Remembering JFK 6/6/68

As it happened on television

The shooting was not broadcast live, but the resultant scuffle was recorded on audio tape by reporter Andrew West of KKRD, a Mutual radio affiliate. On the stage just after the speech, West had asked Kennedy a brief question about how he would go about overcoming Vice President Hubert Humphrey's lead in delegates to the Democratic National Convention (in a garbled response, Kennedy indicated a "struggle" lay ahead for the nomination). As West followed the Kennedy party into the kitchen area, he turned his tape recorder back on after hearing shouts that Kennedy had been shot.

CBS Television continued feeding live pictures of the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Room ballroom in the moments after Kennedy had left the ballroom's podium. For the next two minutes, CBS cameras panned the dispersing crowd of RFK supporters in the Embassy Room ballroom as well as another crowd of RFK supporters downstairs in the hotel's Ambassador Room ballroom. As microphones picked up the sound of supporters in the Ambassador Room chanting "rah rah rah", a CBS camera showed supporters in the Embassy Room reacting to the shooting that had just taken place, off-camera, in the kitchen pantry. As CBS's audio feed then switched from the Ambassador Room to the Embassy Room, the ballroom's northside service doors leading to the pantry could be seen swinging open while the sounds of screaming and chaos could be heard. The joyous crowd was now overcome with confusion and panic. CBS News correspondent Terry Drinkwater, standing at the podium where RFK had just spoken, asked someone what happened. An unidentified man answered: "Somebody said he's been shot".

Drinkwater then advised his CBS colleagues to "make sure we are rolling videotape". From the podium, RFK supporters called out for doctors and Kennedy's brother-in-law Steven Smith (with wife Jean Kennedy Smith at his side) calmly asked the crowd to leave the room. The first people Drinkwater approached were unable to provide any information; eventually, he and other newsmen were given some details from other individuals who had been witnesses to either the shooting or its aftermath.

Kennedy was shot twice in his back and once behind his right ear at very close range. A fourth shot grazed Kennedy's clothing. As Kennedy lay on the floor, bleeding heavily, West asked if anyone else was hurt. Five other people were wounded: William Weisel of ABC News (30), Paul Schrade of the United Auto Workers (43), Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans (43), 19-year-old radio reporter Ira Goldstein and 17-year-old Kennedy volunteer Irwin Stroll. Although not physically wounded, singer Rosemary Clooney, a great supporter of Kennedy's, was present at the shooting and suffered a nervous breakdown shortly afterwards (see: http://www.cincypost.com/2002/jul/01/rostim070102.html).

Kennedy was pronounced dead the next day.

I watched this as it was happening on television, as a 16 year old who lived in Long Beach at the time. I will never forget it.