THE JFK CONSPIRACY THE SECRET PLOT TO KILL KENNEDY—AND WHY IT FAILED - Author Brad Meltzer - Brad spoke to Bill about the first assassination attempt of JFK in 1960 —and how it almost changed the course of American history.
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THE JFK CONSPIRACY
THE SECRET PLOT TO KILL KENNEDY—AND WHY IT FAILED
As we reach the 1960s, for the Klan and others, “Catholic” became basically synonymous with “immigrant.” And Catholics, like Jews and Blacks, were therefore not REAL Americans. Even prominent Protestants, like Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, had declared “Faced with the election of a Catholic, our culture is at stake.”
Kennedy’s support for immigration, and his growing embrace of the Civil Rights Movement, further alienated many white Americans who simply did not want the country to be more racially or ethnically diverse.
Thomas Murphy was the postmaster of Belmont, NH. One resident stops by the post office there more than most, Richard Pavlick. And Murphy is the person Pavlick most likes to chat with. Pavlick used to be a postal worker.
Murphy is on edge. Pavlick has made strange final comments before he headed south. He also wanted his mail forwarded to general delivery in Washington DC. Pavlick had made it clear he despised Kennedy. He had followed Kennedy to the airport in Cape Cod, and most troubling of all, when he told Murphy about the trip, Pavlick seemed intensely focused on the lack of security around the President-elect. Whatever Pavlick is up to, with the way he’s following JFK from city to city, Murphy figures it can’t be good, and that he better report it.
Pavlick purchased 8 sticks of explosives in a 3-week period. He is in an inconspicuous parked car just outside the Kennedy residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on a sunny Sunday morning. He is driving a mobile bomb that can be detonated with the flick of a switch from the driver’s seat. Every Sunday, JFK goes to Mass at St Edward. This is exactly Pavlick’s plan. To intercept Kennedy on his way to church.
What he wasn’t ready for was Jackie Kennedy. Next to her is 3-year-old Caroline. The sight of Jackie and Caroline heading to church as well, makes him lose his nerve.
Secret Service Special Agent Gerald Blaine is in St Edward Catholic Church. He sees a disheveled man enter the church and start walking behind JFK. Grabbing the man’s elbow, Blaine gently pulls him back, so he’s no longer moving toward JFK. The man turns and walks out of the church. Blaine makes a note of the car and license plate.
Three days later, in DC the Secret Service acting on Murphy’s information, has concluded that Pavlick posed a substantial potential threat to President-elect Kennedy. They realize that Pavlick’s car is a direct match to the plate Agent Blaine wrote down and reported that pas Sunday. Now they must find him.
Palm Beach Police eventually arrest him, where he admits that he came to Palm Beach to kill JFK.
The day the arrest is to be announced, December 16, two large passenger airliners collide over New York City, killing all but one of the 127 passengers onboard. News of the crash buries the Pavlick story.
It is eventually determined that Pavlick is not mentally competent to stand trial. He is released in 1966— ironically, it is partly because of a growing movement for mental health reform, embodied in a bill passed by Congress three years earlier.. and signed into law by President Kennedy.
Pavlick dies in 1975.