The Los Angeles Police Department has apolo- gized to the family of Robert Kennedy and pulled from display items of clothing worn by the Senator the night he was shot in L.A. in 1968. The items—a tie, shirt, and jacket stained with blood—had been part of an exhibit hosted at the Palms Casino, and created for the 2010 California Homicide Investigators Assn. Conference.

The Kennedy family claims to have requested the return of Robert Kennedy’s effects more than ten years ago, to no avail, and called the LAPD’s official apology "insufficient." Department spokesmen claim to have been trying merely to put together a professional and educational display, not a “freakshow.” The exhibit does contain crime scene evidence rarely seen in public, including hundreds of photographs dating back as far one hundred years, but it also features sensational items such as the rope used to restrain Sharon Tate the night of her murder, and various O.J. Simpson artifacts.

Asked whether they would agree to the request made by the Kennedy family and return the items—a move that would comply with California state law regarding personal effects of murder victims—a spokeswoman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s office declined to answer in the affirmative about the potentially valuable collection, instead saying only that they were “looking into it.”

Here’s a rather disturbing 1977 cover by Spanish artist Prieto Muriana for the first of a six issue comic series about the assassination of John F. Kennedy (which happened forty six years ago today), and the events leading up to his brother Robert Kennedy’s killing. When we first saw this image at Blonde Zombies it made us cringe a bit, which makes it a successful cover, since it’s clearly intended to be an iconoclastic representation of this sad day. After our initial misgivings, we were able to appreciate the artistry involved. But then JFK is before our time. If you're old enough to have personal memories of the event, maybe there's nothing artistic here at all. Either way, you can see the other Kennedy covers here, and if you read French, you can check out the interior action here.