Clyde Johnson: Mysterious Death?

Victim or Crackpot?

According to Marrs, Clyde Johnson was "Scheduled to testify about Clay
Shaw/Oswald connection"  in Jim Garrison's trial in New Orleans.  
In fact, the Shaw trial concluded on March 1st, and Johnson died in
July.

The following news story shows Johnson to be a rather "interesting"
character.  Read it and decide whether he was a reliable witness.  
Note that the Garrison prosecution team that was willing to use 
Perry Raymond Russo's testimony (induced by drugs and hypnosis)
and the testimony of Charles Spiesel (who under cross-examination
showed himself to be literally insane) was unwilling to use Johnson.


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ATTACHMENT 10-A -- NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE - 
JULY 24,1969, SEC. 2, P.3

"CLYDE JOHNSON KILLED, REPORT"
Felled by Shotgun Blast, Sheriff Says
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	GREENSBURG, La. (AP) - Clyde Johnson, 37, a lay preacher and
onetime merchant who announced but never qualified as gubernatorial
and congressional candidate, was fatally shot Wednesday, Sheriff R.G.
Bridges said.

	Johnson was felled by a 12-gauge shotgun blast and lived about
30 minutes, the sheriff said.

	The shooting happened at the home of Ralph McMillan, 10 miles
north of Greensburg.  Johnson was on the doorstep of the McMillan
residence when he was shot, the sheriff said.

	Bridges said McMillan was arrested and taken to the St. Helena
Parish jail.

	McMillan was booked for homicide investigation, the sheriff
said, and will be given a hearing here Thursday.

	Johnson's wife is McMillan's second cousin  and also a first
cousin of McMillan's wife.  McMillan is a brother of Fernie E.
McMillan, who was Johnson's announced candidate for lieutenant
governor in the 1963 campaign.  

	Johnson, the sheriff said, had been living for the past
several weeks in a trailer home several hundred yards away from the
McMillan place.  Johnson, at various times, announced he would be a
candidate for governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator.  He
never filed former candidacy papers and his name never appeared on a
ballot.

	In 1963 he said he was running for governor.  Several hours
after the filing deadline that year, Johnson, from a hospital bed at
West Monroe, claimed his papers had disappeared from his auto after he
head been involved in a wreck the previous day.

	He said he had instructed his attorney to bring him a new set
of papers from Alexandria but the lawyer did not show up.

	A year later he said he would run the 6th Congressional
District House seat.  Prior to the deadline he said he was withdrawing
because a fire had destroyed his Greensburg store and he financially
unable to make the race.  Johnson announced in 
1966 he would oppose the re-election bid of Sen. Allen J. Ellender,
D-La.

	He first attracted attention early in 1963 when he was thrown
out of the State AFL-CIO convention at Baton Rouge after attempting to
make an impromptu speech.

	A native of Hinds County, Miss., Johnson claimed to be a key
witness in New Orleans  Dist. Atty. Jim Garrison's Kennedy
assassination probe.  He was subpoenaed by Garrison in 1967 and
testified before the Orleans Parish Grand Jury.

	A few days before Clay L. Shaw went on trial last January in
New Orleans, Johnson held a news conference and said, "I'm the ace-
in-the-hole in Garrison's case."

	A day later , New Orleans police said Johnson had been
arrested and booked on a charge of refusing to pay a $162.49 bill at
the Roosevelt Hotel.

	Johnson did not appear as a witness on the trial of Shaw, who
was acquitted of conspiring to kill President John F. Kennedy.

	In March 1965, sheriff's deputies at Baton Rouge said they
arrested Johnson after he lined up several persons at a truck stop and
tried to search them for a weapon.  Booked on charges of disturbing
the peace and impersonating an officer, Johnson was quoted as saying
he was looking for a gun used in a Baton Rouge murder.

	Police at Franklinton said they arrested Johnson in March 1967
on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.

	In recent years, Johnson listed Kentwood as his home.