Parting Glances: The usual suspects (Pt. 2)

"After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again – that's no threat – that's a promise."
Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson made this boast to Madeline Brown, his longtime mistress, at a party held at the palatial home of Texas oil millionaire Clint Murchison. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was the guest of honor.
The date was November 21, 1963. Within 12 hours President Kennedy was assassinated. Three men at that party gained much from JFK's murder.
LBJ – who was to be dumped as running mate in 1964 because of scandals involving wheeler/dealers Billy Sol Estes and Bobby Baker – became president. Hoover – who was bucking a forced retirement – stayed on as head honcho 'til 1972. And Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, who lost to Kennedy in 1960 "by the narrowest margin in electoral history," got revenge.
Barr McClellan, a former partner of the law firm that handled Johnson's legal affairs, accuses LBJ and Edward Clark, deceased law firm head and Texas political and judicial power broker, as conspirators in JFK's death. ("Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K."; Hanover House, 2003.)
Barr's book gives a look at Texas hardball politics, with details on how Clark & Johnston stole the 1948 Senate election by ballot box stuffing and precinct ball busting. (Sound vaguely familiar?) C & J had Kennedy killed, says Barr, to save Johnson's political career and to keep his bad ass self out of jail in '64.
Barr says Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy and names the real triggerman: Mac Wallace, a former marine and sharp-shooting hit man, also responsible for other murders ordered by Clark. Barr says a Wallace fingerprint ties him directly to the crime of the century.
Does Barr's book provide credible evidence or more disinformation timed to sell another theory on the anniversary of Kennedy's still emotionally charged death? His facts seem airtight; his data, sound as a commemorative Kennedy half-dollar.
Most people believe there was a plot involving (select one or all): the CIA, the FBI, anti-Castro Cubans, the Mafia, the KBG. Oh, yes: gay men, too – David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, and, lest we forget, sometimes campy dragster J. Edgar Hoover.
According to New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, both Ferrie and Shaw played footsie with Oswald. Garrison tried to prove they plotted against Kennedy, but Ferrie died mysteriously just days before his trial, and Shaw's trial in 1968 lasted 39 weeks. His courtroom demeanor was "regal." Verdict: Not Guilty!
Garrison said he couldn't nail Shaw because key witnesses were denied extradition. But, years later, a persistent Garrison proved that Shaw, director of the prestigious International Trade Mart, lied. He swore he hadn't been a link in a CIA daisy chain. He had – occasionally decked out in leather.
Ferrie and Shaw feature in Oliver Stone's 1993 movie "JFK" (named by critic Roger Ebert, "one of the best films of all time"). Ferrie is Joe Pesci; and Shaw, Tommy Lee Jones.
In one scene, Shaw flashes in gold body paint. Ferrie queens it up as Marie Antoinette. They do poppers with hustler Willie O'Keefe (sizzling Kevin Bacon) – with a little nipple tweaking thrown in. (Costuming is factual; butyl snorting and Willie wonking, fictional.)
Were Ferrie and Shaw (and J. Edgar) in on a conspiracy? Your don't ask is as good as my don't tell – with or without Locker Room Aroma. (PS: Don't cruise grassy knolls in Texas – or elsewhere.)