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'Jack Roland Murphy' or '''Murph the Surf''' (born 1938 in Los Angeles, California) is a surfer and convicted murderer who was involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history at the American Museum of Natural History.

Contents

Robbery

Murder

Movie

Also stolen

References

External links

Robbery

He was involved with a robbery on October 29 1964, of the Star of India along with several other precious gems, including the Eagle Diamond and the de Long Ruby.
Murphy had cased the museum earlier and discovered from a 17-year-old visitor that security was lax to non-existent. The burglar alarm system was non-operational, and a second story window in the jewel room was usually left open to aid in ventilation. The thieves climbed in through the window and discovered that the display case alarms non-functional as well. The stolen jewels were valued at more than $400,000.
Murphy, along with two of his accomplices, Alan Kuhn and Roger Clark, was arrested two days later and received three-year sentences. The uninsured Star of India was recovered in a foot locker at a Miami bus station. Most of the other gems were also recovered, except the Eagle Diamond.

Murder

In 1968, he was convicted of first-degree murder of a California secretary, one of two women whose bodies were found in Whiskey Creek near Hollywood, Florida, in 1967. He also was convicted of trying to rob a Miami Beach woman in 1968. He was sentenced to life in prison in Florida, and paroled in 1986. Today, Murphy acts as an Evangelist style preacher, visiting various prisons as a ‘messenger of God’ with the aim of helping rehabilitate other felons through religion.

Movie

★ ''Murph the Surf (1975)

Also stolen

★ Eagle Diamond (never recovered)

★ de Long Ruby

References

★ New York Times; GEM-THEFT FIGURE IS FOUND GUILTY; Received Part of Ransom for the De Long Ruby; December 12, 1965, Sunday. MIAMI, Dec. 11 (AP) -- Richard Duncan Pearson was found guilty today of having been involved in the ransoming of the 104-carat de Long Ruby, one of several gems stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in October, 1964.

External links

★ Biography Channel UK

★ St. Petersburg Times: September 21, 2003