Gordon Belray
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
2016 - Revised 2019
96" x 49”
Archival print
After winning the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination and favoured to become the next president of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles on June 5th, 1968 and died twenty-six hours later. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian/Jordanian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime. There are no known photographs or film of the actual assassination, however, events thereafter were captured on film. Five other people were wounded, none fatally, by stray bullets during the struggle to wrest the gun from Sirhan Sirhan. Conspiracy theories of a second gunmen, Manchurian Candidate-like manipulation and involvement by the C.I.A. continue.
The image is reconstructed from several hundred film stills and archival photographs from various press agencies covering the primary and the aftermath of the assassination and makes use of crime scene photographs, diagrams and personal testimonies.
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy is part of a tetralogy of pivotal U.S. assassinations from the 1960's and includes John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X.
Detail
Juan Romero, a busboy at the Ambassodor Hotel, holds Robert Kennedy while his wife, Ethel cries to the crowd to move back. Photographer Bill Eppridge takes his iconic photograph of the assassination. The necktie of security guard, Thane Eugene Cesar, lies next to Kennedy, pulled off as Kennedy attempted to defend himself from Cesar's shots from behind. Bill Barry, Kennedy's body guard (white shirt open red tie), who at the last second changed Kennedy's route out of the Ambassador Hotel and who wrestled Sirhan's gun from his hand, stands distraught over the senator.
William Weisel, of ABC News is shot in the abdomen and lies bleeding in the kitchen. Valerie Schulte, wearing a polka-dot dress and using a single crutch, stands close by. She was not the infamous woman wearing a polka-dot dress seen earlier with Sirhan Sirhan.
Paul Schrade, a friend of Kennedy, is also shot in the head in the crossfire.
Elizabeth Evans, an artist and political activist, is wounded by a ricocheting bullet. Thane Eugene Cesar, the security guard directly behind Kennedy and who is widely believed to have fired the fatal shots, walks away, tie missing.
Ira Goldstein (seated, hand to head), a 19 year old radio reporter for the Continental News, is shot in the left hip and staggers to a chair. "The first thing I said was, 'How is Senator Kennedy? What happened to him?'. And this woman walked by, and she said to me, 'How dare you talk about my husband that way?', and slapped me across the face. And I said, 'I am sorry, lady, but I was shot too. I'd like to know how the senator was or is'. And she said, 'Oh, I am sorry, honey' and kissed me. This was Ethel Kennedy". Delaware County Times, June 14, 1968
Irwin Stroll, a campaign worker, is shot is the leg and carried off for assistance.
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy 2016
Juan Romero, a busboy at the Ambassodor Hotel, holds Robert Kennedy while his wife, Ethel cries to the crowd to move back.
William Weisel, of ABC News is shot in the abdomen and lies bleeding in the kitchen. Valerie Schulte, not one of the two infamous woman of the polka dot dresses, stands close by.
Paul Schrade, a friend of Kennedy, is also shot in the head in the crossfire.
Elizabeth Evans, an artist and political activist, is wounded by a ricocheting bullet.
