By Colleen Shelby, June 4, 2018<\/p>\n
Robert F. Kennedy beamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s on to Chicago and let\u2019s win there!\u201d The senator had won the California primary, a crucial step before the Democratic National Convention just two months away in Chicago. In the early morning hours of June 5, 1968, Kennedy held up his index and middle finger, flashing a \u201cV\u201d for victory sign at the crowd, and departed the stage of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to the sound of chants.<\/p>\n
Within minutes, cheers gave way to screams.<\/p>\n
Boris Yaro had arrived at the Ambassador Hotel at 10:30 the night of June 4. The Los Angeles Times reporter was off-duty and hoping to grab a photo of Kennedy. Hours later, after Kennedy took the stage and addressed the crowd, Yaro shouted at the senator to hold up two fingers. He missed the shot.<\/p>\n
Yaro saw an opening to the kitchen. Maybe now he\u2019d get his chance.<\/p>\n
Gunshots rang out.<\/p>\n
Six people were wounded by the gunfire. Only one would die.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction I had was, \u2018My God, not again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Yaro saw Kennedy slip to the floor as bystanders grabbed the shooter and slammed his hand down on a freezer top, knocking the gun loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reached out and picked up that revolver,\u201d Yaro said. \u201cI remember the grip was still warm.\u201d<\/p>\n
William Barry, Kennedy\u2019s bodyguard and a former FBI agent, grabbed the gun. Rosey Grier, the football player, reportedly sat on the gunman until police arrived.<\/p>\n
Kennedy was on his back, drenched in blood. Yaro took six frames.<\/p>\n
He headed to The Times\u2019 office. He turned over his film and, after describing what he had seen to the reporter writing the story, went into the darkroom to see the images.<\/p>\n
There, in the darkness, he wept.<\/p>\n
John Nickols heard the news on the radio that morning. When the Los Angeles County sheriff\u2019s deputy got to the Hall of Justice, everything was in disarray.<\/p>\n
The man who would later be convicted of killing Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan, was being held upstairs.<\/p>\n
Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian refugee living in Pasadena, had written a manifesto three weeks before.<\/p>\n
\u201cKennedy must be assassinated June 5, 1968.\u201d<\/p>\n
The date was the first anniversary of the Six-Day War fought between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Syria and Jordan.<\/p>\n
Presidential candidates didn\u2019t typically have police protection in 1968. President Lyndon B. Johnson had secretly requested funds for protection for all candidates weeks before the shooting.<\/p>\n
But there was no extra security that night at the Ambassador Hotel.<\/p>\n
At the Hall of Justice, Sirhan was given extraordinary protection. Authorities well remembered that President John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby while he was in custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of fear that Sirhan would be dispatched before trial, for lack of a better term,\u201d Nickols said.<\/p>\n
The windows to Sirhan\u2019s room were covered by steel plates. Nickols heard that the deputies were patted down before entering his room, and that everything Sirhan ate came from a can.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were afraid that someone would go in and shoot him and make a name for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donna Chaffee thought Kennedy would win the November election. She assumed she would be working in the White House after graduation.<\/p>\n
Chaffee had worked for Kennedy\u2019s campaign while attending George Washington University. When she transferred to UC Berkeley, she remained active. She saw Kennedy days before he went to Los Angeles, and got her parents tickets to the Ambassador Hotel event. They would end up driving some of the Kennedy children to the airport after their father had been shot.<\/p>\n
At 1:44 a.m. on June 6, Kennedy died. Chaffee\u2019s future, and that of many others, was upended.<\/p>\n