Clay Shaw: The Man Jim Garrison Couldn't Convict

The Man Jim Garrison Couldn't Convict

Clay LaVergne Shaw was born in 1913 in Kentwood, Louisiana, and built his life in New Orleans. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, rising to the rank of Major and earning the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the French Croix de Guerre, and Knight of the Order of the Crown of Belgium — decorations from three nations for distinguished service. After the war, he returned to New Orleans and became the director of the International Trade Mart, an institution that facilitated international commerce and helped establish New Orleans as a global trade hub.

Shaw was also a French Quarter preservationist before preservation was fashionable. He restored historic buildings, wrote plays, and was a respected figure in the city's cultural and business communities. He lived a quiet, productive life — until Jim Garrison decided he was part of a conspiracy to kill the President of the United States.

The Trial of the Century

In 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested Clay Shaw and charged him with conspiring to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Garrison's theory linked Shaw to Lee Harvey Oswald and David Ferrie through an alleged meeting where the assassination was discussed. The star witness, Perry Russo, described a party where the three men supposedly planned the killing.

The trial took place in January and February 1969, and it was a spectacle. But the prosecution's case crumbled under scrutiny. The Sciambra Memo showed that Russo's account had evolved significantly over time. Key witness Dean Andrews admitted that "Clay Bertrand" — the alias Garrison claimed Shaw used — was a name Andrews had fabricated. The jury deliberated less than an hour before acquitting Shaw on March 1, 1969.

After the Verdict

The trial destroyed Shaw's health, reputation, and finances. He died of lung cancer on August 15, 1974, at sixty-one. In 1979, former CIA Director Richard Helms confirmed that Shaw had been a part-time informant for the CIA's Domestic Contact Service from 1948 to 1956 — providing travel information from Latin America, a far cry from assassination conspiracies. Clay Shaw deserved better than what Jim Garrison did to him, and New Orleans knows it.