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July 18, 2024

The Story Behind the Iconic Photograph of the Busboy Who Held a Dying Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 Assassination

On June 5, 1968, hotel busboy Juan Romero raced to congratulate Sen. Robert Kennedy moments after his victory in the California presidential primary. He had met the candidate the day before, bringing him room service at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

As Kennedy briefly paused to shake the hand of the 17-year-old, a man named Sirhan Sirhan gunned down Kennedy in front of Romero. A remarkable photograph captured the scene: young Romero, an immigrant from Mexico, cradling the glassy-eyed Kennedy, member of an American political dynasty.

Senator Robert Kennedy sprawled semiconscious in his own blood on floor after being shot in the brain and neck while busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him, in kitchen at hotel. (Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures)

“I remember extending my hand as far as I could, and then I remember him shaking my hand,” Romero shared his story with NPR. “And as he let go, somebody shot him.”

“I kneeled down to him and I could see his lips moving,” Romero said, “so I put my ear next to his lips and I heard him say, ‘Is everybody OK?’ I said, ‘Yes, everybody’s OK.’ I put my hand between the cold concrete and his head just to make him comfortable.”

“I could feel a steady stream of blood coming through my fingers,” he added. “I remember I had a rosary in my shirt pocket and I took it out, thinking that he would need it a lot more than me. I wrapped it around his right hand and then they wheeled him away.”

A less-famous image of Sen. Robert Kennedy and Ambassador Hotel employee Juan Romero moments after RFK was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, June 1968. (Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures)

Romero, then 17, rode the bus to high school the following day. He tried not to think about the shooting but a woman sitting nearby had been reading the newspaper plastered with the scene.

“She turned around and showed me the picture,” Romero said. “She says, ‘This is you, isn’t it?’ And I remember looking at my hands and there was dried blood in between my nails.”

Busboy Juan Romero who assisted Senator Robert F. Kennedy after Kennedy was fatally shot giving his statement on June 5, 1968 during his Presidential Campaign at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. (Frank Carroll/NBC NewsWire)

Then, letters addressed to “the busboy” flooded in to the Ambassador Hotel.

“There was a couple of angry letters,” he remembered. “One of them even went as far as to say that, ‘If he hadn’t stopped to shake your hand, the senator would have been alive,’ so I should be ashamed of myself for being so selfish.”

For many years, Romero blamed himself for Kennedy’s death – wondering if he could have done something to prevent Kennedy from being shot. Romero often asked himself what would have happened if Kennedy had not stopped for the handshake.

But decades later, Romero said he no longer felt the same guilt, thanks in part to the support of Kennedy fans who say the former busboy was an example of the type of people Kennedy sought to help in making racial equality and civil rights a cornerstone of his life’s work.

In this undated photo provided by StoryCorps, Juan Romero, 67, holds a photo of himself and the dying Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, taken by the Los Angeles Times’ Boris Yaro on June 5, 1968, at his home in Modesto, Calif. (Jud Esty-Kendall / AP)

In 2010, Romero paid a visit to RFK’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. “I felt like I needed to ask Kennedy to forgive me for not being able to stop those bullets from harming him,” he said.

As a sign of respect, he bought his first-ever suit for the occasion. “When I wore the suit and I stood in front of his grave, I felt a little bit like that first day that I met him. I felt important. I felt American. And I felt good.”

Sen. Robert Kennedy gave a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles before his assassination, June 1968. (Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures)

Headed for his victory speech in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom, Robert Kennedy stopped in the kitchen to shake hands. A few minutes later the gunman was waiting for him in the corridor just outside the kitchen. (Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures)

Juan Romero passed away in 2018 at age 68.

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