In the summer of 1895, Woodruff Parmelee, the son of a well to do farmer on Old Mission Peninsula, was tried for the murder of Julia Curtis, his pregnant girlfriend. On the day the verdict was announced a large and menacing crowd gathered in and around the courthouse demanding that justice be done.

Parmelee’s defense rested on his alibi. He claimed that he was clearing brush for a new road leading to West Bay while the body was found near the shore of East Bay. At trial, Louie Parmelee, Woodruff’s fifteen year old son from his first marriage who was living with him at that time, testifed in support of his father.