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In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy looked likely to follow his older brother into the White House.
Instead, he followed John into the history books for a much darker, shared reason.
Almost five years after JFK’s assassination in Dallas, 42-year-old Bobby Kennedy was gunned down as he made his way out of a Los Angeles hotel.
He had just won the California primary, which many believed put him in pole position to be the Democratic candidate for the upcoming election.
One newscaster commented: “No American in this century has ever been so likely to be president as Robert Francis Kennedy”.
He and his wife, Ethel, were seen as a young and warm couple who sought to address the country’s civil rights issues.
Just two months before his assassination, Robert gave an impromptu, impassioned speech in Indianapolis as news of Martin Luther King Jr’s killing filtered through.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to... be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people, I would only say I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling,” Kennedy said.
“I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond, these rather difficult times.”
It was the first time he publicly spoke of his brother’s death, and as riots raged in cities elsewhere, Indianapolis took heed of Kennedy’s words and peacefully dispersed.
His words were recalled as he was pronounced dead on June 6. Twenty-six hours before, he left The Ambassador Hotel’s ballroom after addressing supporters and used the kitchen as a shortcut to the press room.
In the crowded passageway, Kennedy turned to his left to shake hands with busboy Juan Romero just as 24-year-old Palestinian, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, appeared and repeatedly fired a revolver at him. The senator was hit three times and five others were wounded.
Romero, just 17, cradled Kennedy and placed Rosary beads in his hand.
The senator’s last words were: “Don’t lift me” as he was placed on as a stretcher. He lost consciousness shortly after and died the next morning.
Sirhan was sentenced to life imprisonment for Kennedy’s murder and he remains in a California jail.
Although not to the same level as JFK, conspiracy theories surround Bobby’s death. These include a second shooter and CIA involvement, with a suggestion that Sirhan could have been a hypnotically programmed assassin.
Regardless, the incident was yet another bleak moment in a turbulent, divisive decade in American history.