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The Gary Murphy Assassination, A San Francisco Cold CaseAuthor: Mike Spencer
Former reporter turned private investigator Mike Spencer looks at a case of his from 1998. A gunman killed Murphy one morning at a halfway house in a quiet neighborhood near the ocean. Murphy, a biker and three time convicted felon, tried to escape by running through a window. He died at the scene. Spencer had Murphy under surveillance in a child custody case three months before the death. Did Murphy's criminal past catch up to him or was it the private eye's former client, Grandma, who orchestrated the hit? A.C. Thompson of ProPublica and Murphy's daughter join Spencer to discuss the case. Spencer fights San Francisco Police in a public records battle to win not only the case file to the crime but the witness and suspect audio interviews from the time. Language: en Genres: True Crime Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 6: SF Police Interviews Vol. 1, The Gary Murphy Assassination
Episode 6
Thursday, 11 September, 2025
Host/Private Eye Mike Spencer's five-year battle to obtain records in the case pays off when police release audio of witness and suspect interviews to him. It's the first time the public has ever heard these tapes. It's clear that as early as a day after the June 12, 1998, shooting death of biker and ex-con Murphy, police had the name of the prime suspect. Witnesses referred to her as Grandma, the woman Murphy had battled for custody of this then 6-year-old daughter. The episode contains interviews of Murphy's brother and sister, who flew out to San Francisco for his wake. A close friend of Murphy's tells detectives that while Murphy got in fights and used to sell drugs, he does not believe Murf's criminal past played a part in the murder. The friend also lays out how the grandmother was mad at Murphy because her daughter, the mother of Murphy's child, had died from an accidental drug overdose. Towards the end, detectives interview grandma. She blames Murphy's lifestyle for his demise and brags about her knowledge of the criminal justice system. However, as the case file reveals, we know that grandma soon fled back to her native Canada with Murphy's daughter.
