Thomas F. Murphy; Prosecuted Alger Hiss Case

Thomas F. Murphy, 89, a prosecutor in the Alger Hiss case of 1949. A native New Yorker, Murphy was the assistant U.S. attorney designated lead prosecutor against Hiss, a former State Department official accused of perjury for denying that he had passed confidential documents to Whittaker Chambers, a courier for the Communist Party. The case, one of the most famous of the Red-baiting era when the public feared Communist infiltration of the U.S. government, ended in Hiss’ conviction after a second trial. Murphy was named New York police commissioner and in 1951 was named to the federal bench by President Harry S. Truman. Thomas presided over many high-profile trials, including a wiretapping case against Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa. The judge was educated at Georgetown and Fordham universities. On Oct. 26 in Salisbury, Conn.