Theft at the National Archives: The Murphy Case, 1962-1975

In 1962, Robert Bradford Murphy and Elizabeth Irene Murphy executed a large theft of documents from the National Archives in Washington. The Murphys were apprehended and tried in 1964, receiving prison sentences of ten years. The theft focused considerable media attention on the National Archives and forced the institution to reconsider its methods of monitoring researcher access to facilities and documents and its overall security philosophy. An archival cause celebre, the Murphy Case is studied as an example of archival thievery on a grand scale.