Clay Shaw

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Clay LaVergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was an American businessman, military officer, and part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service (DCS) of the CIA. Shaw is best known for being the only person brought to trial for involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Shaw was ultimately acquitted in 1969 after less than one hour of jury deliberation, but some conspiracy theorists continue to speculate on his possible involvement.

BackgroundEdit

File:Cartão de imigração de Clay LaVergne Shaw (frente) (cropped).jpg

Shaw in 1951, on his Brazilian immigration card

Shaw, a native of Kentwood, Louisiana, was the son of Glaris Lenora Shaw,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} shows Clay's father's full name "Glaris Lenora Shaw", born in Kentwood Louisiana on 25 November 1887.</ref> a United States Marshal, and Alice Shaw.<ref name="James and Wardlaw">Template:Cite book</ref> His grandfather had been the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish.<ref name="James and Wardlaw"/> When Shaw was five, his family moved to New Orleans, where he eventually attended Warren Easton High School.<ref name="James and Wardlaw"/>

After graduating from high school in 1928, Shaw was hired by Western Union as manager of a local office in New Orleans. In 1935, Western Union transferred him to New York City where he became a district manager. While in New York, Shaw, who wanted to pursue a career as a writer, attended Columbia University. He later left Western Union to pursue a career in public relations, eventually accepting a position with the Keedick Lecture Bureau.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Shaw enlisted in the United States Army at the start of World War II and was assigned to the Medical Corps as a private. He later received an officer's commission and was posted to England where he served briefly in a hospital unit. He was transferred to the Quartermaster Corps and served as secretary to the General Staff in England and after the Normandy invasion served in France and Belgium.<ref name=":0" /> He 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 Knight of the Order of the Crown of Belgium. Shaw was honorably discharged from the United States Army as a major in 1946.<ref>"Clay L. Shaw", Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 9: 1971-75. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Clay Shaw testimony, State of Louisiana v. Clay L. Shaw, February 27, 1969 "The JFK 100: Who Was Clay Shaw?" Template:Webarchive</ref> Shaw was also a published playwright. The best-known of his works, Submerged (1929),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> was co-written with H. Stuart Cottman<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} shows Herman S. Cottman residing in household of Alfred J. Lewis in New Orleans, Louisiana, being 19 years old as of April 4, 1930.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911.</ref> when both were still high-school students.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 9 May 1961 Shaw introduced Charles Cabell, Deputy Director of the CIA, at a Foreign Policy Association event in New Orleans.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Arrest and trialEdit

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New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted Shaw on the charge that he and a group of activists, including David Ferrie and Guy Banister, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the CIA in the John F. Kennedy assassination. Garrison had Shaw arrested on March 1, 1967.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By then Banister and Ferrie were both deceased, but Garrison believed that Shaw was the man named as "Clay Bertrand" in the Warren Commission Report. Garrison said that Shaw used the alias of Clay Bertrand in New Orleans's gay society.<ref>Template:Cite book)</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During the trial, which took place in January and February 1969, Garrison called insurance salesman Perry Russo as his main witness.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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"), Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Shaw) had discussed assassinating Kennedy.<ref name="Testimony of Perry Raymond Russo">Testimony of Perry Raymond Russo Template:Webarchive, State of Louisiana vs. Clay L. Shaw, February 10, 1969.</ref> The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.<ref name="Testimony of Perry Raymond Russo"/>

Critics of Garrison argue that his own records indicate that Russo's story had evolved over time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A key source was the "Sciambra Memo", which recorded Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra's<ref>Direct Examination of Assistant District Attorney Andrew Sciambra by Defense Attorney Alcock Template:Webarchive, State of Louisiana vs. Clay L. Shaw, February 12, 1969.</ref> first interview with Russo. The memo does not mention an "assassination party" and states that Russo met with Shaw on two occasions, neither of which occurred at the party.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On March 1, 1969, Shaw was acquitted less than an hour after the case went to the jury.<ref>Clay Shaw Interview, Penthouse, November 1969, pp. 34-35.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Shaw denied any part of a conspiracy and said of the slain President: "I was a great admirer of Kennedy. I thought he had given the nation a new turn after the rather drab Eisenhower years ... I felt he was vitally concerned about social issues, which concerned me also. I thought he had youth, imagination, style, and élan. All in all, I considered him a splendid president."<ref name="Bugliosi">Template:Cite book</ref>

DeathEdit

A heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, Shaw died at the age of 61 at his home on August 15, 1974.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The cause of death was listed as metastatic lung cancer.<ref name="mcadams">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Date of Hospitalization Case Report: 1974-08-28</ref> He was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Kentwood, Louisiana.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

At the time of his death, Shaw was engaged in a $5 million lawsuit against Garrison and members of an organization, Truth and Consequences Inc., that had financed Garrison's investigation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As Shaw, a lifelong bachelor, had no heirs or surviving relatives, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the suit in 1978.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Later disclosuresEdit

In 1979, Richard Helms, former Director of the CIA, testified under oath that Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service (DCS) of the CIA, where Shaw volunteered information from his travels abroad, mostly to Latin America. He did so from 1948 till at least 1956.<ref name=Holland>Template:Cite journal</ref> Like Shaw, 150,000 Americans (including businessmen and journalists) had provided such information to the DCS by the mid-1970s "on a nonclandestine basis", and that "such acts of cooperation should not be confused with an actual Agency relationship".<ref name=Holland/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In popular cultureEdit

Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Shaw in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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