June 2, 1968
These are the top stories for today.
Few Sparks in RFK - Gene Debate by Dave Hope
"The long-awaited confrontation between Sen. Eugene McCarthy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, rival candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, simmered down to differences on details with no real clash Saturday night." The article also states that the McCarthy supporters lobbied outside the television studio, chanting "We Want Gene." It continues: "There were some ominous moments at the door where a group of Negroes, demanding 'black representation,' attempted to force entry and block the way for newsmen covering the debate. Kennedy and his wife were jostled as they had to push through the crowd. A glass door was cracked during the melee." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
Is Hanoi Stand Softening?
"The American delegation studied with interest Saturday the possibility that North Vietnam might be easing its demand for a complete bombing halt as the price for more fruitful peace talks." (Associated Press)
California Key Test for Gene, RFK
"Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, two weary challengers, will reach the end of the campaign trail Tuesday in California's primary election. The outcome may prove decisive in their quest for the Democratic presidential nomination." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
Cong Shell Saigon; 2 GIs Freed
"Eleven Viet Cong shells fell in scattered parts of Saigon early today, the U.S. Command reported, as the enemy pressed the latest drive against South Vietnam's capital." (Associated Press)
RFK Leads Sugar Firm Pre-Primary Straw Vote
"In a unique effort to encourage voting in the June 4 primary, employees of the C and H Sugar Company this week voted in a company-sponsored straw vote primary." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
120 U.C. Profs Support McCarthy for War Stance
"Sen. Eugene McCarthy has transformed the American political scene by creating a real possibility for ending the Vietnam War, 120 University of California professors said in a statement Saturday endorsing him for the Democratic presidential nomination." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
More Rome Spin-off Riots
"Violence and demonstrations spinning off form the French national crisis hit Italy again Saturday, spreading from Rome to Turin, Naples and Florence. Students battled with fists and rocks at Rome University, but the school grounds remained in the control of activists demonstrating against President Charles de Gaulle of France." (Associated Press)
Italy's Socialist Party Pulls Out
"The Socialist Party pulled out of the Italian government Saturday night, ending five years of center-left coalition. The resignation of Premier Aldo Moro seemed likely." (Associated Press)
Anti-DeGaulle Crowds Demonstrate in Paris
"Tens of thousands of students and workers, brandishing the flags of anarchy and revolution, demonstrated against President Charles de Gaulle here Saturday and urged the millions of strikers still out in France to stand firm." (Associated Press)
Art Linkletter to MC GOP Rally
"Television personality Art Linkletter will be master of ceremonies for a Bay Area Republican Vote-In-Rally tomorrow night featuring Gov. Ronald Reagan as principal speaker." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
June 3, 1968
These are the top stories for today.
'Hanging Jury' Declared Illegal: Split Supreme Court Places New Curb in Death Penalty Cases
"The death sentence cannot be imposed by a jury from which persons with conscientious or religious scruples against capital punishment were automatically excluded, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 today." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
RFK, McCarthy in Final Drive: New Heat Boiling Up In Primary by Dave Hope
"Sen. Eugene McCarthy, trialing slightly in the polls but with high hopes after his Oregon victory a week ago, rejected a proposal from his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, that they join forces to fight Vice President Hubert Humphrey." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
Reds Pound Saigon With Mortar Fire
"The Viet Cong hit the heart of Saigon with a heavy mortar attack early today and a firefight broke out at the Y bridge on the south side of the city where previous Communist efforts to invade Saigon were thrown back with heavy losses." (United Press International)
It's Reds or De Gaulle for French
"Premier Georges Pompidou told the French nation today it must decide between communism and President Charles de Gaulle in the June 23 parliamentary elections." (United Press International)
New Hanoi Envoy Dims Peace Hope
"A new North Vietnamese negotiator arrived today in Paris and immediately dimmed hopes Hanoi was easing its conditions for peace talks. His first statement was another demand for an unconditional halt to American bombing attacks." (United Press International)
RFK Asks Coalition with Gene
"Sen. Robert F. Kennedy today wound up his campaign for tomorrow's make-or-break California primary after taking six of his children to Disneyland for a combination family outing and political rally." (United Press International)
McCarthy Concludes His Drive
"Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy today entered the final day of campaigning for the California Primary that almost unquestionably will decide whether he or Sen. Robert F. Kennedy will remain in the presidential race - a race McCarthy called "very close." He made a speech at the California State College in Long Beach, along with an unscheduled visit to Watts. (United Press International)
New Strategy Set by Poor Marchers
"A somewhat reorganized Poor People's Campaign staff met well into the early morning hours today, planning action for both inside and outside Resurrection City in the coming week." (Associated Press)
Hey, Pop, New Job Law's on Your Side
"A new law protecting persons 40 to 65 from employment discrimination because of age goes into effect June 12." (Associated Press)
He's Being Watched by Eddie Adams
"'I'm a company commander," says Capt. Charles S. Robb, "and I only want the respect that's due me for that.' But Robb is the son-in-law of President Lyndon B. Johnson, married to the President's elder daughter, Lynda Bird.... 'Some people actually believe that I have Secret Servicemen over here with me,' Robb said recently. 'They're just curious.'" (Associated Press)
June 5, 1968 Gun Clue Traced to Marin County Johnson Leads U.S. in Prayers FBI Investigates Every Angle 'No, It Can't Have Happened' -- Jackie Terror, Tears and Blood by Robert Healy Trouble Has Long Stalked Kennedys by Harry F. Rosenthal 'Ashamed as American' - Church Head Several Others Injured in Assassination Try Violence Deplored in RFK Speech Kennedy Victory in South Dakota Democrat Race Stalled 'The Nation Guilty,' - McCarthy Nation's Leaders Horrified June 6, 1968 Woman Sought in RFK Death Probe Arabs Deplore Act, Blame U.S. Policy by Raymond Lawrence Memorial Rites in Churches Here Unruh Emerges as Democratic Power by Dave Hope LBJ Orders Study of Violence Gun Sale Curb Pushed Johnson Proclaims A Day of Mourning Ethel Bears Her Grief with Courage by Jack V. Fox Negroes Feel It's a Conspiracy by Austin Scott Shock Waves from Assassination Are Heard Around the World Unsmiling and Prayerful Crowd Kennedy Predicted Murder Try The Longest Night by Bill Fiset A Time to Stop by Bob MacKenzie June 7, 1968 Body Lies in State In Church Assassin Suspect Indictment Sought Tearful Briton Asks Understanding of U.S. Strikers in Battle Near Paris by Raymond Lawrence A Sad Plane Vigil for Ethel, Edward LBJ Gets Gun Control Bill -- Make It Tougher, He Says Television To Cover Funeral Wounded Bystanders Recovering Autopsy Details Delayed June 8, 1968 King Assassin Suspect Seized: James Ray Captured in London Insanity Plea by Sirhan Indicated 151,000 File Past Coffin Train Kills 2 Waiting for RFK Gun-Toter Seized at Cathedral RFK 'Medically Dead' 7 Hours Early De Gaulle's Foe Bidault Back in Paris Fair Trial Warning by Judge RFK Aide: McCarthy Only Hope
These are the top stories for today.
These are the top stories for today.
Kennedy's Life Hangs in Balance: Suspected Assassin Identified
"Robert F. Kennedy fought for his life today after being shot down at point blank range by a young man who mixed in with an exultant hotel party crowd celebrating the senator's victory in the California presidential primary." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"The gun police say was used to shoot Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was sold to a brother of the prime suspect by the son of a prominent Pasadena family." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"President Johnson led a shocked nation today in praying for the recovery of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Horrified lawmakers voiced fear 'the world's gone mad.'"
"Attorney General Ramsey Clark said today the FBI is investigating every possible angle in the shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy - including the possibility of conspiracy." (Associated Press)
"The former First Lady was informed in New York of the shooting during a telephone call from London by Prince Stanislaus Radziwill, husband of her sister Lee." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"Now, I was standing on a steel serving table directly over the same place where we had shaken hands. He lay struck down by bullets. His right hand held a bleeding side. His face was white. His eyes were open. His lips moved just slightly. But he did not cry." (Associated Press)
"Once more, a child of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy lies in a hospital room - the latest victim of misfortune in a family that had everything going for it: wealth, power and unmatched achievement." (Associated Press)
In a statement, Dr. Eugene Carson Black, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said: "The United States, by its increasing reliance on violence to solve human problems, has been progressively losing its moral position among the nations..." (Associated Press)
"Several persons were wounded early today in the assassination attempt on Sen. Robert F. Kennedy." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"In the victory speech Robert F. Kennedy delivered moments before a gunman fired a bullet into his brain, the New York senator urged his supporters to help him deal with the plague of violence in America." (Associated Press)
"Sen. Robert F. Kennedy won a smashing victory in Hubert H. Humphrey's native state yesterday, rolling up more than half the votes in South Dakota Democratic presidential primary." (United Press International)
"The shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy moments after a rousing California primary victory speech has brought the Democratic presidential race to a standstill and left its prospects in disarray... "It is a shocking and terrible thing that has happened," (Hubert) Humphrey said." (Associated Press)
"A shocked Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy said today he was suspending all campaign activity in a 'vigil' for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy... "Our nation bears too heavy a burden of guilt for the violence we have permitted to afflict our land and our world." (United Press International)
"Reaction from public figures came swiftly in the wake of today's shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy with expression of shock, sorrow and outrage and prayers for his recovery. Some commented they feared such violence was becoming commonplace in America." (Associated Press)
These are the top stories for today.
Kennedy Mourned by Nation: Burial by Arlington Saturday
"Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, felled like his President brother by an assassin's bullet, died early today... Robert Kennedy, 42, never regained consciousness, never showed signs of recovery after a savage burst of revolver fire sent a bullet plunging into his brain - at the pinnacle of his own campaign for the White House" (Associated Press)
"Los Angles police disclosed today they have issued an all points bulletin for a young woman seen with the accused slayer of Robert F. Kennedy before the senator was shot to death." (Associated Press)
"The Arab world today deplored the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Expressing regret that the accused assassin is a Jordanian national, most of the public comment linked the shooting to American policy in the Middle East, which the Arabs consider pro-Israeli despite the fact that the United States now is completing the last shipments of arms to Jordan." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"Flags flew at half-staff over Federal and State buildings on orders of President Lyndon Johnson and Gov. Ronald Reagan." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh is today the most powerful figure in California's Democratic party." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"'Let us, for God's sake, resolve to live under the law.' With this solemn invocation to a troubled nation, President Johnson last night dispatched a select 10-member panel on the mission of seeking causes for violence of the sort that struck down Robert F. Kennedy." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"Stirred by the murder of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, House members drove today toward an overwhelming final approval of a bill to curb handgun sales and crack down on crime and violence." (United Press International)
"President Johnson today declared Sunday a national day of mourning for Robert F. Kennedy and ordered the U.S. flag lowered to half staff in memoriam to the slain senator." (United Press International)
"Ethel didn't cry either. For one brief moment, the wife of the tousle-haired man a nation knows as Bobby gave way to hysteria and fought an ambulance attendant trying to render first aid. Then she found control." (United Press International)
"For many poor people at Resurrection City the shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy became a black versus white issue... 'Every time a colored or a white fellow tries to help us make a better life for ourselves, somebody will cut him down for no reason,' said Annie Mae Vargas, a Harlem housewife." (Associated Press)
"The world recoiled in horror today at the death from an assassin's bullet of another Kennedy. Its leaders and plain citizens sorrowed for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and lamented the future of the United States." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"Incredibly silent, the crowd of several thousand stared with overtired eyes toward the white, forbidding hospital... It was a crowd that did not move even after it heard at 2 a.m. today, the fateful announcement.." (Associated Press)
"French writer Romain Gary said today that Sen. Robert F. Kennedy told him about two weeks ago that 'sooner or later' he would be the victim of an assassination attempt." (Associated Press)
"'If I were Teddy Kennedy, with his millions, I'd get out of government right now. Why bother trying to do something for the country when things like this happen.' That was one comment and maybe a more perceptive one than you'd think." (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"Television fed us Robert F. Kennedy's heartbeats, one by one, until they stopped... Under the endless drone of helpless words that followed, the time and place came back into focus and the questions came. Why, why? What is this plague? Where did it start? What are we becoming?" (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
These are the top stories for today.
Throngs Bid Final Farewell to Bobby: Somehow It Seems the Same by Jean Heller
"For the slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's only surviving brother, Edward, it was the end of a night-long vigil beside the casket in the quiet, dark cathedral." (Associated Press)
"Undeterred by 90-degree heat which turned midtown Manhattan into a bake-oven, they waited in line for upwards of five hours in order to spend five seconds filing past the bier in St. Patrick's Cathedral where Sen. Robert F. Kennedy lay in state." (United Press International)
"The Los Angeles Country Grand Jury met today to hear 23 witnesses and consider a first degree murder indictment against a young Jordanian in the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy." (Associated Press)
"Tears on his cheeks and a lump in his throat, Harold McMillan asked his fellow Britons last night to show a little understanding for their American cousins. The 74-year-old former prime minister, addressing a nation shocked by the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, said harsh, wrong things were being said about America and its people." (United Press International)
"Thousands of striking auto workers, backed by sympathetic students, battled with riot police at the state-run Renault automotive plant near Paris today."
"Ethel Kennedy, widow of the slain New York senator, slept next to her husband's coffin during part of the 4 1/2-hour flight from Los Angeles to New York, according to NBC newsman Sander Vanocur." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"President Johnson, speaking in the wake of a new Kennedy assassination, has told Congress that '55 long months after the mail-order murder of President John F. Kennedy,' it is time in the name of sanity for a tough gun-control law." (Associated Press)
"Network radio and television will give total coverage tomorrow of the funeral of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy." The requiem mass at St. Patricks will be at 7 a.m. Pacific. A train will leave NY at 9:30 a.m. and arrive in DC at 1:40 p.m. Burial will be at 2:30 p.m. (Oakland Tribune -- Oakland, California)
"'Fine' was the word most often used today by hospital authorities describing the condition of the bystanders wounded during Wednesday's assassination of Se. Robert F. Kennedy." (Associated Press)
"It may be days or weeks before the full medical story of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination is told, but one fact apparently has been established" Death was due to a bullet in the brain." (Associated Press)
These are the top stories for today.
Nation's Great Pay RFK Final Tribute: Brother Eulogizes Senator
"His voice breaking in emotion, Sen. Edward 'Ted' Kennedy, last survivor of the four brothers, eulogized the slain senator as 'a good and decent man' who devoted his life to trying to help less fortunate people and to right wrongs." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"Scotland Yard working hand in hand with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, today arrested James Earl Ray, who is accused of the murder of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." (United Press International)
"For the accused assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the defense may be an insanity plea to escape the gas chamber. Sirhan B. Sirhan, a lumpy-faced former racetrack exercise boy was indicted for Kennedy's murder yesterday." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"More than 151,000 passed through the gray stone portals of St. Patrick's Cathedral. They began gathering Thursday evening and the last did not go through until early today." (Associated Press)
"The spectators waiting for the train bearing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's body to Washington were killed today by a train heading in the opposite direction." (Associated Press)
"A printing company salesman who had claimed to be a friend of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was taken into Custody with an unloaded gun in his possession at the main entrance of St. Patrick's Cathedral today 15 minutes before President Johnson arrived for Kennedy's funeral." (United Press International)
"Robert F. Kennedy's electrical brain waves stopped and he was legally and medically dead seven hours before his heart ceased to beat, a prominent surgeon said yesterday. Even had he lived, the senator's 'intellectual faculties' would not have survived, the doctor said." (Compiled from AP and UPI)
"Former Premier Georges Bidault, one of President Charles de Gaulle's most bitter political enemies and leader of the 1962 revolt against him in Algeria, returned to France today." (United Press International)
"All persons concerned with the legal proceedings of the man charged with killing Robert F. Kennedy are under rigid orders to say nothing that might prejudice a fair trial." (Associated Press)
"A top aide to the slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy says that Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy is the only one now who can pick up where Kennedy left off in the presidential campaign. Richard Goodwin, a longtime Kennedy associate and speechwriter for both the senator and President Kennedy, said yesterday that McCarthy is the only candidate now who represents the forces against the status quo." (United Press International)
