Conclusion Clay Shaw with his attorney Edward Wegmann at a press conference after his arrest for conspiring to kill President John. F. Kennedy. No one came to help Clay Shaw. The Department of Justice could have investigated the bribery allegations against Garrison and charged him with a variety of crimes. Perhaps that would have stopped the entire investigation and ended the prosecution of Clay Shaw. But President Johnson told Attorney General Ramsey Clark not to interfere,

The Bonderman Memo I think this was a photograph taken when Shaw was being booked on March 1, 1967. His lawyers Sal Panzeca and Ed Wegmann are on the left, and Garrison Chief Investigator Lou Ivon is on the right. David Bonderman, a special assistant in the DOJ, was given the task of reviewing the materials submitted by Shaw's attorneys. Here is his memo from April 3, 1969: David Bonderman died in December of 2024. Bonderman writes that "prosecutorial discretion covers at lea

Clay Shaw's Acquittal; New Charges; and Wegmann Goes Back to the Department of Justice. March 3, 1967, Clay Shaw arrives for a press conference after his arrest. Our last post ended with the start of Clay Shaw's trial for conspiring to kill JFK. During the course of the trial, there was ample opportunity for the Department of Justice to get involved and help Clay Shaw. For instance: Clay Shaw's attorneys had trouble with the Clinton witnesses because they did not have access

Wegmann files a forty-five-page complaint in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans. Photo from Rosemary James' article, "The Dark Side of Not Guilty," in New Orleans Magazine. In May of 1968, Wegmann filed a forty-five-page complaint in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans. What does he have to lose? The DOJ won't help him so perhaps the courts will help. Click here for his complaint. Wegmann asks for "a 'sanctuary' in this Court to grant him relief from the irreparable ha

Wegmann Files a Civil Rights Complaint with the Department of Justice. Clay Shaw leaving the court house in New Orleans. Our last post on Clay Shaw left off with Ed Wegmann sending a letter to John Doar at the Department of Justice in late-September of 1967. He promised Doar that information on the case was being compiled and would soon be sent to him. As you can see in this post, there is some desperation on the part of Shaw's attorneys. They don't have many cards to play an

Wegmann Goes Back to Washington with Irvin Dymond Clay Shaw on the left, 1944 - 1945, with General Thrasher. In mid-September 1967, Wegmann and Dymond flew north to Washington D.C. They enlisted the help of Herbert 'Jack' Miller, a former assistant attorney general, who had been hired by Robert Kennedy in 1961. They told Miller that they waned to meet with someone at the CIA who can "steer them to the true facts and circumstances," of the various allegations being made by Gar

The CIA Gets Involved On March 4, 1967, Paese Sera , a communist-controlled newspaper in Rome began a multi-part series on Clay Shaw and the Centro Mondiale Commerciale (CMC), a world trade center. The articles alleged that Clay Shaw was on the CMC's Board and that the CIA used the organization to funnel American dollars to ultra-rightists. Paese Sera, March 4, 1967 This hit the New Orleans newspapers in April: New Orleans States-Item, April 25, 1967 The story was again menti

Ed Wegmann Goes to Washington Part Two of our series on Clay Shaw discussed the Washington Post  article of March 3 , 1967 in which Ramsey Clark said that the FBI had investigated and cleared Shaw right after the JFK assassination. This made it sound like the FBI suspected Clay Shaw back in 1963 - 1964. Wegmann realized they needed some clarification and he sent a telegram to the Department of Justice requesting a meeting but was turned down. He also phoned the FBI who told

The DOJ is Told Not to Get Involved. The FBI Follows Suit. Jim Garrison's investigation into the JFK assassination became public in late February of 1967. Garrison bragged that he had solved the case. Washington Post, February 24, 1967 Washington got wind that he was also alleging that Lyndon Johnson was somehow linked to the assassination: This headline was from a later speech by Garrison but it illustrates his belief that Johnson was hiding something. Garrison, to my knowle

The Setting in New Orleans This is Part One of a ten-part series on attempts by Clay Shaw and his attorneys to get help from the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA. As you will see, nobody stepped up to help. In 1995, Patricia Lambert started submitting proposals to publishers for a biography of Clay Shaw. She ultimately published in 1999 False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK . In 2005, she put together a book prop

Rosemary James was the reporter who broke the story about Jim Garrison's investigation into the JFK assassination for the New Orleans...

Few people realize just how much power Jim Garrison utilized in his position as District Attorney of the Parish of New Orleans. Milton...

The story starts with Deuce Parent, a Sergeant on the Kenner, Louisiana police force, who told his friend Ronald Raymond that "an...