[5] The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress

Moments after Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, Sandra Serrano, a young campaign worker, says she saw a suspicious woman in a polka dot dress running away from the hotel screaming, “We shot him, we shot him.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, sir, what is it? What is your last name? Fahey?
Isn't right? Fah g y I and your first name John.
This is the tape of a police interview with John Fahey,
a chemical salesman who spent the morning of June fourth,
nineteen sixty eight, at the Ambassador Hotel. I was to
meet a fellow employee investor hotel, and we had arranged

(00:21):
to meet there at eight thirty and one, and I
got there late. I got there about nine. Maybe it'll laughter.
I went down at the coffee shop because we had
planned to have a cup of calling and he wasn't wrong.
I had a cup of coffee. I was sitting there.
This lady had approach me and we had nodded and

(00:43):
I said good morning. She said good morning, and she
sat down aside. Fahey said the woman was young, attractive
and expensively dressed, but she seemed troubled when every time,
every time I go to ask her a question, she
put to me like I don't know whether I could
trust you. She elaborate asked him why she said she
couldn't trust him. She says, well, if they thought I

(01:05):
was getting involved, they wouldn't mics then become very angry
with me, and as far as it would go, I
wouldn't present any further. I thought maybe she was a
cycle or something. Where is that what we talked about,
mister Kennedy? And she said she hated it and that
if I was to come to the victory celebration of
victory reception, that she didn't see to it. Mister Kennedy

(01:27):
be taking care of tonight. She would see to it.
Mister Kennedy be taking care of to me. Whatever you
think that this girl had anything to do with Kennedy's assassination, Johm.
She had this way you were with a weighing everything

(01:48):
that was said and that took place that day, just
between you and I. She didn't do the work. She
didn't do the work, but she had something to do
with it. But she had something to do with it.
In the last episode, two psychiatrists hypnotized sir Han sir

(02:08):
Han to try to help him remember the night he
shot Robert Kennedy. They didn't have a lot of success,
but one thing sir Han remembered was being with a
girl before the shooting. The name of a person who
was with a lot of other people seemed to see

(02:31):
a girl too, because she was tall, staturesque, black hair.
I remember that she had on a polka dot dress.
This week we looked for the girl in the polka
dot dress. I'm Zack Stewart, Pontiac and I'm Bill Claiver.
You're listening to the r K tapes. Well, m I

(02:57):
grew up in Ohio, Old Rain, right outside of Cleveland
as Steel Town. I just said, I think there's a
bigger world, and I ended up in California. This is
Sandra Serrano, a second generation Mexican American. Back in nineteen
sixty eight, she was nineteen years old and she admired
Robert Kennedy. I liked Bobby Kennedy because you know his

(03:23):
association with Casar Chavez, and it all just fit in
for me very very well. I'm coming out for the
strike at Delano for mister Chavez. He's been on a
hunger strike and is committed to non violence, and I
think that's terribly important. Caesar Shaves was the president of
the United farm Workers Union. He fought for better pay

(03:45):
and working conditions for the mostly immigrant farm workers of
California through organizing a non violent protest, and Robert Kennedy
supported his cause. Water fell even more so that we
had till that. Senator Kennedy, my instinct is right about

(04:06):
this man, It's really right about him. I could give
my whole speech in Spanish, but I understand there are
two three people who don't understand Spanish. So Kennedy told
these farm workers that their struggle would improve the lives
of generations to come. When your children start to grow up,

(04:27):
can I go on to school and they go on
to college, and they go on to better job, they
will know, as you will know that you paid the way,
that you're the ones that made it possible. About how

(04:50):
you got involved in the Kennedy campaign. I was taking
some classes at Pasadia City College and I've seen a
fire and they're looking for volunteer years for students for Kennedy.
I walked into the headquarters there and it was it
was pretty It was white. Everybody was white there. Everybody

(05:15):
was white. And I was told, oh, are you a
full time student? And I said no, I'm a part
time student. Oh, it's for full time students. And I said, well,
I can't go to school full time. I work, and
and she says, oh see, but there's no permanent place

(05:36):
for you. I was like, okay, So I said, I
know what we can do. We can make Youth for Kennedy.
And she said youth for Kennedy and I says, yeah,
all you have to do is be young. Sandras Ranto

(05:57):
became the co chair of her newly formed Youth for
Kennedy group. Did y Yes? Can you tell us about that?
I mean, I think it was maybe ten days before
the primary. They had a standing Ramoni event here and

(06:18):
because I was used for Kennedy, I got credentials, so
I was back, not on the stage but in the perimeter.
So I seen him walk up, you know, I saw
the various celebrities walk up and everything, and that I

(06:38):
could hear what they were saying, and Shirley McClain, who
was an old friend and whom I have the greatest affection,
and then they were saying, you have to leave the
perimeter because he's going to be coming off the stage,
thank you very much. So I conducted into a bathroom.
Then I went back out and I was a nobody

(06:59):
there and then he was coming through and I said
center to Kennedy and hit Arani said yes, and I said,
can I have your speech? And he was holding and
he said, yes, here, he gave it to me. I
have it here there. It is speaker, unnormal, shirty, McLean,

(07:22):
Andy Williams. It's good to be back in Los Angeles.
I'm delighted to see all of you. This is more
people than I've seen in four days in Oregon. There
are more people here tonight than I've seen in Oregon
in the last four days. Primary has been rough in
that respect. It's been bad enough to lose shoes, my

(07:43):
cuff links, my ties, and how my shirt. To the
California primary has been difficult, I suppose in that respect
of losing my coup lengths and losing my tie and
losing having my shoes taken and my shirt torn. But
I hope no one goes all the way with And
when I hear somebody say all the way with RFK,
that's what I'm gonna start moving on. However, isn't that weird?

(08:08):
That's really funny. It's funny, but it's weird because somebody, Yeah,
because somebody went all the way in California with RFK.
There's a lot of death. I know. That's like he's
talking about death. So do not send for whom the

(08:29):
bells toll, It tolls for thee. That's the way we
that we here in this country must feel, whether a
man is being killed by bullets or whether he's being
destroyed because he hasn't have a decent education or hasn't
had enough to eat. I don't think we can accept it,
and I think this country can do far, far better.

(08:52):
Take us to the Ambassador Hotels. Well, then, um, we
had done our work for the day. You know, Saranto
had spent the day of the California primary with her
Youth for Kennedy group handing out flyers encouraging people to vote,
and then the group headed to the Ambassador Hotel. We

(09:14):
were in the ballroom and it was so hot. There
were so many people, so I said, okay, I'm going
to go trying to find some fresh air somewhere. So
I stepped out into a balcony that actually was a
fire escape, and I was sitting there and I had
my legs stretch out, and three people came up, a

(09:37):
woman and two guys. And because the area is not huge,
you know, they sort of have to say excuse me,
or climb over your legs. Serrano says. A woman and
two men passed her and continued up the fire escape
into the hotel, and I took notice of them. I

(09:58):
thought it was unusual because it was a Caucasian woman
with two who I believed at that time were Mexican Americans.
Serrano stayed outside to avoid the heat as Kennedy delivered
his victory speech. I was sitting there for a while
for a while, and then I heard backfire of a

(10:19):
car and two of them came running back. Serrano said,
the woman and one of the men who had climbed
over her earlier came running back down the fire escape
and said, we shot him. We shot him. She said
that we shot him, we shot him. I said, who
did you shoot? She said, Kennedy. They disappeared. I'm like wow,

(10:49):
So I got up, I went to the bathroom. Everything
was normal, So I'm like, wow, that was weird heard
and then all of a sudden it was crazy. And

(11:11):
then they were making announcements from the bit from the
stage and Senator has been shot. Are there any doctors
in the house, Please, we need a doctor immediately, any
doctor at all. And so I'm talking to myself, I'm
saying that they said they shot him. They said they

(11:31):
shot him. And there was a man that was walking
next to me and he said, are you okay? I said,
I saw these people and they told me. They told
me that they shot him, and he said, don't say anything.
I don't say anything. I'm gonna take you to the authorities. Sander,

(11:54):
can you start against Can you hear me? Sander? I
can hear you, Frank, can you hear me? But somehow
I am up with Sandra van Ocher and I don't
know how that happened. Frank with me? Is missus? Sandra Serrano, Ohio.
Sandra Serrano stands beside NBC reporter Sandra van Ocher and
goes live on national television. No, we'll just take your time.

(12:16):
I was a Mican frontio. I just tell me everything.
Everybody was in the main room, you know, listening to
him speak, and it was too hot, so I went
outside and she tells the world what she saw. Then
this girl came running down the stairs in the back,
came running down the stairs and said, we've shot him.
We've shot him. And I says, who did you shoot?

(12:37):
And she says, we've shot Senator Kennedy. A boy came
down with her and he was Mexican America because I
couldn't remember that because I'm Mexican America. This young lady
is Satan. We we the Mexican Americans. No, she was
not of Mexican American descent. She was not. She was Caucasian.

(12:58):
H had on a white dress with polkada. She was like,
this detail would come to define the mystery woman, the
girl and the polka dot dress here and there won't
be a wait. Mary, I don't know if you've had
business Sorranto frant Later that night, Sandra Serrano was taken

(13:25):
to the police station, where she told the detectives about
that girl in a polka dot dress. Now, what is
she wearing? A white dressing? The dress, yeah, black poconut.
I know exactly what the dress is because I just
baby sit for someone that is an exact dress like that. Okay,
And would you do is the curse or in the

(13:46):
favor of not discussing, you're going to be a celebrity?
They go me on television. Then the police started asking
other witnesses if they had seen a woman in a
polka dot dress. Anytime see a female and a black
and white polkabet dress, did I understand you say that

(14:07):
he was with a girl here, I don't see the name, black,
white dress. She would call Lloyd. But then a young
waiter named Vincent de Piero told the police that he
noticed her hand in the kitchen before the shooting. The

(14:29):
only reason he was noticing because all right, was the
girl with him. If Lucas oilis or this girl wearing
she had a white dress, he's black or silenus. The
LAPD put out an all points bulletin. It said, prior

(14:53):
to the shooting, suspect was observed with a female Caucasian
described as twenty three to twenty seven years years old,
five feet six inches tall, wearing a white foiled dress
with three quarter sleeves and with small black polka dots.
The next day, a story about the mystery girl was
published in the La Times with the headline girl in

(15:14):
polka dot dress saw it may have accompanied assassin. After
the publicity, more people came forward saying they had seen
this woman. The woman in the poka dot dress ran
out of the kitchen shouting, we got him, accepting that
where we shot him. Asked me what the girl has

(15:35):
been wearing? That I had seen a polka dot dress
you've noticed the dress. Even though there's an even high
it stood out. I'm sure with Pokodt and one of
the people who came forward was John Fahey, that salesman
you heard at the top of the show who claimed

(15:55):
to have met a girl in the hotel coffee shop
the morning of the murder. Do you believe that the
girl that was with you on June the fourth is
involved in the Kennedy assassination? What are you saying? Asson
doesn't tell you a certain persons when to get knocked
off and you wake up the next one and find
it out. It happened after the break the search for

(16:22):
the girl and the polka dut dress. Do you have
any information on the woman the police department has issued
in all points of bulletin forth connection with the Kennedy assassination.
I no, I have no no further information on that.
This is Los Angeles Mayor Sam Jordi fielding questions from reporters.

(16:46):
I saw the account as you did. Some young lady
says that a girl ran out and said, we shot
Kennedy or something or she questioned, said we shot Kennedy.
I know nothing about that. Have you read Hey further?
Conclusion about whether this is a conspiracy of some sort
of whether this man was acting. I have no further

(17:10):
evidence on that. I asked the chief a little while
at golf there was anything new that was definitive, and
he said, no, nothing new that is definitive. Though the
week of Hell, Sandra Serrano would become one of the
main witnesses the police would focus on in their search

(17:32):
for the girl in the polka dot dress? Have you
looking at polka dot dresses and interviewing you and interview me?
Put me in a room with twelve poka dot dresses.
The cops have Serranto in a room at the Ambassador Hotel,

(17:52):
and hanging on the wall is a kind of police
lineup of polka dot dresses. Were the size of the
polka dots, the size of any the size of a
dime or the size of a quarter. You forgot a
half a dollar? You know, It's like The police also

(18:17):
took Serranto to the hotel fire escape and how to
recreate her interaction with the girl my sender, will you
sit on the step here that you were on the
night that you believe, just sing on the step on
the stepd this one or this one. Okay, would you
mind just sitting on it now? Just to show that
the steps of the MP question dirty. I didn't like

(18:40):
the way they addressed me. I felt oftentimes they were
trying to make me sound stupid. Did you describe the
closing you girl at step white dress a while poconut?
So I you know, I just did the best that
I could do. Let's go. I thought you got a

(19:01):
share party. But then Sandra Serrano met Sergeant Hank Hernandez.
You see, uh, Sandy, this is a great project. He
probably the second yet when the report on the Candy assassination,
on the Canny assassination, that really we want to make

(19:22):
sure that we don't have something like we did in Dallas, Texas.
That this report is incomplete, thorough investigation that was done,
and no stone for left on turning. That's the reason
I'm in here talking with you searching. Hernandez hooks Sarroundo
up to a polygraph machine. So let's try and relaxes this.

(19:43):
She kind of the second ascess, because the last thing
I want you to do is to be afraid. I
can't help sendya ask you some questions about answer me
truthfully to invest in their ability on election nights at
the Ambassador Hotel. Did you see a girl with a

(20:05):
white dress and black polka dots on that stairway? That
a girl in a white dress with black polka dots
tell you we have shot Kennedy? Have you lied to
my questions about the Kennedy shooting? Can the black stile?

(20:29):
At this point, after just a handful of questions, Sergeant
Hernandez stops the polygraph test. I'm not going to ask
you any more questions, not a single one. I do
want to talk to you like a brother, love him.
You're at talking younger. You know that for some reason
this was made up. And let me tell you this,
what you say you saw it is not true. He

(20:53):
tells Rono that she isn't being truthful. So what Here's
what you have to think about right now, is I
think you will you said out of Kennedy, the lay
side of the Kennedy to come forth, be a woman
about this. If he and you don't know and I
don't know whether he's out witness right now on this room,
watching what we're doing in here, don't she ain't his dad?

(21:14):
By keeping this thing up? I have compassion for you
and I'm not gonna put words in your mode, but
I don't want Johnny that true talk about the staircase.
Nobody and that staircase. If you're Johnny here told you
that we didn't have shot Canny, there's a girl college's
coming downstairs and ship shout all the draft or white traft.

(21:38):
It's not an easy I don't know what I'm telling you. No, No, Sandra,
you made this all up. You need it all up. No,
I didn't. I didn't make it up. Why would I
want to make it up. And you know, if you
tell the truth, if you say there was something, if
this will all go away, I'll make it all go away.

(22:01):
Let this thing that it's going to grow with you
and it's going to make an old woman out of
you before your time, come out of you before it
is looking well. I'm not honest say I truly believe.
Somebody tell me, and I'm not gonna say no woman
to tell me, Jo satisfy anybody else, just the truth
to satisfy yourself. No, I'm to satisfy the family, the
remaining family of this side, the Kennedys have had not

(22:22):
even tradingly here sense of first president Kennedy. You know,
Senator Bobby Kennedy. Now what next? They have enough? At
least it's a consolation to them. And I'm certain, and
you mark my words. In one of these days, if
you're womaning a you'll get a letter from Ethel Kennedy
personal thanking you for at least letting her rest this

(22:44):
aspect of this investigation. Somebody taught me that, honest, no,
you can't say that I can solve. You can't say
it with your list. You can see about with your feeing,
your heart, your soul. You've told me here these are rides.
This story is a line. This didn't happen the only

(23:09):
time that you are vessel. And I can tell you
right now, you tell me what happened after, and I
can assure you that nobody else I don't know what
I happen. Tell you know what happened after hours in
a room were searching Hernandez. This isn't you have to
you know what redaction is? She begins to give in
the damn cop. What did they do? They? I can

(23:34):
remember crying and crying and crying, and I can't even
ember say a they told me you shop they all
see two be op they're coming out on that. Did
you see them right? Yeah? One bit? Now I know
we both know that. Yeah, what happened? The whole thing
is that stor Well, we're gonna stop it right noww

(23:56):
I send, We're gonna stop it right now, and I'm
gonna go see if we can get a sennographer to
come up and take a statement and stop it right now. Okay,
it's not I wantn't tell you all why because somebody
didn't tell me. Well, they told you Kennedy has been shot.
They shot Kennedy or he shot Kennedy. Then ocuation started
questioning you. The next thing, there was two people. The

(24:16):
next thing it was a woman and a white black
folk a got dress and before you know what dirty?
Are sure I can see before you got messed up?
Well saying look, two expertise things here. We have to
make a report to cancel of this, to stop it,
and we have to do it now, and the heasiest
ways to get us an algraphy here, state of state?

(24:37):
Did you drink coffee? I just felt that that was terribly,
terribly beaten up. So there was a point when I
just said, what do you want me to see? Whatever
you want me to say on State In this new

(25:00):
version of her story, she heard from a woman that
Kennedy had been shot, but not that The woman said,
we shot Kennedy and the woman was simply wearing a
white dress, not a white dress with poka dots. The
police stopped looking for the girl in the polka dot dress.
A headline in the La Times read Polka dot girl

(25:23):
hunt called off. The article said quote officers said they
had established that no such person ever existed, but was
the product of a young Kennedy workers hysteria after the assassination.
Their theory was that the whole thing started with Santa Serrano,
and when she told her story on television, it spun

(25:44):
out of control. To this day, you know, I don't
know what happened. I really don't. But what I do
know happen is it the feelings that I had that
people were working overtime to discredit me. Why why, why?

(26:05):
What were they trying to hide? It leaves me sad.
It leaves me sad because we should know what happened. Yeah,
it's strange, very strange. Just one more thing about John Fahey.

(26:30):
This is the salesman, the one who had coffee with
the girl in the Ambassador Hotel that really I was scared.
I was afraid and I didn't want to get in
any trouble. He told the police something curious, something that
we might have heard before. She mentioned an organization which
later I thought of it, something that I was like,

(26:51):
I thought rosa Crucian or something at this nation. You
mentioned the Rosy Crucians. So there's another possible connection between
Sir Han and this girl, A very strange one. Huh,
why does sir ours? You may now open your eyes.

(27:12):
We shall begin the last step in our method of
a tunement with the cosmic mind. Next week. What are
we doing? Mind control? Mind control? Ye nice? Crimetown is

(27:46):
me Zack Stewart Pontier and Mark Smerling. The RFK Tapes
is made in partnership with Cadence thirteen. The show is
produced by Jesse Rudoi, Bill Klaiber, Ulla Culpa and Ryan Murdoch.
Our senior producer is Austin Mitchell, editing by Mark Smirling,

(28:08):
fact checking by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was mixed and
sound designed by Robin Shore, with a score by Kenny
Qusiak and additional music by John Kusiak. Our title track
is Maria Tambien by Krungben. Our credit track this week
is Big Shot by Rosaline Eastman. Music supervision by Josh

(28:40):
Kessler and Dylan Bostick at Heavy Duty Projects. Archival footage
courtesy of Producer's Library and the California State Archives. Archival
research by Brennan Reese. Production assistants by Kevin Shephard. Our
website is designed by Kurt Courtney, thanks to Gene Claibour,
Emily Weedeman, Green Card Pictures, Alessandro Santorro, Paul Schrade, Elizabeth Benham,

(29:05):
Vincent de Piero, Fernando Faua, and the team at Kaden's Thirteen.
For more information on the Robert Kennedy Murder, pick up
a copy of Bill's book shadow Play from Saint Martin's Press.
You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at
the RFK Tapes and if you like the show, please

(29:26):
consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you listen. For bonus content, check out our
website RFKA tapes dot com. This week you can see
photos of Sandra Serrano and Hank Hernandez polygraph report check
it out. See you next week. A chorus. The world

(30:03):
will sing its race for us, like a chorus, like
a chorus, like a chorus,