The ‘rape’ of Margaret Haley

For The Madera Tribune

The site of the false accusation.

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There is one piece of Madera’s past that represents one of the saddest and most unjust episodes in its history. Over 100 years ago a local priest was the victim of a scurrilous defamation campaign that could have sent him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

It was January 1917, and the priest sat quietly at the defendant’s table. Considering the trouble he was in, he displayed a look of calm serenity. With his lawyers on both sides of him, the clergyman surveyed the crowd that had packed the Madera County courtroom on that day. Then he turned to face Judge William Conley, as the jurist called for order in the court. Father Thomas F. King was about to hear his fate.

Actually, Father King was relieved that his nightmare was finally coming to an end. He had been tormented for months by the charge that he had seduced a 16 year-old Madera girl and was the father of her baby. In September of 1916, young Margaret Haley, who had just given birth, explained her condition by accusing the local priest of having relations with her in the room behind the church sacristy. Sheriff Lewis arrested the priest.