Edward
Aubrey Clark was
born San Augustine, Texas on 15th July, 1906. He obtained his first
degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.
In 1927 Clark married Anne Metcalfe of Greenville, Mississippi, and
heir to the largest cotton plantation system in the South.
Clark received a law degree
in 1928 from the University of Texas. After leaving law school, Clark
became a county attorney in San Augustine. In 1932 he moved to Austin
and served as assistant attorney general of Texas.
In 1935 Clark became assistant
to Governor James Allred. Soon after he met Lyndon
B. Johnson
and the two men became close
friends. The governor appointed Clark secretary of state in 1937.
The following year Clark opened a private law practice with Everett
Looney. He also worked as a political lobbyist for the oil industry.
One of his main clients was Big Oil, a company owned by Clint
Murchison and Wofford Cain.
In 1939 Clark joined the
Texas Guard. After Pearl Harbor he joined
the United States Army. During the Second
World War he served as a captain in the quartermaster corps. In
January, 1943, he was expelled from the service for mishandling army
funds.
Clark now returned to Austin.
In 1944 Clark recruited Don Thomas and his company became known as
Clark, Thomas and Winters. Over the next few years it became one of
the most influential and successful firms in Texas. Clark also served
as chairman of Texas Commerce Bank of Austin and the First National
Bank of San Augustine.
In 1948 Clark was appointed
as Lyndon Johnson's legal counsel. He remained active in the Democratic
Party and was associated with those opposed to the liberal elements
led by Ralph
Yarborough.
After the assassination of John
F. Kennedy Johnson
became president. In 1965 Johnson appointed Clark as the country's
ambassador to Australia.
Clark opposed the Democratic
Party policy on civil rights
and in the 1968 presidential campaign he supported Richard
Nixon over George McGovern. In 1974
Nixon appointed Clark to the General Advisory Committee of the United
States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Later he supported Ronald
Reagan in his campaign to become president.
Edward
Aubrey Clark
died of lung cancer in
Austin on 16th September 16, 1992. Clark donated his 7,000 books on
the history of Texas to Southwestern University.
In
2003 Barr McClellan,
Clark's former legal partner, published Blood,
Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. In the book McClellan
argues that Clark and Lyndon
B. Johnson
were
involved in the planning and cover-up of the assassination of John
F. Kennedy.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Barr
McClellan, Blood Money
and Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K. (2003)
Edward A. Clark, attorney at law, Johnson's right-hand man and the
only man he trusted, was the key man in the scheme that culminated
in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He was my senior partner, my boss.
He and Don Thomas were my two partners most deeply involved in the
deadly serious business of protecting the president's interests
in a very proactive way. For us attorneys no joke was ever told
about Johnson to others, to outsiders, to "civilians";
of course, among ourselves nothing was sacred. Clark and Thomas
had been with Johnson from the beginning and knew never to take
those secrets lightly. It was always business, it was always working
hours, and it was always Johnson. Whenever he called, they were
there.
In a strange
mixture of fear and respect, I had once admired Clark. He had this
wide-open notion of no law at all, of being the law unto himself.
The awe paid him by everyone at our law offices was so powerful
as to be intimidating, and as a young attorney confronted with the
complexities of the politics mixed in with the law, I was not just
impressed; I was overwhelmed. After all, I had to learn how the
system worked and Clark showed me. Politics and the law were one
and the same. They were not just synonymous; they were identical.
In my first
years at the law firm, Clark seemed to work legal magic. A phone
call to a judge and the case was won. Get the word out for the final
review of legislation and every key member of the lobby showed up
in our conference room. Place a phone call to an officer with his
bank and get cash on request. Dine in Austin's finest restaurants
and bill the client. Enter the dark underside and find whatever
is needed to complete the bill of fare - all the nighttime fun and
games.
(2)
Nigel
Turner, review of Blood, Money
& Power (2003)
In 'Blood, Money and Power' Barr McClellan offers new insights into
the dark and ruthless forces that propelled Lyndon Baines Johnson
into the highest office in the land.
His arch
villain is Texan attorney Edward A Clark. He controlled LBJ's financial,
legal and political fortunes for three decades from offices in downtown
Austin. He accuses Clark, now deceased, of being the man who personally
orchestrated the assassination of JFK when Johnson faced political
ruin and possible imprisonment due to past misdeeds.
For many
this will appear a contentious scenario. Yet McClellan writes from
a unique perspective. He was an insider. As a member of the Clark
law firm, albeit from 1966 onwards, he was privy to specific conversations
and shared confidences with colleagues that convinced him of Clark's
principal role in the murder of Kennedy. He is to be congratulated
on finally breaking the powerful attorney-client privilege that
traditionally binds all lawyers in order to bring what he knows
to the world.
At the very
least this work opens up a wider debate on the alleged complicity
of Johnson and his henchmen in the murder of JFK. Barr McClellan
's insider's voice is a valuable addition to those who earnestly
seek the truth of what really happened on November 22nd, 1963.
(3)
Walt
Brown, review of Blood, Money
& Power (2003)
I've also had the opportunity to read Barr McClellan's manuscript,
in which he describes how he served as personal attorney to Ed Clark
who served as the intermediary between Lyndon Johnson and all of
his myriad political contretemps. One, of course, was JFK, and this
book takes the reader through the labyrinth of Dallas and puts LBJ
center-stage, and it is hard not to read the work and not shout,
'Guilty as hell!!'"
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