By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
HYANNIS – Unlike Lee Harvey Oswald, Richard Paul Pavlick is hardly a household name. Oswald, of course, is known for assassinating Brookline native and 35th president of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) on November 22, 1963. Interestingly, the lesser-known Pavlick had positioned himself to carry out the same evil act in 1960.
Known for political rants
Pavlick was born in Boston in 1887 to George and Augusta Pavlick and received his education in Boston public schools. He worked as a postal employee in Boston after serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. After retiring from the post office, the 73-year-old relocated to Belmont, New Hampshire, where he was known for his angry political rants, criticism of the government, hatred for Catholics with a particular ire for the Kennedy clan and their wealth. Ironically, Ancestry.com records show he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in South Boston on April 22, 1887.
After JFK defeated Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, Pavlick made the ill-fated decision to kill the 43-year-old former U.S. senator from Massachusetts. He started traveling to the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, photographing their home, checking out the compound’s security and even casing the family compound in Palm Beach, Florida. Believing security was weaker in Florida, Pavlick set his plan in motion to blow himself up, taking JFK with him.
He packed his 1950 Buick with blasting caps, wire, outfitted the vehicle with a detonation switch and enough sticks of dynamite to blow up a small mountain. Pavlick then headed south. On December 11, 1960, he parked his vehicle outside the Kennedy compound and waited for JFK to leave his house to attend Sunday mass so that he could ram his car into the president-elect’s limousine.
Photo/Wikimedia Commons
Plot foiled
There were two things that foiled Pavlick’s murderous plot. First, he sent a slew of bizarre postcards to Belmont postmaster Thomas Murphy. One of them mentioned details of his plan and how the town would soon hear from him “in a big way.” Looking at the postmarks, Murphy noticed that Pavlick had been in the general areas JFK traveled. He called the local police who, in turn, called the Secret Service in Cambridge who then put out an alert.
Secondly, when Pavlick spotted JFK leaving the compound for mass, he was not alone. Accompanying him were wife Jackqueline and the children, Caroline and John Jr., who was less than one month old at the time. Pavlick did not have designs on killing the wife and children, only JFK. So, he resigned himself to try another day.
On December 15, Pavlick was arrested in Palm Beach for driving on the wrong side of the road with the dynamite still inside the car. He told police that he believed JFK bought the White House and the presidency. He also believed JFK would be loyal to the Pope and not to the United States. The shocking story became a footnote, losing its place in the headlines, after two planes collided in New York City, killing everyone on board except for a young boy who immediately became America’s new obsession.
Charges dropped after insanity determination
Pavlick, who had little to no family and a history of mental illness, was committed to a mental institution, pending charges, on January 27, 1961. The charges were dropped after he was deemed legally insane and remained institutionalized until December 1966. He remained under the watch of the Secret Service after his release from custody in 1966 and was portrayed in the 1983 miniseries “Kennedy.”
Photo/Wikimedia Commons
Richard Pavlick died in 1975 at age 88 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire.
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