Barr McClellan studied at the University of Texas in Austin. As a student McClellan was a strong supporter of John F. Kennedy. After qualifying as a lawyer he went to work for the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Initially he worked for the National Labor Relations Board but in 1964 he became an attorney for the Federal Power Commission.

In 1966 McClellan joined the legal firm of Clark, Thomas and Winters, based in Austin, Texas. At that time the firm was run by the partners Edward Clark, Sam Winters, Don Thomas and Frank Denius. The company was closely associated with Lyndon B. Johnson and the Democratic Party in Texas. McClellan’s work included advising on political strategy, campaign contributions, media issues and labour disputes.

In 1972 McClellan became a full partner in the legal firm. It was only at this stage that he was told about the illegal activities of the firm. John Cofer explained how the partners dealt with criminal activity: “In short, we helped plan crimes and keep the clients out of trouble.” Soon afterwards he discovered that one of the partners, Edward Clark, had been involved in planning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

McClellan eventually resigned from the firm after a dispute with Edward Clark. In 1977 he established his own law firm. Some of McClellan notable cases include litigation for exploding Ford Pintos, tobacco-caused expenses on the health care system and the licensing and regulation of cell phones. He also obtained a Supreme Court ruling to protect parklands from freeways.

McClellan is the father of Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, and Mark McClellan, who headed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and was formerly Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.

In 2003 McClellan published Blood Money and Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K. In the book McClellan argues that Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Clark were involved in the planning and cover-up of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. McClellan also named Malcolm Wallace as one of the assassins. The killing of Kennedy was paid for by oil millionaires such as Clint Murchison and Haroldson L. Hunt. McClellan claims that Clark got $2 million for this work.

The assassination of Kennedy allowed the oil depletion allowance to be kept at 27.5 per cent. It remained unchanged during the Johnson presidency. According to McClellan this resulted in a saving of over 100 million dollars to the American oil industry. Soon after Johnson left office it dropped to 15 per cent.

In 2004 The Guilty Men was shown on the History Channel. The program looked at the possibility that Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm Wallace and Edward A. Clark were involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The program used evidence from McClellan’s book Blood, Money and Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. It also used other sources such as the testimony of Madeleine Brown and Billie Sol Estes and the research of Walt Brown, Ed Tatro, Glen Sample, and Gregory Burnham.

Ted’s interview with Barr McClellan on 12.11.15