What did Robert F. Kennedy ask the people around him right after being shot? Why was
his assassin conflicted? And what do conspiracy theorists have to say? Keep watching to find out.
In 1968, Kennedy, a senator and former attorney general, was the frontrunner
for the Democratic nomination to the presidency. This Kennedy, an outspoken critic of the Vietnam
War and a supporter of civil rights, was seen by many as a unifying force in the left-wing of the
Democratic Party in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. several weeks earlier.
"To tame the savageness of man and make gentle
the life of this world, let us dedicate ourselves to that."
On June 4th, Kennedy had won primaries in five out of six early states, including the delegate-rich
prize of California. He gave a victory speech at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel and was heading back
through the hotel kitchen shortly after midnight on June 5th when the Palestinian immigrant Sirhan
Sirhan reportedly ambushed the senator and shot him, wounding Kennedy and five other bystanders.
"Ladies and gentlemen we've kept the air on because we've heard an alarming report that
Robert Kennedy was shot."
There was no video of the actual attack.
The historic records instead include a handful of photos, the accounts of onlookers,
audio of the attack taken by a freelance reporter, and Kennedy's autopsy.
In eyewitness accounts of the attack, Sirhan approached Kennedy head-on and
fired a couple of shots before being restrained by the crowd — some of whom
managed to grab Sirhan in the chaos, according to The Washington Post.
Sirhan continued to shoot wildly, injuring five others in the room,
before witnesses grabbed the .22-caliber revolver from his hand.
According to witnesses, Kennedy immediately asked if everyone else was okay and remained
at least semi-conscious in the aftermath — even as he was put on a stretcher.
Witnesses said that Sirhan never got closer than 18 inches away from the candidate,
according to the Boston Globe. But an expert interviewed by the paper also points out that
before shooting Kennedy, Sirhan shot a member of his entourage, Paul Schrade,
whose collapse might have pushed the senator closer to the shooter.
Years later in a 1989 interview with Inside Edition, Sirhan said he shot Kennedy because
he felt betrayed by the politician after he suggested during his presidential campaign
that he may send 50 fighter jets to aid Israel in their fight against the Palestinians.
Here's what Sirhan's former boss told ABC:
"He burst out in a temper, he said, 'that man is killing my people,' he said 'he should be dead.'"
Sirhan said his goal was only to save his own people — not to harm Kennedy, who he admired.
"To me he was my hero, he was my champion,
he was the protector and the defender of the downtrodden."
In 2018, half a century after the assassination, the Journal of Neurosurgery published a medical
analysis of the medical care that Kennedy received in the hours between his attack and his death.
Five doctors, who had been in the ballroom where Kennedy had given his victory speech,
were called to the senator's side.
One physician noted that his heartbeat had slowed to 50 to 60 beats per minute, and that his left
eye was closed. Despite this condition, Kennedy was still able to move his limbs.
As the senator slowly slipped into unconsciousness, another doctor
noted that his blood was clotting around the bullet hole in his head.
Assuming that the clot was causing blood to pool in his brain, the doctor slipped
his finger into the wound, resuming the blood flow and returning Kennedy to consciousness.
Meanwhile, the hotel's switchboard operator called 911 and told the
dispatcher that Kennedy had been injured, but the emergency responder didn't know
the extent of the injuries and directed the ambulance to a smaller facility, the Central
Receiving Hospital, instead of the larger and better-equipped Good Samaritan Hospital.
According to UPI, as Kennedy was being put on a stretcher, his last words may have been:
"Please don't lift me!"
By the time Kennedy arrived at the hospital, he was unconscious and not breathing,
according to the Journal of Neurosurgery. The doctors at Central Receiving stabilized
Kennedy and restored his breathing, but soon realized he needed treatment
at Good Samaritan Hospital instead. The mistake meant that Kennedy didn't arrive
at the second hospital until 1 a.m., about 45 minutes after the shooting.
He was immediately given a tracheostomy followed by a whole blood transplant and was
scheduled for brain surgery, which he entered at 3:10 a.m. Over nearly the next four hours,
surgeons removed as many bone and bullet fragments as they could while controlling the bleeding.
Though this resulted in improved motor response to pain, his left side remained paralyzed.
It became clear that in the unlikely event that Kennedy survived, the damage to his brain would
be extensive. Though Kennedy remained in stable condition through much of June 5th,
by 6 p.m. that day, his vitals began to slip.
According to Newsweek, he was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. on June 6th.
The autopsy was conducted by Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi.
In his lengthy career, Noguchi would perform autopsies on celebrities including Marilyn Monroe,
Sharon Tate, and Janice Joplin, among others.
According to the New York Times, Noguchi was also sometimes criticized for his dishy
comments about celebrities to the media — and while Kennedy was in the hospital,
he reportedly danced with joy, according to UPI, saying:
"I am going to be famous. I hope he dies."
That said, The Journal of Neurosurgery notes that Noguchi's autopsy of Kennedy
has a stellar reputation — it's been dubbed, in fact, "the perfect autopsy."
The autopsy revealed that three bullets wounded the senator. The first bullet entered behind his
right ear — this would end up being the fatal shot, and Noguchi determined it had been fired
within three inches of the head due to the presence of gunpowder burns on the skin.
Two other bullets entered Kennedy's right shoulder region, also from behind.
These injuries, however, were comparatively minor.
Interestingly, Kennedy's autopsy contradicted the reports of witnesses in a number of ways
and is the primary source of many ongoing conspiracy theories about the assassination.
All three shots were from behind Kennedy, and the fatal shot was fired with the muzzle of the
gun nearly touching Kennedy's head. Since Sirhan approached Kennedy head-on and was
reportedly stopped more than a foot away from Kennedy, this has sometimes been seen
as the strongest evidence that there was a second shooter that day, as some witnesses have claimed.
There is, however, a simpler explanation for why the shots came from behind Kennedy.
Before the shooting, the senator had turned to his left to shake a bus boy's hand. When Sirhan
lunged at Kennedy, he may have ducked further in self-defense, exposing his back to the assassin.
Journalist Dan Moldea, who wrote a book on the assassination, told The Boston Globe,
"The conspiracy people will have you believe that Kennedy is standing there, putting his chest out.
If you see someone running at you, shouting 'You son of a b—-,' he's
got a gun in his hand, what are you going to do? You're going to turn defensively."
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Grunge videos about your morbid curiosities are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.