Murph the Surf — The 1964 American Museum of Natural History Heist
Murph the Surf — The 1964 American Museum of Natural History Heist
Jack Roland Murphy and the audacious New York gem theft that took the Star of India and the DeLong Star Ruby
Murph the Surf is the nickname of Jack Roland Murphy (born 1937), the surfing champion and Florida socialite who, with two accomplices, executed the 24 October 1964 burglary of the J. P. Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The heist remains one of the most audacious gem thefts in American history, with the haul including the Star of India sapphire (563 carats, the world's largest fine star sapphire), the DeLong Star Ruby (100 carats, an exceptional Burmese star ruby), the Midnight Star Sapphire (116 carats, a black star sapphire), and a substantial collection of other historically significant specimens. Most of the principal stones were recovered within months through ransom negotiations and police work, but the case made Murphy and his accomplices nationally famous and inspired books, magazine features, and the 1975 film Live a Little, Steal a Lot.
The thieves
Jack Roland Murphy was born in 1937 in Los Angeles and moved to Miami Beach in his teenage years, where he developed both his surfing career (becoming a national surfing champion in the late 1950s) and his criminal career (with a series of small burglaries and frauds through the early 1960s). His socialite reputation in Miami Beach society — supported by his good looks, athletic accomplishments, and surface charm — provided cover for the parallel criminal activities. By 1964, Murphy was operating with two principal accomplices: Allan Kuhn, another Miami Beach socialite turned thief, and Roger Frederick Clark, a Miami Beach beach boy with a similar mixed background.
The trio had previously committed several major Miami Beach burglaries, accumulating cash and jewellery from wealthy Miami Beach homes through carefully planned night-time entries. The American Museum of Natural History heist was conceived as a more ambitious operation — a single major theft that would establish their reputation and provide substantial proceeds — and was planned over several months in 1964 with reconnaissance visits to the museum and detailed study of the security arrangements.
The heist
The execution on the night of 24 October 1964 was meticulously planned. The trio entered the museum through a window in the J. P. Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals, having previously identified the window as inadequately secured (the alarm system had not been functioning for some time and the museum had not replaced the failed equipment). Once inside, the thieves moved directly to the principal display cases, smashing the glass and removing the most valuable specimens. The total time inside the museum was approximately fifteen minutes, with the trio escaping through the same window and into a waiting car driven by an accomplice.
The haul included the Star of India sapphire (the centrepiece of the museum's gem collection, weighing 563 carats and exhibiting an exceptional six-rayed star), the DeLong Star Ruby (a 100-carat Burmese star ruby donated by collector Edith Haggin DeLong in 1937), the Midnight Star Sapphire (a 116-carat black star sapphire), the Eagle Diamond (an irregularly shaped 16.25-carat diamond from the Eagle, Wisconsin diamond find), and a substantial collection of other historically significant specimens. The total estimated value of the haul at the time was approximately $400,000, equivalent to several million dollars in present-day currency.
The investigation and arrests
The investigation by the New York Police Department and the FBI moved rapidly. The thieves had left fingerprints at the scene, and Murphy's reputation in Miami Beach society made him an early suspect. Within forty-eight hours of the heist, all three principal thieves had been arrested in Miami Beach. The arrests were widely covered in the contemporary press, with Murphy's nickname Murph the Surf entering popular usage as a media tag for the case.
The recovery of the stolen specimens was more complicated than the arrests of the thieves. The Star of India and several other principal stones were recovered through ransom negotiations involving a Miami Beach lawyer who functioned as intermediary, with the stones turned over to authorities in early January 1965 in exchange for reduced legal exposure for the thieves and their associates. The DeLong Star Ruby followed a different path, recovered through separate negotiations involving the wealthy Florida businessman John D. MacArthur, who paid a ransom of $25,000 for the stone and returned it to the museum as a public-spirited gesture. The Eagle Diamond and several smaller specimens were never recovered and are presumed to have been recut, broken up, or sold through underground channels.
The aftermath
Murphy received a sentence of three years in state prison for the museum heist, served at New York State prison facilities. After his release in 1969, his criminal career continued with subsequent involvement in additional crimes including a 1968 double homicide in Hollywood, Florida, for which he received a life sentence in 1969. He served seventeen years of the life sentence before being paroled in 1986.
Following his release, Murphy underwent a religious conversion and became an ordained minister, working in prison ministry and writing about his experiences. He has remained a public figure in Miami Beach since his release, with periodic media coverage and interviews about the museum heist and his subsequent religious conversion. The transformation from notorious thief to ordained minister has been one of the more unusual personal trajectories in the history of major American crime cases.
The cultural impact
The Murph the Surf case has had substantial cultural impact beyond the immediate criminal proceedings. The 1975 film Live a Little, Steal a Lot, with Robert Conrad in the lead role, dramatised the heist and the subsequent investigation. Multiple books and magazine features have explored the case across the decades since the original events. The case is regularly cited in popular accounts of major heists and crime cases, with the Star of India and the broader collection of stolen specimens being among the most famous gem theft targets in American history.
The American Museum of Natural History's response to the heist included substantial improvements to the security arrangements for the gem collection, with the modern J. P. Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals featuring substantially upgraded display cases, alarm systems, and physical security infrastructure. The recovered Star of India and the other returned specimens are again on public display, with the security improvements supporting the continued availability of the collection to the public.
In the trade
For Skyjems and the broader trade, the Murph the Surf case is a historical reference point and a cautionary tale rather than an active source of trading material. The recovered stones are permanently retired from commerce as part of the museum's institutional collection. The unrecovered specimens (including the Eagle Diamond) are presumed lost or destroyed and are not believed to circulate in the contemporary trade. The case remains one of the most-cited examples of major gem theft and a historical illustration of the security challenges facing institutional gem collections.