Edward Aubrey Clark

Edward Aubrey Clark

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. He was also a member of 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. As Nigel Turner has pointed out: "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."

Primary Sources

(1) Barr McClellan, Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK (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: How LBJ Killed JFK (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: How LBJ Killed JFK (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!!'"