Mayor Says State Should Get Files on R. F. Kennedy
Mayor Tom Bradley has sent a letter to the City Council recommending that the city’s police files on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy be turned over to the state archives.
The mayor said Friday that he agrees with the conclusion of a special 12-member committee that the best repository for the massive files is the California State Archives in Sacramento. The panel recently completed a six-month study of the matter.
Kennedy, a U.S. senator from New York campaigning for the presidency, was shot to death in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968, after his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the slaying in April, 1969, and is serving a life term.
The police files, which except for a summary have not been released to the public, contain 50,000 pages of documents and notes, 2,000 photographs, 100 pieces of evidence and several reels of tape recordings.
Others Seeking Files
Other agencies vying for custody of the files were Southeast Massachusetts University, North Dartmouth, Mass.; the University of Southern California Library, Los Angeles, and the Assassination Archives and Research, Washington, D.C.
The mayor’s recommendation was expected to be referred to a City Council committee for consideration before going to the full council for a vote, the mayor’s spokesman, Fred MacFarlane, said.
The mayor’s committee was composed of historians, attorneys, scholars, archivists and librarians.
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