Richard Paul Pavlick

Richard Paul Pavlick (February 13, 1887 – November 11, 1975) was an American postal worker from New Hampshire who stalked U.S. senator and U.S. president-elect John F. Kennedy, with the intent of assassinating him. On December 11, 1960, in Palm Beach, Florida, Pavlick positioned himself to carry out the assassination by blowing up Kennedy and himself with dynamite, but delayed the attempt because Kennedy was with his wife Jacqueline and their two young children. He was arrested before he was able to stage another attempt.

Personal background Pavlick was born on February 13, 1887, in Belmont, New Hampshire. he also criticized the government and hated Catholics,

Shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 11, as Kennedy was preparing to leave for Mass at St. Edward Church in Palm Beach, Pavlick said, "I did not want to harm her or the children."

On January 27, 1961, Pavlick was committed to the federal medical center in Springfield, Missouri, then was indicted for threatening Kennedy's life seven weeks later.

In popular culture

Pavlick was portrayed by Kent Broadhurst in the 1983 miniseries Kennedy, but his age is inaccurately portrayed as being 36, rather than the actual 73. In 2013, the Military Channel produced a hypothetical documentary, What If...? Armageddon 1962, in which Pavlick managed to kill Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson's inept handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a nuclear exchange.

The 2025 book The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot To Kill Kennedy - And Why It Failed, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, tells the story of the plot.