Los Angeles has been home to some of the most notorious crimes and deaths in recent history, and an exhibit at the Palms features compelling evidence from some of those events.

The exhibit, titled “Behind the Scenes: The LAPD Homicide Experience,” is being shown in conjunction with the California Homicide Investigator’s Association’s 2010 conference at the Palms, being hosted by the Los Angeles Police Department. The collection of artifacts includes items such as the gloves from the O.J. Simpson case (“if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”) and the rope used in the Sharon Tate murder at the hands of the Manson family.
Historical stuff, to be sure, but also pretty grisly. Items that won’t be appearing in the exhibit: the blood-soaked clothes that Robert Kennedy wore when he was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968. The exhibit originally included the Kennedy items, but the items were removed after strong objections from the Kennedy family.

Kennedy’s son, Maxwell Kennedy said it was painful to his family to have the items exhibited. “It sends a message to victims of violent crime across the state that if you turn over evidence to the police, they may eventually put your most personal pain on stage at a Vegas casino,” he told the New York Times.

In response to an apology by the LAPD chief, Kennedy said, “I believe that the chief of police and the district attorney violated the state’s constitution when they took my father’s clothes across state lines, hung them from mannequins in a Las Vegas casino and invited one and all to come and gawk.”

The exhibitors want to make sure people understand that this is a legitimate exhibit with educational value. Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said, “This is not a horror show or a freak show. This is a professional, museum-type demonstration.”

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