Larry Murphy, the suspected Irish Serial Killer

Larry Murphy was born in Baltinglass, County Wicklow. A carpenter by trade, Murphy had a keen interest in hunting and used his knowledge of remote areas to carry out his brutal attack on a Carlow businesswoman back in February 2000. Before his arrest, Murphy was a married father-of-two who had never come to the attention of the Gardai.

It is believed that Murphy stalked his victim for a month before he attacked her, broke her nose and then dragged her into the boot of his Fiat Punto. His victim, a businesswoman in her mid-20s, had closed up her shop shortly after 8pm before heading towards the secluded car park that she parked her car in everyday. As she approached her car, she noticed a man who appeared to be searching for something on the ground. As she opened her car door, the man, who she later found out was Larry Murphy, pounced at her, demanded money and then struck her in the face, fracturing her nose. The force of the blow caused the woman to fall backwards into her car. While she was still in shock, Murphy forced the woman into the footwell of the passenger side. He then drove her car to a dark alleyway, where he had parked his Fiat Punto. Murphy then bundled his victim into the boot of his Punto and drove 13km from Carlow to Beaconstown, where he had hunting privileges. It was here that he undressed his victim and raped her. After raping her the first time, Murphy promised his victim that he would bring her home. It was at this stage that Murphy also told her the names of his two daughters. It is believed that Murphy felt comfortable divulging such personal information about himself because he fully intended not to let her live long enough to tell the tale.

After the attack in Beaconstown, Murphy forced his victim back into the boot of his Fiat Punto and drove towards the Wicklow Mountains, where he proceeded to rape her three more times. It was when the woman tried to escape that Murphy put a plastic shopping bag over her head and attempted to suffocate her. After being told by Murphy that she would never see her family again, the woman had managed to grab hold of an empty aerosol can and tried to spray it at Murphy’s eyes. Resistance was futile and Murphy returned a few moments later with a plastic shopping bag and wrapped it around her head. However, by what can only be described as sheer luck, two men who had been deer hunting in the area, happened upon the secluded spot just as he was trying to suffocate his victim and caught a glimpse of Murphy in the headlights of their Land Rover. Startled by the bright lights, Murphy immediately fled the scene, leaving the woman behind. Murphy would later say to Gardai that “she was lucky”.

It was later revealed that weeks before this brutal attack happened, Murphy had made an aggressive lunge at a woman in a pub in Donard, Co. Wicklow. Fortunately, there were several other people in the pub at the time and the incident didn’t escalate into anything. Shortly afterwards, the woman was at a different pub with her brother and a friend of his called Trevor Moody when she seen Murphy and pointed him out. In a remarkable twist of fate, Trevor Moody would later end up being one of the men in the Land Rover that interrupted Murphy.

After Murphy fled the scene of the crime, he drove home. He did not shower or clean himself up. Instead, he just jumped into bed with his pregnant wife and had sex with her as if nothing had ever happened. Little did he know that his time was just about to run out. Trevor Moody, who was one of the two men in the Land Rover, had identified Murphy to the Gardai. The Gardai responded by parking two squad cars outside his house all night until an arrest warrant could be sworn in. That morning, Larry Murphy woke up and put on the same clothes that he worn the night before. He then walked outside and was arrested.

After his arrest, Larry Murphy appeared calm throughout the entire process. While awaiting trial in the high security wing of Cloverhill Prison, Murphy never spoke to any of the prison guards or inmates. His wife did visit him a few times. He was able to maintain her support by continuously proclaiming his innocence and by promising that he would be putting forward a “not guilty” plea. He was lying. Murphy knew that the evidence was mounted against him and that pleading guilty would lead to a lighter sentence. When the time came, Murphy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His wife never visited him again. Since being jailed, Murphy has only been visited by his brother (the last visit by his brother was in 2005) and detectives investigating the disappearance of several other women in and around the areas that he lived and worked. Murphy’s modus operandi, along with circumstancial evidence, has made him the prime suspect in the disappearances of at least 3 young women in the Leinster area.

Operation Trace is the name of a special cold case investigation that was setup in order to investigate the disappearances of six women, aged between 17 and 26, who all went missing in the Leinster area between 1993 and 1998. Operation Trace was established because senior Garda officers were concerned that their could be a link between the disappearances. After Larry Murphy was arrested in February 2000, members of Operation Trace team immediately became very interested in him for several reasons.

Firstly, it emerged that Murphy had several unreported episodes with women in the past. According to locals who knew him, Murphy had a reputation for homing in on women at social events. He would often sit and stare at one particular woman all night, making her feel uncomfortable. According to an unnamed source quoted by the Tribune and the Herald, Murphy had tried to grab his wife’s best friend not long before the attack in Carlow. He was giving his wife’s friend a lift home when he drove down a remote laneway and stopped the car. He then tried to make a grab at her. The woman, sensing danger, jumped out of the car and ran away. Murphy managed to catch up with her and begged her not to tell his wife. The woman in question did not inform Gardai about what had happened. Gardai also learned of the aforementioned incident at the pub in Donard, Co. Wicklow.

Another reason Operation Trace became interested in Larry Murphy is because of how he carried out the attack. The facts of the case point towards a confident attacker who knew what was he was doing. Murphy was confident enough to tell his victim the names of his 2 children. He was confident enough to tell her that he was married. He was also confident enough to use his own car in the attack. After Murphy had abducted his victim, he told her to take off her shoes. This was so that she would find it more difficult to run away. He then told her to take off her bra so that he could use it to tie her hands together. He calmly delivered these specific orders to his victim. All of that, coupled with his choice of sites and use of a plastic bag to smother his victim, pointed towards the likelihood that this wasn’t the first time Larry Murphy had abducted someone.

The Operation Trace team were also interested in the fact that Larry Murphy had worked as a freelance carpenter during the 1990s. This job would have enabled him to visit various building sites around Leinster. On the 28th of July 1998, 18 year old student Deirdre Jacob went missing from Newbridge, Co. Kildare. She disappeared as she was walking the short distance from the post office to her home. Although Murphy refused to cooperate with their investigation, the Operation Trace team were able to gain access to employment records from contractors in the area. The records showed that Larry Murphy had indeed been working in Newbridge, Co. Kildare on the date of Deirdre Jacob’s disappearance. His route home from this job took him right past her house in Roseberry, Newbridge. Officers from the Operation Trace team also believe that Murphy was working in Dublin area around the time that American tourist Annie McCarrick went missing. Yet another woman that went missing during this period of time was a waitress called Jo Jo Dullard. Jo Jo Dullard was last seen near one of areas that Murphy had used to carry out his attack on the woman he abducted from Carlow. Before Jo Jo Dullard disappeared, she told a friend on the phone that she had missed her bus and was attempting to hitch a ride home. Later on in the conversation, Jo Jo hung up the phone, saying that a lift had finally arrived. She was never seen again. Although all of this was circumstantial evidence, it was enough to make Larry Murphy the prime suspect in the disappearence of these women. It was too much of coincidence that someone as cold, calculative and sadistic as Murphy lived and worked close to the areas that all of these women went missing from.

Before Murphy was arrested for his brutal attack on the woman he abducted from Carlow, the Operation Trace team, with the help of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, the Police Academy in Britain and several other international experts, concluded that the person they were looking for was a man in his mid-30s who was married with children and possibly without a criminal record. Larry Murphy fit this profile to a tee.

Larry Murphy has been described as the single biggest threat to the safety of women in Ireland. On the 12th of August at 8AM, Murphy will be released from prison after serving only 10 ½ years. Throughout his stay in Arbour Hill Prison, Murphy refused to partake in counselling or any of the rehabilitation programs that were available to him. He is still considered a huge danger by psychologists. His early release has caused public outrage in Ireland. People are shocked that such a high-risk sex offender who has refused rehabilitation can be be given early release from prison. People justifiably feel that while Larry Murphy remains at large, he remains a constant and ever-present threat to the women of this country.

Larry Murphy’s release

Shortly after 10am on Thursday morning, August the 12th, Larry Murphy walked out of Arbour Hill prison a free man after serving only ten and a half years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of a Carlow woman in February 2000. Murphy was wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap and a New York Yankees sweatshirt. A large media presence congregated outside along with several protesters, who repeatedly yelled the word “Rapist” at him as he made his way towards the taxi that had been called to escort him away.

As the taxi drove away, several photographers on motorcycles followed suit, along with undercover Gardai and a Garda helicopter overhead. Murphy traveled to Phoenix Park, where he switched over into another taxi. This second taxi then took him to Coolock, Dublin, where he walked into the Coolock Garda Station. Although nobody really knows what he was doing in Coolock Garda Station, it is generally believed that he was complaining to Gardai about being followed by the media. He was last spotted by the media walking towards St Stephens Green. Although rumors that the Gardai had lost track of him surfaced on the Internet, at 7.50pm, a TV3 reporter announced that she had received confirmation that Gardai knew where he was staying that night. Apparently, Murphy went back into protective Garda custody of his own choice. Earlier unconfirmed reports from Facebook users said that Murphy had visited Grafton Street and that he had went into McDonalds for something to eat. Rumors also spread that Larry Murphy was staying at Priorswood House (PACE) in Coolock, which resulted in a mass gathering of protesters outside the house. PACE is a community-based organisation that provides transitional accommodation to newly-released prisoners who are homeless. According to unconfirmed reports on Facebook, several clashes broke out between Gardai and the protesters outside. The manager of PACE has categorically denied that Larry Murphy was staying in Priorswood and said that PACE does not cater to sex offenders. On the TV3 news special that evening, Larry Murphy’s brother, Thomas Murphy stated that he and his family wanted nothing to do with him and that he was not welcome to and come live with them in Baltinglass. Thomas last had contact with his brother Larry during a prison visit in 2005.

A week later, rumors spread that Larry Murphy was staying in Riverchapel, Co. Wexford. Other rumors said that he was living nearby in Courtown, Wexford. However, Garda sources have denied this, stating that Murphy is being kept in a secret location in Dublin.

The mind of a serial killer:

This DVD shows how FBI Behavioral Psychologists track down and give profiles on serial killers. Especially interesting seeing as it was the FBI who gave a profile that matched Larry Murphy. It was also the FBI that said he would re-offend.

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