From the archives: John Lindsay remembered as "movie star" mayor

This story was originally published in Newsday on Dec. 21, 2000

Patrick Vecchio recalls attending a birthday party for then-Mayor John Lindsay about 30 years ago. At the function were Johnny Carson, Robert Redford and a host of other show-biz giants.

As was often the case, Vecchio said, all eyes were on the dashing Lindsay.

"When he walked into the room, those guys were like nothing compared to him," said Vecchio, who served as the former New York City mayor's head of security for seven years. "He really did look like a movie star."

Yesterday morning Vecchio, the Smithtown Town supervisor since 1978, received the call from Lindsay's wife, Mary, that the ex-mayor had died at the age of 79.

Vecchio, a New York City police detective sergeant, served as Lindsay's right-hand man from 1966 until 1973. But Vecchio's memories are not about "serving," but rather of forming a close bond with the man whom he admitted shedding a tear over yesterday morning.

"He was a guy who never would want someone to carry his coat or his briefcase," Vecchio said. "When you arrived at the airport, he went to the back of the car to get his own luggage."

As Lindsay's guard, Vecchio had his own room in Gracie Mansion and remembered many a time having dinner with Lindsay on the mansion's porch.

Vecchio recalls one particular trip Lindsay took with a handful of staff members to Tokyo. Upon arriving, the Tokyo officials presented Lindsay and his staff members with lavish gifts. But Vecchio received nothing.

"Tokyo government had gifts for everybody but me," Vecchio remembered.

Later in the trip Lindsay met with Sony administrators, who presented the mayor with an expensive camera. Remembering that his friend had earlier been shunned, he gave Vecchio the camera-a camera Vecchio still keeps.

"That's the kind of guy he was," Vecchio said.

Lindsay traveled the world with Vecchio and kept his security guard in the loop on even private matters.

"He would never exclude me from anything," recalled Vecchio, whose office wall features a photo of him and Lindsay sharing a limousine through Manhattan during a ticker-tape parade celebrating the moon walk. "He was honest to the core."

When Lindsay decided in 1973 not to run for office again, Vecchio was among the first to know, receiving the news after Lindsay's wife and chief of staff. Concerned with Vecchio's future beyond Lindsay's mayorship, Lindsay offered Vecchio a job as commissioner of public events, but Vecchio declined.

"I started in the beginning with him and I wanted to go to the end," Vecchio said.

As the man paid to take a bullet for Lindsay, Vecchio recalled some hairy moments when angry citizens would approach the mayor with shouts of "Lindsay, you stink!"

But by and large, Vecchio said, Lindsay was well-liked, which made his job much easier.

"He was from the upper class, but he had the ability to get to anyone's level, and it was sincere," Vecchio said. "He could be the friend of a cop, a fireman or an orphan in the street somewhere."

After Lindsay left office, the two remained close friends. Lindsay was among Vecchio's strongest supporters behind the scenes during Vecchio's early political career.

The Vecchios and Lindsays went to many graduations and weddings of each others' children, hit the ski slopes together and broke bread at family picnics over the years.

When Vecchio last saw Lindsay in October of last year at his home in Lyme, Conn., he was not the larger-than-life leader he had worked side-by-side with three decades earlier, Vecchio said.

The memories that Vecchio holds dearest are personal.

Vecchio tells the story of when the mayor was given an official New York City vehicle in 1970. With the new car, Lindsay figured he didn't really need his 1967 Pontiac Station Wagon.

"He said, 'That car is yours,' " Vecchio recalled with a chuckle. "He gave me a 3-year-old station wagon. I'll never forget that."