A Time Travel Short Story to Prevent the 1968 Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. (7,500 words / $2.99 Kindle)

 
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College professor Woody Endicott and his student time travel to 1968 to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Sr. Upon their return to present day, the world as they knew it no longer exists. The Last Fall examines the emotional layers of a protagonist who fixes history for the better, only to struggle with a haunting moral dilemma: Should he put things back as they once were?
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RFK: Attorney General / Senator / Presidential Candidate

"What is the price tag on equal justice under law?”—U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1964

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”—U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 1966

“My thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago and let's win there."—Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s California primary victory speech, just after midnight, June 5, 1968

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Movie/TV References in THE LAST FALL
 
Woody time-travels: My brain cells were a cocktail of dizzy and peculiar, with a spritz of paranoia. Not the dreamy image of Jodie Foster floating peacefully to a planet’s beach in Contact.
 
Woody flies from LA to DC: I went home and booked a Wednesday to Friday flight to Stallone National.
Rocky Airport? Really?
 
Ode to Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon: As I took my next breath, I saw a man with a gun across the street heading my way. I picked up a ten-pound kettlebell, bolted to the bathroom like a senior cit with too much fiber, and hid behind the door.
“I’m too old for this sh*t,” I muttered aloud, trying to stay in the moment.
 
Woody in legal trouble: Whoa, it’s like an episode of Suits, and Bricker is Harvey, I marveled with my mouth agape.
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Emotional Layers of THE LAST FALL

Conversation between student and professor: “Mr. Endicott, you are a moral man. In the end, you’ll know the right thing to do.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I dreaded and hung up.
 
Woody: Who am I to change the world? Change the world back? WTF. 
When I got home, my front door was smashed open, the place torn up, and my laptop missing.

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Author’s Note

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events.”—Robert F. Kennedy, 1966 

June 4, 1968: The Last Fall was originally intended as a time-travel journey to “fix” an actual or fictitious moment from the Vietnam War in 1968. As the plot evolved, I was instead drawn to “what if” scenarios centered around Robert F. Kennedy. If the Senator survived his assault, perhaps a messy military chapter in U.S. and world history would’ve ended sooner.

In trying times, both abroad and at home, RFK inspired many with his optimism. In 1961, he offered: “If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” I’d like to think this expression of hope resonated with people like Woody Guthrie, who wrote songs about those ignored or shut out of the American Dream. In 1944, he recorded “This Land is Your Land” with earnest words: “As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting. This land was made for you and me.”

            In the 1960s, five prominent leaders were assassinated—individuals who influenced public discourse in profoundly different ways:  NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, June 1963; President John F. Kennedy, November 1963; Minister Malcolm X, February 1965; Reverend Martin Luther King, April 1968; and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, June 1968. 

          RFK was the last of these people to fall. His mission to do good and be better as a nation and world lives on as a beacon of faith for us all.

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Acknowledgments

... Finally, I want to acknowledge the families of the thirty-one U.S. soldiers who died in Vietnam on June 4, 1968, honorably serving their country. [Not in the ebook: Below is each person’s name, birth month and year, and home state.]

Ike Bonner, 07/1947, Ohio; Raymond Borduas, 09/1947, Maine; Tadeusz Borowski, 03/1947, Indiana; Eric Brice, 04/1943, North Carolina; Earl Cobbley, Jr., 08/1948, Utah; Daniel Dabreu, 08/1949, Massachusetts; Randall Davis, 01/1950, Indiana; Marcial Garcia, 04/1949, California; Joseph Grillo, Jr., 03/1949, Connecticut; Jerome Grunewald, 12/1945, Wisconsin; William Haralson, 02/1948, Washington; John Harrington, 09/1949, Michigan; Robert Holland, 02/1947, Virginia; Ronnie Jones, 04/1949, New York; Norman Keller, 05/1944, New York; Earl Lerch, 04/1946, California; James Lewis, 04/1949, Ohio; Darl McDorman, 07/1946, Virginia; James Moffett, 09/1946, Oklahoma; Amelio Nino, 09/1946, Texas; Alan Polley, 03/1948, Ohio; Wayne Proctor, 10/1946, South Carolina; Richard Roesler, 09/1946, Wisconsin; Aldo Ryder, 02/1949, Connecticut; Louis Snakovsky, Jr., 10/1948, Ohio; Michael Soderstrom, 12/1948, Hawaii; Raymond Steele, 06/1948, New York; Matau Toia, Jr., 06/1948, California; Lonnie Wedrick, 10/1947, Washington; Thomas Wilcox, 11/1948, Iowa; Benjamin Williamson, 05/1947, South Carolina.

Source: National Archives database

  

Photograph c 2026 Perry Binder (Vietnam Wall replica, Atlanta, GA - Panel 60W, containing the above names from June 4, 1968)