R.I.P. Robert Kennedy

On this primary night, let’s not forget that 50 years ago today on June 5, 1968, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is mortally wounded after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy addresses his supporters at 12:10AM in the Ambassador Hotel’s Embassy Room Ballroom in the Mid-Wilshire district of L.A. - at this time, the secret service only provides protection for incumbent presidents but not for presidential candidates. Kennedy ends his speech by stating: "My thanks to all of you; and now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there!” He is supposed to walk through the ballroom, but William Barry, Kennedy’s bodyguard and former FBI agent, stops him and says, “No, it’s been changed. We’re going this way.” He clears the way for Kennedy to go left through swinging doors to the kitchen corridor, but Kennedy is hemmed in by the crowd and follows maître d' Karl Uecker through a back exit. Uecker leads Kennedy through the kitchen area, holding his right wrist but releasing it as Kennedy shakes hands with well-wishers. Uecker and Kennedy start down a passageway narrowed by an ice machine against the right wall and a steam table to the left. Kennedy turns to his left and shakes hands with busboy Juan Romero—just as his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, steps down from a low tray-stacker beside the ice machine, rushes past Uecker, and repeatedly fires a .22 caliber revolver...