Episode 5: The Case File is Released. The Gary Murphy Assassination

Host Mike Spencer private eye shines the light on the prime suspect in the broad daylight slaying of Gary Murphy, the grandmother who fought Murphy for custody of his then 6-year-old daughter. This is the 25th anniversary of the June 12, 1998, killing when a gunman chased Murphy through a halfway house that he managed near Ocean Beach in San Francisco, shooting him twice in the back. The hitman ran to an awaring getaway car. The grandmother is Spencer's former client.

Spencer digs deeper into grandma's hair-trigger temper and family background. He learns that her family at one point ran a sizeable East Bay marijuana cultivation and sales empire. A federal court file on one or her sons discloses family secrets, including that grandma had once worked in counseling state an federal inmates. She is at the center of a conspriacy that involved possibly three or more ex-cons from San Quentin state prison.

Murphy's daughter, Eden, talks in the episode about what it was like to grow up in a house dominated by grandma's temper and mood swings. She wants to know why the San Francisco Police and San Francisco District Attorney won't disclose more details about the case. She feels that her grandmother was responsible for the murder but wrestles with what justice would look like in the case.

Host Mike Spencer obtains a San Francisco Police detective memo and copy of a returned search warrant regarding the June 12, 1998, murder for hire of independent biker Gary Vincent Murphy. However, the 6-page memo that details the police investigation ultimately just leads to more question than answers.

Spencer also shares how suspects in the Murphy shooting death were also charged in a notorious Piedmont sex assault and robbery of a woman in June 1998. Until this podcast, no media has ever linked the two cases. The search warrant names Spencer's former client, who battled Murphy for custody of his 6-year-old daughter. as a suspect in his murder. San Francisco police very early had promising leads in the Murphy case but the San Francisco District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute any of the suspects.

Host Mike Spencer private eye escalates his records battle with the DA and Police Department by the San Francisco Sunshine Records Ordinance Task Force. He addresses the Task Force committee, who will decide whether the full task force will hear his arguments for obtaining records in the June 1998 murder for hire of ex con Gary Murphy, gunned down in a halfway house he managed near Ocean Beach. Spencer has obtained some records that suggest his ex client was behind the murder, hiring two former San Quentin state prison inmates to kill Murphy to obtain custody of his then six year old daughter, her granddaughter.

The episode is a rare look at the public records process in California. Typically, a person has no recourse but to get an attorney if his or her records request is denied. There is no appeals process. But, the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force offers a venue for such records disputes. Hear Spencer and an SF District Attorney argue before the Task Force.

Spencer argues that the SF DA and Police are hiding behind exemptions for not releasing what actually happeneed in the Murphy case and why no arrests were made despite police having the names of the killer and driver within 24 hours of the shooting. He points out that in 2014, the SF DA opted not to charge the gunman. No investigation has been made in more than 10 years. However, the DA claims that the exemption is forever since no one was charged. A broader question is what rights do a victim's family have in an old case where police might have botched an investigation.

Former reporter turned private eye Mike Spencer looks back at a case of his from 1998. Gary Murphy, a three-time convicted felon, came to the door of the halfway house he managed in San Francisco's quiet Outer Sunset District. A man wanted information about the program. When Murphy turned his back to get a business card, the man shot him twice in the back. In a panic, Murphy jumped through a second floor window trying to escape. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The gunman fled to an awaiting car and escaped.

Did Murphy's biker, criminal past catch up to him or did the murder-for-hire have something to do with the ongoing custody battle that Murphy was fighting for his 6-year-old daughter. His adversary in the custody battle? The little girl's grandmother, a former client of Oakland private investigator Mike Spencer.

Almost nothing about the case has come out since a 2004 article by investigative reporter A.C. Thompson, now of ProPublica. Spencer interviews Thompson to rehash the case and talk about some new developments Spencer uncovered.

Spencer private eye, the host, wins a public records battle on the case that he has fought for five years. After several attorneys turned him down to represent him vs. San Francisco Police, the police legal division voluntarily released the case file on the 1998 uncharged murder case. The file does not hold back. It names the killers involved in the conspiracy and details how prosecutors at least twice declined to charge anyone connected to the broad daylight shooting of the 41-year-old biker.

The case file confirms his initial theory: his former client hired the killers as she was losing a custody battle to Murphy for her then 6-year-old granddaughter.

Did sloppiness of the orgininal detectives doom a prosecution? Possibly. Spencer finds the file to be unorganized despite containing some strong evidence in the forms of ballistics and from witnesses. The case file details that the Murphy suspects were also tied to a notorious home invasion and sexual assault of a pregnant mother that occurred a week after Murphy's murder.

Another detective took up the case in 2012 and within two months had prepared an arrest affidavit for suspects. The case bounces around among prosecutors but ultimately the District Attorney opted not to charge despite considerable corroboration of details in the conspiracy.