Despite the fact that some ten million workers had virtually shut down France, and chaos was looming, the Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam had stalled and the war was grinding on, all eyes and ears were on Los Angeles on this particular June 5th in 1968.

Shortly after midnight, amid a jubilant crowd and election returns that gave him a solid win in the California Primary, Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy was gunned down by an assassin on his way from addressing campaign workers and well-wishers to a press conference at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Here is the now-famous on the scene report by Mutual Broadcasting's Andrew West, followed by continuous news from 7:30 to around 8:30 on the morning of June 5th.

The rest of the news that day seemed inconsequential by comparison. At the time of this news broadcast, there was still hope for recovery. The assassin was still a would-be and he was as yet unidentified, arraigned as only John Doe.

Imagine you're waking up on this morning, not knowing what happened (as so many did), and hearing the news for the first time.

News from KFWB in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968.

(Robert F. Kennedy at the Teamsters Racketeering Hearings 1959 - air so thick you could mix concrete with it)

When Robert F. Kennedy took Lead Council in the Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Racketeering and Corruption in the Teamsters Union, an investigation that took over two years to complete, Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters Union President was more than in the hot seat, he was about to have his empire disintegrate. So heated and contentious was the cross-examination of Hoffa by Kennedy that many (in the conspiracy community) felt it was Hoffa who was responsible for Kennedy's assassination in 1968. The charges and counter-charges weren't relegated to the Senate Hearing chambers, the war was a very public one and threats were tossed by Hoffa at almost every opportunity. During a panel interview on Meet The Press from 1959, Kennedy is asked by Lawrence Spivak if he was worried regarding Hoffa's threat to sue from some remarks Kennedy made during a recent Jack Paar Show appearance.

Robert F. Kennedy: “I feel that in our investigation that we have shown that Mister Hoffa has made collusive deals with employers, that he’s betrayed the Union membership, that he sold out the Union membership, that he’s put gangsters and racketeers in important positions of power within the Teamsters Union, that he’s misused Union funds. I say that and I will say it again. If Mister Hoffa wishes to sue me I think we can take that to a court and allow it to be decided by a jury. And I’m sure that if Mister Hoffa that if he loses that case, and I think it should be done immediately, if he wishes to sue me. That if he loses that case, that he should resign as President of the Teamsters. Because if he is guilty of any one of these things he is not worthy to be International President of that Union.”

Needless to say, the news didn't get any better for Hoffa when Kennedy became Attorney General a little over a year later.