Discover the full story behind the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the presidential hopeful who was shot dead while on the campaign trail in California on June 5, 1968.
By June of 1968, the United States felt, to many, like a nation teetering on the edge. Every night, Americans watched the carnage of the Vietnam War on their television screens. That April, Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed in cold blood in Memphis, Tennessee, triggering riots in cities across the country.
Into this chaos stepped Robert F. Kennedy — the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy — as a candidate in the 1968 presidential election. But then, on what should have been a celebratory night for his inspiring campaign in early June, RFK was shot and killed, too.
It was tragically easy to see Kennedy’s assassination as a damning indictment of the state of the country. And just as with the assassination of his brother four and a half years earlier, and Martin Luther King Jr. just two months before, the nation both reeled and demanded to know how something like this could have happened — and who had pulled the trigger.
In this case, the nation didn’t have to wait long for answers. Immediately after Kennedy’s assassination, his killer was revealed as Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian man who had become obsessed with killing Kennedy. Severely traumatized by the violence of his youth, Sirhan had filled his journal with entries about his desire to kill Kennedy, the sooner the better, because of Kennedy’s pledged support for Israel in the Six-Day War. And on June 5, 1968, he put his murderous plan into action.
Bettmann/Contributor via Getty ImagesClutching his rosary beads, Senator Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, just after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan.
That day, Sirhan Sirhan spent the afternoon practicing shooting with his pistol. That night, he went to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Kennedy was addressing his supporters after winning the California and South Dakota primaries — putting Kennedy in second place behind Vice President Hubert Humphrey in the race for the Democratic nomination.
As he held a newspaper clipping critical of Kennedy in his pocket, Sirhan Sirhan asked around the hotel to confirm that Kennedy would walk through the kitchen on his way to address the media after his speech. Then, he waited.
Shortly after midnight, Kennedy entered the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel just as Sirhan Sirhan had expected. Sirhan leapt forward with his pistol and fired, striking Kennedy and several others, before onlookers restrained him.
Though Kennedy hung on for a full day, he died from his wounds shortly after midnight on June 6, 1968, at the age of just 42. His life was over, but the outrage and debate over his death persist to this day.
How could American history have been different if Kennedy had survived? And why do so many people, including some of Kennedy’s own children as well as witnesses to the assassination, believe that Sirhan Sirhan wasn’t the only shooter at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5?
This is the full story behind the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, from the night of his death to the theories that have emerged in the decades since.
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