"I HAD A MEMBER OF MY FAMILY KILLED"

DR. KING PRONOUNCED DEAD ONE HOUR AFTER BEING SHOT IN MEMPHIS 

Memphis, Tennessee (JFK+50) At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot as he stood on the second-floor balcony outside Room #306 of the Lorraine Motel here in Memphis.

A bullet, fired from a 30-06 Remington Model 760 Gamemaster* rifle, struck Dr. King in the jaw and ranged downward severing his spinal cord.  He was pronounced dead at a local hospital about an hour later.  MLK was 39 years old.

Dr. King's associates on the scene believed the shot came from the rear of a nearby rooming house.  The rifle and other evidence were found nearby.

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. triggered a series of nationwide riots in more than a hundred cities with deaths and property damage.

Later, James Earl Ray** was charged with the murder, found guilty & sentenced to 99 years in prison.  

Robert F. Kennedy, campaigning in Indianapolis, learned of the death of Dr. King and announced it to a crowd of people including many African-Americans.  RFK said...

"For those of you who are black and (are) filled with hatred...of the injustice of such an act against all white people, I can feel the same kind of feeling.  I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man."

*Remington Model 760 is a pump-action centerfire rifle which uses a detachable box magazine.  More than 1 million units were produced from 1952 to 1981 

**James Earl Ray (1928-1998) was born in Alton, Illinois the oldest of 9 children.  JER joined the US Army at the end of WWII & served in Germany.  He served time in prison for armed robbery, mail fraud & theft before being charged with the murder of MLK.

SOURCES

"Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.," Stanford University, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute, www.kinginstitute.stanford.edu/

"Martin Luther King, Jr.:  55 years after his assassination," by Alonso Martinez, April 3, 2023, EL PAIS, www.english.elpais.com/

View from Rooming House of Lorraine Motel

Memphis, Tennessee

Photo by John White

June 6 2008

Sniper's Window

Memphis, Tennessee

Photo by John White

June 6 2008

"THERE IS JUST A CHANCE RFK COULD HAVE..."

RFK DEFEATS McCARTHY IN CALIFORNIA PRIMARY

Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) On June 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-New York) won the Democratic California Primary by defeating Senator Eugene J. McCarthy (D-Minnesota) by four percentage points.  The final totals were...RFK 46% EJM 42%.

The California vote gave Senator Kennedy four primary wins and a three to one advantage over Senator McCarthy in head-to-head contests.

As of June 4, 1968, RFK had accumulated 393 delegates to 258 for EJM.  Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey, however, still held the lead at 561 delegates.

Historians and politicians of the day disagree as to whether or not the Vice-President's lead could have been overcome.  Arthur L. Cyr wrote in 2008, however, that...

"there is just a chance that RFK could have secured the nomination" or that "Humphrey could have picked him for Vice-President."  

SOURCE

"RFK in 1968:  a hard struggle against long odds," by Arthur L. Cyr, The Seattle Times, 2008. 

 

 

RFK Campaigning in Los Angeles

Photo by Sam Walnum (1968)

JFK Library Image 

"I DREAM THINGS THAT NEVER WERE & SAY, WHY NOT?"

ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY BORN

Brookline, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On November 20, 1925, the seventh child of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Robert Francis Kennedy, was born in  Brookline, Massachusetts. RFK served in the United States Navy in WWII.  He earned a degree in government from Harvard in 1948 and in 1950, married Ethel Skakel.

In 1951, Bob Kennedy earned a degree from the University of Virginia Law School and in 1952 served as manager for brother John's campaign for the Senate.  In 1953, Bob was on the staff of Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee on investigations and later was Chief Counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee.

In 1960, RFK managed Jack's successful presidential campaign and in 1961 became attorney general.  In that position, the JFK Library says that Bobby became JFK's "closest adviser and confidant."

After JFK's death, RFK was elected as a United States senator from the state of New York and in 1968, after having won the California primary in a bid to win the Democratic nomination for President, RFK was shot in Los Angeles.

Robert Kennedy died on June 6, 1968 and was laid to rest in the Kennedy plot at Arlington National Cemetery.   During his presidential campaign, RFK spoke out against the war in Vietnam and championed the cause of the poor and downtrodden.  In most of his speeches he paraphrased the words of George Bernard Shaw by saying....

'Some men see things as they are and say why.  I dream things that never were and say, why not?'

J. Edgar Hoover RFK

May 7, 1963

Photo by Cecil Stoughton

JFK Library Image

ROBERT KENNEDY WINS CALIFORNIA PRIMARY

"NOW IT'S ON TO CHICAGO"

Los Angeles (JFK+50) On June 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy* of New York won the Democratic Primary in California defeating Senator Eugene J. McCarthy** of Minnesota 46% to 42%.  On the same day, RFK also won the South Dakota primary 50% to 22%.

The California and South Dakota victories gave RFK four primary victories.  The others were in Indiana (42% to 27%) and Nebraska (52% to 31%).  Eugene McCarthy upset RFK, however, in Oregon by a margin of 6%.

Just after midnight, the Senator arrived in the Embassy Ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel here in Los Angeles to speak to his supporters and the nation.

Senator Kennedy said...

"I think we can end the divisions within the United States.  What I think is quite clear is that we can work together.  We are a great country, a selfless and a compassionate country.  Now it's on to Chicago, and let's win there."

JFK+50 NOTE:

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey did not enter the primaries but sought support in the non-primary states where party leaders controlled delegate votes.  At the time of RFK's death, the delegate vote totals were...

Humphrey 561, RFK 392, McCarthy 258.

Mr. Humphrey won the nomination in Chicago on the first ballot, but went on to be defeated in the general election by Richard M. Nixon.

*Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard and the University of Virginia School of Law.  RFK was manager of JFK's 1952 Senate and 1960 Presidential campaigns.  He served as Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and as US Senator 1965-1968.

**Eugene J. McCarthy (1916-2005) was born in Watkins, MN & graduated from St. John's University and the University of Minnesota.  He taught in public schools 1935-40 & was professor at St. John's 1940-43.  EJM served in the House of Representatives (1949-1959) and in the Senate (1959-1971).  

SOURCE

"Robert Kennedy, Shot, Killed in Los Angeles", June 16, 1968, www.newsweek.com/

Senator Robert Francis Kennedy

(D) New York

JAMES DONOVAN & THE RELEASE OF THE BAY OF PIGS POWS

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1806

JAMES DONOVAN WINS RELEASE OF BAY OF PIGS POWS 

Havana, Cuba (JFK+50) Fifty-three years ago today, December 23, 1962,  just two days before Christmas Day, Fidel Castro released prisoners captured during the ill-fated invasion at the Bay of Pigs of April 1961.

According to Jim Rasenberger, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met on June 20, 1962 with members of the Cuban Families Committee in New York City where he discussed the problem of raising money to pay Castro's ransom.

RFK then met with James B. Donovan*, a New York attorney who had negotiated the release of captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, on July 2nd. Donovan was sent to Cuba where he met with Castro for four hours on August 31, 1962.

Donovan explained to Castro that $62 million in cash was not a possibility, but offered food and medicine instead.  Castro, recognizing the importance of these commodities to his people, accepted the offer in the value amount equaling $52 million in addition to $2.9 million in cash for sixty POWS that had already been released.

The October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis delayed the deal, but after the crisis was resolved negotiations were quickly back on track.  In a speech to win support from the American Pharmaceutical Association on December 7, RFK said...

"My brother made a mistake.  These men fought well, the disaster was no fault of theirs.  They are our responsibility."

200 corporations gave $23 million in pharmaceuticals, $7 million in surgical and dental supplies, $9 million in powdered milk and $14 million in baby food.

Throughout the negotiations the Attorney General was "a constant presence, cajoling and mollifying contributors as necessary," but it was not Robert Kennedy who brokered the deal...it was Jim Donovan.

The Attorney General raised the $2.9 million paid to Castro, one-third coming as a result of "a single phone call" to Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston.
The Royal Bank of Canada issued a check for the total amount to its branch in Havana and the check was quickly in Castro's hands.  The planes bearing the POWS landed at Miami International Airport on Christmas Eve.

1,163 members of the Exile Brigade had been released and Jim Donovan also "secured the departure of some 3500 of their relatives."

*James B. Donovan (1916-1970) was a graduate of Harvard.  He served as legal council for the Office of Strategic Services during WWII.  He was assistant trial counsel in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and presented the filmed evidence of Nazi atrocities against the Jews.  JBD ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 1962 and became president of Pratt Institute.

SOURCES

"Brilliant Disaster:  JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner (Simon and Schuster, Inc), New York, 2011.

"US-Cuban Diplomacy, 'Nation' Style," by Peter Kornbluh, The Nation, April 29, 2013. 

www.jamesbdonovan.com

Negotiator: The Life and Career

of James B. Donovan

by Philip J. Bigger (2006)