Bill Eppridge: Pantry Photograph
[Original version posted on my blog on 5 March and 3 April 2014 as "Bill Eppridge Photo: Startled Shot In Pantry"]I previously posted a scan of page 90 from Bill Eppridge and Hays Gorey's Robert Kennedy: The Last Campaign (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993). Below is a scan of page 95 of that book, a photograph Eppridge accidentally took at the start of the attack in the Ambassador Hotel pantry on the night of 4 June 1968.
The caption reads: "Gunfire in the kitchen. At this point, Bill Eppridge is about twelve feet behind the senator. 'I push CBS cameraman Jim Wilson toward the shooting. My camera accidentally goes off.'"
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(Lightened and somewhat clarified)
Again, not the best scan. Most of it is a picture of the ceiling. At the bottom, near the middle-left of the photo (from our perspective), is presumably the back of Jim Wilson's head in dark silhouette (with what looks like a light meter directly above?). The action seems focused at the bottom left.....
.....which is where Robert Kennedy would likely have been. That would be consistent with the testimony of most witnesses that he was shaking hands with kitchen workers lined up to his left as he passed through the pantry.
(My original extremely lightened image)
In my opinion, the silhouetted figure "C" (a 3/4 rear view of a man turned to his left) bears considerable resemblance to a profile view of Robert Kennedy. Note the stark white of what appears to be figure "B," indicative of the kitchen workers' uniform jackets (for instance, that of Juan Romero in the iconic post-attack photo). The "D" designates a white area that arguably could be a flash from a gunshot.
For a long time, I've been puzzled by figure "F" (partially obscured by the left shoulder of the man with the light meter above his head). We see the back of a man's head and his white shirt collar, which has always struck me as awkward-looking relative to other figures. I had assumed the man must have been looking down or maybe kneeling. But the more I've thought about it over the years, the more the awkwardness stands out: could that be Paul Schrade falling backward after he got hit in the forehead by what was allegedly the first shot fired by Sirhan?
One final thing: if Jim Wilson was a CBS cameraman accidentally pushed by Eppridge toward the shooting as the attack began, doesn't it seem more than a little likely that he was filming at the time? Odd that we haven't heard more about that.
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