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{{short description|American businessman (1913–1974)}}{{about|the New Orleans businessman|the Florida politician|Clay Shaw (politician)}}{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}}

factoids

| birth_place = Kentwood, Louisiana, U.S.197415 03mf=yes}}| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.| nationality = | years_active = | education = Warren Easton High School| alma_mater = | occupation = Businessman and director of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans| spouse = | children = | awards = | website =



factoids



}}Clay LaVergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974)WEB,weblink Person Details for Clay Lavergne Shaw, "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007" —, Ancestry, 2021-08-05, 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 acquitted in 1969 after less than one hour of jury deliberation, but some conspiracy theorists continue to speculate on his possible involvement.

Background

File:Cartão de imigração de Clay LaVergne Shaw (frente) (cropped).jpg|175px|thumb|left|Shaw in 1951, on (:commons:File:Cartão de imigração de Clay LaVergne Shaw (frente).jpg|his Brazilian immigration card) ]]Mr. Shaw, a native of Kentwood, Louisiana, was the son of Glaris Lenora Shaw,WEB, United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, FamilySearch,weblink shows Clay's father's full name "Glaris Lenora Shaw", born in Kentwood Louisiana on 25 November 1887. a United States Marshal, and Alice Shaw.BOOK, James, Rosemary, Wardlaw, Jack, Jack Wardlaw, 1967, Plot Or Politics?: The Garrison Case and Its Cast,weblink New Orleans, Pelican Publishing Company, 62, 9781589809185, August 6, 2015,weblink June 9, 2016, live, His grandfather had been the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish. When Shaw was five, his family moved to New Orleans, where he eventually attended Warren Easton High School.After graduating 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.WEB, Who Was Clay Shaw? Oliver Stone's JFK: The JFK 100: JFK assassination investigation: Jim Garrison New Orleans investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination,weblink 2023-03-09, www.jfk-online.com, 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. 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."Clay L. Shaw", Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 9: 1971-75. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994.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.BOOK, Milton E., Brener, The Garrison Case, Clarkson N. Potter, New York City, 1969, B0006C04I0, 62–64, BOOK, Patricia, Lambert, False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK, M. Evans and Co., New York City, 1998, 978-0871319203, 48–49, BOOK, Paris, Flammonde, The Kennedy Conspiracy, Meredith Press, New York City, 1969, B0006BTUQ8, 71–74, Clay Shaw testimony, State of Louisiana v. Clay L. Shaw, February 27, 1969 "The JFK 100: Who Was Clay Shaw?" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041015081832weblink |date=October 15, 2004 }}Shaw was also a published playwright. The best-known of his works, Submerged (1929),BOOK, Cottman, H. Stuart, Shaw, Le Vergne, Clay Shaw, Wise, Claude Merton, Submerged: a tragedy in one act, 1929-10-23, HarperCollins, Row, Peterson & Company, Evanston, Illinois, Gateway series of tested plays, 949841804, was co-written with H. Stuart CottmanWEB, Louisiana, Orleans Parish Vital Records, 1905-1913, 1955-1963, FamilySearch,weblink shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911.WEB, United States Census, 1930, FamilySearch,weblink shows Herman S. Cottman residing in household of Alfred J. Lewis in New Orleans, Louisiana, being 19 years old as of April 4, 1930.WEB, Louisiana First Registration Draft Cards, compiled 1940-1945, FamilySearch,weblink shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911. when both were still high-school students.BOOK, Snyder, Michael, Williams, John Delane, Waite, Robert G., Gordon, Gregory S., John F. Kennedy History, Memory, Legacy: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry, 2010,weblink 27 December 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130523143325weblink">weblink 23 May 2013, "I Feel Like a Spring Lamb" - What Clay Shaw's Literary Life Reveals, WEB, Kubiatowicz, David, A Short Acting Career, March 13, 2010, November 24, 2017, White Bear Lake, Minnesota,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171201042628weblink">weblink December 1, 2017, live,

Arrest and trial

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.NEWS, New Orleans Civic Leader Accused. Quizzed for Five Hour's About Conspiracy in Assassination,weblink The New York Times, March 2, 1967, April 12, 2010, Nicholas C, Chriss,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121026093106weblink">weblink October 26, 2012, live, 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.BOOK, James, Phelan, Scandals, Scamps, and Scoundrels, Random House, New York City, 1982, 150–51, 0-394-48196-8, )BOOK, Jim, Garrison, Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins, Sheridan Square Press, New York City, 1988, 85–86, 0-941781-02-X, During the trial, which took place in January and February 1969, Garrison called insurance salesman Perry Russo as his main witness.WEB,weblink History Matters Archive, Clay Shaw Trial Transcripts – JFK Collection, HSCA, February 10, p. 12, 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.Testimony of Perry Raymond Russo {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525183155weblink |date=May 25, 2006 }}, State of Louisiana vs. Clay L. Shaw, February 10, 1969. The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.Critics of Garrison argue that his own records indicate that Russo's story had evolved over time.WEB,weblink Way Too Willing Witness, Jfkassassination.net, September 17, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101124102754weblink">weblink November 24, 2010, live, A key source was the "Sciambra Memo", which recorded Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra'sDirect Examination of Assistant District Attorney Andrew Sciambra by Defense Attorney Alcock {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525184056weblink |date=May 25, 2006 }}, State of Louisiana vs. Clay L. Shaw, February 12, 1969. 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.WEB,weblink The Sciambra Memo, September 17, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101128022651weblink">weblink November 28, 2010, live, On March 1, 1969, Shaw was acquitted less than an hour after the case went to the jury.Clay Shaw Interview, Penthouse, November 1969, pp. 34-35.WEB,weblink Clay Shaw Trial Transcripts, February 28, 1969, page 47, Aarclibrary.org, November 1, 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070509043017weblink">weblink May 9, 2007, live, NEWS, The Times-Picayune archive,weblink John Pope, "Andrew 'Moo Moo' Sciambra, who worked on Jim Garrison investigation of JFK assassination, dies at age 75." The Times-Picayune, (July 28, 2010), Nola.com, 2013-11-26,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100729192840weblink">weblink July 29, 2010, live, 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."BOOK, Bugliosi, Vincent, Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 2007, W. W. Norton & Company, New York City, 978-0-393-04525-3, 1376n,

Death

A heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, Shaw died at the age of 61 at his home on August 15, 1974.NEWS, Clay Shaw Is Dead at 60. Freed in Kennedy 'Plot'. New Orleans Businessman Accused of Planning President's Murder. Doubts Are Cited. Both 'Plotters' Dead,weblink The New York Times, August 16, 1974, April 12, 2010, David, Bird,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110605191329weblink">weblink June 5, 2011, live, The cause of death was listed as metastatic lung cancer.WEB,weblink Clay Shaw: Mysterious Death?, John C. McAdams, 2017-11-29,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070207145909weblink">weblink February 7, 2007, live, Date of Hospitalization Case Report: 1974-08-28 He was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Kentwood, Louisiana.BOOK,weblink Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed., Scott, Wilson, August 17, 2016, McFarland, 9780786479924, Google Books, November 24, 2018,weblink November 25, 2018, live, 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.WEB,weblink Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search, news.google.com, September 10, 2015,weblink May 1, 2016, live, As Shaw, a lifelong bachelor, had no heirs or surviving relatives, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the suit in 1978.WEB,weblink 1968: The Clay Shaw trial on JFK conspiracy charges, The, Times-Picayune, NOLA.com, September 10, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150920222048weblink">weblink September 20, 2015, live,

Later disclosures

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.JOURNAL, Holland, Max, The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination, Studies in Intelligence, 2001, Fall-Winter 2001; 11,weblink August 15, 2014, Max Holland, Central Intelligence Agency: Center for the Study of Intelligence, Washington, D.C.,weblink December 10, 2014, live, Like Shaw, 150,000 Americans (businessmen, and journalists, etc.) 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".BOOK, Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives,weblink 1979, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 218, "...25,000 Americans annually provided information to the CIA's Domestic Contacts Division on a nonclandestine basis" and "such acts of cooperation should not be confused with an actual Agency relationship.",

In popular culture

Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Shaw in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK.NEWS,weblink FILM; Tommy Lee Jones Snarls His Way to the Pinnacle, Bernard, Weinraub, Bernard Weinraub, 1 August 1993, 26 January 2019, The New York Times, 2011,weblink November 21, 2018, live, He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.WEB,weblink Tommy Lee Jones' First Oscar Win Brought With It Some Awesome Eyewear, 24 February 2013, 6 December 2017, Huffington Post,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130227104024weblink">weblink February 27, 2013, live,

References

{{reflist|30em}}

Further reading

• BOOK, Milton, Brener, The Garrison Case: A Study in the Abuse of Power, New York, C. N. Potter, 1969, {{ISBN missing}}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}
• BOOK, Jim, Garrison, Jim Garrison, A Heritage of Stone, Putnam Publishing Group, 1970, 0-399-10398-8,
• BOOK, Jim, Garrison, Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins, New York, Sheridan Square Press, 1988, 0-446-36277-8, registration,weblink
• JOURNAL, Max, Holland, The Power of Disinformation: The Lie that Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination, Studies in Intelligence, Fall-Winter, 2001, 11,
• BOOK, James, Kirkwood, American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw–Jim Garrison–Kennedy Assassination Trial in New Orleans, New York, HarperPerennial, 1992, 0-06-097523-7,
• BOOK, Patricia, Lambert, False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film 'JFK', New York, M. Evans, 2000, 0-87131-920-9,
• BOOK, Alecia, Long, Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime, Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 2021, 978-1-4696-6273-2,
• BOOK, Anthony, Summers, Anthony Summers, Not in Your Lifetime, New York, Marlowe & Company, 1998, 1-56924-739-0,
• BOOK, Harold, Weisberg, Oswald in New Orleans: Case for Conspiracy with the C.I.A., New York, Canyon Books, 1967, {{ISBN missing}}

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 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022181453weblink |date=October 22, 2019 }}
• 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?
• {{Find a Grave|6337502|Clay Shaw}}

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