Clay Bertrand is a man referred to in the Warren Commission

Warren Commission

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

 Report regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 in 1963.
New Orleans attorney Dean Andrews

Dean Andrews Jr.

Dean Adams Andrews Jr. was an attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was questioned by Jim Garrison in regards to his Warren Commission testimony in which he had mentioned a man named "Clay Bertrand" having called him shortly after John F. Kennedy's assassination to represent Lee Harvey Oswald in...

 testified to the Warren Commission that he received a call from "Clay Bertrand," the day after the assassination of President Kennedy, asking him to fly to Dallas to represent the suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

.

The actual existence of a "Clay Bertrand" has been debated, with Andrews claiming both that he made the name up, and that the FBI intimidated him into claiming Clay Bertrand did not exist.

New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison

Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...

 asserted that "Clay Bertrand" was actually New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw

Clay Shaw

Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...

. During the trial of Clay Shaw

Trial of Clay Shaw

On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish...

, Garrison accused Shaw of using the alias "Clay Bertrand" to solicit Andrews' legal services on Oswald's behalf; however, Garrison was unable to prove a connection to Shaw. Shaw was found not guilty.

Ten years after Shaw's trial, former assistant to the Director of the CIA and proponent of the organized crime and the CIA conspiracy theory Victor Marchetti

Victor Marchetti

Victor Marchetti is a former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a prominent paleoconservative critic of the United States Intelligence Community and the Israel lobby in the United States....

argued that Clay Bertrand was, in fact, Clay Shaw.