Assassin attempt had bomb close to Kennedy in 1960

On a bright Sunday morning nearly 43 years ago, a ramshackle Buick crept through the streets of Palm Beach, Fla., toward a sprawling, Mediterranean-style mansion. At the wheel was a disheveled, silver-haired madman. His aged right hand rested near a switch wired to seven sticks of dynamite.

Inside the two-story stucco home was his target -- President-elect John F. Kennedy -- readying for morning Mass.

Richard Pavlick stopped a short distance from the house and waited, unnoticed by U.S. Secret Service agents outside.

It was decades before today's proliferation of suicide bombers, but Pavlick's plan on Dec. 11, 1960, was as simple: ram the president-elect's car and detonate the dynamite, research by The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, showed.

Pavlick's suicide note had been written to the people of the United States, reading in part: "It is hoped by my actions that a better country ... has resulted."

The mansion's door opened. Kennedy emerged.

The 73-year-old Pavlick hesitated, then relaxed his fingers. What saved the future president from assassination that day was neither the intervention of law enforcement nor a malfunction of Pavlick's device -- a bomb that the Secret Service chief later said would have "blown up a small mountain."

It was timing and perhaps a moment of conscience for Pavlick. Just steps behind the president, his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, appeared with toddler Caroline and newborn John, Jr.

"I did not wish to harm her or the children," Pavlick would later explain. "I decided to get him at the church or someplace later."

Pavlick never got the chance: He was arrested the following Thursday by authorities acting on information about his deep hatred for Kennedy. Sticks of dynamite were found in his vehicle.

Word of the assassination attempt was quickly hushed at the time, apparently by the White House and a press corps warned of the national security threat from potential copycats.

Two years after the Palm Beach incident, the U.S. Secret Service Chief U.E. Baughman would begin his memoirs, in part, with Pavlick's assassination attempt.

"The closeness of the call was appalling," Baughman wrote. "Hardly anybody realized just how near we came one bright December morning to losing our president-elect to a madman."

For Pavlick, Kennedy represented twin evils: He was Catholic and, in Pavlick's belief, had won the presidency because of the influence and money of his father, Joseph Kennedy.

And then one day, the former postal worker turned over his shack at the edge of Belmonst, N.H., to a local youth camp, loaded his few belongings into his Buick and vanished.

It was the local postmaster, a 34-year-old father of six, who first became suspicious and was later credited with saving Kennedy's life. Thomas Murphy had more than a few times been on the receiving end of Pavlick's rants about Kennedy. And in the days after Pavlick's disappearance, a succession of cryptic postcards arrived at the post office from the eccentric retiree, foreshadowing a disastrous event.

Murphy was startled to note that the postmarks on the postcards were from the same cities, dated the same day, as Kennedy's visits. Murphy called the local police, who contacted the Secret Service. They interviewed locals, and the montage of a madman began to form. Perhaps most terrifying, they learned he'd been buying dynamite.

On Thursday, Dec. 15, 1960, Patrol Officer Lester Free spotted Pavlick's car as he cruised into Palm Beach via the Royal Poinciana Bridge. Police immediately surrounded the car and took him into custody. The vehicle was still laden with dynamite.

Pavlick confessed, according to authorities and to Baughman. Ultimately found incompetent to stand trial, he was sent to a federal mental institution.

Murphy, the postmaster, was honored for his work by the U.S. government, and wore the tiny pin of commendation to work and on his suit coat.

First published on November 22, 2003 at 12:00 am