Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (No Series) (90 page)

David Morales, the paramilitary chief for the CIA’s JM/WAVE station in Miami, carried out a variety of dark assignments for the agency. Morales, who grew close to Mafia confederates like Johnny Rosselli, later told his lawyer he was in both Dallas and Los Angeles when John and Robert Kennedy were assassinated.

Mafia emissary Johnny Rosselli arrives on Capitol Hill in June 1975 to testify before the Church Committee about the CIA’s pact with the mob. The following year, after Rosselli was called to testify further, his dismembered body was found stuffed in a rusting oil drum, floating in the waters off Miami. “Rosselli was killed every way you can be killed,” said committee member Gary Hart.
Courtesy Corbis

As the Kennedy family laid the fallen president to rest, Bobby and Jacqueline Kennedy’s rage at the “they” who had killed JFK was replaced by a paralyzing sense of loss. To close friends, it seemed Bobby’s crushing grief was compounded by a profound guilt, the feeling that he could have prevented his brother’s murder if he had only been more vigilant.
Courtesy Woodfin-Camp NYC, photo by Jacques Lowe

Bobby Kennedy could not bring himself to accept Lyndon Johnson, “the garish sun” who had replaced his brother as president. Ironically, the two bitter rivals shared a deep suspicion that JFK was the victim of a conspiracy. While Washington’s political elite muttered darkly among themselves about the plot that had ended the Kennedy presidency, the media continued to reassure the public that the assassination was the work of a lone misfit.
Courtesy JFK Library, photo by Edward Ozern

While inspecting the miserable conditions for farm workers in upstate New York, Senator Robert Kennedy speaks with the young son of a farm worker family who lived in the hulk of an abandoned car. Always attuned to the feelings of children, Kennedy developed a deep sense of empathy for America’s afflicted after his brother’s assassination, an empathy that reflected his own wounded condition.
Courtesy Adam Walinsky

Bobby strides briskly outside the Capitol Building with his two young Senate aides, Peter Edelman (center) and Adam Walinsky. RFK’s staffers pushed him toward his inevitable showdown with President Johnson over the Vietnam War. Who were we, Kennedy declared in a passionate Senate speech cowritten by Walinsky, “to play the role of an avenging angel pouring death and destruction” from above on the people of Vietnam?
Courtesy Adam Walinsky, photo by George Tames:
© New York Times Magazine/
Redux

Bobby waves to ecstatic supporters during his tumultuous 1968 presidential race, surrounded by a tumbling Ethel and several of their children, as aide Fred Dutton (far right) walks alongside the campaign car and bodyguard Bill Barry keeps a protective hold on the candidate. Despite the physical dangers, Kennedy gave himself to the crowds, wading into the wounded heart of American democracy with heroic confidence.
Courtesy JFK Library

Seconds after being shot in the head, Kennedy lies in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel, held by seventeen-year-old busboy Juan Romero. Bobby’s face “had a kind of sweet acceptance to it,” observed reporter Pete Hamill—he looked like a man who had been released.
Photograph by Bill Eppridge/LIFE/©Time Inc.

Press secretary Frank Mankiewicz wipes away tears as he announces the death of Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 6, 1968. Bobby had asked his trusted aide to help him find the truth about Dallas. Now their mission would never be completed.
Photo by Bill Eppridge