:Clay Shaw

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

Shaw, a native of Kentwood, Louisiana, was the son of Glaris Lenora Shaw,{{cite web|title= United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 |website= FamilySearch|url= https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X59S-M3R}} 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.{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Rosemary |last2=Wardlaw |first2=Jack |year=1967 |title=Plot Or Politics?: The Garrison Case and Its Cast |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lGnINlzlpsIC |location=New Orleans |publisher=Pelican Publishing Company |page=62 |isbn=9781589809185 |access-date=August 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609180910/https://books.google.com/books?id=lGnINlzlpsIC&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=June 9, 2016 |url-status=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 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.{{Cite web |title=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 |url=https://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100whoshaw.html |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=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.{{cite book|first=Milton E.|last=Brener|title=The Garrison Case|publisher=Clarkson N. Potter|location=New York City|date=1969|asin=B0006C04I0|pages=62–64}}{{cite book|first=Patricia|last=Lambert|title=False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK|publisher=M. Evans and Co.|location=New York City|date=1998|isbn=978-0871319203|pages=48–49}}{{cite book|first=Paris|last=Flammonde|title=The Kennedy Conspiracy|publisher=Meredith Press|location=New York City|date=1969|asin=B0006BTUQ8|pages=71–74}}Clay Shaw testimony, State of Louisiana v. Clay L. Shaw, February 27, 1969 [http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100whoshaw.html "The JFK 100: Who Was Clay Shaw?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041015081832/http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100whoshaw.html |date=October 15, 2004 }} Shaw was also a published playwright. The best-known of his works, Submerged (1929),{{cite book|last1= Cottman |first1= H. Stuart |last2= Shaw |first2= Le Vergne |author-link2= Clay Shaw |editor-last= Wise |editor-first= Claude Merton |title= Submerged: a tragedy in one act |date= 1929-10-23 |publisher= Row, Peterson & Company |location= Evanston, Illinois |series= Gateway series of tested plays |oclc= 949841804}} was co-written with H. Stuart Cottman{{cite web|title= Louisiana, Orleans Parish Vital Records, 1905-1913, 1955-1963 |website= FamilySearch|url= https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLQX-XWL4}} shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911.{{cite web|title= United States Census, 1930 |website= FamilySearch|url= https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMRX-HDW}} shows Herman S. Cottman residing in household of Alfred J. Lewis in New Orleans, Louisiana, being 19 years old as of April 4, 1930.{{cite web|title= Louisiana First Registration Draft Cards, compiled 1940-1945 |website= FamilySearch|url= https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVMF-RDFT}} shows Herman Stuart Cottman birthdate as 23 March 1911. when both were still high-school students.{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Michael|editor1-last=Williams|editor1-first=John Delane|editor2-last=Waite|editor2-first=Robert G.|editor3-last=Gordon|editor3-first=Gregory S.|title=John F. Kennedy History, Memory, Legacy: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry|date=2010|url=https://www.und.edu/org/jfkconference/|access-date=27 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523143325/http://www.und.edu/instruct/jfkconference/JFKChapter81.doc|archive-date=23 May 2013|chapter="I Feel Like a Spring Lamb" - What Clay Shaw's Literary Life Reveals}}{{cite web |last= Kubiatowicz |first= David |title= A Short Acting Career |date= March 13, 2010 |access-date=November 24, 2017 |location= White Bear Lake, Minnesota |url= http://dkubiatowiczblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/short-acting-career.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042628/http://dkubiatowiczblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/short-acting-career.html |archive-date= December 1, 2017 |url-status= live }}

On 9 May 1961 Shaw introduced Charles Cabell, Deputy Director of the CIA, at a Foreign Policy Association event in New Orleans.{{cite web |title=MEMORANDUM: SUBJECT - CLAY L. SHAW |url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10181-10035.pdf |website=National Archives |publisher=JFK Assassination Records}}

{{main|Trial of Clay Shaw}}

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.{{cite news |title=New Orleans Civic Leader Accused. Quizzed for Five Hour's About Conspiracy in Assassination |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/510216142.html?dids=510216142:510216142&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+02,+1967&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=JFK+PLOT+ARREST&pqatl=google |work=The New York Times |date=March 2, 1967 |access-date=April 12, 2010 |first=Nicholas C |last=Chriss |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026093106/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/510216142.html?dids=510216142:510216142&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+02,+1967&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=JFK+PLOT+ARREST&pqatl=google |archive-date=October 26, 2012 |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite book|first=James|last=Phelan|title=Scandals, Scamps, and Scoundrels|publisher=Random House|location=New York City|date=1982|pages=150–51|isbn=0-394-48196-8}}){{cite book|first=Jim|last=Garrison|author-link=Jim Garrison|title=On the Trail of the Assassins|publisher=Sheridan Square Press|location=New York City|date=1988|pages=85–86|isbn=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.{{cite web |url=https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/garr/trial/Feb_10/html/Open_Court_Feb_10_0012a.htm |via=History Matters Archive |title=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.[http://www.jfk-online.com/pr01.html Testimony of Perry Raymond Russo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525183155/http://www.jfk-online.com/pr01.html |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.{{cite web |url=http://www.jfkassassination.net/willing.htm |title=Way Too Willing Witness |website=Jfkassassination.net |access-date=September 17, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124102754/http://jfkassassination.net/willing.htm |archive-date=November 24, 2010 |url-status=live }} A key source was the "Sciambra Memo", which recorded Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra's[http://www.jfk-online.com/sciambra.html Direct Examination of Assistant District Attorney Andrew Sciambra by Defense Attorney Alcock] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525184056/http://www.jfk-online.com/sciambra.html |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.{{cite web |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russo2.txt |title=The Sciambra Memo |access-date=September 17, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128022651/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russo2.txt |archive-date=November 28, 2010 |url-status=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.{{cite web |url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/garr/trial/Feb_28e/html/Feb_28e_0048a.htm |title=Clay Shaw Trial Transcripts, February 28, 1969, page 47 |publisher=Aarclibrary.org |access-date=November 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509043017/http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/garr/trial/Feb_28e/html/Feb_28e_0048a.htm |archive-date=May 9, 2007 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |author=The Times-Picayune archive |url=http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/07/andrew_moo_moo_sciambra_who_wo.html |title=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) |publisher=Nola.com |access-date=2013-11-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729192840/http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/07/andrew_moo_moo_sciambra_who_wo.html |archive-date=July 29, 2010 |url-status=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."{{cite book |last=Bugliosi |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Bugliosi |title=Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy |year=2007 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York City|isbn=978-0-393-04525-3 |page=1376n }}

A heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, Shaw died at the age of 61 at his home on August 15, 1974.{{cite news |title=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 |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1FFB3A551A7493C4A81783D85F408785F9 |work=The New York Times |date=August 16, 1974 |access-date=April 12, 2010 |first=David |last=Bird |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605191329/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1FFB3A551A7493C4A81783D85F408785F9 |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |url-status=live }} The cause of death was listed as metastatic lung cancer.{{cite web |url= http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/death9.htm |title= Clay Shaw: Mysterious Death? |publisher= John C. McAdams |access-date= 2017-11-29 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070207145909/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/death9.htm |archive-date= February 7, 2007 |url-status= live }} Date of Hospitalization Case Report: 1974-08-28 He was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Kentwood, Louisiana.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&q=clay+shaw+woodland+cemetery&pg=PA680|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.|first=Scott|last=Wilson|date=August 17, 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786479924|via=Google Books|access-date=November 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125115401/https://books.google.ca/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA680&dq=clay+shaw+woodland+cemetery&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGmYCAme7eAhXVGTQIHTi-BwgQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=clay+shaw+woodland+cemetery&f=false|archive-date=November 25, 2018|url-status=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.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19740816&id=9QIOAAAAIBAJ&pg=7037,1909517&hl=en|title=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=September 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501034337/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19740816&id=9QIOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Vm0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7037,1909517&hl=en|archive-date=May 1, 2016|url-status=live}} As Shaw, a lifelong bachelor, had no heirs or surviving relatives, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the suit in 1978.{{cite web|url=http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2011/12/1968_the_clay_shaw_trial_in_jf.html|title=1968: The Clay Shaw trial on JFK conspiracy charges|first=The|last=Times-Picayune|website=NOLA.com|access-date=September 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920222048/http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2011/12/1968_the_clay_shaw_trial_in_jf.html|archive-date=September 20, 2015|url-status=live}}

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.{{cite journal|last=Holland|first=Max|title=The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination|journal=Studies in Intelligence|year=2001|issue=Fall-Winter 2001; 11|url=https://www.cia.gov/static/9a38d5a70e38c768763718c45d98a092/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf|access-date=August 15, 2014|author-link=Max Holland|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency: Center for the Study of Intelligence|location=Washington, D.C.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210032805/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article02.html|archive-date=December 10, 2014|url-status=live}} 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".{{Cite book |title=Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1c.html |year=1979 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |page=218 |quote="...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." }}

Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Shaw in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/01/movies/film-tommy-lee-jones-snarls-his-way-to-the-pinnacle.html |title=FILM; Tommy Lee Jones Snarls His Way to the Pinnacle |first=Bernard |last=Weinraub |author-link=Bernard Weinraub |date=1 August 1993 |access-date=26 January 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121221427/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/01/movies/film-tommy-lee-jones-snarls-his-way-to-the-pinnacle.html |archive-date=November 21, 2018 |url-status=live }} He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/tommy-lee-jones-first-oscars-photo_n_2737171.html |title=Tommy Lee Jones' First Oscar Win Brought With It Some Awesome Eyewear |date=24 February 2013 |access-date=6 December 2017 |work=Huffington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130227104024/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/tommy-lee-jones-first-oscars-photo_n_2737171.html |archive-date=February 27, 2013 |url-status=live }}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{Cite book |first=Jim |last=Garrison |author-link=Jim Garrison |title=A Heritage of Stone |publisher=Putnam Publishing Group |year=1970 |isbn=0-399-10398-8 }}
• {{Cite book |first=Jim |last=Garrison |author-link=Jim Garrison |title=On the Trail of the Assassins |location=New York |publisher=Sheridan Square Press |year=1988 |isbn=0-446-36277-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ontrailofassassi00jimg }}
• {{Cite journal |first=Max |last=Holland |title=The Power of Disinformation: The Lie that Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination |journal=Studies in Intelligence |issue=Fall-Winter |year=2001 |volume=11 }}
• {{Cite book |first=James |last=Kirkwood |title=American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw–Jim Garrison–Kennedy Assassination Trial in New Orleans |location=New York |publisher=HarperPerennial |year=1992 |isbn=0-06-097523-7 }}
• {{Cite book |first=Patricia |last=Lambert |title=False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film 'JFK' |location=New York |publisher=M. Evans |year=2000 |isbn=0-87131-920-9 }}
• {{Cite book |first=Alecia |last=Long |title=Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-4696-6273-2 }}
• {{Cite book |first=Anthony |last=Summers |author-link=Anthony Summers |title=Not in Your Lifetime |location=New York |publisher=Marlowe & Company |year=1998 |isbn=1-56924-739-0 }}

• [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/garrison.htm Jim Garrison and New Orleans]
• [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/garr/trial/contents.htm Louisiana v. Shaw (1969) trial transcript]
• [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/garr/grandjury/contents.htm Orleans Parish Grand Jury transcripts]
• [http://www.jfk-online.com/hangon.html Esquire December 1968 interview with Clay Shaw, James Kirkwood]
• [http://www.jfk-online.com/penthouse.html Penthouse interview with Clay Shaw]
• [http://www.jfklancer.com/Garrison2.html Jim Garrison Interview, Playboy magazine, Eric Norden, October 1967] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022181453/http://www.jfklancer.com/Garrison2.html |date=October 22, 2019 }}
• [http://www.jfk-online.com/jfkaudio.html JFK Online: Jim Garrison audio resources] - mp3s of Garrison speaking
• [http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100whoshaw.html 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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