Sergeant Timothy Murphy

Timothy Murphy

Sergeant Murphy was shot and killed by four youths robbing a restaurant on 13th Street in Greenwich Village.

Sergeant Murphy rushed into the restaurant after hearing a woman scream. The youths opened fire hitting Sergeant Murphy several times and as they made their escape shot another officer twice in the shoulder.

In November of 1938, all four suspects were apprehended after a member of their gang, serving a life sentence for several robberies, informed on them. All four were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Two had their sentences commuted to life. One was pardoned in 1970, and the other was eventually paroled. The other two were retried and convicted of manslaughter. One was sentenced to 5 to 10 years, and the other was sentenced to 7 to 15 years in prison.

One of the suspects, convicted of manslaughter, became a member of the Genovese crime family after he was released from prison. In 1965 he vanished after he underbid the Gambino crime family for a trash removal contract with the Ford Motor Company in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Sergeant Murphy was assigned to the 8th Precinct.