucket Sound.

Cardinal Pays Visit

Yesterday, Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston spoke with the elder Kennedy.

“He let a few tears drop,” said the prelate. “I kissed him and told him to keep up his courage.”

The cardinal drove down to the Kennedy compound to console the 79-year-old Kennedy and his wife, Rose, whose oldest son, Joseph, crashed to his death in World War II and whose next son, John, was assassinated in 1963.

“Mrs. Kennedy, I must say in all honesty, has more courage than any woman I ever met,” the cardinal told newsmen with tears in his eyes.

The aging churchman, who presided at the funeral of the late president, stood in the sun at the rear of the compound.

“I’ve been with this family more in sorrow than in glory,” Cushing said. “I never met a family comparable. They take everything as the will of God.”

This copyrighted editorial was published by the Seattle Times (Seattle, Washington) on June 6, 1968:

Robert Francis Kennedy

The death of Robert Francis Kennedy is an occasion for both profound sympathy for the Kennedy family, which has had immeasurably more than its share of personal tragedy, and for deep sorrow in the nation as a whole, which reels once more under the shock of an act of mindless violence.

It is, of course, an incredible irony that the end of Senator Kennedy’s life should occur in the same fashion as that of his brother, the late President.

The events in Dallas five years ago and again in Los Angeles leave the country with the same mixture of shame, anger and bewilderment that tore at the hearts and minds of all Americans after the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King only two months ago.

Whatever else might be said of Robert Kennedy, he was a man of remarkable fortitude—whether choosing to forge ahead in public life despite the shock of his brother’s assassination, gasping his way to the summit of a 14,000-foot peak in the Yukon Territory, named for John F. Kennedy, or choosing to do battle in the courts with Jimmy Hoffa.

Although his popularity in recent years was subject to sharp peaks and valleys in the public-opinion polls, Senator Kennedy’s contributions to political thought on such subjects as the Vietnam war and domestic programs involving minority groups were significant and attracted large and enthusiastic followings. His personal wit and charm often helped to sustain his popularity when his political views aroused widespread opposition.

Despite his controversial views and actions, Robert Kennedy believed implicitly that he possessed the qualities of leadership that caused many to regard him as the “heir apparent” to John F. Kennedy.

It was in what proved to be the senator’s last speech, in fact, that Robert Kennedy expressed his conviction that, as President, he could end the divisive influences abroad in the country today.

Even his most bitter foes will share in the sense of loss that accompanies the death of a young man who had become a commanding figure upon the American political scene.

For more information, visit the Robert F. Kennedy website provided by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

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