16 Facts About Clay Shaw

Clay LaVergne Shaw was an American businessman, military officer, and part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service of the CIA.

Clay Shaw's grandfather had been the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish.

When Clay Shaw was five, his family moved to New Orleans, where he eventually attended Warren Easton High School.

Clay Shaw later left Western Union to pursue a career in public relations, eventually accepting a position with the Keedick Lecture Bureau.

Clay Shaw enlisted in the United States Army at the start of World War II and was assigned to the Medical Corps as a private.

Clay Shaw later received an officer's commission and was posted to England where he served briefly in a hospital unit.

Clay Shaw 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.

Clay Shaw 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.

Clay Shaw was honorably discharged from the United States Army as a major in 1946.

Clay Shaw was known locally for his efforts to preserve buildings in New Orleans' historic French Quarter.

On 9 May 1961 Clay Shaw introduced Charles Cabell, Deputy Director of the CIA, at a Foreign Policy Association event in New Orleans.

On March 1,1969, Clay Shaw was acquitted less than an hour after the case went to the jury.

Clay Shaw was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Kentwood, Louisiana.

At the time of his death, Clay Shaw was engaged in a $5 million lawsuit against Garrison and members of an organization, Truth and Consequences Inc.

In 1979, Richard Helms, former Director of the CIA, testified under oath that Clay Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service of the CIA, where Clay Shaw volunteered information from his travels abroad, mostly to Latin America.

Clay Shaw was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.