Transcript of 166-12c-1_serial_2_62_hq_587_section_1-la-report_8.7.68-part_5_of_7.pdf

================================================== Page 1 ================================================== 3 LA 55-156 She stated that she could not tell Whether the unknown female she saw was wearing a polla dot dress She advised that she did not gee anyone she knew at the Ambasgador Hotel on June 5, 1958, Who witneseed the ehooting or Tho could furnish any pertinent information concerning the events leading up to the shooting_ 194 ================================================== Page 2 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date 7/2/58 JAMES C . BUSCH, 3 age 18, 4433 Colbath street Apa rtment 24 Sherman Oake California telephone number 789-5312, furniehed the foilowing infomation mith regpect to hie knowledge of the ehooting of Senator KENNEDY 9 June 5, 1958: On June 4 1958, after attending the Los Angeles Dodgere-Pittsburgh Firateg bageball game mith hie eieter, ANDREA BUSCH, and a friend 3 RICHA RD HARVEY RTTTNER, they decided to go to the Ambageador Hotel to see Senator KENNEDY He recalle that on the inbound Hollywood Freeways while lietening to che radio, they heard the opening comments by Senator KENNEDY He drove his car to the Anbaegadr Hotel and parked in the rear pa rking lot facing euth when the epeech ended When they Kere ready to get out of the car, he heard the commentator on the radio state, a re returning tj KENNEDY headquartere , MI eomething hae happened He then hea rc 8ome 2c reaming and coflilotion over the radio followed 8One statemente , there a doctor in the house ? " STZHEN SMITH then got on the air and because of his Bostonian accent they thought he waa Senator KENNEDY SMITH stated_ "1f you people don't clear the a rea , Me cannot get medicai aid t? the Senator_ M He ale3 told the people pregent to clear the area At appro_imlately that time he ooeerved twj indlviduale Ialking quickly toward hi2 car through ni2 rear view mirror Both individuale paeeed the car heading south on hle, the driveri @ eide of the car, and a: the second individual paesed, he aeked him, "what happened ? " Thie individual etated, shot nin in tne head He ' & dead II He aeked hin how he Ynew thie and the individual etated that he Iae a busboy at the notel and that he had juet shaken Senator KZNNEDY 2 hand He a183 said "I 8a1: X1 the man pull out the gun and I hit the ground He also eaia, shot nim _ He 8 dead MI As he etated this he demonstrated the ehooting by pulling out an imaginary gun from his left troueer Vaiecband and placiig it to hie right temple 7/1/58 Sherman Oake 3 California Loe Angeles 55-156 On at File # 195 SA DAVID H COOK/vaa 7/1/58 Date dictated by recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI: It i8 the property of the FBI ad i8 loaned to Thi8 document contains neither your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency_ "ve "ie by_ "they "they ================================================== Page 3 ================================================== 2 LA 55-155 The other individual who a ccompanied the unknomn male mas 3 female caucaeian who etood on the driver's side of the car juet in front of the front wheel Then the con- vereation took pla ce Ag eoon a8 he finighed aeking questione of the unknown [ale , both1 the inale and the f'enale continued walking quickly toward the end of the parking lot in a southerly direction. The three of then then went to the Anbaesador Hotel and just as arrived there from the pa rking lot they observed approrimately five pla ck ana Thite rol cars pull up _ There were many people in the area and he recalls that several women we re crying and that one woman Ja € quite hyeterical They heard that more than one person had ehot Senator KENNEDY E0 his sister ANDREA 8 uggested thar the two unknown individuales Who had just pageed che car, appea red very strange to her_ His sieter then 8aw a plainclothes policeman to whom they rold the story _ As aoon a: the policeman hea rd the etory he wa ved two uniformed officere to him and motioned to then the direction of the flight of the two unknawn individuals whom they had seen. After being interviewed in depth by the plainclothes policeman they went into the hotel His 9ieter bought him and hie friend, RTTTNER,a drink and they #acched television at various locations in the hotel, one being the RAFFERTY head - qua rters Somet ime during this period ne telephoned his father and told hin that the area had been blocked off and that he Waf unable to return hoie at that time He advised that the reason they had talked to the policeman Ta? that only ti:o o1 three minutes had elapeed from the time they had heard the 8 hooting on the radio until the time that they eaw the two unkn)wn individuals _ He haz seen the photograph of JUAN ROMERO and ROVRO does not resemble che unknown male individual whom ie saw _ He described che unknown individual ae followe : 196 they pat 18 ================================================== Page 4 ================================================== 3 LA 56-156 (1) Race White Sex Male Age 39 r8 Height 5'5" to Build La rge Hair Da rk and long Eyes No glaeses Drees Khaki pants; dark shirt or sweater with long sleeves ; and 3 small brim hat (2) Sex Female Race Caucaeian Hair Shorter length dark in color Dreee Knee length coat BUSCH adviged that he did not see Senator KENNEDY at any time during the evening nor does he recall seeing a female in a polka dot dreee He advieed that the unknown female Thon he 8aw: could have been wearing a polka dot dreee but he could not tell due to the coat ehe Tas wea ring _ 197 yea 5'5" ================================================== Page 5 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION 1 Date 211/68 TED CHARA CH, 5712 La Mirada Avenue , Apartment 25, Los Angeles , California 9 telephone 462-3421, when called for an appointment related the following: Mr CHARACH said that he was a freelance communications (voice man) who worked with some of the freelance recorders and photographers including JEFF BRENT of Continental Recordings Concerning hingelf as a potential witness , Mr _ CHARACH said that during the actual shooting he was in the Embassy Room and did not see the shooting nor did he see STRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN _ Immediately after the shooting, Mr CHARACH secured several names of persons in the crowd who claimed to have seen the shooting. They are as follows : GEORGE GREENE , a Negro, phone nuber 753-3305 JIM LOWE, phone number 296-3506 MIKE WAYNE , who had a Webster phone number , but full number or address not obtained due to the confusion FRANK CONTE , who appeared to be known to one JOHN If MILMAN (phonetic) of the Angeles Times CONTE was relating he has seen a "wild_ eyed man" running out of the kitchen after the shooting_ This statement apparently had no connection with revealing a possible suspect as it was later confirmed through etatements made by persons presen' that the man running was attempting to to a phone to call the ambulance _ It was not known if CONTE was a first hand witness to the shooting or not_ GABOR KADAR, President of Diplomatic Sales , 309 North Ogden Drive, Los Angeles 2 90036, phone number 934-2168 /9/68 al Los_Angeless California -Fileo_Angeles_56_156 On 198 L SA LESLIE F WARREN /pjc Date dictatdV/10L68 by containg neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI: It i8 the property of the FBI and is loaned to This document your agency; it &nd its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency. "Los get ================================================== Page 6 ================================================== 2 EA 56-156 KADAR was a witness to the KENNEDY shooting according to the statements he made at the scene when being interviewed rather extensively by TV newsmen Mr CHA RACH said that automobile bumper stickers pertaining to a conspiracy to kill JOHN F KEENNEDY were being distributed in the parking lot and around the Ambasgador Hotel during the Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY S campaign party by persons not known to CHARA CH _ The latter obtained oneof these bumper stickers which was taken away from him by MORT GOODMAN of the Mort Goodman Company , a public relations firm which handled the Ambassador Hotel account GOODMAN was in the press room at the KENNEDY party at the time and was protesting against the circulization of the bumper stickers There has been some hearsay statements around town according to Mr CHARA CH that SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN and some of his associates had about a year ago appeared on a Joe Pyne TV Show on Channel 11, Los Angeles , this show at the time being produced by MARVE GRAY . This was about the time of the outbreak of war in the Middle East . 199 ================================================== Page 7 ================================================== FD-3U2 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU CF {NVESTIGATION Date 7/16/68 Mr _ ANEHONY CLIFTON Reporter 9 "London Sunday Ties" 9 201 Ezst 'Znd Street, Mcl York, New York, stated that he covered tke Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY Presidential 'ampaign oft and OIl since before the Indiana Primary Prior to Eenator KENTEDY S apeech on June 4, 1568, ZLIFTON wa8 in the press room in tre Ambeasador Hotei, Los Angeles Celifornia; and during the speech; he was 10 the rear ena risht 22 Senator KENNEDY up a couple of steps in an alcove which had beer roped off for Senator RENNEDY 1 S staff When Sena or KENNEDY tuined 0 leave the stage, CEIFTON thoughi that Senator KENNEDY was going, downstairs` to- a ceicbration for Senator KENNEDY S workers CLIFTON tnus headed for a couple of corridors through the kitchen [,en he heard a crush of glass People we} e hysterical and shouting "He S been shot" 'They were rushing about knocking over aiasses CLIFTGi; started forryard to a roon wheze the people were rushing Trom He saw PIERRE SALINGER and' asked hin 1f Senator KENNEDY had been Shot SALINGER said several people were shot . CLIFTON could not get closer and did not see Senator KENNELE cr SIRHAN SIRHAN . He has rever seer SIRHAN SIRHA# CLIFTON did rot see the Shooting and did not hear #ke ~shets _ CLIFTON went outside tke hotel where cars normally up in 2 driveway . He wa8 alone 2C0 7/16/68, New York, New York NY 44-1640 On File #_ SA FRANCIS L, CASHIN : Jrf 7716768 by Date dictated This documen} conlains neilh er recorm endations nor conclusions of the FBI: It ` is Ihe properly of tho FBI ond Is loaned to agency; il and Ils contenls ara nc: Io be dlstrlbuled oulside Your agency: pull Your ================================================== Page 8 ================================================== 2 MiY 44-1640 There was a convertible car parked in the driveway. It was a dark color, possibly green : There were about r8ur men talking to a man who claimed ne was Senator KENNEDY s . driver inis man was arout 45 to 50: ycars old, tall and .WIth graying hair. He had been Senator KENNEDY S driver for the previous couple of weeks The driver said he had been there since 11:50 P~Ma or 11:55 PoM, to pick, u2 Senator KENNFDY : CLIFION was of the impression that the drizs- 63 going to take. Seiator KENNEDY +0 another clebration The driver said that before he Yas aware tnat anything happened inside, ne saw three men come out of the hotel, falf carrying a fourth man The driver said that one of these men said "Let's 'him away before the M cops come A1l four got into a yellow cab_ The individuals talking to the driver were reporters but not reporters covering the 'capaign as CLIFTON did not recognige them and does not know the; Ali of them got together and later concluded that this wa; probably IRA GOLDSZEIN who was shot in the foot. cnly. get ================================================== Page 9 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date 7/18/68 RICHARD L. COHEN als0 known as Richard Rosen, 11030 Aqua Vista , Studio City 9 California voluntarily appeered at the Los Angeles Office of the FBI at which time he furnished the following signed statement : Angeles California July 12; 1968 Richard L. Cohen known as Rick Rosen, 11030 Aqua Vis studio City 9 California 3 furnish the following 8igned s tatement to Richard P. Doucette, who has identified himself to me as a Spec ial Agent of the. Federal Bureau of Investigation_ No threats or promises have been made to me and I furnish this statement of my own free will. "On June 4 , 1968 , I was at the Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Boulevard 5 Los Angeles , California 5 when Senator Robert F Kennedy gave his Victory speech follow 4 ing the California primary election_ At the time Senator Kennedy gave his speech, I was standing on the steps of the podium, in the Embassy Room, from which he gave his speech _ "After Senator Kennedy finished his speech , Jack Gallivan, Mr Uno , Inanager for the hotel, and I s tarted to lead the waj toward the Colonial Roonl where Senator Kennedy planned to {hank the members of the press _ As We wvere passing through the kitchen area I heard a loud pop , like a firecracker, from my rear and I turned around to see what caused the noise_ Senator Kennedy was starting to fall to the floor and I saw a Ian holding a black gun ; the gun was going off and I could see fire coming out the back Almost at the same time men were grabbing for the gun I remeiber that a total of five shots were being fired. By the time the last shot was fired, the man holding the gun was subdued by several men _ 9 including Rosie Grier, Rafer Johngon and Jack Gallivan. /12/68 Los Angeles , California -Filf?s_Angeles 56-156 On at 202 SA 8 STEPHEN C_ MONKA JR_ and RICHARD P DOUCETTE /RPD / jmb 7/16/68 by Date dictated Thi8 document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI: It i8 the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency. "Log 0) ta , ================================================== Page 10 ================================================== 2 IA 56-155 "I immediately went t0 the ST ing Coors near the restrooms 9 which lead into the Embassy Room, and asked two sec urity guards who had heard the shots and were coming into the kcitchen, not to allow any more people in_ The guerds tool out their guns and tried to calm the crowd "After awhile_ 9 I saw the ian who had fired the shots being teken out of the area I have since seen photographs 0f this man and he is known to me as SIRHAN BISHA Ra SIRHAN. "After Senator KENNEDY had been taken to Central Receiving Hospital, I remained at the hotel until 8:00 AM when I went to school at Valley College 9 Van Nuyg 9 California_ ii have read the for going statement consisting of this and one additional handwritien page _ I now sign it because it 18 true to the best of ny knowledge "s/ Richard Coheil 11030 Aqua Vista studio California "Witnesses 8 S / Richard P Doucette, Special Agent 9 FBI, Los Angeles , California_ 9 7/12/63. s / Stephen C_ Monka Jr Spec ial Agent , Los Angeles , California_ 9 7/12/63.i' 203 Gitv, FBI, ================================================== Page 11 ================================================== FD-302 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date_ 7/10/68_ ALISTAIR COOKE ; Nassau Point Road Cutchogue New York 9 advised that he headed a group of 'fagiishtdoogueiises consisting of himself, PETER JENKLNS and DAVID GRAY covering the various candidates who were running in the Presidential primary He stated that DAVID GRAY covered the EUG ENE MC CARTHY campaign, and that JENKINS covered the ROBERT KENNEDY campaign _ COOKE advised that on the of the primary election in California PETER JENKINS returned to Washington, D.C: , and DAVID GRAY continued to follow the MC CARTHY campeign at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California COOKE advised that on the of the primary election COOKE , left by plane from Sen Francisco, California, to Los Angeles and stayed with a friend, INGER STEVENS , at her home COOKE advised that on the evening of the primary election, June 1968, together with STEVENS , went to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , California, where the campaign of ROBERT KENNEDY was being conducted and attempted upon arriving at the hotely which was late in the evening; to enter the ballroom of the hotel and was denied entrance by a guard exact .type unrecalled: He stated that the guard refused to eliow COOKE , to enter Ihe ballroom unless COOKE, had a 'Gpeciai press badge which was the type of press badge allowed to other newspapermen but which he , COOKE , did not possess . COOKE adviged that the next moment a man from the KENNEDY party name unrecalled, recognized him, COOKE, and related that he COOKE , could be allowed to enter the ballroom However , he stated at this moment CHUCK BAILEY , of the Minneepolis Star, joined him and discouraged COOKE, from going into the ballroom stating that it was too crowded He stated that BAILEY also related that PIERRE SALINGER had promised that when ROBERT KENNEDY was through with his speech in the ballroom that KENNEDY 9 would the newspapermen 8. private audience 284 On__ 7/5/68 0 Cutchogues New York File N_44-1640 by SA ANTHONY SCUDERL/axb Date dictated 7/5/68 This documenf 'contains neither recommendolions nor conclusions of Ihe FBI; Ii is Ihe property ot Ihe FBI ond is looned to Your ogency; il ond its conlents ore nol fo be distribuled: oulside agency. aay day he; 4, he , ne , nim, he, give Your ================================================== Page 12 ================================================== NY 144-1640 2 _ COOKE pointed out that the first newspaperman that he came in contact with moments prior to coming in contact with BAILEY , was TOM OCHINER , Washington correspondent of the St Louis Post Dispatch, who came and went COOKE advised that then the conversation with BAILEY followed in that BAILEY had related that SALINGER: had promised that a privete audience with ROBERT KENNEDY would be forthconing following KENNEDY S speech within the ballroom _ COOKE advised that he was standing at this moment in the dining room which was outside the swinging doors which led into the pantry room where subsequently ROBERT KENNEDY was ass8ssinated_ COOKE advised that while standing in the dining room outside the swinging doors he heard what sounded like the clattering of trays coming from the pantry room: He stated: that BAILEY having heard the same noise bolted from COOKE S , company into the pantry room through the swinging doors _ COOKE advised that moments later he too left the company 0f STEVENSs who was in the dining room at all times , and entered through the swinging doors and observed RAFER JOHNSON and ROOSEVELI GRHER jumping on a male individual whom he later learned to be SIRHAN STRHAN _ He stated that there was other confusion the pantry room and could only see one individual who was "aitbleedheg" from his head and who was a newspaperman named SCHRODER He stated that he could not take much of this and Snaonetic}he left pantry roOm through the- swinging doors_ COOKE advised that moments later he returned into the pantry and could see ROBERT KENNEDY on the ground and ETHEL KENNEDY cradling the Senator in her arms COOKE advised that he then left the pantry &gain and that there was still utter confusion in the area He stated that at this time he remained in the dining room area 235 his, ================================================== Page 13 ================================================== NY 44-1640 3. in the company of STEVENS and that in the next ten minutes to one-half hour he observed the swinging doors of the pantry open and out came STRHAN S IRHAN in the custody of a number of policemen and ROOSEVELT GREER and that SIRHAN STRHAN was ushered out of the pantry room through the dining roor and out of sight COOKE advised that in the dining room following the assassination of KENNEDY he observed a stout woman pounding 1i the table and screaming, "Goddamned stinking country He stated that this woman was presumably 8 KENNEDY campaign worker and was obviously upset over what had happened _ He stated that he could not even recall what she was wearing_ COOKE advised that the above when SIRHAN S TRHAN was being ushered out of the pantry room in custody, was the first glinpse he had had of S IRHAN and that he had not observed SIRHAN earlier_ COOKE advised that he did not observe any woman in 8 polka dot dress _ COOKE advised that he did not witness the assassination- COOKE advised that he wrote an account of his observations in II an English newspaper , Guardian under dateline of June 6, 1968, and made available to Special Agent ANTHONY SCUDERI a copy of this newspaper conteining his article_ He stated that he has also broadcast an account of his observations entitled, "Bad Night in Los Angeles #1 which was broadcast over the British Broadcasting System and that he has madearrangements to make available the tape on this broadcast to Federal Bureau of Investigation representatives in New York City. COOKE advised that there remains one unanswered question in his mind and that was with the apparent security: in effect at the Ambassador Hotel leading into the ballroom how was SIRHAN SIRHAN able to by the security setup _ 2J6 "The get ================================================== Page 14 ================================================== Zuplicato Kulhor's Precf 40 BAD NIGHT IN. LOS ANG BLES It does not seem nearly so ag0 as that t] trade of the foreign correspondent caught the fancy of the Hollywood producers. And for reason. Hitler was 0n the loose, and Europe ivas crackling with crises and atrocities, and some of the best American reporters of the time-_John Gunther and Vincent Sheean and Ed Murrow-_always seemed to be on hand, came to look like heroic agents of the American people, who were fascinated and repelled at distance by the violence of Europe and who, I must say, indulged a deal of self-righteousness in parroting the 91 ancient American lament about "ld, sick Europe Well, I was saying, the foreign correspondent was in vogue. And soon Hollywood created a romantic stereotype of hin. First in the Scout version of Joel McCrea in a trench coat, then in the subtler variation of Bogart, who acted so tough and seemed as tricky as Goebbels but who _ for all his smoker's cough and his appraisal of pass- females__was secretly o the side of all men and h) true. This attractive stereotype was not only larger than life but luckier than any journalist or dead. He followed thirty long years good They long good Boy cynical ing good living ================================================== Page 15 ================================================== J 1 {4 * n () I' 1" 4 } % R / ( ^ uncrringly in the tracks of dictators and tipped off ministers markedl for Anschluss. He was behind the curtain shen a signed an instrument of abdication. He knew the man who shot the minister. He decoded the vital message that gare the date of the invasion. He was always 21 where the action was. In life, it is not like that. Only by the wildest freak is a reporter, after on the hop, actually present at a single accidcntal conyulsion of history. Mostly, We write the coroner's inquest, the account of the funeral, the recon- struction of thc riot, the trial of the SPY, not the hatch- of thc plot: On thc night of Tuesday, June 4 1968, for the first time in thirty ycars, I found myself, by oe casual chance in a thousand, on hand: in a narrow serving pantry of the Am- bassador Hotcl in Los Angeles, a place that, I suppose, will nercr bc wiped out of my memory as a sinister a Roman circus run amok, and a charnel house. It would be false to say, as I should truly like to say, that I am sorry I was there. It is more complicated than that: Nothing SO simple aS a conflict between professional and human revulsion, be- tieen having the feelings and having to sit down and write about them. Yet; because I saw it for once not a5 an event to comment on but as a thunderbolt assault on the senses, my own view of the whole now and later, is bound to be from the stomach up to the head. Visceral, as we say: I dont imagine that if hand falls on a live wire you are in any condition to measure the or judge the sense f the regulations or moralize about the electric com- panys dereliction of duty: So my view of this miserable episode is probably strange and I ought not to ascribe to anybody else the or color ef the opinions that foated up later from my muddled sensa- 7208 foreign king prime many years prison ing alley, pride thing, your charge public safety shape ================================================== Page 16 ================================================== 1} ^ D N [ G M T. IN 1 0 $ A N € E L E $ 305 tions. I warn You about this, because I feel unmoved by some ideas that others feel strongly, aiid on the other hand I have some fears that others may not share. since this is a more personal talk that I could have hoped, I had better tell you 291 how it came about: On that Tuesday afternoon, I was in San Francisco, on one of those jewellike that are revealed when the wrapping of the morning has been lifted, I had no great urge to fly to the vast spread of Los Angeles. On the contrary, Ihad hoped to the padding down the fairways of the Olympic Club, which run like cathedral aisles between superb stands of cypresses But it was election and Los Angeles is now the hub of California politics,if only because _ of the fifty-eight coutnies of California--Los Angeles County alone accounts for 48 per cent of the vote: For the purpose of an election dateline, San Francisco, four hundred-odd miles away, was not much better than New York So it had to be done. I was going to have to report the general atmos- of the winner's camp and the loser's. I had seen scores of these election-night entertainments: are amiable but blowsy affairs. But to give me a fresh view of a ceremony that had staled by familiarity, and also to make some compensation to a hostess who had ofered me a bed, I had asked her if she would like to mooch around the town with me and see what we could see. She was agog with anticipation, for just as a correspondent thinks a movie actress must have a fascinating life, so a movie actress thought a correspondent's life must be glamorous in the ex- treme. high in the Santa Monica amid the scent of the, eucalyptuses and the pepper trees, we sat for a while after the closed and waited for a sign of the outcome: Yoii dont have to wait long in these computer The' So, days fog spend day day, City. phere They foreign So, hills, polls days. {299 ================================================== Page 17 ================================================== T ^ I K A 1} 0 U T 1 M E R I C A Oregon result was exactly predicted by the Brain twelve minutes after the closed, when the returns already in were less than: one per cent: Somchow, the Brain was having more trouble with California. Party politics are, for various historical reasons, very loosely ,organized in that state, and, for one its northern end tends to contradict the verdict of the south: So when the early returns from the north showed McCarthy in a commanding lead it nothing: Los Angeles County, with its heavy working-class vote and its swarms of Negroes (or blacks, as we are now more respect- fully meant to say ) , and its Mexican-Americans, was fairly certain to go heavily for Kennedy: Pretty sOon, the gap be- tween' McCarthy's tally and Kennedys began to shrink and it became clear that, a miracle, McCarthy would not be able to withstand the avalanche of Los Angeles votes that began to move in for Kennedy: The computers were silent, but the writing was o the wall: Just before eleven, then, we took off for the McCarthy hotel, and there was no doubt when we there that the college boys and the miniskirt girls and the wandering poets and the spruced-up student leaders and the chin-up McCarthy staff were whistling in 8 graveyard: There was a rock band that whooped it up all the louder to drown out the inevitable news. would pause awhile, and another ominous sta- tistic would be fashed, and a12 m.c. would shout; "Are we downhearted?" And the ballroom crowd would roar its de- fance of the obvious. The Ambassador, a comparatively venerable hotel miles away on Wilshire Boulevard, was the Kennedy headquarters. And that was the place to be: We took off, and 8J did lots of other people, so that when we turned-into the drive- way we lined up behind scores of cars containing all those sensible who love a winner. At last we into the 210 306 Big polls thing, proved saving got They 29 9 long people got ================================================== Page 18 ================================================== n ^ D N ] C H T IN L 0 $ 4 N G E L E $ 307 hotel lobby and a tumult of singing, cheering, ad hobnobbing: Election parties give out innumerable tickets and badlgcs to out the rabble, but no one is more aware than a winning candidate that on such occasions the rabble are the people: So You can usually drift with the multitude and nobody asks for a credential. It was not SO at the Ambassador. Guards and cops blocked the entrance to the ballroom, and I doubt that a pass- port and a birth certificate and a personal recommendation from Senator Kennedy could have you in, own general press credentials were useless. The lobbies were too packed 2' to lift an elbow and too deafening to talk in. My companion and I screamed at each other through the din of all these happy people and we decided that the whole safari had been. 2 mistake. We turned and started down the corridor for the outdoors,and for home. On our left, about feet along, was another door to another room and a of people trying and failing ta through. There was a shaking his head continu- ously and' pushing people back and behind him a young Kennedy staff man turning down everybody. This mal shouted over the bobbing heads, "Mr. Cooke; come 0, can in here:" We were folded in through the mob and emerged, as from a chute, into an open place: a cool, half- empty room, a small private room of the hotel stripped and fitted out as & press room. There were two newsmen I knew and a radio man untangling cables, and a swarthy photographer in a sweatshirt up his cameras;' and one or two middle-aged women and a half-dozen Western Union girls, and a fat girl in a Kenfedy: boater , a young reporter in & beard, and, I guess, his girl It was a perfect private way through to the ballroom. But one of my reporter friends said, "You dontt want to gct in happy keep My got fifty pack guard get you get dining Jocking 11 ================================================== Page 19 ================================================== T' ^ I 6 ^ 1} 0 U T ^ M % R I ( ^ there: Its murdcr in there: Anyway, Pierre"_Picrre Salinger "has promised that when Bobby through his he'l come through into this room and talk with us." It was an unbelievable. break: We sat down and had 8 drink and heard the tclegraph girls tapping out copy and tried not to wince at the television set in a corner that was tuned up to h a howling decibel level. few minutes Jater the television commentators gave way to the ballroom scene, and Bobby was up there with his beaming helpers and his ecstatic little wife, and he was thank- everybody and saying things must change, and so on to Chicago. It was about eighteen minutes after midnight: We were standing outside the swinging doors that gave oto a serving pantry he would come through on his way from the ballroom to us. These doors had no glass peepholes, but we'd soon hear the pleasant bustle of him coming through greeting the colored chef and various waiters and bus who had lined up to shake his hand: Then: Above the boon of the television there was a banging of sounds. Like somebody dropping a rack of trays, or banging a single tray a wall. Half a dozen of uS were startled enough to head for the swinging doors, and suddenly we were jolted through by a fying of other men_ It had just happened: It was a narrow lane he had to come through, for there were two steam tables and somebody had stacked up them those trellis gates, with artificial leaves stuck o them, that use to fence a dance band off from the floor: The only light was the blue-white light of three fluorescent tubes slotted in the ceil- We heard nothing but a howling jungle of cries and obscenities and saw a turmoil of arms and fearful faces and fying limbs,' and two enormous backs_of Roosevelt Grier; 212 3o8 speech gets ing boys bassy repetition against wedge long against they ing: ================================================== Page 20 ================================================== A B ^ D N I G H T I N L 0 S A N G E L E $ 309 the football player, and Rafer Jolnson, the Olympic cham- pion--piling oto a of blue jeans on a steam table: There was a head 0n the floor streaming blood, and somebody a Kennedly boater under and the blood trickled down the sides like chocolate Sauce 0n an iced cake There were splashes of flash bulbs, and infernal heat, and the button eyes of Ethel Kennedy turned to cinders She was wrestling or slapping a young man and he was saying, "Listen, lady, Im hurt, too." And then she was on her knees cradling him briefly, and in another little oF light on the greasy floor was a huddle of clothes and staring out of it the face of Kennedy, like the stone face of a child's 0n a' cathedral tomb- I had, and have, no idea of the stretch of time, or any immediate sense of the event itself. Everybody has a vulner- able organ that reacts to shock, and mine is the stomach: My lips were like emery paper and I was very sick and hollow. Ipattered back into the creamy-green dining room. And oly then did I hear somebody "Kennedy's shot, shot him:" I heard a girl nearby moan, no, not And while I was thinking, "That was in Dallas; 11 a dlark woman suddenly bounded to a table and beat it and howled like a wolf, "Godldam stinking country! Nol Nol No! Nol Nol Nol Nol" Another woman attacked the bright tele- vision screen and the image of the placid commentators, who 2b had not got the news. companion was fingering a cigarette package like : paralytic. I sat her down and went back in Everybody wanted to make space and but everybody also to see the worst: By now, the baying and the moaning had carried over into the ballroom, and it sounded like a great hospital bombed and in It may have been a minute Or twenty minutes later when a of cops bristling with shotguns burst toward uS through the swinging doors of the pantry with their bundle pair put it, pool Bobby effigy feeling genteel yell, (No, they again!" My yet again. air, wanted panic. squad 213 ================================================== Page 21 ================================================== 310 T A ! " A # ( if T ^ M [ R | € ^ of thc black curly hcad and the jeans, and thc tight, small bchincl, and the hcad, and a face totally dazed. Well, the ncxt morning, when I saw and heard the in his gentle, faltering English, I still could not believe that he was about the squalid, appalling scene in a hotel pantry that I had been a oF and would always be a of: I don't dloubt that such an experience is a trauma; Andl because of it, and fve later, I still cannot rise to tho editorial pages and the gencral lamentations about : sick society. I for one do not feel like an2 accessory to a crime And I reject, almost as a frivolous obsccnity, the notion of collective guilt, the idea that I or the American people killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Martin Luther and Robert Francis Kennedy: I don't believe, either, that you conceived Hitler, and that in some unfathomable sense all Europe was responsible for the extermination of six million Jews; With Edmund Burke, I dont know how you can indict a whole nation_ To this nOW roaringly fashionable theme is a folly: It is difficult to resist, because it provides emergency resuscitation to one's ` self-esteem_ It deflects the search for a villain to some big corporate culprit. It offers cheap reassurance, cut-rate wisdom, but is really a way of opting out Of the human situation: a situation that includes plty for the dead Kennedys and the living, compassion 'for: Sirhan Sirhan, and sympathy for the Anerican nation at a time when the vicious side of its Frontier tradition-_to which it has owed its vigor and variety_is surging up again, for reasons that no one has accurately diagnosed, Isaid as much as this to a young friend: And he replied, "Mc too. I don't feel implicated in the murder of John or Rrmnedy. But whcn Martin Luther is killed, the limp Pope talking part part days 7847 King deep me, great nw King ================================================== Page 22 ================================================== Above page is lines SKORT A B A D N I G H T I N L 0 $ ' A N G F L E $ 811 'only people who know that you and f are not like the killers are you and I." It is a tremendous sentence and exposes the present 'danger to America and its order. The more people "talk about collective guilt; the more will feel it. For 'after three hundred years of subjection and lively prejudice, any desperate black man o deluded outcast is likely to act as if it were true: that the American people, and not their iderelicts, are the villains: Ero d 215 2Y public they ================================================== Page 23 ================================================== THE GUARDIAN Thursday June 1968 218 ================================================== Page 24 ================================================== Kobertt Renteay on tne HOOf f Inc ADrssal (or fOtel: 1rs Reluuaeuy-IS 4I1 Tz& iureyl sU Bi: A Celirium despair Jo, a17' CO1 tha Hiq after victory roar Pa: I ihc the AT MIDNIGHT 01L Junc 4 a score Or' So Of.ncwspaper men Trere ii # r00m adjoininig reli thc hoiel pantry through which Senator Kennedy was going to talk to then after his ing victory speech in the ballroom 0f the Hotel Ambassador; Los Angcles. ALISTAIR it CQOKE was an1ong themn. Here is his account of the scene livc Wol An hour or so before mid- that once the Senator hacl : swung back and forth ald we visi it was already clear that saluted his army he would g0 woulcl peek in 0n the ohscene not nighaket a was setling in at the down from the ballroom stage disorder and ree] back again to spe Beverly Hilton Hotel_ where and coine to see US through the sit dlown, then to glare in " stupe- I the youngsters for McCarthy kitchen that separated our fied way at thc nearest friend, ho1 retreat ' fron thc ballroom: to ` steady one boozy woan with sait roamed in great numbers in It was just after. midnight A black-rimmed eyes who was and around the grand ball- surge of chcers and a great pounding a table' and roon. swivelling 0f lights heralded hini, Goddamned stinking country | t The percentage gap betwccn and soon he Ias up on the The fat was babbling faintly Ij McCarthy' s lead over Kennedy rostruin with his eager button:: like a accidenil like someone in a 1 Was shrinking evcry quarter eyed #ife and Jesse Unruh,. his motor g hour or So. as the returns from massive campaign manager It Out in the chaos of the ball-, a Los Angelcs County began to took minutes to get the feedback room_ Kennedy's brother-in-lalw i overtake McCarthy's anticipated boon out of the mikes but at was begging fot doctors. And n strength in Northern California. last there was a kind of sub- back in thic pantry they were It was a young and doughty dued uproar and he said he first: howling for doctors: It was hard crowd gamely but hopelessly wanted to' express nly high to see who had been badly hit_ € trying to,keep Its spirit up_ regard to Don Drysdale for' his One face was streaming with f' In this counlry, at anly rate, six great shut-outs_ (Drysdale is blood. It was that of Pau) only the very pure in heart love a baseball pitcher' whose Tuesday 'Schrade, a union official, and a loser. And It seemed 2 night fcat of holding his sixth il came out that he got off" idea to move o1 to the_victory successivc opposing teams to no lightly_ boy at 'the Ambassador_ Wilshire runs had made him a legend.) A woman had a purple bruise Boulevard is sne of the earliest It was the right, the wry Ken- on her forehead_ Another mnaI) - of the long straight avenues that necly nole. Ie thankec 2 list of was dlown. Kennedly was looking biscct the hugeeast-Ivest spread helpers by name_ He thanked up like a stunred; choirboy fron of lhis city and at such " time al those `joyal Mexican Ameri- an open shirt and a limp huddlc it seened as long &5 8 Roman cans and all my friends in thc of limbs_ SomehoW, in the road_ The hotel's driveway was black comnmunity Then he dependable fashion of ' the faith, af a miniature freeway in a traffic stiffened his 'gestures ancl Hijs a priest had appeared: janl, and the human traffic inside style and. said it only went to 8 the foyer was almost worse. show that all those promises The arrest and all those paity caucuscs.have Glare of light indicated that the people of the We `Ieie shored back and the Se United States want 2 change @n But at last, through the Hc congratulated McCarthy on caneranen were darting and strulting cqps and guards and fighting for his principles: He screaming and flashing their tbe elated `crowd and the din of hoped that nOW there might_ be bulbs. We fell back again from 8 whistles and cheers it was 2 debate between the Vice- the howling pantry into. the Bossoon, to reach the North President and perhaps myself_ 9> haven of the pressroom. 3 a bone-White glare of He flashed his teelh again in his 'light seen at the far end of the chuckling rabhity smile and Sudderly; the doors opened 21 lobby: ended, 3iy thanks to all 0E you again and Six (" eight police had Security is a fghting word at ~and now it$ on t0 Chicago and a curly hlack head anc a bluez the Kennedy headcuarters any- let' s win tliere_ jeancc hocly in their grip. Hc 7 and not without reason 'was a swarthy, thick-featurcd You to have special Cheers and tears unshaven little man with a liny Kennedy press card to acquire ruip and a head fallen over_ a; the privilege of suffocatec 4 delirium of chcers and if he had been clubbed 01' had S1 in the ballroom, heina no other lights ~and tcars and a rising faintedl perhaps: Ja credentials for a reporter would throb of (( We want Bobby We He was lifted out into,the big 'do. I Had only a genera] press want, Bobby We want Bobby !" lobby and Is soon off in some card McCarthy hadge_ He tumbled down fror the mysterious place I: in custody_ 8 driver's liceuce and such otler hody- On the television Huntley and absurdities. So I turned back and rostrI1m withi his aides and Brinkley were going on in their thought 0f fighting thc way back guards about hin He would be urbane way about the trends 5' home. with us in 20 seconds_ half a in Los Angeles and the fading minute al most: We watched the McCarthy Jead in Northern a But just alongside the guarded swinging dloors of tle kiichen. California. 8 entrance to the north ballroom Orcr' the gabble of the television was another door around which there was sudldenly from thc A large woman went over and 0 8 pack of ecstat}c faces, black clirection of the kitchen a crackle beat on the screen; #S if to batter and Whitc, was jostling for somnc of sharp' sounds. Like a balloon thesc liome-screen experts out , 0f 8 kind of privilege view. Therc -their self-possession Wc had 'to was 4 guard therc, too, anc 4 popping. take her and sa,V 6: Steady and W" Kennedy mnan isho recognised An exploded flasl bulb mnayhe, Don t do that: And sudldenly me, caught in the general; wasli, more like 2 man hanging a teay the screen , went berserk, like a IS) squeezed me through into an several times against 4 wall_ A home novic projector on the Iz aliost empty roon. It was likc: half-clozen or' So 0f us trottedl to kitchen dloor and at that Turn to page 9, col_ 8 C being heached by 2 tidal wayc_ Zemkitehene doga 1ited coltapscat Kennedy and his aides had been Takirg 2 breatlaev" roming 0xi throvgh the . pantry The Was [o longer thau Tt Wals now secn t0 be not 2 ReSY #f-ThE about Rlace [eet. It was a smnall kitchen but Rl regular serving private dining r00n, iiticd out &s pantry with great long tables NEWS a press roonl. There was a anc racks of plates against the trestle table against onc 1oxi wall_ Joadedl with typewriters and tele: Hc was smiling anc shaking ERHC TABARLY yesterday and standing by were a hands with 3 #aiter; then & chel, withdrew Pen Duick IV {rom C Phones_ middle-aged lady operatois in a high whitc hat Lots of the Ohservei transatlaniic f taking a breathcr Ncgroes; naturally and they yacht race, and two Britons f In onle corner was 3 booming were glowing with pride. fot" he were returning for repairs to ielevision set suitching between was their 'man_ Then those their craft-_but the 'other coin- 1 thc rumblings of defeat at the sounds from Somewhere, from 4 petitors 8 NcCarthy hotel and thc clamour press of people On1 or near 4 were making good J of in the adjaccnt ball- steam tahie Anci hefore You progress (report, hack page) 1 room_ tictorX fat gir] vearing 3 could synchronise your Sight and k Kennedy straw hat sucked a coke thought, Kennecly was a prone Cold Britain is to draw $1,400 through 4 'straw 'There werc bundle on the grcasy fIoor and millions from the Internalional 15 or"'" 20, 0f uS at mnost, exchans two 0r" threc othrs had gone Monetary Func, available undler 5 ing campaigu reminiscences dlown with him_ There was an stanchy prrangemcnts, 10 reorgan; naking the usua] hin d s ig h ( explosion of shouls and scrcams isc dlcht arrangements_ Gold and cracks at the Kennedys and the high . woaning cries of cOnvertihle currency reserres [ell Pierre Salinger Fennedy's mini-skirtedl` girls_ by Cll millions lasi month (hack press secretary, had promised Tnc dloors cf tlie pantry page) screaming; girl high good terc hiaa N and ================================================== Page 25 ================================================== Despair after the he roar of ife he 'dy victory me he Continued fiom page 0nC vas blink;_ And' the blurred, whirl- scene we kiad watched in the Ice. filesh came ~obbling in as a air- movie. 148: Then all thc facts were fired lys 01 intoned. from the screen. Mrs Roosevelt Grier; & 3001b coloured 'led football player and a Kennedy man, had grahbed the,man with ent the gUn and overwhelmed hvin) . A Kennedy bodyguard had tafen er. the a 22 calibre The na- maniac had fired straight at nc Kennedy and sprayed the other bullets around the narrow pantry_ US Kennedy WaS nOW at the_ taS receiving hospital and soon transferred to the Good Samari- in tan_ Three neurologists were on )ut their way He had been hit in In the hip, perhaps, but surely in el the shoulder and the mastoid area. There was the first sinis- ter notc about 3 bullet in the JsC led _ brain: In the timelessness of nausez and dumb disbelief westood and sat and stood again and sighed at each other and went inlo thc Itz- pantry again and looked at the ily , rack of plales an] the snears er of bloocl on the floor and thie Jn} - furious guards and the jumping- 'dy jack photographers: er It was too much to take_ Thc of only to dlo was to touch in the shouldler of the Kennedy man lly who had let YOu in and get. out on to the strect and drive home 'rs to the ton of the silent Santa ", AIonica Hills , where pandeno- er nium is rebroadcast in tranquil fe lity and where a little unshaven 10 gly amuck in a. pantry is slow]v brought into as a bleak le and shoddy villain 0f history. t Telephone threat v@ Los Angcles, Junc 3 Jt Three: weokc '218 ing gun IO to AW thing focus ================================================== Page 26 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64 ) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION 7/12/68 Date WILLIAM J_ COX, 3974 West Ingraham, was interviewed at hig residence and furnished the following information: He was a volunteer for Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY and at 7:30 PM on June 4, 1968 he went to the Anbassador Hotel to await the results of the California primary election. On arrival at the Ambassador Hotel, he went immediately to the Enbassy Roor and remained there the entire evening_ He was in the Embassy Room &t the time of Senator KENNEIIY S victory speech and shortly after KENNEDY left the podiun he heard several loud bangs which he a88 umed were breaking balloons There was a great deal of shouting and pushing by the crowd, but at first he ass umed this was just part of the victory celebration_ As he was attempting to leave the Enbas sy Room, ANN FERGUSON &sled him to ERWIN STROLL because STROLL had been shot in the leg_ At first he thought FERGUSON was joking; but then he saw STROLL S leg had blood on it. He 9 along with DAVID ESQUITH and another white male, unknown to him, helped carry STROLL fron the Embassy Room to the entrance of the Ambas sador Hotel where they placed him in a taxicab_ DAVID ESQUITH &ccompanied STROLL to the Central Receiving Hospital while he attempted to return to the Embassy Room. While a ttempting to reenter the Embassy Room, he met Mrs _ TIFFANY JONAs and ANN FERGUSON _ Mrs JONAS suggested that they gc to the Central Receiving Hospital and stay with ERWIN STROLL until STROLL 8 parents could be contacted- A11 three of them then went to the Central Receiving Hospital in ANN FERGUSON 8 car and waited for the arrivel of STROLL ' s parents After STROLL 8 parents arrived at the receiving hospital, he and ANN FERGUSON returned to the Ambassador Hotel for a few minutes and then went home - 7/9/68 Los Angeles , California File # Los Angeles 56-156 On at 219 SA RICHARD P_ DOUCETTE / jub 7/12/68 by Date dictated Thi8 document containg neither recommendationg nor conclusiong of the FBI. It i8 the property of the FBI &nd is loaned to your agency; it ad its contents are :not to be distributed outgide your agency. help ================================================== Page 27 ================================================== 2 IA 56-156 47 CoY obgerved a photograph of' SIRHAN BISHA RA SIRHAN and advised that he doee not recall seeing this man at the Ambassador Hotel. COX did advise, however that in the course of' conversation with a woman,Whose first name was INGER , last name unrecalled he had been advised that ghe , INGER 9 had observed SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN standing in the crowd daring Senator KENNEDY ' & victory speech COX stated that INGER had been a volunteer for KENNEDY and furnished her address as 1190 South Kensington , Los Angeles telephone No 931-0067 . If' INGER could not be located at thig address , COX felt that additional information might be gained through Mrs _ TIFFANY JONAS , who is also acquainted with INGER _ 220 ================================================== Page 28 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION Date 6/26/68 FRANCIS 'RITCHELEY was located and interviewed at his boarding ho'8e , 677 South New Hampehire Avenue 9 Loe Angelee Cal-fornia CRITCHELEY advised he Was born a" Newark, New Jereey : and since December PII T97 ) nas been on rpecial leave fronl his former erployment a8 fireman with the Newark, New Jergey_ 9 Fire Department He is now employed for the Gordon Bread Company on Santa Barbara Avenue in Jos Angelee He intends to return to Newa rk; New Jersey _ 2 in two weeks and resuie hig former employment a8 a fireman CRITCHEI EY stated that on the evening of June 4 9 1968 he was with several other young men who live at thig boarding houge Wa ;ching televieion coverage of the primary election reeulte He became aware that the KENNEDY campaign headquarterg wag located in the Anbaggador Hotel located only one half block from his boarding house Out of curiosity 9 he agreed to accompany PAUL GRIECO who was present with him then to the Ambageador in an effort to to see Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY and poeeibly shale his hand At about 10.45 P .m _ 9 he and GRIECO walked to the Ambassador but were turned away from entering the Embagsy Room where KENNEDY was to appear A fire warden advised them that this rooill elready contained the maximum number of persons allowed He and GRIECO then proceeded to another room in this hotel and mingled among the eupportere of candidate RAFFERTY At about 11.45 p n1 he and GRIECO ceme back to the main lobby of the Ambageador and learned from people etanding 1n the lobby that Senator KENNEDY was about to make a speech in the Enbassy Room and would depart after the speech through the kitchen area behind the Embassy Room He and GRIECO then found a corridor and went to the kitchen area _ They both etood in a group of people on each side of an exit behind the Embagsy Roon and the kitchen ti where they were told by 'KENNEDY girls that Senator KENEDY would pass after finishing his speech_ 6/19/68 Los Angeles , California Los Angelee 56-156 On at File # 221 SA HARRY H_ WHIDBEE /eb 6/20/68 by Date dictated Thi8 document containg neither recommendations nor conclusion8 of the FBI: It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it &nd its contentg are not to be digtributed outside your agency_ try ================================================== Page 29 ================================================== IA 56-156 After KENNEDY had completed hig epeech 9 he appeared in the kitchen area surrounded by several of his aides There was a sizable eroup 0f people there to shake KENNEDY 8 hand 9 between 50 and 75 In the rueh of pereone to get to KENNEDY 3 CRITCHELEY found hingelf puehed through a emall door in an adjourning area after KENNEDY had pegeed . CRITCHELEY recalled hearing soundg like the popping of balloons but did not realize they were pietol ehots He said he was not cloge enought to KENNEDY to obeerve him at thig time There was an immediate rueh of penic etricken people backed up upon him 2 during which time 9 it wae all he could do to maintain hie footing . Through the screaming and pandemonium Which existed, he becale aware that Senator KENNEDY had been shot _ After the panic subgided 9 he went to the area where KEINEDY was lying on the floor and then was instructed by some man , seemingly with authority, to help keep curious bystandere out of the kitchen area He therefore etood at the door leading fron the corridor to the main lobby and held people back_ He remained in the area of the kitchen until KENNEDY was removed by police attendants and then he went to a small room in an adjourning area and wa9 interviewed by police detectives and admitted to them that he was present but did not see the ehooting _ CRTTCHELEY said he did not see SIRHAN before the shooting nor did he see hin after the &hooting_ 222 ================================================== Page 30 ================================================== FD-302 (Rev. 4-15-64 ) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Date 78/68 VICKY CUCCIA, 730 South Kingsley, Apartment 315, furnished the following information: She wa 8 a volunteer for Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY and on June 4, 1968, she went to the Ambassador Hotel, to await the results of the California primary election DAVID ESQUITH picked her and her mother up at approximately 6.30 pm and they went to the Embassy Room of the Amba ssador Hotel, where they met ERWIN STROLL - At about 10:15 pm , JIM LOWE asked STROLL to watch the entrance to the kitchen, which was next to the podium _ At about midnight, Senator KENNEDY came to the podium to give his victory speech _ At this point, Miss CUCCIA 8 mother became il1 because of the stuffiness of the Embassy Room , and it was necessary for her to leave the hotel Miss CUCCIA accompanied her mother to the elevator outside of the Embassy Room _ After getting her mother on the elevator Miss CUCCIA went to the Ballroom where she met TIFFANY JONAS After meeting Mrs JONAS_ ) they both attempted to return to the Embassy Room , but were stopped in the area of the press room the security guard Just after arriving at the door to the press room, she heard a pop, which sounded like a was being broken _ Immediately after the pop, there was a great deal of pushing and shouting Some members of the press attempted to get into the press room and there was altercation between the security guard and one of the press men _ As this 18 going on , a woman passed by Tvho said that Senator KENNEDY has been shot_ At this point, she observed ERWIN STROLL being helped from the Embassy Room by three men and realized that he had been shot_ Upon realizing that STROLL had been shot, she became very emotional and it was necessary for STEVE WAGNER to bring her home Prior to leaving the Ambassador Hotel with WAGNER, she did observe SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN being taken from the hotel by the police_ 7/1/68 Los Angeles, California Los Angeles 56-156 On at File # 223 SA RICHARD P DOUCETTE/cld 7/8/68 by Date dictated This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI: It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are 'not to be distributed outside your agency_ by bag ================================================== Page 31 ================================================== 2 CA 56-156 At the time she and TIFFANY JONAS attempted to return to the Embassy Room , she did look into the kitchen, but does not recall seeing anyone identical to SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN . She recalls seeing only four men, al1 of them in suit8 $ and al1 appearing to be members of the press _ Miss CUCCIA 'observed a photograph of SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN and advised that on June 3, 1968 she was working at Kennedy Headquarters on Wilshire-Boulevard answering phone call8 _ Sometime during the morning of the third_ 5 she recalls seeing a man who resembled SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN come into the headquarters office go to a table which had literature on it concerning Senator KENNEDY and look at this literature for a short time CUCCIA stated that she could not positively identify this man as being SIRHAN, and simply said that there was a close resemblance 224 ================================================== Page 32 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION 6/28/68 Date JAMES CUMMINGS , residence 1700 Burnside Street Los Angeles , California, was interviewed at his plece of emp _ ioynent , Falk General Laboratories 9 3450 West First Street, Los Angeles , California 3 telephone 383-0663. CUMINGS advised he left his office at about 11:30 p.m_ on June 1968 en route to the Am- bassador Hotel to join the ROBERT F KENNEDY Campaign Party _ After arriving at the hotel, he walked to the Embassy Room, arriving there shortly before KENNEDY began his acceptance speech During the speech he entered the hallway which connects the Embassy Room podium to the Embassy Room service pantry and remained there until KENNEDY finished his speech - CUMINGS stated he stood in the hallway as KENNEDY surrounded by several members of the campaign party walked through the hallway and to the Embassy Room service pantry After observing KENNEDY enter the pantry he turned towards the opposite end of the hallway at .which time he heard three gun shots with about a one second interval between each shot and then a series of shots; however) he did not recall how many shots all together were fired _ CUMINGS stated after the shots were fired crowds of people converged into the pantry from the Embassy Room and the hallway at the opposite end of the pantry Due to the commotion that ensued after the shooting, CUMMTNGS was unable to observe the individual who shot KENNEDY or furnish any information of va lue in this investigation CUMMINGS observea a photograph of SIRHAN BISHARA SIRHAN and stated it was not familiar to him Further; that nothing came to his attention at any time prior to the shooting to indicate this event would take place_ CUMTNGS furnished the following descriptive information concerning himself: Date of birth PII Place of birth TOS angezes , ~atifornia On 6/25/68 at Los Angeles , California_File # Los Angeles 56-156 225 SA ROBERT F PICKARD and SA J . C . FISHBECK, JR . JCF /nmb 6/26/68 by Date dictated This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It i8 the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents ae not to be distributed outside your agency. 4 , ================================================== Page 33 ================================================== 2 LA 56-156 Height 5'9" Weight 145_pounds Social Security No . PII 226 ================================================== Page 34 ================================================== RAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TIC June 196 8 Date rint WILLIAM DELMER of CBS News 9 Philadelphia 9 advised that he is a sound Mn:n7 trave with the CBS Camera Crew 9 which consists of himself; WALTER DOMBROW , the photographer; and MATT DOUGLAS , the light technican Mr . DEIMER said that on the Sth of June 9 about 12 :15 acm < $ Pacific Time , he and the above-mentioned men Were set UP in the ballroon of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , to film a speech by Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY He 6aid their location was almost directly across from where the podium was set uP , but at the opposite end of the ballroom Mr. DEIMER said they Were filming his speech and when Senator KENNEDY left the podium he wa: supposed to have gone out the main door of the ballroom , but then left the podium and proceeded through a door which 18 located near the rear of the podium _ Mr 0 DEIMER said he Saw nothing except all of a sudden there seemed to be mass confusion a8 People started running back and' forth in the ballroom_ and it was at that time he finally learned that Senator KENNEDY had been shot He said he heard no shots 9 nor did he 88@ the actual shooting 8ince he was quite a distance from where the as8ault actually took Place He said he and the other two men mentioned above arrived at the spot Where the Senator had been shot but; by the time they there 0 the Senator had already been carried away , Mr 0 DEIMER -said he has no knowledge 48 to the Senator changed his plans to proceed to the Colonial Room and he did not observe the assas8in at any time 227 6 /26 /6 8 PHILADELPHIA , PA PHILADELPHIA 62-4929 On at File # SA RICHARD E LOGAN : AED 6 /27/6 8 hy Date dictated 'This clocument conlains neither rccommendations nor conclusions of Lhc FBI. It is (he property of the FBI and is loaned lo you"" agencv; il andl ils conlents arc not to be distributed outside youl' agency. 2 7 $ 1ing got why ================================================== Page 35 ================================================== RAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATI= June 2 7 0 196 8 Date 1 5 MATT DQUGLAS advised that he i8. a light technican and travels with a camera crew for CBS News in Philadelphiao He said in his crew is the cameraman , WALTER DOMBROW ; and the sound Man p WILLIAM DEIMER . Mre DOUGLAS said he Wa8 working with these nien on the Sth of June 196 8 9 about 12 15 ao M 0 9 Pacific Time 9 in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Ange les , Calif He: said the Purpoee of their mission there was to film the speech to be made by Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY He said they did film the Senator from the time he entered the ballroom and up on the Um un til he . spoke , and then left the podium and went out 2 door near the rear of the podium_ He stated that a11 of a sudden there seemed to be ma8s confuaion and people running around and shouting for a doctor and s oeone; Whom he did not know; got Up on the podium and put hi8. finger to his head , indicating that someone had been shot. Mr. DOUGLAS said that he heard no shots , n01 did he see the a8sas8in at any time 8 He stated that he and the crew were set up at the opposite side 0f the ballroom 9 quite a distance from the podium a He stated that the first he really knew about what was really going On was when 8ome woman wes brought out of the back rOOm where the Senator had gone $ bleeding from the head and that he and the crew filmed her. Mr 0 DOUGLAS said.that the time he and the crew X0 the spot where the Senator had been as8aulted , the Senator had already been moved On his way to the hospital Mr_ 6 DQUGLAS said he had no knowledge a8 to the Senator changed his plans to g0 to the Colonial Roon 2228 6 /27/6 8 PHILADELPHIA , PA PHILADELPHIA 62-4929 On at File # SA RICHARD Ee LOGAN DARWIN B BARE REL/AED 6 /2,7/6 8 by Date dictated This document conlains neilher recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI_ Il is lhe property of the FBI and is loaned to Soui' fc!icy, il anidl ils conents arc not to be disiribuied outside YOul' ugency_ Podi got by got why ================================================== Page 36 ================================================== FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION June 2 7 , 196 8 Date WALTER` DOMBROW advised that he i6 3 cameraan for CBS News in Philadelphia and that he has in his crew one WILLIAM DEIMER , 2 sound man ; and MATT DOUGLAS 9 8 light technican Mr DOMB ROW stated that on2 June 5 ) 196 8 9 about 12:15 a.Ml o 9 Pacific Tine 9 he and his crew were filming the speech of Senator ROBERT F s KENNEDY at the Ambassador Hotel ballroom in Los Angeles 9 Calif; He stated that he and his crew were set up across the ballroom on the opposite wall from where the podium was located Mr DOMBROW said he filned the Senator from the time he came into the ballroon and on the podium 9 and during his speech 9 and also when he left the Podium and went through a door near the rear of the podium Mro DOMB ROW said that he heard no shots nor did he observe the assassin at any time because of the distance from the Podium and the fact that the Senator was actually into another room before the assault took place- 0 He said that after the confusion started) somebody brought Qut 3 blonde-headed woan who was bleeding from the head and they filmed her; it was then that they learned that the Senator had been shot & Mr. DOMBROW 8aid that at that time ma83 confusion took over with Deople shouting for a doctor and begging the crowd to leave the ballroom 0 He said that by the time he and hi8 crew got to where the Senator had been shot , he had already been moved , On his way to the hospitale Mr_ DOMB ROW said he has no knowledge as to why the Senator changed his plans to g0 to the Colonial Room when he left the Podium 9 nor did he observe the assa8sin at any time 229 6 /27/6 8 PHILADELPHLA , PA . PHLLADELPHIA 62-4929 On at File # SAs RICHARD E LOGAN DARWIN B, BARE REL./ AED 6 /2 7 /6 8 by Date dictated This dacumenl contains neither rccommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. Il is ihe property of the FBI and is 'Joaned lo yOUI" agency; it and its conlents are not to be dlislribuled outside youl' agency_ got ================================================== Page 37 ================================================== FD-3u2 (Rev. 1-19-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION 6 /28/68 Date Mr_ HENRY F PETERS residence 14009 North Port Washington Road , Mequon, Wisconsin, was interviewed at the home of a nephew 9 Dr EARL PETERS , Route 4F6 , Janesville, Wiscons and furnished the follow information: Mrs JOHN WEIDNER, whose husband operates the anic Pasadena Health Food Stores 9 Passdena California ; is the neece of PE'TERS wife For the past severa 1 years PETERS and his wife have been visiting the WE IDNERS staying with them from around Christmastime each year until the end 0f April or During their 9 tay 9 PETERS who is an elderly retired painter , does odd jobs around the WE IDNER food stores 0 During his recent stay with the WEIDNERS 9 PETERS did become acquainted with a young dark complexioned male, whom he knew as "Saul" PETERS described this individual as a very intelligent polite Person, who was an excellent worker PETERS further described "Saul" as a loner 9 who did not seem to carry on much conversation con- cerning himself as an individual 8 PETERS had no conversations in which "Saul" talked of any of his political or religious philosophies and he never heard any conversations by "Saul" indicating any hate towards any U . S political leader because of any pronouncements made by such a person PETERS had no knowledge concerning any of Saul' s associations as to individuals or organizations outside the food store PETERS did not connect the name of SIRHAN B S IRPIAN with SAUL until after he saw 012 television the interview his wife' s niece had with newspaper people _ It was then that the photographs and the name connected with the person he knew as "Saul" 230 On 6/14/68 at Janesville 9 Wisconsin File # MI 157-548 SA THOMAS L MADDEN SA HENRY W CURRAN Jr bb 6/21/68 by Date dictated This document contains neilher recommcndalions nor conclusions of the FBI. It i8 the property of the FBI ancl is loaned to your agency; il and ils contcnts are; nol lo be dislributed oulsidc YOuI' agency. in, ing Org May . ================================================== Page 38 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION Date 7/5/68 Mies CHRISTINE DE SAUTELS ; pregently regiding at 7100 Hilleide 9 Hollywood_ 9 California Apartment 205_ 9 advised that she Ias born on at Glendale PII California She etated that for the last several months prior to the aesageination of Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY ehe had been working for Senator KENNEDY on his canpaign in California She etated that she originally worked only a2 a part-time canpai 2 but that she eventually became one of the 'KENNEDY Girlg and she and geveral othere traveled to varioug parts of California where Senator KENNEDY Was to make a epeech to help in the campaign celebrationg for him She edviged that on the afternoon of Tuegday_ 3; June 4 , 1968_ 5 ehe was juet leaving the KENNEDY C anpaign headquarterg on Wilehire Boulevard in Los Anzeles California; and was in her car at the curb when a Tv Oian knocked on the mindow of the car She eaid that ehe rolled the window down and the woman told her that she needed her help and that she wanted to help gave the country Miee DE SAUTELS advised that ehe told the Tvoman that the pest way to help Tould be to g0 into the KENNEDY Campaizn Headquarterg and offer her aseistance in the campaign She etated that the woman tola her that she did not understand but that she wanted Mise DE SAUTELS to take her to the race track a8 ehe Il said that she had to infori 8 onle people the Iay to save I1 theix country Mies DE SAUTELS advised that ehe once again told the wOman that the beet thing to do was to help on the KENNEDY campaign 2 and at thig point the wonail etepped away Zrom the curb She gtated that later that afternoon ehe asked several individuale in the KENNEDY canpaign headquartere i1 any woinan fitting the de scription of the one she had talied to had been into offer her help , and she wa2 told that no one had been in fitting that deecription She degcribed the unknown female a2 followe : On 71/6 atHollywood Celifornia File # Log Angeles 56-156 231 by SA E, RHEAD RTCHARDS /RB Date dictated 7 [2/68 This document containg neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI: It i8 the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency. snef ================================================== Page 39 ================================================== 2 LA 56-156 Sex Female Race White Characterietics Pogeibly of Latin- degcent 82 ehe nad a dark complexion Mid 20 ' 8 Complexion Derk , rough or ruddy Hair Long with brown and blond highlights 1i Height 5'5 Weight 110 120 pounde Build Slender Clothing Wearing caprie and a sweater carrying a noteoook and a large bag type puree Miee DE SAUTELS advised that she (lid not eee this WOmilal again and that she had no indication o1 reacon to believe that her encounter with thig wonlall had anything to do with the KENNEDY ageageination , and it Wa8 :Ome thing that she recalled a8 she tried to thing back over the events 1 ii of thoge two or three 'hectic and trazic days Migg DE SAUTELS adviged that on the evening of June 4 , 1968_ 3 she Ta2 at the Ambaseador Iotel on Wilghire Boulevard in Log Anceles California, and w2e participating ii= Mi a9 one 0f the 'KENNEDY Girls with the reet of the campaignere . She stated that she a2d several othere who Were participating in a singing group singing songs with worde Thich had been written by ETHEL KENNEDY and that they were on the floor of the Enbasey Ballrooil or in the emall press room imme diately behind the Embassy Ballroom mogt of the evening She adviged that near midnight,or ghortly after midnicht ehe and eeveral othere of ner group went down to the next floor and Joined thoge celebrating in the Ambaggador Ballroon 8 he end her ae2ociates were oi the stage of the Ambageador Ballroom at the time they heard the firet individual ghouting from the back 0f the Ballroo that Senator KENNEDY had been ghot _ 232 Age 5'8" ================================================== Page 40 ================================================== LA 56-156 She stated that she did not recall seeing anyone run out of the building prior to that time and that ghe could not think of anything she had seen or heard that evening which would be pertinent to the investigation of the KENNEDY asea8eination 233 ================================================== Page 41 ================================================== FD-3 02 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION 6/28/68 Date Mrs PATTY DE SAUTELS , 2407 West Big Tujunga Canyon Road , Tujunge California, advised she attended the victory celebration for Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY at the Ambassador Hotel the night Senator KENNEDY was killed _ She stated she is a free lance reporter and attended to prepare a story about KENNEDY ' s victory_ She stated she was not in the area of the shooting and did not observe the shooting or the assassin- She stated her daughter, CHRISTINE DE SAUTELS 9 was also at the celebration a5 CHRISTINE was a 'Kennedy girl' who worked for KENNEDY during the campaign in California Mrs DE SAUTELS advised that the after the shooting, she returned to the pressroom of the Ambassador Hotel, on the sixth floor 5 to continue work on her story _ While she was working on her story, she observed a husky , burly , olive skinned ma le watching the television set in the pressroom The man was watching a program re lating to Senator KENNEDY and he had a strange look on his face and appeared to be talking to the television set The man was acting S0 strange that she called a hotel security guard who escorted the man from the pressroom _ She asked other members of the press about the man and no one knew who he was and she does not know if the guard determined his identity or not. She recalled the man had dark coarse hair and appeared to have at least one day' 8 growth of beard He was wearing a suit which was very wrinkled Mrs DE SAUTELS stated she could furnish no additional first hand information as she did not observe the shooting or the assassin_ She stated after July 1, 1968 she can be contacted at Route 1, Box Senta Maria 9 Californie, or through the U, S _ Forest Rangers , Pine Canyon Ranger Station; Los Padres National Forest . 6/26/68 Tujunge, California Los Angeles 56-156 On at File # SA ORLEY A LEESON 9 JR. /1le 6/27/68 by Date dictated This document containg neither recommendations nor conclugions of the FBI. It i8 the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and it8 contents are 'not to be distributed outgide your agency. day 82 , ================================================== Page 42 ================================================== FD-302 (Rov. 1-25-6 0) DERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGAT Date 6/20 / 68 1 JOHN e) _ DOOHAN Head Librarian and colulnist Kansas City Star 9 19th and Grand 9 furnished the following information: On June 4 9 1968 9 he was attending 9 newspaper librarian 9 convention at the statler-Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles 9 Ca lifornia On that evening he and two fellow librarians attending the convention , JAMES SCOFIELD Librarian, St Petersburgs_ Florida 9 Times and EDWARD QUILL 3 Librarian; Boston GTobe went to the Ambagsador Hotel in Los Angeles to follow TaTifornia mary election returns and attend the Senator ROBERT F KENNEDY rally - During the evening of June 4 , 1968 DOOHA N visited the press room in the Colonial Room of the Ambassador Hotel and attended the rally a bout midnight at Which Senator ROBERT F, KENNEDY spoke About 1,000 persons were in attendance and he became separated from his two associates - In order to meet the fire department regulations the Embassy Room where the rally was held was closed and the overflow crowd was sent he believes to a room on a lower floor , possi- tbe Ambassador Room While he had been in the press room he learned that Senator KENNEDY would visit the press room at the Colonial Room after. he spoke at the rally in the Embassy Room Therefore , after hearing Senator KENNEDY speak and wa tching him leave the stage DOOHAN went directly to the press room to await Senator KENNEDY 8 appearance there _ It was while he was on his way to the. press room that he heard the conmotion 8 although he did not hear any shots 9 and learned that Senator KENNEDY had been shot Although he had not been assigned as a reporter to the Ca lifornia primary or to the KENNEDY party he inmediately prepared a story which was printed in the June 5, 1968 9 issue of the Kansas_City Star 8 the evening Kansas City Times under his by-Tine ving his personal account of the assassination which read as follows' 235 On 6/19/68 af Kansas Missouri Filc #. KC 62--8651 T 56-+56 by SA ROBERT V HARMAN JR Dato dictatod 6/19/68 Thls document contains neIther rec ommendallons nor concluslons 0f the FBI. It {8 the property of the FBI and 1s loaned to Your agency; It and Its contents are not to be dIstributed outs Ide Your agency, pri bly gi City ================================================== Page 43 ================================================== KC 62-8651 2 "Sen . Robert F , Kennedy had just finisled his short victory statement raised his fiagers in & p s1gn1 and it was nos *0 Chicago "I was standing towerd tbe 180r 0f the Zmbassy room at the Hotel Albussador , along With ror'8 then 1,000 others Though tha ba l1rcor i8 aif-coritioned 9 1t Wes hot and stuffy _ 1 thought :0 myself #hxt Keanedy looked 9S happy 89 amyone could possihly be "As the senator turned to leave the rool , 1 heard a ruor that be waS goirg to pass through a temporary press ro0m on his wayy to 0 lower floor of the hotel "where another group 0f his excfted gupporters waited for hi" t0 appear . "I headed for the press roo@ 1 knew @here it was because I nad been in there 8 few minutes earlier talk- ing t0 Pierre Salinger , press secretary for the New Yorl serator arcl for his late brother , President Jokn F . Kennedy . "The pr8ss roon Wa9 near 2 long , nerrow corridor used a5 2 serving roon for dinner meetings in the tallrooj . Senatoz Kennedy was to Use this passageway on his way to meet reporters "Accorpanied by his Wife , lrs Ethel Kenredy; Jesse Unruh speaker of the California Assembly ard 2 leader of the Kennedy forces here , and others Kernedy started through the serving ga]ley . Leading the wa y for hir were seweral LOs Angeles police officers , Rafer Johrs on , former decathlon chanpion and nOw on the R . *. K staff 1n Ca lifornia 9 and Roogevelt Grier, a defensiva rackle for rhe Los Angeles Rars professiona } footb11 team "The ro0m itself contained reta1 serving and steaw tables , which Qere not in LSC eerly today aS there had baen no program 04" refreslerts served in the Embassy roor; The area is 10 t0 12 fe?f wide and 40 :0 50 feet long' "At 12:15 0 'clock this morning it was janred with hotel esp ]oyees waiting {@1' 4 ckance tc 8e8 and , perheps , shake ha nds Wlith tha Denocratic presidential hopeful 236 4012 ================================================== Page 44 ================================================== KC 62-8651 3 "Predictably , Senatos Kennedy paused as he iR de his way slowly through the ley t0 shake hands 1 w26 still on my way from the ba llroom to the Press room-kitchen when it happened . "I heard ak0lute bedluji Coring from the narrow hallway , as fror 8 range of 1838 tban 10 feet the would-%2 assassin began firing what tured Out to be a 22-CA liber revolver wounding Kennedy and sever?l others imnediately clustered around him I didn t actually heer the shots "But I 3 chance to reer into the roomi and S2w a yolng , bus haired , dark comp lexiored @an being carried out by police officers _ He wrs Weering blie jeans tennis shoes and a blue sweat shirt. "I Was t0ld that Johnson and Grier aad possibly one or two others tackled and held the n? n imnediately , but " of course the tragedy 043 coicp leted "we don " € know; who he 18 But one thing is clear in my mid_ He bad t0 know the ropes This Was 411 behind tixc oor t0 tha ba 1lroom It Seems to e that he had to know what the Kennedy exit was going *0 be beforehand_ "Peop le say that 2 hurricane roars . You could just heard <a roar Tken in a short tine-jus t & few moments- peop Ie were crying _ A11 of uS were stunned "1 saw Ethel Kennedy , She Was right alongside him 414 the time Hrs Kennedy remained verV composed . "Then Steve Smith , Kennedy " &' brother-in-law 8 asked everyone to quiet down and let'& 211 b8 orderly It Was hair-raising; Smi th S wcice s0unds just like Senator Kennedy ' s "} was at the hotel in #he first place becaus€ I admre Senator Kennedy . Our convention bus iness was oyer for the evening and three 0f uS 0 librarien fr0r St Petersburg , Fla. ) and another frona the Bos ton Globe had gone out to eat. Instead of going back to @ukr" hotel, the tsatler Hilton , we d8cided t0 g0 ovar to the Axbassador We had heard that ihe senetor a3ci his California friend3 had taken quarters there for tbe night "Wie there about 9; 45 0 'clock, and the lcbby wes already packed with people There wust have been morc than 3 , 000 in the lobby and the balltoor. Therc was no program; people just starding around *9 catching the lates t returns 1kig3 - ga ] got hy- yet got and ================================================== Page 45 ================================================== KC 62-8651 "That '& how X btlsped into Sellnger. I told him I was fron The Star , Rna 13c aske l atlT; seweral persons he knows on the paper Then he told Ze thst Kennedy probably would pass through the press rool after making his television statement ""Thus } I was by bappers tance close to the scene of the tragedy , closa enough > regretable a5 it was t0 be on the sideline a5 the senator Wrs carried to 2m a@bulance "Some of those closer tben I felt Bobby Kennedy was consciOus 8omeone told JEC he W33 able to take 2 rosary in his hxnd i0] bave newer seen a huge Mase 0f peop le S0 crazed in the aftermath of the Shocting_ Meny were knocked known if: the hallways 35 young people ran around It Was shocking "I then went bck t0 tbe shooting acere The other victirs were stil] lying C Q} the floor Kar] Uecker_ 9 "an assistant; Ma nager of tb? hotely told Ie he Was alongside the sen,tor 85 tbey came through the kitchen 8 , @ha sena tor had cawged to Shake kands with So@e of {ke help when the shots popped_ ; 'Uecker 32id_ I €aw the sena tor fall and severa 1 others go down . ":I s9wW a s789 % 1 +ype gun in the gUiajan '$ hand _ Two guys (apparently Jokrson and Grier) pizned bim over the counter "91 also ta lked witn Norzan N _ Sarey president of the Finance 8ervice corpcrati who said hne: w2s right nert to Kennedy wlen he wzs struck 8i 0 Se ca12 frof the Exbasey room and were g0ing through tie kitchen arca , Maney waid The senator stopped tc greet sole of the and as ne reeched for 8 hand four or five shots were fired "'Three 0en f8l] Jud I knew one 0f tbem was Senator Kennedy 1 ducked ij 3 cormer 2z2d kimd 0 f uder the tables Tha fel10w on sy rigkt Wzs.hiz in the I' beliewe , and the Ian in front 0f @e 7as hit in the leg. 9 : Everyone else ducked for cover The women becane bysterica] 238 CER 9 ielp , hlp , ================================================== Page 46 ================================================== KC 62-8651 5 "After it was 2 1.1 over , police tcok 0 ver some r00rs Fourteen witnesses were giving Stitesonts right in the hotel "obvfously, for Ie 9 any thought of s leep 348 out of the question . I retu"ed *0 the Epbassy room where the frenzied mood "as ove: g1ving WaY. t0 toar8 and shock_ I2 P What 3 courtry we l1ve one girl sa id "Y " It just can ? + b8 true, it just can ' t be , ' I heard 9 wan say "At first 1t Was fairly easy to get out of tbe hotel. Bu t later entrances were blocked by police In the press rOol I W?s told by an officer that the 14 witnesses were being guestioned "S8till later I Wzs s ble t0 leave the hotel. I hired & taxicab to go back t0 the Statler Hilton. I asked the driver to stop by the Good Samaritan hospita1 , and he did . 9BI glless there were about 150 peop le at one of tke two entrances ; jubt sitting 0n2 the curbing , waiting _ asked 0 pc ! $ <eman , 2i24 he s2ld the senator Was still in sur gery and thpt 1'8 W?s nc word _ At the other entrance 2 a bout 300 persons just standing a2'0uTid the doorway and the street . They we, tunned , a11 stunned , # DOOHAW cove?;< the assagsination for the next two hours for the Kansas City Stzr anri was stationed at the bospital where Senator KENNEDY wae telc . DOOHAN hed no kowledge of any change in plans by Senator KENNEDY to go +0 tha Ambassador Roog or any other r00m instead of proceeding to the press room (Colonial Root) 238 in ) ================================================== Page 47 ================================================== FD-302 (Rev. 4-15-64) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGA TION Date 7/10/68 TERRY DRTNKWA TER news correspondent from the broadcasting syster in television network news CBS Television Los Angeles telephone OLl-2345, phoned on 10 1968 , in response to attempts to contact him and advised as foilows: Mr DRINKWATER said that he had covered the ROBERT F KENNEDY Campaign election party at the Ambassador Hotel 9 Los Angeles 9 on June 4 and June 5, He at the time of the shooting of Senator KENNEDY was broadcasting from the podiun where Mr KENNEDY had given his speech- Consequently he had not observed the shooting of Senator KENNEDY 7 nor had he seen SIRHAN SIRHAN . Mr DRINKWA TER covered the ROBERT KENNEBY campaign party for ten in early April in California and from 2oth to May 3Oth in Oregon and California He had 713 recellection of seeing SIRHAN STRHAN at any time 7/10/63 Los Angeles , California Los Angeles 56-156 On at File # 240 SA LESLIE F WARREN 'mdm 7/10/63 by Date dictated This document containg neither recommendationg nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are 'not to be distributed outgide your agency. City , July 1968 . days May ================================================== Page 48 ================================================== Fu-3uz (Rov. 4-[5-64) FEDERAL BUREAU 6F INVESTIGATION Date_ 6/19/68 Mr . WILLIAM E (BILL IPPRIDGE was interviewed in Room 2850 , Tine and Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York . He stated that he i8 employed aS 2 Staff Photographer for Life Megazine and that b resides at 333 East 46th Street , Nelv York , New York, Approxina one week &fter Senator ROBERY KENNEDY ingtituted his campalgn to seek the Democratic Party Presidential nonination; CPPRIDGE joined the campaign 88 tne Life Megezine and was acting in such capacity on June 4 7 Bhoigs3 Rhe; 5, in Los Angeles , California On the evening of June 4 , 1968 , at the Ambazsador Hotel in Los Angeles on his way to tbe ballrcom t0 make 8 victory speech , Senator KENNEDY took 8 service elevator Shortly after getting off the eleva tor Senator KENNEDY put of line and Went; into the kitchen of the hotel and Shook hands with s ome of the employees in the kitchen Senator KENNEDY then back in line and proceeded along 2 corridor At this point_ $ EPPRIDGE w4: three oY four people in back 0f' Senator KENNEDY and 8 heevy set girl, white_ $ about 5 feet 4 inches or 5 feet 5 in her early 20'$ Nith &: swarthy complexion, hefty build, > darkish or tan complexion, who Beemed to be alone and who was mearing something polka dottish, maybe a kerchiei or some such thing in possibly black and red colers , tried to in line next x0 EPPRIDGE (EPPRIDGE cannot remember her face 88 he just caught 2 glance of her EPPRIDGE did not think that she belonged there and he gave her a poke in Iche ribs t0 her out of the Way- She persisted In her attempts to in line and EPPRLDGE ve her another poke A& this point, EPFRIDCE started to go up the steps to the pletform. During Senator KENNEDY 8 speech, EPPRIDGE wa just behind him and to the side_ EPPRIDGE did not see thig wbile he was cn the platforn _ 2'1 On_~64/174/68 af_ Wew Yorky-Wew York File # #Y 4164o 34 #Rtterz 6a-€ASHINAp Date dictated 6418/68 This documeni conlains neilher recommendalions nor conclusions of the FBI; M is the Properly of Ihe FBI ond Is loaned Io agency; ifand ils contenls are nofto be distributed outside Your: agency. tely got got Inchesiive get get get ga girl by_ Your ================================================== Page 49 ================================================== NY44-1640 On the platform_ 9 there was a very large crond, the largest in the campaign' and there was much Shoving from behind and the crush wa $ 80 great that EPPRTDGE could just barely his arns above his head Immediately prior to Senator KENEDY ending hi8 speech, someone opened 8 path to Senator KENNEDY S right 9 off the platform 3 in what Ias epparently 8 route Of exit for Senator KINNEDY _ BILL BARRY , 8 menber of Senator KENNEDY 8 staff was to the right and apparently leading the way t0 the and was telling Senator KENNEDY to go that Way. EPPRIDGE did not hear Senator KENNEDY S reply if there wa8 one, but BARRY &gein told "I Senator YENNEDY t0 go way which wa & to Senator KENNEDY 8 right EPPRIDGE did not hear Senator KENNEDY ' g reply if there was one, but Senator KENNEDY did not go in the direction Of BARRY Senator KENNEDY went through a curtain out the back 0f the platforn and off the platforn _ EPPRTDGE does not know Where Senator KENNEDY ias going a % this point EPPRIDGE was about 12 to 15 feet behind Senator KENNEDY At this point _ 9 through the curtain in the back 0f. the platform and to the right just off the platforn, EPPRIDGE sawv the persistent girl he described earlier After getting off the back of the_platforn Senator KENNEDY ient to the right . EPPRIDGE was foliowing. and when EPPRIDGE to S orae doors that seemed Sial1 for the crowd he heara two shots in very rapid succession EPPRIDGE &t first thought these were fireworks a8 they had been in Chinatown , San Francisco, the before and there were mlany fireworks there_ 242 ger path "this {ot day ================================================== Page 50 ================================================== Ny 44-1640 There was a pause after the second "shot and people were scattering EPPRIDGE realized that what he thouzht mere fireworks were actually shots _ He ran forward instinctively thinking he had better count the shots _ He counted a total of six shots _ As he wa8 running forward there wias screaming and bedlai He then sa1 a mnan lying on the floor He took three pictures of this individual who a t first he thought wa8 BILL BARRY It was PAUL; SCHRADE He then took 3 :or 4 more steps forward and saw Senator KENNEDY lying on the floor with JUAN ROMRO holding hig head EPPRIDGE stopped ana took pictures cf Senator KENNEDY _ Fcrward Iias a 0ia8 8 of people_ arolnd the individual who apparently shot Senator KENNEDY EPPRIDGE did not go forward to see this individual and stayed in the area of Senator. KENNEDY During' this time JIM WILSON and his crew of BOB FUN and BILL LENIS 9 Iho Iere doing contract work for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS ) 3 were filming Senator KENNEDY . When JIM WILSON ran out of film he (WILSON) threw his camera to the flcor and started pushing people back . Mrs ETHEL KCNNEDY asked people to move back and EPPRIDGE as8isted in,this, extending his arms out and walkiz backward into the crowa; taking a picture now; and then The. anbulance attendants then came and Senator KENEDY was placed in a stretcher and taken t0 an elevator. EPPRIDGE followed EPPRIDCE did not recall hearing Senator KENNEDY say anything after he was shot . After this 9 EPPRIDGE ment back to see Tvhat he M9 could do about JIM NILSON who was "completely broken-up over the whole incident 243 ng

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