Politics Read the Wrenching Letter Jackie Kennedy Wrote to RFK's Wife Ethel After His Death 50 Years Ago The 50-year anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination is on Thursday By Patrick Rogers Patrick Rogers Patrick Rogers is the Senior Editor, Crime at PEOPLE. He has been working at PEOPLE for two years. His work has previously appeared in Newsweek, Elle Decor, Allure, the New York Times, Washington Post, Irish Times, The Magazine: Antiques and Preservation. People Editorial Guidelines and Christina Butan Christina Butan Instagram Christina Butan has been working in media since she graduated SUNY Purchase in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and the Peter Keller Journalism Prize. She started out as an editorial assistant and news writer for PEOPLE, and then joined the Dotdash Meredith commerce team as an Amazon writer in 2019. She quickly became well-versed in commerce content and worked her way up to becoming a Senior Commerce Writer and Strategist for InStyle, where she pitches, writes, assigns, and edits stories covering celebrity style, beauty trends, editor's picks, and more. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 5, 2018 01:45 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Charles Tasnadi/AP/REX/Shutterstock Ethel Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier got off to a famously bad start. In 1953, Ethel invited her brother-in-law Sen. Jack Kennedy and his new girlfriend to her formal St. Patrick's Day party. Emerging from a Rolls Royce, Jackie wore black, like all of the other ladies in attendance — except Ethel, who upstaged her guests in a shimmering emerald-green gown. Allegedly miffed, Jackie left early, complaining of a "dreadful headache." PEOPLE's new special edition, The Kennedys: Jack & Jackie and Bobby & Ethel, remembering Robert F. Kennedy 50 years after his assassination, is available on Amazon and wherever magazines are sold. Despite this initial encounter, much has been written since about how the two Mrs. Kennedys, who shared the horrific bond of losing their husbands to assassins' bullets, actually got along. The Former Busboy Who Held a Dying Robert F. Kennedy Reflects on the Senator's Final Moments The condolence letter Jackie sent to Ethel in the wake of RFK's assassination 50 years ago — on June 6, 1968, addressed to "My Ethel" — displays the potential friendship. It reads: "My Ethel – No one in the world could have ever been like you were yesterday — except maybe Bobby – We are going home now — Your phone was busy You don't want any more callers you must be so tired — I stayed up till 6:30 last night just thinking — and praying for you — and for you in the months ahead — I love you so much — You know that anything — Stas will take little Bobby to Africa — I'll take them around the world + to the moon + back — anything to help you + them now and always — With my deepest deepest love Jackie" AP The two-page note went missing for years, prompting an FBI investigation. As of 2011, it remains in the hands of the FBI, according to The Dallas Morning News. And Ethel remains devoted to her late husband. "She is still married to Bobby," a friend of the 90-year-old once told PEOPLE. "She believes he is in heaven looking down on her."