Burning of draft board records by Philip and Daniel Berrigan and others, May 17, 1968: an interview with Mary E. Murphy given on November 2, 1972

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Collection: Friends of Catonsville Library Date: 1972-11-02 Date of Digitization: 2004-03-29 Source: Catonsville Library Original Dimensions: 28 x 22 cm Creator: Murphy, Mary E.

Notes:
This a transcript of a recorded interview with Mrs. Mary E. Murphy who was the Chief Clerk at the Draft Board office no. 33 at the time of the event of the forceful removing and burning of the draft cards by the Catonsville Nine group.

Transcription:

           

time they didn't know enough not to bother with people in I-Y and 2-A and I think they 
were just as terrified as we were, in a way.  All the  time I had stretched my arms 
out across the files  trying to prevent this. In the meantime, Miss Phyllis was 
trying to pick up the telephone to call the police and Miss Moylan, the nurse, 
pushed her back - pushed her down in the chair again.  But Miss Phyllis picked 
up the telephone and threw it through the window - broke the window.

The caretaker, sensing that something was wrong, went inside and called the police.
During all this time, of course, the Catonsville Nine, each one of them, were trying 
to convince us that we should not be working there - calling us murderers - and, why 
did we stay on the job - and, why did we work here, and - did we know we were 
sending boys away to be killed, and - all that sort of thing.  Both Phyllis
and I screamed at the top of our lungs - to such a degree, that I think they were 
really afraid.

I THINK we frightened them. They had just intended to wipe us out, but  they were so 
confused themselves they took the baskets - the big wire baskets they had put the 
folders in" ----- (Interviewer,  - Where did they get the wire baskets?) "Well, 
they brought them with them and they started to go down the steps with them.  Well, 
I  took hold of the wire basket and I pulled and tugged and tried to get it away 
from them.  They were two very large men and naturally I could not do anything
about it."  (Interviewer, - Who was carrying them, Phillip or Daniel Berrigan?) 
"no, Phillip and Dan Minche - and so - in the struggle, I had my finger cut and 
my leg cut.

So they all went downstairs and went out on the parking lot.  They had some 
napalm that they had made themselves, and, of course, they set the records on fire."
(Interviewer - Excuse me, Did you stay up there yourself and watch out the 
window?) "Well,  I was beside myself - I didn't know what to do.  But  I did go 
downstairs and walked out to the parking  lot and saw that they were burning  the 
records.  Now, all I could say was, 'My God, they're burning the records.'  So, 
then I knew that since it was my responsibility -  the records were my responsibility -
I had to notify State Headquarters, so I turned around and came back upstairs and 
put in a call for State Headquarters to tell them.

In the meantime we had the radio on.  We always kept our little radio on in the office, 
and, that quickly, it was being broadcast that this trouble was going on in Catons-
ville.  Immediately people started to come running.  My sister heard them say 
over the radio that someone was hurt, and, of course, she was terrifically upset and