PREVIOUSLY unpublished photographs of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, taken by Harry Benson, the renowned Scots photographer, are to be unveiled in Edinburgh.

The series of eight pictures was shot by Benson at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles on the evening the senator was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian assassin.

Benson, who in his 50-year career has worked with eight presidents, was at Kennedy’s side in 1968 when he was shot three times after celebrating victories in the Democratic primaries which paved the way for him to be nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.

Benson’s first solo exhibition in Scotland, which will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery before transferring to the Smithsonian Institute in the United States later this year, includes images of Kennedy as he slumped to the ground, the senator’s wife Ethel screaming and the shocked crowd watching the assassination unfold.

“I was with Bobby Kennedy all evening,” said Benson. “I saw the man murdered right in front of me. People said, ‘How could you lift your camera, Harry?’, but I felt I had to.

“As you can imagine, photographers weren’t made welcome and I was under a lot of duress, getting punched as I was taking the pictures. I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and go over the whole thing. I can hear Ethel screaming, ‘I’m with you baby’ over and over again.”

Sirhan, who is serving a life sentence, initially claimed he shot Kennedy because of his public support for Israel. He later recanted, claiming he had no memory of the killing. This fuelled conspiracy theories similar to those surrounding the murder of his brother, John F Kennedy, five years earlier.

According to some witnesses, a woman in a polka dot dress was seen fleeing the hotel shouting jubilantly, “We shot him”. One of the images taken by Benson shows the back of a woman who seems to fit the description.

Although Benson rejects the conspiracy theories, he called the FBI twice to ask it to examine the picture, but his calls were never returned.

Although two of his photographs were published in magazines across the world, the rest have remained hidden in his vast archive.

The exhibition will include photographs of the Beatles and a portrait of Michael Jackson.

James Holloway, director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said: “It is exhilarating to see history through his eyes.”

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