Clay Shaw

:This is an article about the New Orleans businessman. See E. Clay Shaw, Jr. for an article about the politician from Florida.

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Clay Laverne Shaw (March 17, 1913 - August 14, 1974) was a successful businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the only person to ever be tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

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Shaw possessed a fine war record ending with an honorable discharge as a major in 1946, having served as a secretary to the General Staff and having been decorated by the United States with the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star and by France with the Croix de Guerre.

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

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District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested Shaw in 1967. He believed that Clay Shaw was the same person as a mysterious man named "Clay Bertrand" who is referred to in the report of the Warren Commission. A lawyer named Dean Adam Andrews, Jr. testified that Bertrand had asked for him to defend Lee Harvey Oswald in court. Andrews described Bertrand as a bisexual man who had previously brought gay clients to him. Shaw was a gay man, and indeed this is one of the reasons Garrison later cited as evidence of the two Clays being one and the same.

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There were definitely problems with this conclusion. For example, Andrews had given different descriptions of Bertrand to investigators, at first saying that he was over six feet tall, then saying that he was 5'8". When Garrison's investigation team asked years later, Andrews said flat out that Bertrand was not Shaw but in fact a client of his named Eugene Davis. During the trial, Garrison called a man named Perry Russo as a witness. Russo testified that he had seen Shaw with both Oswald and David Ferrie and had heard them plot to kill the president. Shaw was found not guilty.

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Garrison wrote a book on his investigation, On the Trail of the Assassins. When director Oliver Stone later adapted Garrison's book into the film JFK, Shaw's character was played by Tommy Lee Jones.

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Shaw died in 1974 at age 61 of lung cancer. No autopsy was allowed.

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Richard Helms, former director of the CIA, testified, under oath, in 1979 that Clay Shaw had in fact been a part-time contact (contract agent) of the Domestic Contact Division of the CIA. It is unknown now whether this information would have influenced the outcome of the Shaw trial in New Orleans.

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E. Clay Shaw, Jr.: Eugene Clay Shaw Jr. (born April 19 1939), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1981, representing the 22nd District of Florida (map). He was born in Miami, Florida, was educated at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida and the Univers...

Florida: Florida is a Southern state in the United States. It is known as the Sunshine State. "Florida" is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery." It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. The U.S. Postal abbreviation is FL....

March 17: March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). There are 289 days remaining....

Clay Shaw related Images and Photos (experimental)

Clay Tiles	Clay Pigeons	Clay Pigeons	Shaw Collection, The (DVD)
Clay Walker: Fall CD	Clay Walker: Fall CD	Clay Water Vase	Susan Shaw
Henry Clay	Pygmalion (Shaw Collection, The) (DVD)	Robert Shaw	Sandie Shaw