RIVIERA BEACH, FL–According to a Newsmax story, legendary radio personality Paul Harvey came close to being shot by a security guard almost 60 years ago.
Harvey, who died in February at age 90, was known for his trademark delivery of “The Rest of the Story,” and had been heard nationally since 1951 when he began his “News and Comment” for ABC Radio Networks.
But early in his career, Harvey narrowly escaped with his life when a publicity stunt backfired, according to an FBI file obtained by Newsmax through the Freedom of Information Act.
In February 1951, Harvey — then a reporter at an Illinois radio station — sought to publicize what he felt was lax security at federal installations by climbing a 10-foot fence and gaining access to a restricted area of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
His overcoat got caught in the barbed wire at the top of the fence, and he was apprehended almost immediately by a security guard.
He was held at gunpoint and FBI agents were sent to question him. An FBI document said Harvey was “questioned not detained.”
The most intriguing piece of information in Harvey’s FOIA file is a report that the guard who seized Harvey was suspended “because he failed to open fire immediately.”
Leslie Groves, wartime head of the atomic bomb project, said the guard who seized Harvey “had every right to shoot him.”
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