I was 12.
On June 5, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded just after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
Hopes had risen slightly when more than eight hours went by without a new medical bulletin on the stricken Senator, but the grimness of the final announcement was signaled when Frank Mankiewicz, Mr. Kennedy’s press secretary, walked slowly down the street in front of the hospital toward the littered gymnasium that served as press headquarters.
Mr. Mankiewicz bit his lip. His shoulders slumped.
He stepped to a lectern in front of a green-tinted chalkboard and bowed his head for a moment while the television lights snapped on.
Then, at one minute before 2 A.M., he told of the death of Mr. Kennedy.
Following is the text of the statement from Mr. Mankiewicz:
“I have a short announcement to read which I will read at this time. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 A.M. today, June 6, 1968. With Senator Kennedy at the time of his death was his wife, Ethel; his sisters, Mrs. Patricia Lawford and Mrs. Stephen Smith, his brother-in-law, Stephen Smith and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy.
“He was 42 years old.”
Senator Kennedy’s body will be taken to New York this morning and then to Washington.
The man accused of shooting Mr. Kennedy early yesterday in a pantry of the Ambassador Hotel was identified as Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, 24 years old, who was born in Palestinian Jerusalem of Arab parentage and had lived in the Los Angeles area since 1957. Sirhan had been a clerk.