My journey ends here...
BATES John
Date of birth : 1918.
Place of living : in 1962 he lived in the Bates Ranch, Gilroy, California (several hundred kilometers from Los Angeles; 130 kilometers south of San Francisco).
Practise: in 1962 he was a respectable lawyer in a company in San Francisco; he had just been offered a prestigious place in the Kennedy administration.
Story
1940 : he graduated in Law at the Stanford University, San Francisco, then served 3 years in the Navy.
He had met John Kennedy through a friend, member, like him, of the same student association, Paul B.Fay.
After the war, he finished his law studies at the Berkeley University (near San Francisco) in 1947 and started in the law firm Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in San Francisco. He showed such competences that he became one of the main partner.
When John Kennedy entered in the White House, Bates was one of the most prestigious and most respected lawyer in California, occupying, among others, the position of the Judicial Board President of the San Francisco Bar.
So the new governement of John Kennedy offered him to lead the Anti-trust Division of the US Department of Justice. Bates studied the proposition but refused it, choosing to continue his activity in his firm and to live in California, with his wife and their 3 children.
He publicly declared that Robert Kennedy and his family had stayed at his ranch during the whole week-end of August 4 and 5, 1962.
In fact, the presence of Robert Kennedy's family was certified by the whole Bates family and also by their employees.
Bates declared that the nearest landing site from his ranch was located in San José, an hour in car from there. Because of the deep canyons, the steep mountains and the high-tension lines voltage, it was very dangerous to use an helicopter. The only way to reach Los Angeles from Gilroy was by car, a driving of at least 5 hours.
On Friday, August 3, 1962, Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel arrived, along with their 4 children, at the San
Francisco Airport (
)
where they were welcomed by the Bates family (it was announced in the
evening in a dispatch of the Associated Press and on August 4th by the Los Angeles Times).
On Saturday, August 4, 1962, everybody got up to take a giant breakfast before Robert and Ethel Kennedy, John Bates and his wife Nancy went to a horse riding.
Roland Snyder, the ranch steward, testified about Robert's presence too.
The riding in the morning was followed by a bathing and a barbecue.
In the afternoon, Robert Kennedy suggested that everybody had a run to go to an improvised field to play touch-football.Once the children were in bed, the Bates and Kennedy couples had dinner together; the dinner ended at about 22.30 PM.
On Sunday, August 5, 1962, the Bates and the Kennedys got up early to attend the church service in Gilroy, where the local press reported their presence (Gilroy Dispatch of August 6th 1962). After their comeback to the ranch and the lunch, John Bates drove Kennedy in San Francisco where they were the guests of Paul Fay during the convention. Ethel and Robert spent the afternoon and the evening with the Bates and some friends in common (Mr and Mrs Edxard Callan, Mr and Mrs Joseph Tydings).
BACK TO ALPHABETICAL INDEX
NEXT FILE