All language subtitles for Kennedys Suicide Bomber-2013

a stunned world looked on
as President John F. Kennedy

was shot dead
by Lee Harvey Oswald.

But remarkably, JFK's death

at the hands of a lone assassin
almost happened

three years earlier.

Today, a derelict house in the
backwoods of New England

is all that remains
of a man who swore himself to

the cause of killing Kennedy.

He was a homicidal maniac.

In the fall of 1960,

in the weeks before
JFK was sworn into office,

he would stalk
the President-Elect

across the country
looking for a suitable location

to murder him.

The weapon he would use would
not be a marksman's rifle,

but a car bomb.

With never before heard witness
testimony

He had told my husband that,

you probably won't see me
again, but you'll hear of me.

This is the little known story

of one man's audacious plot
to assassinate a president,

in a bid to go down in history
as Kennedy's Suicide Bomber.

Had he detonated it, we would

have had a dead President-Elect.

Truth is stranger than fiction!

Truth is stranger than fiction!

#Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy...#

As America looked for a new
President to succeed Eisenhower,

few would have initially
expected it would come

from a candidate who opponents
scorned as more of a playboy

than a politician.

But on July 13th, 1960,
John F. Kennedy won the

Democratic nomination
and began his bid

for the presidency.

I will be worthy of your trust
- we will carry the fight to

the people in the fall,
and we shall win.

The Democrats pitting the fresh

faced Kennedy against
the republicans veteran Nixon,

signaled a new era
for American politics.

JFK symbolized youth,
he symbolized new direction,

he was glamorous,
he was articulate

and the country just fell
in love with him.

But not everyone took the

charismatic young leader
to their hearts.

John F. Kennedy's father, Joe,
was a powerful

and influential businessman.

And there were rumblings in some
quarters that he was attempting

to buy the White House
through back room deals

and brinksmanship.

Joe Kennedy, the father,

had made his money bootlegging
with the mafia.

He really sided with the Nazis,
and with Hitler.

Admired Hitler, said democracy
was finished, and that came out,

so that didn't help JFK's image.

Across the country, pockets of

Kennedy dissenters watched
his campaign very closely.

But maybe none more so than one
resident of the tiny community

of Belmont in New Hampshire.

The town of
Belmont is about 35 square

miles, some very plain houses
where people just couldn't

afford anything better;
so it was very much a mixed

neighborhood, but certainly
a residential neighborhood.

On the outskirts of the town,

reclaimed by woodland,
is a crumbling house

- a last remnant
of the life of one of Kennedy's

greatest and perhaps one of
his most dangerous detractors.

Earl Sweeney was a young police
sergeant back in 1960

and remembers the occupant
of the house very well.

He lived alone, by himself,

I don't know if he was a widower

or if he ever was married,
but he didn't take great care

of the house or anything.

He was a medium height
gentleman, he had a very dour

expression on his face,
I never saw him smile;

he always looked like
he was frowning

or unhappy about something.

He had a big shock
of white hair.

The possessions that haunt the

remains of the decaying home
give little away,

they offer no real clues
as to why in the fall of 1960,

the occupant packed up,
and left.

Hello, can we come in?

Neighbors are still able to

recall a secretive man who
wanted prying eyes kept away.

He kept to himself
pretty much.

He planted them all in that old
stuff that was going around

the lot there, picky bushes,
picky bushes...

to keep us - to keep
people from going through.

The reclusive figure who lived

in the house was 73 year old
Richard Pavlick.

A retired postal worker, Pavlick
was a familiar face around town

to Earl Sweeney.

And he was known as a
troublemaker with a bad temper.

When I came on

the police force,
I became to know him

as sort of a rabble rouser,
I guess you might call it.

Someone who was not happy
with local government.

He would go to town meeting.

He would always be generally
against something, was almost

like a self winding watch.

The more he spoke, the more
passionate he became.

Pavlick's strong views on what

he deemed to be rogue politics
and politicians saw him turn his

attention to John F. Kennedy in
the Spring of 1960.

I would not have run for it

if in any way I didn't feel
like I could do the job.

I come here today saying that I
think that this is

an issue of...

Pavlick was by now being very
vocal around town about his

contempt for Kennedy and his
violent temper was increasingly

coming to the fore
in daily life,

giving the authorities,
cause for concern.

On one occasion,

he became angry
at the local power company

because they were going
to shut off his electricity.

He felt that the power company
were sending something through

the wires that
was harmful to people,

would affect their brains.

He was very upset and shouting
and red in the face.

And he was threatening he was
gonna shoot the man

from the power company.

These kinds of run-ins with

the locals led to Pavlick's
increased isolation from the

community, and society itself.

By late August of 1960, Kennedy
was still lagging

behind Nixon in the polls,
but all that was to change

little more than a month later.

On the 26th of September,
the two men went head-to-head

in their first televised debate.

...for discussion of issues

in the current
political campaign

by the two major candidates
for the Presidency.

Pavlick watched on,

as the young pretender
outplayed Nixon in a confident

and coherent display
that overnight would see Kennedy

turn the tables on his rival.

If we are moving

ahead, then I think freedom will
be secure around the world.

If we fail, then freedom fails.

During the coming weeks

as Kennedy and Nixon continued
to slug it out on television,

Pavlick began venting
his increasingly

vitriolic views.

As Pope John 23rd

formally announces
the convocation

of an ecumenical council...

His concerns about

any corruption stoked
by Joe Kennedy,

were worsened by a hatred
for Kennedy's Catholic faith

and the church itself.

He felt that if Kennedy

was elected President
that the Pope would be actually

running the country from Rome,
instead of the White House

running it.

Pavlick began to obsess

over the election campaign,
gathering press clippings

that he displayed
on the wall of his home.

Kennedy evoked
a certain kind of

deep hatred by a certain
segment of the population,

who didn't just oppose
his policies, but really kind

of demonized him.

Pavlick now believed he was duty

bound to do something
to stop Kennedy from taking

control of the country.

But few could ever have
anticipated his plot.

Or that he would use a symbol
of the American dream -

his beloved Buick.

To create the ultimate nightmare
- the death of a president.

In the Fall of 1960,
John F. Kennedy

was deep into his campaign
against Nixon to win

the race for the White House.

...and we shall win.

But as Kennedy travelled

the length and breadth of the
country, bidding to win support,

in the backwoods of New England,
there was one man who

would not be voting for him.

Richard Pavlick had formed
a personal vendetta against

Kennedy, one that was about
to take a very deadly turn.

A reclusive man by nature,
Pavlick had no friends,

but perhaps because he had been
a postal worker himself once,

he made an unlikely
if unwilling confidante

for his darkest
thoughts in the form

of the town's postmaster,
Mr. Thomas Murphy.

He came into the
post office, quite often, and he

always had something crazy to
say, or what he was gonna do.

Nobody could have predicted what

was to come next, but as
Kennedy's popularity grew,

Pavlick began turning his
heartfelt hatred for the man

into a hard cooked plan-
to prevent him from ever being

sworn into office.

Mr. Thomas Murphy,
the postmaster, asked if he

could speak to me privately,
and, he told me that when

John F. Kennedy
first ran for President,

that Mr. Pavlick
became very upset.

He had made apparently
a couple of comments

that if he gets elected,
somebody should shoot

the bastard.

A hotly contested

election campaign closes
with Senator John F. Kennedy

the choice of his countrymen
as the 34th president

of the United States.

On November 8th, 1960, Kennedy

clinched a hard fought victory.

An enraged Pavlick was about
to turn empty threats into

something more deadly,

'Bout the last
time he went into the post

office, he said "you probably
won't see me again,

but you will hear of me."

But despite owning a firearm,

Pavlick wasn't intending to
shoot Kennedy, he had

more explosive plans.

Pavlick went to a hardware store
and purchased dynamite,

detonation cord,
a trigger switch,

a battery and exploding caps.

He was building a bomb.

But it was his beloved Buick
that formed the centerpiece

of his master plan.

Pavlick was a First World War
army veteran

and had experimented with
dynamite both in his back yard

and on an empty lot in Florida.

Pavlick rigged the trunk
of the Buick with a handful

of sticks of grade II dynamite
used in the construction

and mining industry.

Pavlick very much meets
the prototype of what we

consider as a suicide bomber.

The dynamite had blasting caps

attached to them that were fused
with copper wire

and attached to a battery.

It's very clear
that from the outset

he wanted to kill himself.

He then drilled holes in the

rear wheel wells of the Buick.

The intent of the bombing itself

is to evoke some sort
of political change.

Through these he threaded

the detonating cord,
which was attached,

via the blasting caps,
to the dynamite.

The wire was long enough
to reach the passenger seat,

where it was attached
to a detonation switch.

With the car now a mobile bomb,
all Pavlick had to do was find

the right moment to drive
at Kennedy, detonate the device

and send himself down in history
as the man

who murdered a President.

For an individual

who typically hasn't engaged
in terrorist attacks before,

that takes a great deal
of rationality

to be able to plan, strategize
and ultimately take part

in a solo terrorist attack.

With his car bomb built, Pavlick

was now ready to hit the road
and hunt Kennedy down.

He left town rather abruptly,

in his old Buick.

That would be the last time many

of the residents of Belmont
would ever see him.

Hordes of people turned out to
celebrate wherever Kennedy went.

But hidden amongst the crowds on
many occasions was the shambling

figure of Pavlick - who watched
every move the President-Elect

made.

News reports kept him informed
of Kennedy's movements and over

the next ten days he clocked up
over 1500 miles in his car

keeping up with him.

With the Buick packed with
dynamite, Pavlick was looking

for a suitable place
to attack Kennedy, who at times,

made himself an easy target.

Running into crowds
and running in an open top car

made Kennedy fairly vulnerable.

When you're out on the campaign
trail, they have to get out

and shake hands
and hug babies and we were

always concerned.

It was just something
that we had to adapt to.

At this stage Pavlick was still

not on the radar of the
authorities as posing a lethal

threat to Kennedy.

But that was to change -
and all because

he couldn't resist
maintaining contact with

his old friend Thomas Murphy.

Pavlick sent the postmaster a
postcard from every pit stop

he made.

On reading them, Murphy began
fearing the worst.

I am at the end of
my rope, here I die some place

in Florida, you will read about
it perhaps within three weeks.

I came down to die, you will see
it on TV.

The quiet and unassuming

Mr. Murphy could not
have realized just how he

chose to react now
to Pavlick's rambling postcards,

could mean the difference
between life and death

for John F. Kennedy.

With his Buick primed as a car
bomb, in the ten days since

leaving his hometown of Belmont,
Pavlick had been looking

for an opportunity to launch his
suicide attack against Kennedy.

But stalking the President-Elect
on his celebration trail

was proving to be
a frustrating experience.

Kennedy was constantly
on the move,

and never in the same
place twice, meaning Pavlick

couldn't lock his target down.

But all that changed when JFK
arrived in the wealthy enclave

of Palm Beach, Florida,
for a vacation.

Joe Kennedy, the father and

Rose Kennedy had had a home on
Palm Beach and JFK would visit

and during his presidency
that was considered

the "Florida White House".

But what Pavlick had in mind,

would turn this playground of
the rich and famous

into a graveyard.

Pavlick had made
his base at a motel a few miles

from where the Kennedy's lived.

On the morning of December 11th
he awoke early, to write,

one final farewell postcard
to Thomas Murphy.

Getting into his car, he headed
straight to the Kennedy's home

on North Ocean Boulevard.

Parking outside,
he waited and watched.

Kennedy was readying
the family for church.

For the first time Pavlick's
quarry was in his range.

All JFK had to do now was step
outside the door.

But the battered Buick
drew the unwanted attention

of Special Agent Ed Tucker.

He had parked his car up
about two or three hundred yards

from the main entrance
into the Kennedy Property

in Palm Beach.

I mentioned it to another Agent,

I said "That car's
been up there for quite a while"

So, we advised the Florida State

Police Detail and the Palm Beach
Police Department

that we were suspicious
of that car.

Previously classified documents

suggest Pavlick
had a change of heart.

When he saw Jackie
and the baby Caroline, allegedly

he decided not to do it there.

Jerry Blaine, who was part

of the Secret Service detail
at the time,

is certain that Pavlick
could have succeeded.

Had he not had a change of
heart and detonated it,

there was little
we could've done.

We would have had
a dead President-Elect.

Either because he was spooked
or changed his mind,

Pavlick fled the scene.

Returning to his motel,
he waited for a few hours.

At 10AM, he once again left.

His destination this time
was the Church of St. Edward,

on North County Road,
where he knew

Kennedy would be attending Mass.

The Secret Service files from
the period reveal that Pavlick

surveyed the street
and the building.

He thought Kennedy
was vulnerable to a strike,

the moment he entered
or exited the church.

The Buick pulled up outside
the church just before

the start of Midday Mass.

The car was still
primed with explosives,

but there was no sign of Kennedy
- who was already inside

taking his seat.

Pavlick now found himself unable
to just sit in the car and wait.

In a chilling turn of events,
he decided to go

inside the church
to get a good look

at the President-Elect.

This elderly

gentleman came in, disheveled,
and it was clear he wanted

to be near the President.

It was a matter of me going up
and grabbing him by the elbow.

I said 'I think you'll find
a seat in the back and he turned

around and walked to the exit.

So I took down the license plate
and he drove away.

With his cover blown again,

Pavlick fled the scene.

He retired to his motel room
for the next few days where once

again, he put pen to paper.

It wasn't long before 1500 miles
away in Belmont, Thomas Murphy

received a new flurry
of post cards from Pavlick.

The tone was even more violent
and volatile than usual -

the sole source of his vitriol,
John F. Kennedy.

Watch the papers
and radio for what

would have been done to you.

You should change
your moronic attitude...

someone will take you
over some hot coals and do a job

on you but it won't be me for I
would've done it and should've.

He didn't know whether to

turn him in or not,
but he decided maybe he better.

The
postmaster said I think he's

following the President around
and he may intend some harm.

He said on several occasions
watch the news, because you're

going to be hearing
from me in a big way,

so he and I decided
that I would report it to my

chief, and the Sheriff and I,
because we were all working

together on it,
that we would also report it

to the Secret Service.

Robert Rust was an Assistant

District Attorney in Palm Beach
at the time and along

with his colleague John Marshall
was alerted to the situation

by a cable that was sent
to all justice departments

in the region.

John took the step
of notifying every police

department to be on the lookout
for Richard Paul Pavlick.

Pavlick was now a marked
man... and his Buick the most

sought after car in the state.

The FBI office decided

that this met the standard
to submit a so-called

'stop and hold' order on him.

When Pavlick ventured out

of the motel the next day,
he had no idea that every cop

in town was on the lookout
for his Buick with

New Hampshire license plates.

Leaving his motel, he drove over
the bridge into Palm Beach,

once again heading to the area
where Kennedy was vacationing.

Having crossed the bridge,
however, he was forced

to slow to a halt.

A motorcycle cop was on his tail
and flagged him down.

Lester Free arrested Pavlick

on one of the bridges
from West Palm Beach

to Palm Beach.

Pavlick's rambling written

threats, and speculation that
this elderly man was in town

to kill JFK, were not enough
to throw the book at him.

Robert Rust, was now responsible
to finding a charge to detain

Pavlick under,
so the alleged threat

could be investigated further.

Pavlick had mentioned
during an interview

a vague comment about dynamite,
which he subsequently withdrew.

Rust knew the threats
to Kennedy's life already

made to the Postmaster.

Could it be that Pavlick,
planned to blow

the President up?

Rust and his colleague,
John Marshall now set out

to discover whether Pavlick
had bought explosives

back in Belmont.

We were both asking these

hardware stores and lumber yards
if they'd sold any dynamite

to Richard Paul Pavlick.

On the 37th call, somebody said
"Oh yeah he was in here

two to three weeks ago.

We sold him 10 sticks
of dynamite, copper wire,

a battery, a switch
and electronic detonators."

I turned to John and I said
"This son of a bitch

is the real deal."

But despite coming up

with this information,
Rust still faced

a major problem.

Unbelievably, at the time
there was no law in place

against threatening
the life of the President-Elect.

This meant Rust had to use every
ounce of his legal ingenuity

to cook up a charge
that would stick.

And it came from
an unlikely source.

When there were

the Ku Klux Klan bombings
of black churches in the South,

and they created a misdemeanor
that said it was a criminal

offense to blow up a church.

Rust's legal legwork meant

that Pavlick was charged
with intent to destroy

the Church of St. Edward.

This paved the way
for a warrant to search

Pavlick's car and motel.

Rust was convinced he would find
incriminating evidence

that would force Pavlick
into a confession.

We searched the car,

the dynamite's in the trunk,
the copper wire goes to the

front seat, there's a switch
in the front seat -

all he's gotta do
is push the switch

down and the dynamite blows up
over the gas tank.

So now we have not just
ten sticks of dynamite,

we have napalm!

This is the dynamite,
the battery,

the copper wire.

This is a, certainly one of
the original world's car bombs,

which would be enough to wipe
out not only

the people in the church,
but the church itself.

The discovery of the dynamite

and the way it was rigged meant
that Pavlick was now charged

with being in possession
of a deadly weapon, but he still

refused to confess to anything.

Rust now had to look for further
incriminating evidence.

With a search warrant in hand,
he took Pavlick

back to his motel room.

As the search of the room began,
Rust could sense they might be

on to something, although even
the smart young assistant DA

didn't see what was coming next.

I get down on my hands

and knees, pull a suitcase
out from underneath the bed,

and I'll be damned,
I open it up and here

is the last will and testament
of Richard Paul Pavlick,

describing exactly
how he was gonna kill Kennedy.

Wow!

Dynamite!

There it is!

The whole nine yards!

I turned to Pavlick and I said,

"You really did come down here
to kill John F. Kennedy didn't

you?" and he says "Yes I did!" -
very proudly.

This startling discovery

was the compelling
piece of evidence that Rust

needed to charge Pavlick.

To the citizens

of the United States of America,
I am not the vicious

person as my actions may have
indicated; there should be only

one law for all -
not a religion made by

the Catholic Church.

Now that the presidency was sold
to the Kennedy's they must be

stopped by any
and all means possible.

If my actions have caused
the decease

of the President-Elect, then a
better qualified and experienced

man will have to take over.

It's a functional madman
committed to a cause...

Pavlick may have written

what he believed
to be a deathbed confession,

but over 50 years later,
one big question remains...

if he had pressed the trigger,

would Richard Pavlick,
and not Lee Harvey Oswald,

have gone down in history
as the man who killed JFK?

The discovery that Pavlick's
Buick was rigged as a bomb,

as well as his
written confession,

saw him placed
under lock and key.

The judge orders
the prisoner sent

to the federal prison hospital
in Springfield, Missouri.

At the time, speculation

circulated that had he detonated
the bomb, he would have gone

down in history as the man
who killed JFK.

Since his plot was foiled
before he could strike,

it remained pure speculation.

But today over 50 years later,
a remarkable experiment is about

to take place that
may shed new light,

on this dark chapter of history.

At the Centre for Ordnance
Science and Technology testing

ground in Wiltshire, England,
explosives experts

are hard at work.

A Buick - identical to Pavlick's
is about to be turned

into a car bomb.

Explosives expert
Trevor Lawrence a

veteran of conflicts
in Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan

knows first-hand the damage
suicide bombers can cause.

The advantage of a car
over a person carrying

a bomb, obviously you can have a
much larger charge, and you can

hide the charge a lot easier.

And the damage they can cause
is absolutely massive.

You can get it exactly
to the optimum point,

huge structural damage
and mass casualties.

While the type of dynamite

Pavlick purchased is no longer
manufactured, Trevor has sourced

a modern day equivalent.

The actual
explosive he used was a

dynamite, a commercially
available blasting explosive.

What we're gonna do is use a
very similar explosive to that.

Its nitro-glycerine based,
the same as the explosive

he used, and again it's
a blasting explosive.

Trevor places the primed

explosives in the trunk.

The experiment will attempt
to simulate what would have

happened if Pavlick had put
his plan into play outside

the church of St. Edward.

Driving towards the church,
when Kennedy was leaving

and walking down the steps,
Pavlick would

have driven straight at him.

When he was as close as he
possibly could be, he would have

detonated the device.

Do we have range clear Paul?

Range clear...

Standby.

Everything was in place, all it

took was the movement of his
hand from the steering wheel

to the switch.

As the smoke and

debris clears, the experiment
delivers a surprising result.

The mannequins are still
standing.

But why?

Suicide bombers usually drive
straight at their targets.

But the Buick engine block
was so solid that

it would have absorbed
the majority of the energy

from the blast.

So you can clearly see here,

that's where the explosives
were positioned,

and that's the actual seat
of the explosion, and it's torn

away all this light
superstructure, has been thrown

enormous distances.

But if you look at the front,
the actual engine block,

is all still in one piece.

It's not only
deflected the blast, but it's

stopped anything forward
from being torn off.

So no major fragmentations
have gone forward.

This could have meant that JFK,

and any Secret Service personnel
around him, would have only

had to protect themselves
from relatively small

pieces of debris.

Watch the explosion again.

You can clearly see that because
the explosives were in the trunk

of the car, heavy duty shrapnel
such as the doors and the side

panels are only thrown upwards
or outwards, but significantly

not in front
of the engine block.

This meant the mannequins
were left standing,

and the President,
if he'd been in their

place, may well have survived.

If he'd positioned a bit further

forward, so the charge had been
more adjacent to where they were

- absolutely no chance for them.

I mean, they were,
purely by luck, stood in exactly

the right place.

But all is not quite

as it seems.

Even without being hit by
shrapnel, JFK could have faced

mortal jeopardy from the blast.

Watch the explosion again. This
rippling effect on the image

is a shockwave from the blast.

This is known as blast
overpressure - and depending on

how close you are standing to
the point of detonation, it can

prove to be fatal.

They don't

appear to have been struck
by any of the fragments,

but there's gonna be an
enormous amount of overpressure.

That does a lot of damage
to the human body.

The power of the shockwave

diminishes the further
you are away from the car,

but scientific calculations
carried out by Trevor suggest

that there was a 50% chance
that JFK would have

sustained lethal blast damage.

It's gonna enter

the body orifices, it's gonna
blow out their ear drums, may

have suffered internal damage,
lung damage, internal bleeding.

You also have this phenomenon
called blast lung,

where the blast overpressure
enters the body and

damages the alveoli in the lung,
and what happens over time they

start to produce fluid and you
basically internally drown.

Quite often people have walked
away from explosions and seemed

to be OK and hours later
have died simply from fluid

collecting in their lungs.

But the only person certain

to have perished
would have been Pavlick himself.

Not such a happy

tale for him, he was right
in the force of the blast

and there are various bits
of him scattered around here.

Which is kind of what would have
happened in real life.

Kennedy was sworn into office

on January 20th, 1961.

If Pavlick had succeeded
with his bomb plot,

it would have been his name,
not Lee Harvey Oswald,

that would have gone down
in history as Kennedy's killer.

So why isn't Pavlick's story
better known?

I've been waiting years

for somebody to come ask me.

I've never been
interviewed by anybody.

Back in 1960, Robert Rust was

the Assistant District Attorney
who brought the original charges

against Pavlick.

He thinks he knows why the story
isn't more widely known.

John F. Kennedy

and the Secret Service were
very worried about a copycat,

so they wanted to soft-pedal
any publicity about this.

They don't want to describe
the effort in full for fear

that copycats will weeks
or months later commit

the same crime successfully.

Added to this, the New York air

disaster where two planes
collided over the city,

took place on the day
of Pavlick's arrest,

keeping him off most
of the front pages.

Two airliners collided and fell

on New York City
in the worst air disaster

of all time.

It took the greatest disaster
force ever assembled in New York

to conquer the blaze.

Even with his bomb plot foiled

and all but lost to history,
the story of Richard Pavlick

was far from over
and in the years to follow,

it would bring strange
and surprising turns.

It would bring strange
and surprising turns.

Pavlick's audacious plot to kill
Kennedy with a car bomb,

may have been covered up
by the White House, but the man

himself remained troublesome
for the administration,

in no small part
because he was constantly

proclaiming his innocence,
despite the evidence

stacked against him.

With his mental competency
in question, a series of court

hearings saw Pavlick shifted
between mental hospitals

and jailhouses.

He at times was
declared insane, at times he was

declared competent.

Witnesses to his supposed
statements were not

cross-examined.

That's a kind of torture,
I mean he seems

to have entered
this kind of purgatorial limbo

where no one would
take responsibility for any

definitive judgement.

For the next few years Pavlick

became lost in the system.

[three gun shots]
But in yet another strange twist

to his story, it was the actual
assassination of JFK

on November 22nd, 1963 that
set him on the path to freedom.

At the request
of the Secret Service,

Pavlick was interviewed
by a doctor to gauge

his response to the news.

He didn't infer any notable
reaction - and certainly nothing

to suggest that he was glad the
President was dead.

This proved to be
a turning point.

Pavlick was no longer deemed
to be such a danger

and he was moved to the
New Hampshire Mental Hospital,

in his home state.

Perhaps buoyed by being back
on home turf, Pavlick

became a prolific man of words -
writing letters to everyone

and anyone who might be
able to make him

a free man.

He wrote 18,000, 28,000

letters over this period.

This is my last letter

asking you all to fight
to get me a lawyer.

I did not threaten Kennedy.

If I had wanted to kill Kennedy,
why did I let

a good chance go by?

You now have
my life in your hands.

It wasn't long before he got
the ear of William Loeb,

the publisher of the
Manchester Union Leader.

Loeb was a close friend
of Jimmy Hoffa.

Hoffa was boss of the powerful
Teamster Union -

a divisive character, he was no
lover of the Kennedy cause -

and he saw taking on Pavlick's
case, as well as

paying his legal fees,
as a way of smearing

the Kennedy name.

John Marshall tells me that

Jimmy Hoffa has arranged
to hire the lawyers to try

and get Pavlick out of the
New Hampshire insane asylum.

They published a series
of articles that made Pavlick

look like a choir boy.

And after a series of news

articles and legal proceedings,
on December 13th, 1966 Pavlick

was let go from the Concord
Insane Asylum, as a free man

Mr Pavlick was eventually

released, took an apartment
in the city of Manchester.

During his years

of incarceration,
Pavlick's hatred of JFK

may well have quelled.

But it was to be replaced
by a new figure of contempt.

His one time friend,
Thomas Murphy the Postmaster -

whom he discovered
had been responsible

for alerting the Secret Service
to the bomb plot.

Mr. Murphy had a number

of children and he
was very concerned.

Mr Pavlick was saying
"I understand you got an award

from the postal service
for turning me in.

One of these days I'll come
and see you" and this really

concerned the postmaster.

He'd drive to Belmont and park
in front of the Murphy residence

and be staring at the house.

He'd sit for hours on end parked

outside the Murphy household
just watching the family

come and go.

There was no law at the time
against stalking or harassment,

so Pavlick's intimidating
behavior was perfectly legal.

Was very, very

terrifying to them.

My husband felt his family
was threatened.

And I think that's probably
why we didn't tell the girls too

much about it -
we didn't wanna scare them.

I recall when I was
growing up, any time I heard

Pavlick's name, I would be very
afraid. I just thought he was

really bad and it would scare me
when I would hear his name.

Richard Pavlick died on

November 11th, 1975 aged 88.

He may now just be a curious
footnote in history, the man

who could have killed JFK.

But if he had succeeded,
history may have taken

a very different path
If JFK had been assassinated

earlier by Pavlick,
I think we would see some

different decisions. I don't
know how Johnson would have

handled the Cuban missile
crisis, whether he would have

been even more belligerent,
but there's no question

that history would have been
changed if the assassination

had taken place.

But to those who knew Pavlick,

both the man and his actions
continue to leave a lasting mark

on their lives.

Well I think he was an

unfortunate soul,
a very tortured soul, and I will

remember him as such.

And just very thankful that the
Postmaster did do what he do,

and observed what he observed.

I consider Dad a hero,

because he definitely
could have saved

the President's life.

Definitely proud of my father.

And if anyone is in any doubt

that President Kennedy
was grateful, they only need ask

former State Attorney,
Robert Rust -

who has a very special memento.

I got this within several months

after the arrest of Pavlick,
Mr. Robert Rust,

with very best wishes,
John F. Kennedy -

bless his heart.