The initial assassination attempt on John Fitzgerald Kennedy occurred shortly after he was elected presi-dent on November 8, 1960, many, many months be-fore I had committed the name Lee Harvey Oswald to memory.

Accordingly, JFK was to be inaugurated in Washing-ton the following January 20th as the 11th Democrat-ic U.S. President, having defeated Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate — just think: if Nixon had been elected, he would have left office in disgrace that much sooner, JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald would stil be alive, and also Jack Ruby would have died of cancer in bed, at home. And the oath of office given by then Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.

(It was during Kennedy’s inaugural speech that day that he first used the phrase, “Ask not what this country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country!”)

Bur the initial assassination attempt was made by Richard Petamenk, a 73 year old man from Benton, Mass.

It seems this attempt was, according to Gerald Greenwald, the nationally-known journalist and au-thor whom I had hired to speak to the Lake Shore KIwanis Club in Brighton; he privately told me about Mr. Petamenk.

Apparently, because of Petamenk’s legendary hatred for Joseph Kennedy — the old man had allegedly used his millions to ‘buy’ the presidency for his son — so the day JFK was elected, Petamenk went to Home Depot (on the very day Messer’s Blank, Mar-cus and their associates opened the doors for first time) and bought several sticks of dynamite.

He also bought an electronic, push-button device for exploding the dynamite (this was long before such purchases were required to be registered)!

It seems there was a Catholic Church nearby in North Miami Beach where old man Kennedy and his wife lived in the winter (and where JFK stayed prior to heading for Washington in January) and there was the church which JFK liked to attend.

On the Sunday in question, Petamenk stashed the dynamite in the chuch’s pews and stationed himself nearby in his pickup truck with his electronic explod-ing device.

The president-elect’s wife Jackie showed up just then (she might have been simply out to breakfast) and she apologized, saying she didn’t feel like an hour in church, if her husband didn’t mind.

“That’s ok,” said JFK. “I know you’re pregnant and all. I’ll go to Mass alone.”

Whether Petamenk had pangs of guilt or whatever, he overheard Jackie’s apology and JFK’S response; when the time came, his fingers froze on the but-tons, and while waiting for normal to return, the Se-cret Service moved in with guns drawn and Petamenk was arrested.

Ironically, Petamenk never spent a minute behind bars. The assassin was found to be mentally incom-petent. Too bad — Lee Harvey Oswald was said to be normal.

Yeah, too bad!


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