Clay Shaw

--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-16 title: Clay Shaw aliases:

• Clay Lavergne Shaw tags:
• Person
• JFKAssassination
• NewOrleans
• CIA
• 1960s category: "Historical Figure" summary: "Clay Shaw was a prominent New Orleans businessman and founder of the International Trade Mart who was arrested by District Attorney Jim Garrison in 1967 on conspiracy charges related to the Kennedy assassination, acquitted in 1969, and posthumously confirmed by declassified documents to have been a CIA domestic contact - a fact CIA Director Richard Helms denied under oath at the trial." born: 1913-03-17 died: 1974-08-14 location: "New Orleans, Louisiana"

Clay Lavergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 - August 14, 1974) was a prominent New Orleans businessman, civic figure, and founder of the International Trade Mart who became the only person ever tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President Kennedy. District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested Shaw in March 1967; he was acquitted after a brief jury deliberation in March 1969. Documents declassified after his death confirmed that Shaw had served as a CIA domestic contact - a connection CIA Director Richard Helms denied under oath during the trial.¹

Background

Shaw was born in Kentwood, Louisiana and attended Tulane University. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, reaching the rank of colonel and earning decorations for his service in the European theater. After the war he returned to New Orleans and established himself as a key figure in the city's civic and cultural life.

His primary professional achievement was founding and directing the International Trade Mart, a permanent trade exhibition center in New Orleans that became a model for similar facilities across the country. He was also deeply involved in the preservation and restoration of the French Quarter, contributing to projects that helped define the city's cultural identity.

Shaw's personal life was private; he was gay in an era when homosexuality was criminalized, and his prosecution included overtly homophobic elements in Garrison's presentation.¹

CIA Connection

The central factual question that emerged after Shaw's acquittal and death was his relationship to the CIA. Shaw denied any CIA connection during the trial. CIA Director Helms testified under oath that Shaw had no relationship with the agency.

Documents released by the JFK Records Act declassification process in the 1990s confirmed that Shaw had been registered as a CIA domestic contact under the name "Clay Bertrand" - a name that appeared in Garrison's investigation from an early stage. Shaw had used the alias "Clay Bertrand" in the New Orleans gay community, and Garrison's investigation had connected "Bertrand" to the anti-Castro network.

The CIA's use of "Clay Bertrand" as Shaw's contact name and Helms's denial under oath that Shaw had any CIA connection represented, at minimum, perjury by Helms and concealment by the agency of a relevant relationship during a criminal trial. Whether Shaw's CIA contact role had any connection to Kennedy's assassination remained unproven.¹

Trial

Garrison announced Shaw's arrest on March 1, 1967. The charges were based primarily on the testimony of Perry Russo, who claimed to have attended a meeting at which Shaw (identified as "Clay Bertrand"), David Ferrie, and Lee Harvey Oswald discussed killing Kennedy. Russo's testimony was obtained in part through hypnosis, which the defense successfully challenged as potentially shaping the witness's recollections.

The trial lasted approximately five weeks in January-February 1969. The defense presented evidence of Shaw's respected civic record and attacked Garrison's witnesses. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before acquitting Shaw.

Shaw subsequently filed a civil malicious prosecution suit against Garrison. He was in the early stages of this litigation when he died of lung cancer on August 14, 1974, at age sixty-one.²