EXTRA
4ifiran
:43 a t I
EXTRA
oges
Vol. LXXVIII, No. 24-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan, Thursday, June 6, 1968
FREE COPY
Two Pc
11
A I
President
declares
mourning
The nation woke up to shock and sorrow this morning as
the news of the death of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy spread from
coast.to coast and around the world.
President Johnson proclaimed this Sunday a national day
of mourning on learning of the senator's death.
In a statement issued from the White House, the Presi-
dent said "Kennedy affirmed this country-affirmed the es-
sential decency of its people, their longing for peace, their de-
sire to improve conditions of life for all.
"He believed in the capacity of the young for excellence
and in the right of the old and poor to a life of dignity.
"Our public life is diminished by his loss."
While Kennedy was still fighting his losing battle for life
against wounds from an assassin's bullets, the President went
on radio and television last night and named a special com-
mission to search for ways to "put an end to violence-and
the preaching of violence.
Johnson declared he was "shocked and dismayed' by the
shooting of Sen. Kennedy and went on to declare that "we
4cannot, we must not tolerate the sway of violent men among
we. We must not permit men filled with hatred, and care-
less of innocent lives, to dominate our streets and fill our
homes with fear."
Fear was being expressed across the country that there
would be a wave of rioting similar to that which followed the
murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in April.
For many people at Resurrection City in Washington, the
shooting has become a black versus white issue.
"I'm glad he didn't die," a Resurrection City marshal
said early last night. "You know why? Because if he dies
Washington's going to go up, Chicago's going to go up."
As word of Kennedys death spread through sleeping Los
Angeles, a crowd of people began gathering at the hospital
on Wilshire Boulevard. Police sealed off the immediate area.
Yesterday, the President outreached his legal powers to
put Secret Service bodyguards around all major presidential
aspirants and their families. Congress moved in haste to
supply the legal authority by today.
In another response to the shooting several thousand
w Army troops were placed on alert as a precautionary measure.
Officials emphasized that at this point no troop deploy-
ments are planned but "we're watching the situation" in
case violence should break out in Los Angeles, Washington
or elsewhere.
Kennedy's death has removed in a tragic manner the
, chief challenger to Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey's
quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Humphrey, expressing "profound personal loss" at Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy's death, called on Americans this morn-
ing to recommit themselves to the principles of humanity
and individual justice.
"Our hearts go out to his wife and dear children, and to
his family-which has already known tragedy beyond that
which any should endure," Humphrey said.
Loses
fight
24
for
hour
life
LOS ANGELES - Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, 42, died today at 1:44 a.m.
PDT (4:44 a.m., EDT), slightly more than 24 hours after being shot in
the head in a savage attack in a downtown Los Angeles hotel.
The death was announced at 2 a.m. PDT by Frank Mankiewicz, the
senator's press secretary. Mankiewicz had made an unscheduled visit to
Good Samaritan Hospital's press room after advisingnewsmen earlier that
there would be no further medical bulletins on the senator's condition un-
less there was a significant change.
With Kennedy at the time of his death were his wife, Ethel, now ex-
pecting her eleventh child, his brother Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and his
sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy. Three of the Kennedy's ten children
were in the hospital, but not in the room.
A Roman Catholic priest was also in attendance at the time of, death
Sen. Kennedy had been administered the last rites
of the church shortly after the shooting took placeTl I t
early Wednesday morning. J iI e r
Mankiewicz, who had been briefing the press on Ken-
nedy's condition since immediately after the shooting, said
the fatal shot was "the bullet that went into the head near
the right ear." That slug entered Kennedy's brain, and sur-gen co d tdath e- urfry mi te prton al .
geons conducted a three-hour, forty-minute operation early
yesterday to remove all but a tiny fragment.
But the senator's condition never improved. "It was not
a question of his sinking," Mankiewicz said, "but of not
rising. He needed a rally and steady improvement in his con-LOS ANGELES (P) - His name
dition, and that did not develop." is Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
Mankiewicz said the body would be sent "sometime this Police say he is a cool, close-
morning" either to Washington or New York. "The family mouthed Jordanian who fired a
here will go with.-him," he said. "These are the plans at the bullet from close range into the
time." brain of Sen. Robert Kennedy.
Kennedy the
leader:
A
moral
imperative
Later, it was announced that the body will be flown by
jet today to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, where it will
lie in state from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day until Saturday,
when a requiem mass will be held at 10 a.m.
The body will be transported by train at 12:30 p.m. Sat-
urday to Washington, D.C., for burial in Arlington National
Cemetery, next to the grave of his brother, the late Presi-
dent John F. Kennedy. Graveside services for the family and
close friends will tentatively be held at 5:30 p.m.
Deputy Police Chief Noel McQuown said a post-mortem
would be conducted at the pospital before Kennedys body
was removed.
The precise cause of death was still unknown early this
morning, but a neurosurgeon quoted one of the doctors on
the team that performed yesterday's operation as saying
they had discovered "a sizeable blood clot in the head" caus-
ed by the bullet wound.
Dr. Lawrence Pool said he was told by Dr. Henry Cuneo,
"The superior cerebellar artery, at the forward end of the
brain stem, was torn."
Bone and lead fragments were lodged mostly in the
cerebellum, that part of the brain which controls muscle
movement. Before his death, Kennedy's doctors had indicated
that if he were to live, he might suffer some form of perma-
nent paralysis.
By Urban Lehner
Co-Editor
"I run to seek new policies," Ro-
bert Kennedy said March 16 as he
announced himself a Presidential
candidate. "At stake is not simply
the leadership of our party or ev-
en our country-it is our right to
moral leadership on this planet. I
cannot stand aside from the con-
test."
Throughout his 42 years there
were few contests which Robert
Francis Kennedy, third son in a
highly competitive family of eight
children, could stand aside from.
He actually reveled in struggle. As
a youth, first in preparatory
schools and then as an undergrad-
uate, he forced himself by sheer
hustle and hard work to be a good
football player. As an adult, he
never held a job which did not in-
volve him in conflict, and he de-
rived great satisfaction from his
stints as campaign manager and
chief political mentor for his late
brother in races for the Senate and
the Presidency.
It is perhaps this which makes
his assassination seem all the
more tragic. For not only was he
murdered, cut down before his
time; the setting was wrong. He
never got a chance to run for Pre-
sident, he was shot before he was
ever nominated, a nomination he
had sought because he was "con-
vinced that this country is on a
perilous course and because I have
strong feelings about what must
be done that I am obliged to do
Rosary in the evening with his
family, Kennedy as a teenager
once insisted on leaving a presti-
gious preparatory school because
the academy's rules required man-
datory attendance at Protestant
chapel services. Of the four Ken-
nedy sons, only Robert received a
major portion of his elementary
and secondary education in Cath-
olic schools.
In 1946, when the late President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy sought
and woi his first Congressional
seat, brother Robert-at the time
a 20-year-old Harvard undergrad,
not even legally old enough to
drink, played a minor but illustra-
tive role in the campaign. In an
election in which the key to suc-
cess was successful dickering for
Irish and Italian slum votes, the
young millionaire took to the
streets in a whirlwind manner
which would later become a Rob-
ert Kennedy trademark. He sal-
vaged half of the votes in a dis-
trict which his brother had ex-
pected to lose by a 5-1 margin.
In 1960, immediately after an-
nouncing Robert Kennedy's ap-
pointment as Attorney General,
the late President Kennedy said
"I can't see that it's wrong to give
him a little legal experience be-
fore he goes out to practice law."
Bobby never did establish the pri-
vate practice he occasionally talk-
ed of. Nevertheless, in the prev-
ious ten years he had acquired le-
gal experience which few men in
America could match.
guished to the noteworthy and
controversial.
Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy was
deepening his knowledge of politi-
cal tactics and strategy to prepare
himself for a role as chief mentor
and campaign manager for his
older brother in his races for the
Senate in 1952 and the Presidency
in 1960. Undoubtedly, the younger
Kennedy savored the position. But
even had he loathed it, the fierce
family loyalty-especially in mat-
ters political-which Joseph Ken-
nedy taught his children would
have designated Bobby as the un-
avoidable heir-apparent.
Besides Robert,'Joseph and Rose
Kennedy have lost three children
-a daughter in a plane crash,
and two, sons, both in the service
of their country. What intensifies
the tragedy of these losses is that
they have seemed almost fated,
rooted in the personality and char-
acter not only of the individuals'
but of the family. The death of
Robert Kennedy carries this bur-
den most heavily.
For like his brother, the late
President, Bobby cared little for
security precautions, often push-
ing forth into crowds with person-
al guards left stranded and be-
wildered in his wake. More funda-
mentally, Bobby was the kind of
man who engendered deep pas-
sions. He would be lovingly mauled
by shrieking crowds of middle-
aged women, and raked bitterly
over the editorial coals of news-
papers and journals which hated
Mayor Samuel W. Yorty says
Sirhan apparently wrote in a 9-
by-12 inch notebook about "the
necessity to assassinate Sen. Ken-
nedy before June 5, 1968."
'The record says Sirhan is 24
years old, 5-feet-5, weighs about
120 pounds, has a swarthy com-
plexion and wiry hair. He has been
an, exercise boy at a race track,
wanted to be a jockey and work-
ed in a health food store.
He was under maximum secu'r-
ity guard in a 'hospital ward at
the Los Angeles County Central
jail, charged with six counts of
assault with intent to commit
murder.!
He is to appear at 8:30 a.m.
Monday for a preliminary hearing
before Municipal Judge Jean
Klein.
Sirhan's index finger was bro-
ken' and his left ankle sprained
in a tussle'that ended in his cap-
ture, seconds after Kennedy was
shot early Wednesday.
Kennedy had just thanked his
supporters for his victory over
Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy in Cali-
fornia's Democratic presidential
election.
Sirhan had talked to police, but
not about Kennedy or the shoot-
ing. Officers said he was advised
of his rights, bsut didn't want an
attorney. He refused to give offi-
cers his name.
He "may have been inflamed"
by Kennedy's call for U.S. jets for
Israel during a televised campaign
debate Saturday night, said a New
York committee on American-
Arab relations.
"Sen. Kennedy said the other
day he wanted to help Israel,"
,said Sirhan's recent employer,
John H. Weidner, 57, operator of
a Pasadena health food store
chain.
"So I was not surprised after he
was shot that Sirhan's resentment
had pushed him emotionally to do
what he did."
With permission from Sirhan's
family, police recovered two note-
books from his 'room.
In a notation entered either
May 17 or 18, the mayor 'said, Sir-
han apparently wrote "a direct
m
TM an 77-~w
, w , . j4