Jack Roland Murphy
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- For the San Diego writer, see Jack Murphy (sportswriter).
Jack Roland Murphy or Murph the Surf (born 1938 in Los Angeles, California) is a surfer and convicted murderer who is most famous for his role in the biggest jewel heist in American history at the American Museum of Natural History.
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[edit] Early years
He played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 15. In 1962 and 1963 he was a state surfing champ in Florida. In 1963, he won the Hurricane National Surfing contest in Florida.
[edit] 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.
The thieves had unlocked a bathroom window during museum hours at the American Museum of Natural History, and climbed in that night. They discovered that the sapphire was the only gem in the collection protected by an alarm, and the battery for that alarm was dead. The stones were valued at more than $400,000.
Jack Murphy was arrested two days later with two accomplices, Alan Kuhn and Roger Clark. They received a three-year sentence. The uninsured Star of India was recovered in a locker in a Miami bus station. Most of the other gems were also recovered, except the Eagle Diamond.
[edit] 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. Murphy was paroled from the Florida State Prison 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.
[edit] Movie
- Murph the Surf (1975)
[edit] Also stolen
- Eagle Diamond (never recovered)
- de Long Ruby
