Clay Shaw

Clay Shaw
Born	Clay LaVerne Shaw March 17, 1913 Kentwood, Louisiana, United States
Died	August 15, 1974(1974-08-15) (aged 61) New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Cause of death	Lung cancer with metastasis to brain and liver
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman and director of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans
Known for	Head of the International Trade Mart; charged for being part of a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

Clay LaVerne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974)^[1] was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was acquitted.

Background

Shaw was honorably discharged from the United States Army as a major in 1946. He served as secretary to the General Staff and was decorated by three nations: the United States with the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star, by France with the Croix de Guerre and named Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite, and by Belgium named Chevalier of the Order of the Crown of Belgium.^[2]

After World War II Shaw helped start the International Trade Mart in New Orleans which facilitated the sales of both domestic and imported goods. He was known locally for his efforts to preserve buildings in New Orleans' historic French Quarter.^[3]

Arrest

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted Clay Shaw on the charge that Shaw and a group of right-wing activists, including David Ferrie and Guy Banister, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the John F. Kennedy assassination. Garrison arrested Shaw on March 1, 1967.^[4] Garrison believed that Clay Shaw was the man named as "Clay Bertrand" in the Warren Commission Report. Garrison said that Shaw used the alias "Clay Bertrand" among New Orleans' gay society.^[5][6]

The trial

During the trial, which took place in January–February 1969, Garrison called insurance salesman Perry Russo as his main witness. Russo testified that he had attended a party at the apartment of anti-Castro activist David Ferrie. At the party, Russo said that Lee Harvey Oswald (who Russo said was introduced to him as "Leon Oswald"), David Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Clay Shaw) had discussed killing Kennedy.^[7] The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.^[7]

Critics of Garrison argue that his own records indicate that Russo's story had evolved over time.^[8] A key source was the "Sciambra Memo," which recorded Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra's^[9] first interview with Russo. The memo does not mention an "assassination party," and it says that Russo met with Shaw on two occasions, neither of which occurred at the party.^[10]

Another Garrison witness, Charles Spiesel, said, under cross examination, that he had filed a lawsuit in 1964 against a psychiatrist and the City of New York. He testified that, over a period of several years, the police and others had hypnotized him and harassed him out of business. He also said that he regularly fingerprinted his children, lest they had been replaced with cloned lookalikes by the US Government.^[11] Spiesel had been called as a witness for his claim that he had attended a gathering where Clay Shaw was present and identified himself as "Clay Bertrand". According to one of Garrison's staff Tom Bethell, Garrison had gambled when calling Charles Spiesel to testify for the prosecution. Bethell said, "On his return to New Orleans, the assistant D.A. who had interviewed him in New York said, standing next to me, "Well, he'd make a hell of a witness, but he's crazy." Garrison would later blame Spiesel for derailing his prosecution, but it's worth noting Garrison wanted Spiesel as a witness to testify against Clay Shaw despite his delusions, as long as the defense team was not aware of those previous delusions.

On March 1, 1969 Shaw was acquitted less than one hour after the case went to the jury.^[12][13][14]

Aftermath

Jack Wardlaw, then of the since defunct New Orleans States-Item, an afternoon newspaper, and his fellow journalist Rosemary James, a native of South Carolina, co-authored Plot or Politics, a 1967 book which takes issue with the Garrison investigation as one of political style, rather than substantive evidence. Wardlaw also won an Associated Press award for his story on the death of David Ferrie.^[15][16]

Garrison later authored a book about his investigation of Clay Shaw and the subsequent trial called On the Trail of the Assassins. In the book, Garrison states that Shaw had an "extensive international role as an employee of the CIA".^[17] Shaw denied any such connections.^[18]

In 1979, Richard Helms, former director of the CIA, testified under oath that Clay Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service of the CIA, where Shaw volunteered information from his travels abroad, mostly to Latin America.^[19] By the mid-1970s, 150,000 Americans (businessmen, journalists, etc.) had provided such information to the DCS.

In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations stated in its Final Report that the Committee was "inclined to believe that Oswald was in Clinton [Louisiana] in late August, early September 1963, and that he was in the company of David Ferrie, if not Clay Shaw,"^[20] and that witnesses in Clinton, Louisiana "established an association of an undetermined nature between Ferrie, Shaw and Oswald less than three months before the assassination".^[21]

Death

Shaw died on August 15, 1974(1974-08-15) (aged 61) about 12:40 AM at his residence, 1022 St. Peter Street.^[22] The death certificate was signed by Dr. Hugh M. Batson, with the cause of death listed as metastatic lung cancer.^[23]

Portrayals

Shaw was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK. Jones received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.

References

Further reading

• Brener, Milton (1969). The Garrison Case: A Study in the Abuse of Power. New York: C. N. Potter. 
• Garrison, Jim (1970). A Heritage of Stone. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-10398-8. 
• Garrison, Jim (1988). On the Trail of the Assassins. New York: Sheridan Square Press. ISBN 0-446-36277-8. 
• Holland, Max (2001). "The Power of Disinformation: The Lie that Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination". Studies in Intelligence 11 (Fall-Winter). 
• Kirkwood, James (1992). American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw-Jim Garrison-Kennedy Assassination Trial in New Orleans. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-097523-7. 
• Lambert, Patricia (2000). False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film 'JFK'. New York: M. Evans. ISBN 0-87131-920-9. 
• Summers, Anthony (1998). Not in Your Lifetime. New York: Marlowe & Company. ISBN 1-56924-739-0. 
• Weisberg, Harold (1967). Oswald in New Orleans: Case for Conspiracy with the C.I.A. New York: Canyon Books. 

External links

• Jim Garrison and New Orleans
• Louisiana v. Shaw (1969) trial transcript
• Orleans Parish Grand Jury transcripts
• Esquire December 1968 interview with Clay Shaw, James Kirkwood
• Penthouse interview with Clay Shaw
• Jim Garrison Interview, Playboy magazine, Eric Norden, October 1967
• JFK Online: Jim Garrison audio resources - mp3s of Garrison speaking
• The JFK 100: One Hundred Errors of Fact and Judgment in Oliver Stone's JFK: Who was Clay Shaw?
• Clay Shaw at Find a Grave