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Elvis Presley as Danny Fisher in "King Creole" |
New Orleans, Louisiana. The birthplace
of jazz, Cajun cookin', and Lee Harvey Oswald. A place known for
dark secrets, even darker rituals, and the hometown of conspiracy.
Among New Orleans best-recognized citizens was Clay L. Shaw, well known as a prominent businessman and Storyville gadabout. As a man who knew and was known by everyone in New Orleans society, Shaw was at the center of all activity in The Big Easy. Among his associates was David William Ferrie, who had whispered ties to U.S.Intelligence "Black Operations". Although socially worlds apart, the two formed a close relationship, sharing gambling trips, Marde Gras activities, and the young boys who flocked around Ferrie and who sated Shaw's perverse tastes. It was during one of their frequent
gambling trips to Kansas City, MO that they met seventeen year old Ann-Margret.
The two sat through her every performance with the Danny Ferguson Shaw and Ferrie also shared a working relationship with Carlos Marcello, New Orleans head of La Costa Nostra. Marcello's hand was in every illicit activity in New Orleans, from gambling, to prostitution, and later with imports from Communist Cuba. Together they formed a triumvirate of illegal activity, combining the odd bedfellows of the United States government with the American Mafia. Marcello had a weakness for young girls. Shaw and Ferrie ingratiated themselves with him by arranging an introduction with the alluring Ann-Margret. In January 1958 Orleans Parish was graced
with special excitement. Elvis Presley arrived in In late 1959 Ann-Margret contacted Marcello, Shaw, and Ferrie to ask their assistance in helping hometown boy Lee Harvey Oswald in leaving the United States. Remembering the good times had in Kansas City, the evil triumvirate agreed, and spirited Oswald away on a steamer headed towards England. Four years later she would ask them to look after the repatriated Oswald, who would repay their kind attentions by embarrassing them by his arrest while distributing "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets. Shaw and Ferrie would turn their backs on Oswald. But Marcello, seeing an opportunity for revenge against JFK for losing the Mafia's lucrative Cuban gambling hotels, accommodated Ann-Margret in her request to help Oswald obtain weapons for the planned assassination. |
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| "Shake,
Rattle, n' Roll" by Charles Calhoun
Sequenced by R. Goodyear First recorded by Elvis as a single 3 February 1956 |
Band
at the Muehlbach Hotel hoping to catch her eye. Ann-Margret, seeing
this as an opportunity to infiltrate the New Orleans underworld, made friends
with them and arranged for them to meet her "special friend", Alexsandr
Feklisov, who was on an intelligence gathering tour of U.S. nuclear facilities.
town
to begin shooting of his film "King Creole". Through Marcello's
connections with Louisiana labor unions Shaw and Ferrie weaseled an introduction
with Elvis. Naively, Elvis saw this as an opportunity for introduction
to New Orleans society, and allowed 
Shaw
and Ferrie to wine and dine him and his bodyguard, Alan "Hog Ears" Fortas,
throughout The Big Easy. Greatly impressed by being with "The
King of Rock 'n Roll", Shaw and Ferrie deceived themselves into imaging
that they had forged a personal bond with Elvis, a self-deception that
Ann-Margret would later use for her own ends.