October 22, 2021 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I had my experiences with Jack – Murf the Surf – Murphy recorded for use in a four-part documentary being put together by Ron Howard and his Imagine film making company. The interviewer who was one of the co-producers had scheduled it for one hour, but it ended up being three and a half.
Murf and I were very close friends and spent considerable time together. He shared his innermost secrets with me and vice versa. Jack had been working towards finding someone to produce this film of his life for many years. He was insistent that the story of his redemption and the transformation of his life by Jesus Christ would be told. He realized that folks would be more desirous of hearing the salacious stories of his life of jewelry heists, crime, and incarceration, but he wanted to tell the story of how Jesus Christ delivered him from all that. Prior to his death he was excited to tell me that he and his longtime friend Domenic Fusco had finally secured a deal with Ron Howard and Imagine that would accomplish that difficult goal. I quickly found that the interviewer was not a Christian and did not understand Christ’s sacrifice and that God forgives sin – ALL sin.
Murf was a truly gifted person. His IQ was off the charts, he was handsome and very athletic excelling in tennis, surfing, swimming and diving, he was a dance instructor, virtuoso on the violin, an accomplished artist, but he was known best as a world-renowned jewel thief and criminal.
He also was a convicted murderer who faced two life sentences plus twenty years and much of this interview centered around that event. Murf told me about the events of that day. Two young girls had stolen some bearer bonds and connected with Murf in Miami to seek his help in fencing them. He told me it was taking longer than he’d hoped because they were worth a lot of money, and it was complicated. He said he had a meeting with the two women in a boat in the front and two of his buddies in the back seats of the boat. One of the girls was really angry that it was taking so long and told them she was going to the FBI. One of the guys in the back seat shot her in the back of the head and tried to shoot the other but his gun misfired. The two men then beat her to death with a boat paddle. Murf said all he did was drive the boat and help hide the body. But he was well known in the media in Miami and had been cocky and arrogant and thumbing his nose at the police for years and they named him as the triggerman and he took the fall and was convicted.
Murf had no reason to lie to me because he and I were totally transparent with each other, and I knew his innermost secrets and he knew mine and I believe his version. But there are many, especially those in law enforcement who do not. The interviewer told me they were going to present both sides in the documentary.
Murphy met the Lord while incarcerated. A legendary prison Chaplin, (Chaplin Ray), began the process followed by Bill Glass prison ministry and platform guest football legend Roger Staubach. He finally accepted the Lord as his Savior and became a born-again zealot and founded many programs for inmates in the various prisons he served in and led many prisoners to the Lord. Word got out of what he was doing, and powerful people clamored for his release and indeed he was miraculously released after serving 17 years. Once out he joined the Bill Glass Prison ministry and worked there for a couple of decades and literally spent the rest of his days as a prison evangelist going in more prisons than any other person to this day. He was also someone who was tireless in his efforts to help the poor, disadvantaged and homeless. He wrote a book that was released in every prison and gulag in Russia. One million copies were distributed and many of those hapless souls who had been incarcerated in those hell holes eventually got out and became pastors. I was asked but had no idea how many people he led to the Lord, but surely it was in the tens of thousands.
So, the interviewer said that many people believed he faked his religious conversion to get out of prison. That was almost too stupid to answer. He served as a dedicated servant of the Lord for four decades after he got out. He was dirt poor and towards the end of his life relied solely on donations that he never once asked of me and others I know. He was smart enough to have made millions, but he chose to serve the Lord.
Then the interviewer asked me if I thought God had forgiven him, because so many don’t believe He did. Egad! I quoted Scripture and assured him that Murf’s sins and all followers of Christ were forgiven. Not because Murf worked tirelessly for the Lord or any other reason aside from the fact that Jesus loves us ALL. I told him it is what Jesus did that saved Murf, and I believe with all my heart he is in heaven today with Jesus.
My prayer is that this documentary will not be used to denigrate Jack’s conversion, transformation by God, and subsequent tireless work for the Lord. He was genuinely remorseful for the deaths of the girls and for other sins he committed in his former life, but he became a new creature afterwards and left all of that behind. He served his time and endured the consequence of regret for his many sins to his grave. Jesus forgave him and others who choose to condemn him should know that according to Romans 5:12 we all are sinners and death is our fate without Christ. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—we are all sinners. I again quoted the Bible to this fellow with the below verse and I also sent him a copy of my personal testimony in hopes he would come to know the Lord as well.
Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!