This Week in History: The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Senator and presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy was pronounced dead the next day at the age of 42.
Born on November 20, 1925, Robert F. Kennedy was the seventh of nine children born to the wealthy Kennedy family. Kennedy often filled his time with games which focused on vocabulary or math skills. He’d also go to church on morning walks with his eldest brother Joesph before his death.
His father, Joesph Kennedy Sr., focused much of his attention on his eldest two children, Joesph Jr. and John, hoping one of them would someday become president. Kennedy described his position in the family by saying “when you come from that far down in the family, you struggle to survive.”
Six weeks before his 18th birthday in 1943, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as a seaman apprentice. Kennedy went back and forth between attending training programs at Harvard and the service. In August 1944, his eldest brother Joesph died and more attention was turned to Robert.
After the war, Kennedy entered Harvard as a junior and would go on to receive a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1951. He and Ethel Skakel were married in June 1950. Kennedy would throw himself into helping his brother John’s senate campaigns. This would also help set the stage for Kennedy’s role in his brother’s presidency.
When John F. Kennedy was elected president, Robert was appointed the attorney general of the United States. Until his brother’s assassination, Kennedy was considered a de-facto chief of staff and became a staunch supporter of civil rights, often taking phone calls from Coretta Scot King when her husband, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested after protesting in Alabama.
Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1964 and quickly became the voice for liberal Democrats. On March 16, 1968, Kennedy announced his own bid for the presidency. By June 4, he’d won 4 of the 5 primaries and was on his way to become the Democratic nominee.
Soon after midnight on June 5, he addressed his supporters gathered in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel. As he left through the kitchen with a group of men, 24-year-old Sirhan Sirhan opened fire on Senator Kennedy, shooting him three times and wounding five others. Sirhan was immediately tackled by some of Kennedy’s men.
A kitchen busboy, Juan Romero, gave Senator Kennedy a rosary, and Kennedy asked if everyone else was okay. When paramedics arrived, when they tried to lift him, he asked to not be lifted, which were his last words.
Kennedy was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital, and despite extensive neurosurgery, was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. on June 6. Robert and Ethel Kennedy had eleven children, with their final child, Rory, born after his death. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC after a mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Sirhan Sirhan admitted to the crime at his trial, and believed Robert Kennedy was “instrumental” in the oppression of Palestinians. A diary found in his home expressed sentiments of how Kennedy needed to be killed.
Sirhan received a death sentence on March 3, 1969. The California Supreme Court commuted all death sentences to life sentences in 1972. Sirhan has since spent his life in prison and been denied parole 15 times. In August 2021, the California parole board granted him parole, but California Governor Gavin Newsom denied Sirhan parole for the 16th time.
