THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT-ELECT KENNEDY From the beginning of the short-lived Kennedy administration, there were wild rumors that the president would be assassinated. The first actual assassination plot was hatched by a man who personally hated Kennedy. Unlike presidential assassinations in the past, this attempt was to be made by a man who believed Kennedy himself was undeserving of the office because his family had "bought" the presidency with its incredible wealth. The killers of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley had acted out of political motives, as had those who attempted to kill Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and former president Theodore Roosevelt. A month before president-elect Kennedy was to take office, Richard P. Pavlick, a 73-year-old former mental patient from Belmont, N.H., decided to kill Kennedy because he believed Kennedy money had simply purchased the presidency through massive TV advertising campaigns and political payoffs. Following the election, Kennedy rested at one of the family's vacation homes in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick followed him there and took up residence. He followed Kennedy around at a distance, photographing his home and the church he attended. Next, Pavlick purchased dynamite and rigged this up to his car, planning to make a "human bomb" out of himself. When the president got into his car to go to church on Sunday, Pavlick would simply crash his own auto into Kennedy's, killing himself, Kennedy, and everyone in and surrounding the president's car. On December 11, 1960, Pavlick drove up to the Kennedy house in Palm Beach, parking across the street. He had seven sticks of dynamite in the car which he could set off with a switch. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline and daughter Caroline emerged and went to their car. There were a number of other children present. Pavlick changed his mind when he saw Mrs. Kennedy and the children. "I did not wish to harm her or the children," he later said. "I decided to get him in the church or someplace later." He drove off and waited for another opportunity. He visited the church Kennedy attended and even stood a few rows behind Kennedy while the president-elect attended Mass. Again, he did not act. This was the last opportunity he would have, for the Secret Service was fast closing in on the would-be assassin. The Secret Service had learned from a postal inspector in Pavlick's home town that the old man had been threatening to Kill Kennedy. Federal agents next learned that he was in Palm Beach, Florida, at the time. Within hours, he was tracked down in Palm Beach and placed under arrest on December 15, 1960. A letter was found in Pavlick's possession, one which he intended to have read and published after he had assassinated Kennedy. It read in part: "I believe that the Kennedys bought the presidency and the White House and until he really became President it was my intention to remove him in the only way it was available to me; the Supreme Court wouldn't enter any motion of mine, if asked, to stop the oath of office... "If death and destruction and injury to persons has resulted from my vicious action then I am truly sorry, but it won't help any. It is hoped that by my actions that a better country and a more attentive citizenry has resulted and corrected any abuses of ambitious moneyed persons or groups, then it will not have been in vain... "It was unfortunate for the Kennedys that John was elected President because it was Jimmy Hoffa who was to have been my target of destruction because of his "Go to hell the Unites States" attitude and because of the gutless cowards called the Congress of the United States who are afraid to clip his wings..." Pavlick was not held for trial. He was judged insane and placed in a mental institution. DCS -- 9/26/93