James Earl Ray Gets 99 Years for Killing King; Angels Want Ex-Dodger, March 11, 1969

Black militants shut down two schools in protests over police brutality ... and gold is selling for $48.41 an ounce or $270.94 USD 2007.

"It was the first time I ever killed a man in hand-to-hand combat," Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Joe Hooper says. Sirhan B. Sirhan deteriorates under stress, psychologist testifies.

Photograph by Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times Frank Howard, Oct. 19. 1963

The Angels tried to pull off a blockbuster trade for a big hitter. A very big hitter. Former Dodger Frank Howard was holding out for a new deal after leading the American League in home runs. So new Angels general manager Dick Walsh, also a former Dodger, put together a package of players for the Washington Senators to consider. He even added $100,000 to his offer of catcher Tom Satriano, outfielder Vic Davalillo, pitcher Clyde Wright and a choice of Roger Repoz, Chuck Hinton or Chuck Cottier. Howard, who was listed at 6-7, obviously was a towering presence at the plate. He came up with the Dodgers at the start of their Los Angeles years and was the National League's rookie of the year in 1960, but was traded to Washington in 1964. Pitcher Claude Osteen was the key player sent to the Dodgers. What kind of deal was Howard looking for after hitting 44 home runs in 1968? According to The Times, Howard wanted a three-year contract for $100,000 a year but would settle for one year at $125,000. There was speculation that new Washington Manager Ted Williams would want Howard to change his batting stance despite leading the league in home runs. Asked what he would do with Howard on the Angels, Manager Bill Rigney told The Times' Ross Newhan, "If I were to say anything now it would be construed as tampering. No, indeed, there is no reason ever, anywhere, to tamper with Howard." The trade to the Angels never happened -- Howard hit 48 home runs for the Senators in 1969 and 44 in 1970. Walsh eventually acquired another former Dodger from the Senators, Ken McMullen, who had been one of the Dodgers traded with Howard to Washington in 1964. Howard might not have been a big difference -- pun intended -- for the Angels and he might not have hit as many home runs in Anaheim. But he certainly would have brought some excitement to Angels teams that were pretty miserable in the pre-Nolan Ryan years. Just ask the few of us who regularly attended Anaheim Stadium in the late 1960s. -- Keith Thursby

Outbursts in Sirhan Trial; Dodgers Promote Lasorda, February 27, 1969

Now those are some bell bottoms. If you don't remember them, ask your mom.

Nixon to address West German parliament. At left, more oil washes ashore near Santa Barbara, but it's unclear whether this is from the original spill or a new one. General Motors announces the largest recall in U.S. auto history. A defense attorney and Judge Herbert V. Walker warn Sirhan B. Sirhan to control his outbursts. Walker says that if Sirhan doesn't calm down he might be physically restrained in court. And officials release the names of five people who were killed by a mudslide that crashed onto a firehouse in Silverado Canyon where Orange County residents had sought shelter.

Kevin Thomas interviews Fritz Lang about Dr. Mabuse for a showing at UCLA. Inscribed on Lang's bar: "Takes a long freight train with a red caboose to carry my blues away." "When I invented 'The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse' it gave the chance to put all the Nazi slogans in the mouth of an insane criminal and kill him off."

The Dodgers' new Triple-A manager was a real fighter. "We had about eight real good brawls at Ogden last year," Tom Lasorda told The Times' Mitch Chortkoff. "I like a good scrapping team. ... We led the league in wins, fights and police escorts." Lasorda was headed to Spokane to take over the Dodgers' Pacific Coast League team, expected to be filled with such prospects as Bill Buckner, Steve Garvey (still considered a third baseman) and Bobby Valentine. Lasorda was no stranger to the PCL, having played in the league back when the Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars were feuding. Lasorda told Chortkoff about an incident pitching for the Angels against the Stars' Forrest Jacobs. "He was sore at me and he laid a bunt down the first-base line, " he said. "You've seen it so many times. The pitcher comes over to field the ball and the bunter runs him down. Only I played it a little different. Instead of going for the ball I threw a body block at Jacobs. All hell broke loose after that." Chortkoff had an interesting line about Lasoda's future: "There are some baseball people who believe that Lasorda will be the successor to Walter Alston as the Dodger manager--if, that is, he can control his temper." Lasorda's response? "I only know that I have to be myself. ... I want my team to develop a dislike for the opponents. That's the only way they'll play to their potential." --Keith Thursby

Arabs on Alert, Baseball Strike? February 20, 1969

Nancy Sinatra ... in WAX!

To simulate prejudice, brunet students eat at a table designed "No Blondes." At left, Arab countries prepare for retaliation for a terrorist attack on an El Al airliner at Zurich. Also... Take the time to read Robert Kistler's excellent nondupe on a police officer's view of the changing culture within the LAPD after the Watts Riots. We evidently didn't use his actual name, but called him "Paul Anderson." The article explores what Chief Tom Reddin called "the terrible tightrope." "The tightrope stretches between the 'hard-nosed' policing of minorities of the pre-1965 era [the William Parker years--lrh] and efforts to open channels of communication between police and minorities today," Kistler says.

"The old ways aren't going to be continued, and as an officer you either 'get with it' or get off." "Don't get the wrong impression. None of us is going to be namby- pamby out there."

Scientists study oil spill. After he shot Robert F. Kennedy, Sirhan B. Sirhan was "enormously composed." "Amid this hurricane of sound and feeling, he seemed like the eye of the hurricane.... He seemed purged," according to George Plimpton, testifying for the prosecution in Sirhan's trial. Gov. Ronald Reagan reveals the source of his statement that a dean at San Francisco State was forced at knifepoint to admit a group of black students.  Pueblo crewman Lt. (jg) Timothy Harris describes his treatment by  North Korean captors.

Ro$ale$? Oh you sports guys! Rayco eight-track stereo, $49.95! Spring training or strike? Players and owners were battling over how much money should be contributed to the pension fund. Most of the player representatives had rejected the owners' latest offer, but several current or future high-profile players were reporting for workouts. "I expect there will be some resentment that I'm going to work out, but I need the work," Nolan Ryan told United Press International. Ryan was coming off a 6-9 season with the Mets and weighed 210 pounds, compared with 195 at the end of the season. "I suppose the other players will be clipping my remarks and putting them on the wall and throwing darts at them, but I am ready to go and I might have eight practice fields all to myself," said the Braves' Pat Jarvis. George Scott of the Red Sox hadn't reported yet but would be in camp next week. "Some of the players can afford to go without a salary, but the majority can't and I'm one of them," he said. "I'm supporting my wife and my mother, two households, really." The Angels' player representative, second baseman Bobby Knoop, tried to put the potential labor dispute in perspective. Knoop told The Times' Ross Newhan on Feb. 2: "Perhaps some of this seems insignificant to the public. But we are not talking about a job that lasts for 20 or 30 years. The average player goes from day to day. At 32 or 33, he's looking for something else." -- Keith Thursby

Sirhan Trial, February 15, 1969

A Navy inquiry into the Pueblo incident, Gabby Hayes dies, a landslide closes the Pomona Freeway and the State Board of Education decides that a school is racially imbalanced if there's a 15% difference from the racial makeup of youngsters in the surrounding neighborhood.

Opening Statements in Sirhan Trial; Injured Angel Makes Comeback, February 14, 1969

The prosecution makes opening statements in the trial of Sirhan B. Sirhan in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Out of curiosity, how many Daily Mirror readers would be interested in following his trial? I hadn't planned on it, but it's possible.

"Kennedy must be assassinated before June 5." And the May Co. opens a Carlsbad store. A Democratic group supports Councilman Tom Bradley in his race against Mayor Sam Yorty.

Michael Sarne's "Joanna" at the Fox Village in Westswood. At left, Kevin Thomas interviews Vincent Minnelli, who is directing "On a Clear Day" with Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand. Above, a clip from "Bullitt," playing at the Pix Theatre, Hollywood near Vine. Love the sound of those engines!

Jim Murray and Mormon golfer Bill Casper visit the Joseph Smith farm in New York.

Baseball's expansion years are perfect times for comeback stories. Former Angel third baseman Paul Schaal was one of those players hoping for a fresh start. Schaal, a promising young player on some bad Angel teams, had been beaned in 1968 by Boston's Jose Santiago and spent 12 days in the hospital and months trying to get his balance back. The Times' Mitch Chortkoff visited with Schaal as he worked out at Huntington Beach High, readying for the Kansas City Royals' first spring training. "The count was 0-2. Both pitches were outside curves, but I had swung at one," Schaal said. "I had looked pretty bad. I thought [Santiago] would throw me another one." Schaal said he leaned out over the plate and Santiago threw a fastball. Schaal's 1968 season actually ended as a pinch-hitter against Boston. "I hit a fly ball to right field and as I ran down the baseline I tried to look at the ball," Schaal said. "Suddenly I began wobbling. That kind of scared me." The Angels let him go in the expansion draft. His best season in Kansas City statistically was 1971 with 11 home runs and a .274 average. He finished his career in 1974 with the Angels. "I'm sorry to leave the Angels, but expansion brings a lot of opportunities for ballplayers," he told Chortkoff. "I'm happy to be getting another chance." -- Keith Thursby

RFK-postscripts

Los Angeles Times file photo Antiwar demonstrators fight with Chicago police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
	At left, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon wins the Republican nomination for the 1968 presidential race. He selects Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew as his running mate.
Los Angeles Times file photo The 1968 Democratic ticket: Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine.
	Humphrey wins the nomination, provoking boos and catcalls when he mentions President Lyndon Johnson. Humphrey says of the violence in Chicago: "We do not want a police state, but we do need a state of law and order. Neither mob violence nor police brutality have any place in America."
	Los Angeles Times file photo Richard Nixon is elected president, Nov. 9, 1968, promising peace with honor in Vietnam.
	Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is convicted and sentenced to the gas chamber May 21, 1969. His sentence is commuted to life in prison when the California Supreme Court overturns the death penalty in 1972.
Los Angeles Times file photo Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and President Richard M. Nixon are reelected in 1972. Agnew is charged with income tax evasion and resigns Oct. 10, 1973, to be replaced by Rep. Gerald R. Ford. Nixon resigns Aug. 8, 1974, over the Watergate scandal, making Ford president. On April 23, 1975, Ford declares the Vietnam War over. Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975.
Los Angeles Times Photograph	In 2006, the Los Angeles Unified School District finishes demolition of the Ambassador Hotel despite efforts by the Los Angeles Conservancy to save the landmark. A $4-million settlement with the Conservancy clears the way for destruction  of the Cocoanut Grove. Email me

Remembering RFK

Image courtesy of KTLA-TV Robert F. Kennedy, Ambassador Hotel, June 5, 1968.

Beginning June 1, the Daily Mirror will follow Robert F. Kennedy in the final days of his campaign for the American presidency, from hope and triumph at the polls to tragedy in a cramped corridor in a kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. We want you to share your recollections of this day that changed the course of U.S. history. Please share your comments below (all posts must be approved before they are published) or send them to me by e-mail.

June 6, 1968

Drawing by Paul Conrad / Los Angeles Times

A heavy news day at the Los Angeles Times. Nearly every section carried a story about the death of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whether it was the mainbar, various sidebars, sports columnists Jim Murray and John Hall, the effect on the stock market or Charles Champlin in Calendar.  In going through the archives, I found images by Times photographers that haven't been seen in 40 years. Step back into history in the pages of The Times. Email me Photograph by Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times Shot in the head, union official Paul Schrade lies on the pantry floor at the Ambassador Hotel, one of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan's other victims. Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.), left, suspends his campaign. Secret Service agents are sent to guard political candidates. Below right, Jack Smith writes about Kennedy's quiet day leading up to the shooting.

Below left, Kennedy's injuries and prayers for him among people at Resurrection City in Washington, D.C. Below right, the continuation of Jack Smith's story on Kennedy's evening leading up to the shooting.

Below left, Paul Schrade, one of five other people shot by Sirhan, is making progress. A comment after the shooting touches off a search for a woman in a polka-dot dress. Below right, the first look at Sirhan's life.

Photograph by Ben Olender / Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Police Chief Tom Reddin holds a news conference to discuss the latest developments in the shooting. Below left, many Arabs viewed Kennedy favorably and said U.S.-Arab relations would have been better if President John F. Kennedy had lived. Sirhan is under guard to prevent anyone from killing him. And an interview with busboy Juan Romero. Below right, a description of the shooting.

Photograph by George R. Fry / Los Angeles Times Kennedy's children, Kathleen, Matthew, Michael, Mary Kerry, Christopher and Mary Courtney and the family dog Freckles leave the Beverly Hills Hotel to return to Virginia after Vice President Hubert Humphrey sent a plane to get them. Below left, California Gov. Ronald Reagan blames the shooting on "demagogism." Below right, Latin America is stunned by the shooting.

Photograph by Charles O'Rear / Los Angeles Times Patricia Lawford, Kennedy's sister, is escorted from Good Samaritan Hospital by family friend Jim Whitaker. Below left, Kennedy receives last rites from the Rev. Thomas Peacha. The hospital chaplain, the Rev. Laurence Joy, also administers last rites. Jimmy Breslin describes the shooting and officials call for tighter gun controls. Below right, Kennedy's victory speech was upbeat, Times staff writer Daryl E. Lembke says.

Photograph by Ben Olender / Los Angeles Times Patricia Lawford picks up her brother, Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, at Los Angeles International Airport in a photo dated Feb. 12, 1963. Notice the complete lack of any security personnel. Below left, hundreds of people gather at Good Samaritan in a vigil for the wounded candidate.

Drawing by Frank Interlandi / Los Angeles Times Below, The Times' editorial and op-ed pages. Jimmy Breslin, cont'd Reactions to shooting

Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Busboy Juan Romero describes the shooting. Below left, sports columnist Jim Murray and below right, Charles Maher. John Hall Jim Murray, cont'd

Photograph by Michael Edwards / Los Angeles Times Paul Schrade points to where he was shot in the head by Sirhan, Feb. 4, 1986. Below, Kennedy's shooting sends the stock market down slightly, with the Dow closing at 907.42. Standard and Poor's 500 closes at 99.89, off 0.49.

Photograph by Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley displays Kennedy's jacket, kept as evidence in Sirhan's trial, in the prosecutor's vault, 2007. Below, Charles Champlin describes the live TV drama of the Kennedy shooting.

Voices--Eric Malnic

Above, one of the more curious aspects of the Robert F. Kennedy shooting: The search for the "Girl in the Polka Dot Dress."

By Eric Malnic Special to The Times Things were busy in the Times newsroom on primary election night in June 1968, and a lot of people were shuffled around to fill in the gaps. Bud Lembke, from the San Francisco bureau, was down in Los Angeles to cover the anticipated victory of Robert F. Kennedy.   Bill Drummond, a cityside reporter who normally worked general assignment, was on night rewrite. They needed someone to work the night city desk.  Nothing ever happens on primary election night.  Why not try some kid who had never worked the desk before?  I was that kid. Shortly before midnight, Drummond was catching the last notes from Lembke, who was at the Ambassador, where Kennedy had just finished his victory speech.   All the top brass --  City Editor Bill Thomas, Managing Editor Frank Haven and their cohorts -- were in Haven's corner office, already enjoying the bourbon that was always broken out after election night was in the bag. Drummond, who was seated opposite and facing me, suddenly looked up, straight at me, and shouted, "Kennedy's been shot!" It was less than five years after JFK had been assassinated, and Drummond's shout sounded like a pathetic and totally inappropriate attempt at humor. "Kennedy's been shot!" Drummond shouted again, his voice cracking and choked with emotion that made it clear he wasn't kidding. I jumped up and dashed into Haven's office. "Kennedy's been shot!" I yelled. They looked at me as though I was clearly nuts. "Kennedy's been shot!" I yelled again, and they knew it was true. There was a silence that lasted a long second or two, and then Haven spoke.   "Tell them to stop the presses," he said quietly. In my 47 years at the paper, it was the only time I ever heard anyone utter that phrase. Haven strolled calmly out into the city room and started barking orders. Grabbing a pencil from the totally overwhelmed overnight editor, Bob Hoenig, who was supposed to be drafting plans for the normally scheduled "9 a.m. Final" edition, Haven deftly sketched out a dummy for a new version of the main "Home" edition, which was now on hold.  "Right here is where we'll put the picture, if we get one," Haven said. Ten minutes later, someone dashed in with film that Boris Yaro had shot in the pantry at the Ambassador. "Boris said to tell you that he didn't have a flash," someone else said. The film was given to Bill Murphy, a photographer who was a master craftsman at the arts of developing and printing.  Murphy came out of the lab moments later with a negative that looked like a plate of window glass.  Haven groaned. Mumbling incantations and reaching into a bag of tricks that dated back to medieval witchcraft, Murphy returned to the lab.  Ten minutes later, he emerged with the print that marked Yaro's career. In the turmoil that followed, a lot of people changed jobs.  I ended up working the city desk for the next 12 years.     Note: In response to my question about how long he worked at The Times, Eric writes: That simple question results in a complex answer: I started working for The Times as a copyboy in the summer of 1957.  I was considered a part-time employee. I returned as a copyboy in the summer of 1958, being made a full-time employee in August 1958.  That is the date they used to compute my pension. I was drafted into the Army in January 1959, and -- thanks to Kennedy -- my military service was extended until June 1962. The law then required The Times to give me my old job back, complete with any raises that I might have accrued during my military service. In late June 1962, I returned to The Times as a copyboy.  In July 1962, I was made a reporter.  I worked both as a reporter and an editor until January 2006, when I retired. You figger it out.

Voices--Juan Romero

Photograph by William Dietsch / Los Angeles Times Juan Romero in a photo dated June 18, 1968.

"It is hard to understand. I did nothing. It just happened. Mr. Kennedy was there and he needed someone with him, that's all."
--Juan Romero in a 1968 interview with Ted Thackrey Jr.

By Steve Lopez
Times staff writer

Photograph by Steve Fontanini Los Angeles Times Juan Romero is led into the courtroom to testify against Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, in a photo dated Feb. 15, 1969.

When you write stories for three decades, occasionally someone asks if you had a favorite. I never did until five years ago, when I met Juan Romero.

An editor at Life magazine had asked if I remembered the busboy who knelt at Bobby Kennedy's side on June 5, 1968, when he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Of course I remembered. The photos of that skinny kid in the angelic white service coat, cradling Kennedy, were searing.

Go find him, said the editor.

Romero wasn't hard to track down. I found him doing hard labor in San Jose, his strong hands callused by years of toil for a paving company.

But 30 years after the assassination, he was still haunted by that night, and talking about it was not one of his favorite things to do. We went out for a couple of beers, and Romero began squirming and twisting himself up. When he finally found a way to let it out, it was for his own sake as much as mine.

Thursday marks the 35th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, so last week, I went to visit Romero again in San Jose. The father of four, now 53, was pouring concrete under a merciless sun. When he got off duty, we went out for a cold one, just like last time, and Juan Romero revisited the day that has shaped his life.

It was Juan's stepfather, an Ambassador waiter, who got him the job. Juan, whose family moved to L.A. from Mexico when he was 10, had been flirting with trouble in his East L.A. neighborhood, and his stepdad's solution was to get him off the streets.

"I wore black pants and a white shirt to Hollenbeck Junior High every day," says Juan, who caught the bus for the Ambassador after school. The routine continued when he moved on to Roosevelt High.

Juan worked room service and met scads of celebrities in the Ambassador's glory days, but for him, the arrival of presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy during the 1968 California primary topped the charts.

Juan remembered photos of a Catholic John F. Kennedy on the walls of homes in Mexico -- "next to Pope John Paul and the crucifix" -- and he knew Bobby Kennedy had championed the cause of California farm workers.

"Bobby rolled up his sleeves and walked with them," Juan says.

When Kennedy checked into the Ambassador and called for room service, Juan, then 17, cut a deal with the busboy who drew the job. Juan would retrieve all the other guy's trays that night in return for the Kennedy job.

"He wouldn't do it," Juan remembers of his stubborn colleague. "So I said, 'All right. I'll pay you too.' "

A Kennedy assistant answered the door of the Presidential Suite, and Juan, his eyes wide, pushed the food cart into the room and found himself standing next to Kennedy.

"He shook my hand as hard as anyone had ever shaken it," Juan says. "I walked out of there 20 feet tall, thinking, 'I'm not just a busboy, I'm a human being.' He made me feel that way."

The next night, Kennedy won the California primary. He made his victory speech at the Ambassador and headed through the kitchen to escape the crush of people, but there was a crowd in there too.

Juan, who wanted to congratulate him, used his skinny frame to knife through the pressed bodies. This man was going to be the next president, Juan thought, and he wanted to see if he could shake his hand once more.

Photograph by Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times Juan Romero, who gave his rosary to Kennedy. When Kennedy couldn't hold the rosary, Romero wrapped the beads around his thumb.

"People were six and seven deep," Juan says, but he got close enough to stick out his hand. As Kennedy grabbed it, Juan heard a bang and felt a flash of heat against his face. Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin, had fired from just off Juan's shoulder.

"I thought it was firecrackers at first, or a joke in bad taste," says Juan, but then he saw Kennedy sprawled on the floor and knelt to help him up.

Photograph by Boris Yaro / Los Angeles Times Juan Romero and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, June 5, 1968.

"He was looking up at the ceiling, and I thought he'd banged his head. I asked, 'Are you OK? Can you get up?' One eye, his left eye, was twitching, and one leg was shaking."

Juan slipped a hand under the back of Kennedy's head to lift him and felt warm blood spilling through his fingers.

"People were screaming, 'Oh my God, not another Dallas!' "

Ethel Kennedy knelt down at her husband's side and pushed Juan away. Juan looked on, angry and stunned, fingering the rosary beads in his pocket.

"When I was in trouble, I would always go and pray to God to make my stepfather forget what I'd done, or to keep me out of trouble the next time. I asked Ethel if I could give Bobby the rosary beads, and she didn't stop me. She didn't say anything.

"I pressed them into his hand but they wouldn't stay because he couldn't grip them, so I tried wrapping them around his thumb. When they were wheeling him away, I saw the rosary beads still hanging off his hand."

Juan was taken to the Rampart police station and questioned about what he saw and what he knew. He was released, still trembling, headed for home, and went to school the next day. It was at Roosevelt High that he saw Kennedy's blood under his fingernails, and decided not to wash his hands.

"Then the mail started coming to the hotel," Juan says. "Sacks and sacks of mail. You couldn't believe the amount of it."

Most of it was supportive, addressed to the anonymous busboy. It was a kind of celebrity Juan never asked for or wanted, and he grew apprehensive about hotel guests asking to see him. He also heard from a handful of lunatics asking why he didn't take the bullet himself, or telling him Kennedy would still be alive if he hadn't stopped to shake Juan's hand.

Juan left Los Angeles for Santa Barbara. He returned briefly to the Ambassador, but was finally driven away by ghosts. He worked at a hotel in Wyoming, then relocated to San Jose and married.

He settled comfortably into family life but lived with the cruel, nagging conviction that he'd been thrown into the path of history for a reason, and he hadn't been up to the challenge.

Juan was convinced he was supposed to find a way to express the hope Kennedy represented for him, but he couldn't find the words.

During the debate over California's Proposition 187, he felt that people were taking one look at his brown skin and figuring him for a freeloader. He wanted to scream that the ballot initiative was proof we needed another Kennedy, but he couldn't find a stage.

And that was just fine, because to remember that day in 1968, Juan ended up doing something more elegant and true. He took the faith expressed in that first handshake from Kennedy and honored the memory by working hard, providing for his family and living a life of tolerance and good deeds.

He doesn't always get it right. Juan's wife tells him he does so many odd jobs for others, it often comes at the expense of time with the family.

Maybe so, but Juan has to help those he can. And he has to keep moving, hurrying from one job to another like a man being chased. Especially around this time of year.

"For words to come out of my mouth that express how I really feel is so hard," Juan says, his eyes filling. "After years and years and years to think about what to say about that night, I can't figure out anything that does justice."

I tell him, once again, that he has said all the right things.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

June 5, 1968

"Oh no! No! Don't. . . !" --Robert F. Kennedy, on being put into an ambulance "Get a doctor! Get a doctor! What is America coming to?"

"Some people beat the guy's head and began tearing at his hair." --Paul Houston, Times reporter, describing attack on Sirhan B. Sirhan Los Angeles Times file photo Above, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, beaten after shooting Robert F. Kennedy. Police scuffled with the crowd to protect Sirhan, The Times says. "Some people said: 'Kill him, don't let him get away.' " -- Pat Murphy, Ambassador Hotel security guard "As Kennedy was borne on a stretcher from the hotel to an ambulance, people pushed near him, some of them crying. The senator's shirt was unbuttoned and he appeared to be conscious and alert. "But by the time he arrived at Central Receiving Hospital he was bundled up in blankets and wearing an oxygen mask. "He was taken into an operating room and moments later a priest entered the hospital." Email me

Voices--Sandi Gibbons

Above, a frame grab from a video of Robert F. Kennedy's speech at the Ambassador Hotel. Based on Sandi Gibbons' description the evening, I believe she is on the far right of the frame next to Ethel Kennedy and Rosey Grier. Update: Sandi confirms that she's the woman on the right. It was hot. We had been standing in the Embassy Room in the basement of the Ambassador Hotel for hours waiting for Bobby to appear. I was luckier than most. As a reporter for a local wire service that had an audio subsidiary, I had a tape recorder so I could record Robert F. Kennedy as he announced victory in the June 4, 1968, primary election. I was on the stage, along with assorted other broadcast media including a local radio newsman named Andy West and national broadcast correspondent Steve Bell. The three of us chatted for what seemed like hours as we hunkered down on the stage. There was what seemed like hundreds of people in that little reception room that was illuminated by very hot television lights. They were jammed together so tight that if someone fainted, he or she could not fall down. It would have been impossible. And finally he came. It was just after midnight on June 5, 1968. With his wife, Ethel, at his side, he declared victory and said it was “on to Chicago” and the Democratic National Convention. He had the momentum and may have been the Democratic presidential nominee that summer…and in November the next president of the United States. All of us on that little stage gathered around Bobby as the screaming, yelling, laughing, happy crowd of supporters surged forward. No one wanted the potential president to be crushed and injured. Being almost 6’ tall, I was part of the ring of people around the candidate. Jesse Unruh, California’s Assembly speaker and chairman of Kennedy’s California campaign, grabbed one of my hands and Rosey Grier, the football star-turned-minister, grabbed the other as we joined the ring of protection. There was a door directly behind the small stage that led into the hotel kitchen. Kennedy was whisked away through that door and I headed to little bank of pay telephones on the wall to the right of the stage. We didn’t have cell phones then. I got to the phones – there were only three or four – when people started screaming and I heard what sounded like balloons popping. I dialed my office. I said, “This is Sandi. Something is happening….” Click. I was put on hold. Not even a word from the guy on the desk. Fortunately, we had a second news operation at the Registrar of Voters headquarters. I got a live person when I called, grabbed the arm of a hysterical, crying woman and said, “Please talk to the nice man on the other end and don’t give this phone to anyone.” She did, I found out what happened and dictated to the “nice man on the other end.” To my surprise, little insignificant City News Service had the first bulletin out on the assassination. Of course, NBC showed it live on television, so we didn’t really have it first – just the first wire bulletin. Kennedy was first taken to Central Receiving Hospital (closed many years ago). I suppose you’d now call it a trauma center – Central Receiving was where they took Los Angeles police offices wounded in the line of duty. After emergency treatment at Central Receiving, he was then taken to the Hospital of the Good Samaritan. I spent the night sitting on the hood of a police patrol car in front of Good Sam, watching along with other reporters the parade of family members who went into the hospital. Every once in a while, I’d find a pay phone and dictate an update. A room was opened in the hospital for the press around 8 a.m. My office sent me home to get some sleep. In what seemed like minutes after drifting off into a deep sleep, the phone rang. Kennedy was dead and his body was being flown home. I was to go to LAX to cover it. I did. And at a hastily constructed row of pay phones, I dictated the goodbye story as the plane roared over my head, then banked and turned east. Tears were running down my face. It was the first time that I had cried covering a news story. Note: Sandi Gibbons is public information officer for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.