Peter Lawford: ‘You’ll Never Know the Truth….'
JFK's brother-in-law was shattered by president’s death
Chuck Pick, owner of Chuck’s Parking, has been Hollywood’s go-to parking valet for decades. His company has handled all manner of high-profile events, such as the exclusive Vanity Fair Oscars party. In his time he’s interacted with not only film personalities, but also presidents, including JFK.
In the 1960s Pick worked parties that involved the Kennedys, primarily at the Santa Monica home of British-born actor Peter Lawford, who had married JFK’s sister Pat in 1954.
In James Spada’s 1991 biography of Lawford, “The Man Who Kept the Secrets,” Pick recounted working a party at the Lawford home at which Kennedys and Marilyn Monroe were present.
Pick said the Secret Service men told him: “You have eyes but you can’t see, you have ears but you can’t hear and you have a mouth but you can’t speak. You’re going to see a lot of things, but you have to keep quiet.”
According to Spada’s book, Lawford was instrumental in arranging JFK’s presidential “affairs” such as his alleged liaisons with Monroe.
‘The sun was coming up’
On Nov. 22, 1963, Pick was working as a personal assistant to Lawford, who had just begun a two-week engagement with Jimmy Durante at the Harrah’s resort in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
On Thursday night, Nov. 21, Pick and Lawford held a post-show party that didn’t break up until the wee hours of the morning of Nov. 22. Pick and his boss then stayed up until dawn, with Lawford holding forth — praising Jack Kennedy and exulting in his unlikely proximity to him:
‘The sun was coming up,’ Pick remembered, ‘and Peter was telling me stories about the President. We just sat around talking, and Peter spoke about how much he loved Jack and how overwhelmed he would get sometimes just thinking that his brother-in-law was the President of the United States. … He was so excited that he was going to be at the White House for Christmas’
The two had just gotten to bed when a Harrah’s representative woke them with the news that JFK had been shot in Dallas. Lawford and Pick immediately prepared to travel home to Los Angeles on Harrah’s private plane, which had been made available to them.
As Pick told Spada, it was as they were frantically packing to leave that they heard Walter Cronkite’s tearful announcement that Kennedy was dead. Lawford collapsed to the kitchen floor, beyond consolation, vomiting between heaving sobs.
The assassination was the beginning of a downward spiral for Lawford, who, already estranged from JFK’s sister Pat, descended into drink, drugs and a series of brief marriages. He died at age 61 in 1984.
Pick told Spada that he later mustered up the courage to ask Lawford what “had really happened” in Dallas.
“You’ll never know the truth of what happened in Dallas,” Lawford replied. “You’ll never know the truth.” Pick pushed further to no avail. “I interpreted it as meaning that he knew what happened and few other people ever would.”
Spada also quotes Paul Wurtzel, a Lawford friend who was the assistant director on the films “Dear Phoebe” and “The Thin Man.” Wurtzel had become “a student” of the assassination, and asked Lawford to answer a single question: “Did Oswald kill Kennedy or was it higher up?”
“It was higher up,” Lawford answered.
“I let it drop,” Wurtzel told Spada, “and I never asked him what he meant. I’m sure he wouldn’t have said anything more to me. He still had kids and the family.”
You can read “Target JFK” and “Admitted Assassin”. Both books came from diaries of unrelated men and unrelated authors. Their research was also unrelated. They both involved three core men. One of them was an ex marine. (Roscoe White, Mandarin) One was code named Saul. (Rene Dussaq) One a likely CIA but mostly unknown, code named Lebanon. I have found Lebanon. The code name Saul is in both books. The “ex marine” is in both books.
We will know the truth. My great uncle reported it to LBJ. He was in charge of secret service communications. He documented these three men with the same three code names.
Ricky White has been trying to get a book published about his father Roscoe's story for 30 years. It's finally out, entitled "Admitted Assassin," co-written by by J Gary Shaw, Brian K Edwards, and Ricky White. If anyone has read it, please give us a review.