The Kennedy Assassin Who Failed
Richard Paul Pavlick’s plan wasn’t very complicated, but it took an eagle-eyed postal worker to prevent a tragedy
- By Dan Lewis
- Smithsonian.com, December 06, 2012, Subscribe
Posted from Dan Lewis' fantastic Now I Know newsletter. Subscribe here or follow him on Twitter.
In November of 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected President of the United States. Three years later, he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while in a motorcade going through Dallas, Texas.
Had Richard Paul Pavlick gotten his way, Oswald would have never gotten to pull the trigger. Because Pavlick wanted to kill JFK first.
On December 11, 1960, JFK was the president-elect and Richard Paul Pavlick was a 73-year-old retired postal worker. Both were in Palm Beach, Florida. JFK was there on a vacation of sorts, taking a trip to warmer climates as he prepared to assume the office of the President. Pavlick had followed Kennedy down there with the intention of blowing himself up and taking JFK with him. His plan was simple. He lined his car with dynamite — “enough to blow up a small mountain” per CNN – and outfitted it with a detonation switch. Then, he parked outside the Kennedy’s Palm Beach compound and waited for Kennedy to leave his house to go to Sunday Mass. Pavlick’s aim was to ram his car into JFK’s limo as the President-to-be left his home, killing them both.
But JFK did not leave his house alone that morning. He made his way to his limousine with his wife, Jacqueline, and children, Caroline and John, Jr. who was less than a month old. While Pavlick was willing to kill John F. Kennedy, he did not want to kill Kennedy’s family, so he resigned himself to trying again another day. He would not get a second chance at murderous infamy. On December 15, he was arrested by a Palm Beach police officer working off a tip from the Secret Service.
Pavlick’s undoing was the result of deranged postcards he sent to Thomas Murphy, then the postmaster of Pavlick’s hometown of Belmont, New Hampshire. Murphy was put off by the strange tone of the postcards, and his curiosity led him to do what postmasters do — look at the postmarks. He noticed a pattern: Pavlick happened to be in the same general area as JFK, dotting the landscape as Kennedy travelled. Murphy called the local police department who, in turn, called the Secret Service, and from there, Pavlick’s plan unraveled.
The would-be assassin was committed to a mental institution, pending charges, on January 27, 1961, a week after Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. These charges were eventually dropped as it became increasingly clear that Pavlick acted out of an inability to distinguish between right and wrong (i.e. he was legally insane), but nevertheless, Pavlick remained institutionalized until December 13, 1966, nearly six years after being apprehended, and three years after Oswald pulled the trigger.
Bonus fact: If Pavlick seems old for a would-be Presidential assassin, your instincts are correct. Lee Harvey Oswald was just 24 years old, making him the youngest of all four of the men who assassinated Presidents. John Wilkes Booth was 26 when he killed Abraham Lincoln; Leon Czolgosz was 28 when he assassinated William McKinley, and Charles Guiteau was 39 when he attacked James A. Garfield.
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Comments (13)
Great article. Readers should be aware I am the author of the eBook published in 2010, "Near Miss: The Attempted Assassination of JFK" Which explore this incident and the what-ifs surrounding it. I used Secret Service files and federal court records to write this. Here are a couple of links to my book, http://publish.bookbrewer.com/content/near-miss-attempted-assassination-jfk http://facebook.com/JFKNearMiss Comments from Dan Lewis and readers are appreciated. Steve B. Davis
Posted by Steve B. Davis on January 3,2013 | 10:56 AM
Oswald was a patsy, blamed for the killing by the Warren Coverup Commission . The actual shooter was behind the grassy knoll. Oswald didn't kill Kennedy, the grassy knoll sniper did, as part of the conspiracy masterminded by the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson.
Posted by nick on December 13,2012 | 07:48 PM
If you've ever been to Dallas and looked out the window of the Book Depository you realize that you could just about throw an apple out the window and hit Kennedy's car, its that close. Oswald was a Marine rifleman, and a wannabe. No conspiracy required to explain what happened.
Posted by HT on December 11,2012 | 01:55 PM
Given the unprecedented level of controversy regarding the assassination of President Kennedy, this story could have stood on its own without the unqualified opening statement: "In November of 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected President of the United States. Three years later, he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while in a motorcade going through Dallas, Texas." The Smithsonian should be sensitive to historical controversy and counter-narratives and should have done better editing in this case, don't you think? Can you name another historical controversy that has generated more investigation, scholarship, forensic and ballistics disagreement, books and call for release of files than the Kennedy assassination over the last five decades? And yet you just take a side without even presenting any evidence or even an "alleged". Not a balance approach for a museum.
Posted by John Judge on December 9,2012 | 02:03 AM
I don't believe Oswald killed Kennedy, either. He kept saying he was the patsy, and then, just so neatly and conveniently, he was disposed of shortly thereafter. And the Warren Report. Why so much information withheld?
Posted by Sue Marston on December 8,2012 | 09:18 AM
Very interesting. I was not aware of this story.
Posted by Candy on December 7,2012 | 05:08 PM
HISTORY on JFK. First attempted assasination.
Posted by Toni Rysm on December 7,2012 | 01:31 PM
John, Jr., in tha acompaning picture, looks older than one month old.
Posted by Babbarum on December 7,2012 | 10:17 AM
A piece of history I lived through but was not aware of. Interesting piece.
Posted by Lori on December 6,2012 | 09:17 PM
It just goes to show that crazy people come in all forms.
Posted by David on December 6,2012 | 08:24 PM
Oswald did not kill President Kennedy. The mastermind is being held in a federal prison in Oklahoma. Bill Curtis, a Chicago newsman put the Kennedy assassination on public television several years ago. He interviewed the French sharpshooters who pulled the trigger in Dallas. The French government would not allow the men to be extradited for a capital punishment crime.There are several books documenting the assassination.
Posted by Gilbert Thompson on December 6,2012 | 08:19 PM
Interesting but incomplete article. Why did he want to kill him ? Why was he released in 1966 when he was legally insane ? And,LHO did not kill JFK. We still don't know who killed him
Posted by Dino on December 6,2012 | 08:14 PM