Note 404 — Chapter XXIV · Jury-Fixing Uncovered.

Among those who testified to Murphy’s good character was Rev. H. H. Wyman, at that time the head of the Paulist Order at San Francisco. Another Paulist priest, Rev. Stark, showed great interest in Murphy’s welfare.

After Murphy’s acquittal a story was current in San Francisco to the effect that at a dinner given soon after Murphy’s acquittal, Murphy had promised a present to the Paulist Church, St. Mary’s, and that Father Stark had announced that a plate bearing Murphy’s name and the date of his acquittal should be placed upon the gift.

However unjustified the story may have been, Murphy did give St. Mary’s a present—a pulpit. On the pulpit was put a plate bearing Murphy’s name and a date. The incident so incensed priests of the Paulist order who were not in sympathy with the course of Fathers Wyman and Stark at Murphy’s trial, that they entered the church with a screw-driver, removed the plate, and threw it into San Francisco bay. Later a second plate was put upon the pulpit. So far as the writer knows, the second plate is still in its place.