Sunday, December 11, 1960
December 11, 1960
JFK escapes a planned suicide assassination attempt by retired postal worker Richard Pavlick.
Sitting in a car filled with a detonation switch and seven sticks of dynamite, Pavlick was parked outside of the Kennedy Palm Beach mansion on that Sunday morning with a plan to ram Kennedy’s car as he was leaving for Mass.
Pavlick decided against the attack when Jackie appeared outside to see her husband off to Mass.
Pavlick was arrested four days later by authorities. His apparent motive was his anti-Catholic bigotry and resentment against the Kennedy wealth and power.
Secret Service Chief U.E. Baughman described the event in his memoirs – “The closeness of the call was appalling.”
Its a pity Urbanus Baughman retired in 1961, because after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Baughman said in an article that Secret Service protocol was breached because they did not secure the Texas School Book Depository Building. Baughman said that this building was the last building on the edge of Dallas after Kennedy’s motorcade travelled through Dallas and should have been the primary focus of investigating and securing this building. He viewed the S.S. not instructing the building’s manager to keep all employees away fron the upper floors and not closing all windows as a serious breach of fundamental precautions. Kennedy… Read more »