The Former Busboy Who Held a Dying Robert F. Kennedy Reflects on the Senator's Final Moments
The busboy who held Robert F. Kennedy after the senator was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in California is opening up about the senator’s final moments in 1968.
Juan Romero continues to struggle with what happened that day 50 years ago, which saw him go from desperately hoping RFK would shake his hand to cradling the mortally-injured politician’s head on the floor of the hotel’s kitchen.
“I remember extending my hand as far as I could, and then I remember him shaking my hand,” the California man, who worked at the hotel at the time, told StoryCorps which aired on NPR’s Morning Edition. “And as he let go, somebody shot him.”
In an instant, he had Kennedy in his arms as both of them hit the floor.
Photojournalists captured the tragedic moment in black and white photos, Kennedy lying on the floor as a then-17-year-old Romero searched for help and did his best to make the senator more comfortable.
RELATED: PEOPLE Remembers Robert F. Kennedy 50 Years Later with Commemorative Issue
“I kneeled down to him and I could see his lips moving, so I put my ear next to his lips and I heard him say, ‘Is everybody OK?’ I said, ‘Yes, everybody’s OK,’” Romero said. “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 continued. “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.”
He added, “I wrapped it around his right hand and then they wheeled him away.”
Romero said letters began to flood into the Ambassador Hotel, all of them addressed to “the busboy” and some of them angry that he hadn’t been able to prevent the assassination.
“One of them event 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,” he said.
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Wednesday, June 6 marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death and Romero said it has been “a long 50 years.”
Romero shared that he can’t help but get emotional when he thinks of the late senator, adding he paid he respects to Kennedy in 2010 when he visited his grave at the Arlington National Cemetery.
“I felt like I needed to ask Kennedy to forgive me for not being able to stop those bullets from harming him,” Romero said.
PEOPLE’s new special edition, The Kennedys: Jack & Jackie and Bobby & Ethel, remembering Robert F. Kennedy 50 years after his assassination, is available on Amazon, and wherever magazines are sold.
