All language subtitles for 1muuuuurffthedfjfwbfjk

I'm Jack Murphy
here at Image Artistry Studios

in Sanford, Florida.

We're putting together
a film that would assist

a writer doing a script,
a movie script,

documentary script or a book.

The information will be
of my life

through different segments
as a child, then as a teenager,

then as an adult but with
different chapters of...

of my life a... on the journey
that I've been on.

[music playing]

[Jack] That first half
of my life there

was just a picture book,
all-American kid.

But now, something dramatically
happened here.

And now the music changes,
the atmosphere changes,

everything changes now.

[upbeat music playing]

[man]
He was an all-American kid,

and he became
an all-American criminal.

[man 1] Because
he was very athletic,

he can do more than
the average person

and he had the nerve to do it.

[man 2] He was
a D1 tennis player,

a champion surfer
and a jewel thief.

[man 3] It wasn't just kind of
like a fairy tale thing.

He also delved into very dark
areas of life and criminality.

[man 4] The crowds would applaud
him and girls would look like

they were gonna faint.

[man 5] If you accused him of
being a murderer,

would you be right? Yeah.

[woman] He was insane.

He was malignant,
smiling, charming,

like a viper,
inviting you into its chamber.

[woman 1] The people
that love Jack

will never believe
anything wrong about him.

Not ever.

The ones that have the negative
thoughts haven't met him.

[man 6] It's not an easy story
to believe.

[man 7] Big question was,
well, is it real?

[man 8] Jack's story
is a story of redemption.

[man 9] He could get people
to walk off a cliff for him.

[man 10] You know,
some of the guys thought,

"Boy, he's really faking it."

They didn't think
his conversion was real.

[Jack] You don't find God
because God is not lost.

He's everywhere.

He finds you.

♪♪♪

[man 11] The president's car
is now turning onto Elm Street

and it will be
only a matter of minutes

before he arrives
at the Trade Mart.

-[gunshot]
-It-- it--

it appears as though
something has happened

-in the motorcade route.
-[gunshot]

Something, I repeat, has
happened in the motorcade route.

[man 12] President Kennedy
has been assassinated.

It's official now.
The president is dead.

[man 13] After the shots
were fired,

he happened to look up at about
the fifth or sixth floor.

[John] The year began
less than six weeks

after President Kennedy
was assassinated

and the trauma of that event
and its aftermath.

Throughout the year,
the country never got over

the Kennedy assassination.

Kind of like a cloud
that hung over everything.

[Meryl] These were difficult,
painful, dark times

for the-- for the country.

It was Vietnam. It was
the civil rights movement.

It was Kennedy's assassination.

So, something about
a jewel heist,

it was a lighthearted story.

[Nate] TV was hitting
its stride.

The story, the blueprint
was sort of an archetype

that we would see
time and time again,

what the true crime genre
would become.

[soft music playing]

[Corey] The American Museum
of Natural History

on the Upper West Side
of Manhattan.

The museum has its Hall of Gems.

This prize sapphire
called the Star of India,

it's a 563-carat sapphire
the size of a golf ball,

and at least a dozen other gems
that were worth a lot of money.

[man 14] It was priceless,

really one
of the marquee exhibits

from
the Museum of Natural History.

[Jack] My partner,
Allan Kuhn and I,

we climb over this fence.
We help each other.

[Allan] I had to have guys
that were as enthused as I was

that were in
as good a shape as I was,

and Jack fit the bill.

[Jack] We climbed up the outside

of the south part
of the building,

and it places us over the top
of the J.P. Morgan gem room.

I've-- I've got a gun with me.

I've got a big rubber mallet
and hammer, tape.

We've got screwdrivers.
We have glass cutters.

We have everything that you need
for a caper like this.

I open a window,
and we drop into the gem room.

There are three display cases.

We make this round circle
with the glass cutter.

You tape it up real good,
then you're gonna bang it

real hard with the hammer.

Bang!

[upbeat music playing]

[Edna] They did
this really acrobatic caper

out of one of these movies about
international jewel thieves.

[Nate] It was like
anOcean's Eleven story,

how brazen they were.

It felt surreal and cinematic.

[upbeat music playing]

[interviewer] How would
you describe him

as a kid growing up?

[John] His lifestyle
was a long ways away

from stealing jewels
from the museum.

["Feel Flows" playing]

♪ Unfolding,
enveloping missiles of soul♪

♪ Recall senses sadly♪

[John] Jack lived
about two houses from me.

The population probably

wasn't much more
than 1,500 people, if that.

♪ Whether whistling
heaven's clouds disappear ♪

We were raised right
on the beach there in Carlsbad.

That whole surf scene was just
something we kind of did.

♪ Whether whiteness whisks...

[Bill] He was a natural.

He happened to grow up with
and surf with some major,

major surfing pioneers.

One was Phil Edwards,
who was, around the late '50s,

early '60s,
he was called the best surf--

surfer in the world.

♪♪♪

[John] You would have to compare
Murph and his contemporaries

in the surfing world
as Mickey Mantle is to baseball.

[Billy] The Bible says,
"Now is the accepted time,

today is the day of salvation."

The Bible says, "Choose you
this day whom you will serve."

The Bible says,
"Today is the day of salvation."

And the Bible warns this.

[Jack] One day I ran
through the house,

and Billy Graham
was doing a crusade someplace.

He was on television, and I--
I just looked at it.

I said, "Who's that?"
And my dad said,

"That's one of the greatest men
who has ever walked the earth."

My dad had never been to church.

[Billy] There is no organization

that would have brought
this great crowd.

There is no man that could have
brought this crowd this...

[Jack] Here's Billy Graham
standing in a stadium

with 80,000 people there.

He must have something going on.

You don't have to be
a rocket scientist to say,

"Hey, that's a special guy."

I believe this is
your night with Almighty God.

[Domenic] He told me
he had the greatest childhood

anybody could ever have,

but he never told anybody
anything about his past.

[Kitten] When Jack
was six years old,

his father put him on a horse
and gave him a gun

and sent him off
out into the Badlands

and said, "Find your way home."

[bird screeches]

When he first told me that,
I said, "He did what?"

That's child abuse.

[woman 3] There was always
a certain amount of strangeness

between Jack and his father.

His father never played games
or did things with them,

and no matter
how well he did anything,

his dad would criticize him.

[John] His dad was a big dude,
pretty darn strict.

Went up there to have dinner
with him one night.

We cleared the table and wash
the dishes after dinner.

Not really expedient
with getting those dishes done.

His dad came in

and just slapped him
right across the face.

I never will forget that.

[Kitten] His father would go
watch him play the violin.

When they came out he said,
"You missed a note."

And Jack--he'd make this
little motion with his hand like

somebody stabbing you,
twisting the knife.

He said, "My father always
had to get me,

just always had
to have one thing

that I didn't do right."

[woman 3] It was
a terrible time for Jack.

He used to leave for school
with tears in his eyes.

We were always about to sell
or about to move

or about to get another place
or about to go into business

or some kind a thing.

[Frank] His parents
would get into fights,

and his dad had been
cheating on his mom.

He stood up to his father,
held a rifle to his head.

[Kitten] He and his dad
had a real bad blowup,

and he was done with him.

[woman 3] Jack and his father--

they never had
too much in common

except that
they were so much alike.

[John] It just seems like he
has this empty hole inside him

that he's trying
to fill his entire life.

[Jack] I finished high school
in Pennsylvania,

and I parlayed that tennis thing
into the first scholarship

ever given to
the University of Pittsburgh.

But I didn't have two hours
to piss off reading a book.

I wanted to go to the party,
and I wanted to dance.

[upbeat music playing]

[Domenic] He left
a scholarship behind.

He left the future behind.
He left his parents there,

and off he went on his own.

[Jack] I just--
I just wandered out.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jack] I arrived in Miami Beach.

I thought I had died
and gone to heaven.

It was an incredible adventure
of good stuff,

fun stuff, you know,
legal stuff, you know.

It was just picture-book.

♪♪♪

[Corey] He started getting jobs
in these beach clubs

and pool clubs.

[Bobby] We were beach boys
throwing mats

and giving swimming lessons.

[Allan] Living on the beach
was wonderful,

being in the sun all day.

Women in bikinis
as far as the eye can see.

"Hell, yes."

[Jack] Every time
you turn around,

there's a whole bevy
of brand-new ladies that are

hopefully weak in the flesh.

and they would like to have
a little oil rubbed on them.

"I'm Murphy, the cabana boy
and good morning, dear.

Have you been serviced today?"
You know, I'm ready for this.

♪♪♪

I used to do these water shows.

[John] They would do
trick diving

and different kind of
water stunts for the members.

[Edna] He dressed like a clown
and go to all these hotels.

He was a real showman, a real
big favorite of the tourists.

♪♪♪

[Jack] You'd look over here,

here would be
Milton Berle over here.

Here would be Bob Hope.

Here would be
the superstars of the era

that were down there
at the time.

It was exciting.

My bosses would tell me, "Okay,

can you get some women
to go over there,

and they need some booze
and some cards."

I said, "Who's there?"

They said, "The Anastasia
brothers are there.

Alfred and Tony Anastasia."

They were the head
of Murder Incorporated

for the Mafia.

Guys didn't get
in swimming suits.

They had jackets on,
and they were holding.

And so, I'd go over there
and take care of them,

you know,
"And what do you need?"

"You got any women?"
"Yeah, what kind you want?"

I was ready for anything.

But I was
a California-raised surfer,

and that was in my DNA.

I started surfing in Miami when
nobody else surfed down there.

[pop music playing]

[Bill] There were other surfers
in Florida

going back as early as the '30s.

But as far as bringing
surfing at a time

when it was ready to explode,
Murphy was right there.

[Sprint's "I Got a Line on You"
playing]

♪ I got a line

♪ I got a line on you, baby

[John] He was
a very good surfer.

He would enter contest
and everything,

and he usually placed
in the top three.

♪♪♪

[Jack] I was the national
Hurricane surfing champion,

I was the East Coast
surfing champion,

twice the Florida
surfing champion.

♪♪♪

I went undefeated
in all surfing competitions,

and today, I'm in
the Surfing Hall of Fame.

♪ I've got a line

I'd go up to Daytona Beach
and up to Saint Augustine,

and I'd go to all these places.

♪ I've got a line

And so, I finally I said,
"I'm out of here,"

and I went up to Cocoa Beach.

♪♪♪

[Jack]
Nobody was building surfboards.

Nobody is selling surfboards.

And so, I started making them.

In Cocoa Beach, I had
the very first surfboard factory

on the Atlantic Coast.

My reign as Murf the Surf,

a nickname given to me
by lifeguards

during a big storm
when everybody

had to get out of the ocean
and the police came, said,

"Get that guy out of the water."

And the lifeguard said,
"Oh, no, that's Murf the Surf.

He's okay out there."

♪♪♪

If you ever had
an era of your life

or a time that you could repeat,
what would it be?

It'd be that time
of my life right there.

When I'm making surfboards,

when I'm in the water
all the time,

when we're playing,
going to contests.

♪ I've got a line on you

[Frank] He started
to neglect the business

and spending more and more time
at the beach surfing.

♪ I, I've got a line

[man 16] He was just living
the good life out there

with the girls and the surfing
and the drinking.

And then the business
started to go down.

[Jack] In Cocoa Beach, I had
a fantastic handful of years,

and then I made
some business mistakes.

[Domenic]
And so it wasn't long before

they burned the place down.

♪ I got a line on you, babe

[explosion rumbles]

♪ I got a line

♪ I got a line on you, babe

[Domenic] They never knew
he did it.

It's just an accidental fire.

♪ I, I got a line

♪ I got a line on you, babe

[Jack] One of the problems
when I was in Pittsburgh

was it wasn't enough sunshine.

And one of the problems
that I had in Cocoa Beach,

there wasn't enough party
going on.

Miami Beach was where
the party was going on.

I went back to Miami
after about four years up there.

♪♪♪

That's when everything
started changing.

♪♪♪

[Kitten] It was a different time
in Miami.

It wasn't the time of the--

the rock stars
and the actresses.

It was thieves.

There were lot--

there's a lot
of [indistinct] going on.

[Edna] The crime rate got
really high.

I was
really a cub reporter then,

and it was like being
a war correspondent.

Just some guys tried to rob me
once on the street.

[Fred] Miami was
a great crime town.

There was always a big robbery

or a double murder,
a quadruple murder.

They waved a gun at me
like a wand,

one in my head
and one in my ribs.

Well, they come around,
got me around the neck

and took my money and run off
between the apartments,

you know, three times.

[man 18]
With what kind of frequency

are these hold-ups taking place?

Once a day, once a week?

Oh, I would say anywhere

from five to eight
or nine times a week.

[Jack] When I got back to Miami
is when I met the Rascals,

and these were all
buddies of mine,

but now they were dressing
pretty sharp.

Now a couple of them
had some nice cars,

and the couple of them,
they had some nice jewelry.

And I said, "What's going on?"
"Well, we've changed--

changed lanes."

These guys were all beach boys,
guys who worked on the beach.

But somewhere along the line,
they became jewel thieves.

And they invited me out
one night

because
they might need somebody,

a specialist in the water.

[rock music playing]

[Jack] So the next night
I met these guys.

We're going on a boat ride.

In between Miami
and Miami Beach is Biscayne Bay.

And in Biscayne Bay,
there are a number of islands.

It's a gated community.

♪♪♪

I stay in the boat.
These other two guys get off.

In about four minutes later,
they come running back

towards the boat,
and we take off.

And right almost immediately,
you can hear sirens going off.

[sirens blaring]

♪♪♪

[Jack] Let me tell you what,
the whole temperature of life,

the whole direction of life took

a mighty, mighty different turn
at this point.

♪♪♪

Pretty soon there's helicopters
in the air.

Pretty soon, there are some
speedboats that are chasing us

across Biscayne Bay.

And they told me what to do.

They gave this pouch to me,
and I jumped out of that boat.

[suspenseful music playing]

[gunshot]

[rock music playing]

[Jack] I swam across
Biscayne Bay to a canal

where they told me to go.

I went to a certain place
that I knew where to go,

and there was a person
that met me there

and gave me some dry clothes.

I got a cab back to Miami Beach.

That was it.

Couple nights later,

I'm sitting in the bar,
and I'm wondering

how I'm gonna pay my bar tab,

and the guy came in.

He put an envelope in my pocket,

and I opened that envelope up,
and there was $15,000 in it.

That's more money than
I'd ever seen in one whack.

He said, "Did you read
the newspapers?"

And I found a newspaper,

and it said,
"$350,000 jewel robbery."

I said, "Wow."

I said, "Hey, listen,
I sleep in a bathing suit.

Call me anytime."

[rock music playing]

[Nate] He went from being
a champion surfer,

business owner to a jewel thief
very, very quickly.

♪♪♪

[Jack] And within a few months,
I'm driving new cars,

and I have new clothes
and I have nice apartments,

and I'm happenin'.

[Bobby] He started
just like I did in hotels.

We knew all the head guys
that worked at all the hotels,

and we'd make master keys.

♪♪♪

[John] Most of the beach boys,
I hate to say, myself included,

learned how to hustle
the tourists.

And a lot of that came
from Jack and his friends

from what they were doing.

♪♪♪

He would climb up the outside

of the high-rise hotel
on the patio,

and he'd go into rooms.

The sliding doors
were still open.

♪♪♪

[Jack] And then you become
like a rock star.

The cool people know
who you are and what you do.

[John] He'd go
into an empty room

and then go from balcony
to balcony to balcony.

So, you're hitting 8, 10,
12, 14 rooms in one sweep.

[Edna] It was just
this huge, fun game.

And their feeling was that
insurance covered everything.

So therefore, people
would get their money back,

so nobody would get hurt.

♪♪♪

[Jack] My daddy told me
that only dull people get bored,

and that's always
stuck in my mind.

If you're bored,
it's 'cause you're dull.

You're not thinking. You're not
looking. Do something.

I am determined,
never to be bored.

♪♪♪

[Edna] He had this beautiful
girlfriend named Bonnie,

Bonnie Sutera,
and she was crazy about him.

[Joanne] She was a little doll,

and we became fast friends.

She moved in with me.

It was my first roommate
I've ever had.

I introduced her to Murphy,
and that was all she wrote,

then she lived in
with Murphy for a while.

♪♪♪

[Jack] And as a girl who
had gone on robberies with me,

I'd taken her with me
on some excitement

that very few ladies
get to go on.

She was great
because she was sharp,

she was classy,
she was pleasant, she was funny.

[Gale Garnett's "We'll Sing
in the Sunshine" playing]

♪ We'll sing in the sunshine♪

♪ We'll laugh every day♪

[Jack] You know,
how you have songs

for different periods
of your life.

Well, they had a song
"We'll Sing in the Sunshine,"

and that was kind of our song.

♪♪♪

♪ I will never love you♪

♪ The cost of love's too dear♪

[Jack] We just sort of
rescued each other.

♪ Oh, no, I'll never love you♪

♪ I'll live with you one year♪

♪ And we can sing
in the sunshine♪

♪ We'll laugh every day♪

[Joanne] They were doing
some wild stuff at night.

I was walking down the hallway,
and I said to Bonnie,

I says, "Look, we have rats
in the attic.

You know, there's a door
in the hallway."

She laughed,
and so she pulled it open,

and it was full of furs.

[laughs]

[Jack] In South Florida,
this whole band of thieves

that I was a part of now
stayed very, very busy.

♪♪♪

Allan Kuhn and I, we worked
the south area of the--

of the rich coast of Miami.

And we, uh, had read
in a socialite column

about some gal up in Palm Beach.

She had
a very, very large diamond

and a fence, one of the guys
that we dealt with said,

"I'll give you $350,000
for that particular stone."

In 1964,
$350,000 was the lottery.

It was big money.

So we went to Palm Beach,
and we got it.

We took it back to the fence.

We were popping champagne,
and the guy looked at the stone

through his
little magnifying glass

and he said, "She got ya."
Said, "This isn't real."

He said, "You got
a phony stone here."

Said, "That real stone of hers,
it's worth over $750,000.

It's in a bank someplace."
He said, "This is the copy."

That sort of, uh,
stepped on our pride.

We had read that
she had gone back to New York

to the Hamptons.

So, he said, "Well, let's--
let's take a ride up there

and check it out,
see what we can do."

[upbeat music playing]

[Jack]
So we went up to New York,

and the main thing we were
going after was this big stone.

The museum
wasn't any part of it.

But during the day we would go
to the art galleries.

We'd go to the fashion shows.

We'd go to the fine bars
and fine restaurants.

[Meryl] They were having
a really good time in New York.

They're going to baseball games
and museums.

[Jack] We're staying
in a spectacular hotel.

[Corey] They rented a--
a penthouse

on the Upper West Side,
not far from the museum,

and they were throwing parties
there every night,

inviting whoever they met.

[Meryl] They were certainly
not keeping a low profile.

They were tipping the bellboys
a gazillion dollars

to run out and get beer.

♪♪♪

[Jack] To get to the Hamptons
from Manhattan is a long drive,

and we'd gone out there
several times but were unable

to negotiate
a transaction with this lady

because there were
too many people,

and it was just too hot.

And Allan is saying,
"Let's go down to the museum,

check out the museum."

[camera shutter clicking]

Going through
the Museum of Natural History,

we're on a tour.

This woman tells us that

this is the largest
black sapphire in the world.

This is one of the most
famous rubies in the world.

And this is the Star of India.

We just looked at each other,
and we just smiled.

Allan says the stones
were talking to him.

I said, "What'd they say?"

He said,
"They said, 'Take me to Miami.

Take me to Miami.'"

[funk music playing]

[glass smashing]

So we left there
with 28 or 29 stones.

We had to retreat the same way.

We had to go over
the spike fence

into a little park.

We divided up the jewels.

Allan went one way, and I go
through this little park.

Here come two policemen
down this sidewalk

right towards where I'm going.

I've got the Star of India
in my shoulder bag.

I've got these other stones,
and I've got this emerald.

I've got 125 feet of rope
over my shoulder here.

I've got a gun on me.
I am a walking disaster.

There's a man,
and he's walking his dog.

I walked up by him and I...

[whistles]
I whistled for the dog,

and the dog jumped up
and I'm petting on it.

And I said to the guy, "Whoa"

and "Beautiful night.
Isn't it great?"

And he's wondering, "Well,
who the heck is this guy?"

And about that time,
the cops walked by us.

"Hey, good evening, officer."
He said, "Hey, back at ya."

Just kept on walking.
And I walked out to the street,

and I was taking a left
to go down to the corner.

Four more policemen down there,

and there were more policemen
up on the other corner.

So I walked
right across the street,

and there was a truck over there
with a rig on the side

that a plumber uses
to put pipes and all.

And I just dropped that
rope off on there.

Looked like it belonged there.

Turned around
and there was a cab.

So, we go down to Broadway.

They had a place
called the Metropole,

which was one of the most
famous jazz bars in history.

And I had a buddy
named Gene Krupa

that was playing that night.

[jazz music playing]

[Jack] And I go in
and have a few drinks.

I got a bag over my shoulder,
says, "Irish Airlines" on it.

It's sort of coordinated
with my cool outfit

because that's the way
Cary Grant would have done.

I've got a pistol in there.

And I've got the largest
sapphire in the world in there.

So, I have a few drinks
then I got a cab

and I went back to where
we lived on 86th Street.

[jazz music playing]

There comes that place,

especially when you do
a very challenging thing.

There's a line that you
step out of where, you know,

I've done it.

I made it. I did it.
I'm gonna survive.

It's the same way in surfing

and you're riding great,
big, dangerous waves,

and any minute
it can all fall apart.

And then all of a sudden,
you make it.

The whole flood of relief
and joy and challenge is there.

[jazzy music playing]

[Allan] We've just taken off
and the pilot announced,

"Ladies and gentlemen,
we've just been informed

that the Museum
of Natural History

has been robbed
and blah, blah, blah."

And the Star of India,
it was on this plane.

[laughs]

Oh, God.

[Jack] Allan had brought
a girl with him.

Her name was Janet Florkiewicz,

and she carried all the jewels
in a women's overnight bag

that belonged to my girlfriend.

And so, when I got off
the plane in Miami,

my girlfriend
was waiting for me,

and there was a bar there.

And I said, "Step in the bar."

So, we went in the bar

she said, "Well, where's Allan?"

I said, "He's coming."

So pretty soon,
here comes Allan with this girl.

Bonnie, she says, "That looks
like my overnight case."

I said, "It is." I said,
"What do you think's in it?"

She said, "Oh, boy."

Janet didn't have any idea
what was in it.

We told her to carry it because

it looked
a little too feminine for us.

[suspenseful music playing]

[man 19] Would you say
that the thieves knew

what they were looking for?

Oh, definitely. Because, uh...

in addition to the exposition
of these precious stones,

there is a brief history

of each one
contained in the case.

[John] I was like a rookie.

At that time I probably had

five years of detective maybe.

I was notified at, I think,
10 o'clock in the morning.

It was insane. It was-- it was
broken glass all over the place.

The curator and that they were--
they were devastated.

And there was absolutely
no security.

And it was so ridiculous.

We went to get the inventory,
and they didn't have one.

[Meryl] There was a tremendous
amount of-- at the museum,

a lot of, you know, "How could
we have let this go wrong?"

[man 19] Inspector, can
you tell us how these thieves

got into the cases?

It would appear that
a professional burglar

would have a little better tools
than we now find here.

[man 19] Have you found
any way in which the thieves

may have gotten into this room
in the building?

[John] Well,
we have some theory,

which is being explored
and exploited

at the present moment.

[man 19] The window
was slightly open.

[John] It was open. Yes.

[Joanne] It was a kind of
free-for-all the following day

because the police
really let in reporters,

and suddenly it was pretty hard
to get fingerprints

'cause so many people
were touching so many things

and making a mess of the place.

[John] A friend of mine who was
a plainclothes police officer,

he got a call from the manager
of the Cambridge House,

and he told them
that there had been

a lot of parties going on
in the penthouse suite.

We went up,
and we talked to the manager,

and he gave us
enough information

to get a search warrant.

We found, uh, a lot of
incriminating evidence.

Jeweler's scales,

sneakers with
broken glass residue

embedded in the sneaker.

They had pictures of the museum.

We found one or two guns
under a mattress,

and we found some narcotics.

Some of the girls
who remained as tenants

in the building were concerned

because their girlfriend,
Janet Florkiewicz

went along with the occupants
of the apartment.

Janet Florkiewicz
at the same time

was calling back
to a girlfriend,

telling them that
they were staying

at the Brickell apartment
in Florida.

[woman 4] Jack said
the biggest mistake we made

was taking Janet with us

because she was not happy
to be there in Florida,

that she got panicked, um,
talked to her roommate,

and kind of said that she was

being held there or was--
Whatever it was,

she was kind of freaked out
about the whole thing.

[John] She was unaware that
she had carried the gems down

in the makeup bag.

And we figured that was enough
and we called the FBI.

[Jack] We're sitting there
getting ready

to go out on the boats
and have a party,

and all sudden there
was a knock at the door.

Janet went over
and opened the door

and the FBI kicked
the door off the hinges.

The door fell in,
and here they come.

And it was
J. Edgar Hoover's boys,

and everybody had their gun out
and it got quite serious.

♪♪♪

So, I'm handcuffed,
Bonnie's handcuffed,

everybody's handcuffed,

and the big dance started then.

The bondsmen,
the lawyers, the headlines.

It was a real circus.

♪♪♪

[man 20] These beach boys

appear confident
they will beat the charge

of stealing the priceless
Star of India sapphire

and other gems
from a New York museum.

It is very embarrassing to be
accused of something like this,

and meanwhile, in New York,
the jewel robberies continue

to go on and on,
and they are all down here

trying to get something on us.

We think it's a shame that they
don't concentrate their efforts

up there in the city
where this happened.

Maybe they could catch
the people who did this.

[Corey] He was like thumbing
the authorities in the eye.

He was kind of snubbing them
by saying,

"Oh, this whole thing
is just nonsense

and it's messing up
our surf trip."

Has your popularity picked up

along the beach
where you surfboard?

-We were always popular.
-[chuckles]

[Corey] It was really
frustrating, the authorities,

the prosecutors,
but really gratifying reporters.

We went to
all the points of interest,

including the museums,
while we were in New York.

It's a fact.
Everyone knows this.

[man 21] Do you like museums,
too, Mr. Murphy?

I am-- I am an avid museumgoer.

We've been to museums
all over the country

and art galleries.

We go to all
the points of interest.

That was the main reason
for going to New York.

[man 22] Harvey St. Jean,
they had hired him.

He was a famous lawyer
at the time.

[man 19] What's
the next step, Mr. St. Jean?

We intend to fly
to New York tomorrow

and respond to
the grand jury indictment

issued by the
State of New York Grand Jury.

You're ready to face the music
whenever called upon?

Oh, definitely. We're certain,
uh, we're not, uh,

we're not scared a bit
about going up there.

We just want to go up there
to show our good faith

and hope that we're able
to get the trial over with

and maybe find who--
who really took these gems.

[Corey] Just this--
the notion that

they could go into this museum,
a very prominent spot

and take some of those
most valuable things

in the whole museum,
just snatch them and run,

was almost like,
too ludicrous to be believed.

[rock music playing]

-Not up here.
-[reporter] No?

[Corey] The tabloids went crazy,
you know, front page news.

And the story only got bigger
because of who they were.

They were photogenic,
they were charismatic.

[Joanne] Just like
a Robin Hood type thing.

It was a caper,
and nobody got hurt.

[man 23] I mean, this kind of
had everything, you know?

It's... it's sexy,
it's funny, it's weird.

It's kind of audacious.

[woman 5] These guys
were very sharp, slick dressers

with good haircuts.

And they were beach boys,
so they had great physiques,

they'd been swimming
and working out.

This level of--
almost this movie star

quality of them
going out in public.

Everything they did was news.

Kind of the promise
of American youth

except for American youth
gone wrong.

♪♪♪

We appeared before the Judge
of the state Supreme Court

in New York this morning,

at which time we responded
to the indictment

handed down by
the New York grand jury.

And the judge set a bond
for $20,000 each,

which was made
and we return this evening.

[Edna] It was like
this fabulous homecoming.

They came back like royalty.

They were like local heroes.

[man 24] You two
have suddenly, uh,

achieved a certain amount
of notoriety.

[Jack] It has helped, uh...

helped us a little bit
through the publicity.

[Jim] He was kind of like
a folk hero, if you will.

They had bumper stickers--

"Save Murphy"
and "Murf the Surf,"

shit like that.

And that kind of pissed me off.

I worked most of my career
in the Detective Bureau.

We were unorthodox
to say the least.

We had a license to do
about anything we wanted to.

We've been picked up before.

I was driving
Allan's car one day,

and, uh, we were driving
down the street

with my girlfriend Bonnie,

and, uh, the same officer
picked us up,

and he's the same one that seems
to pick us up all the time.

He's made it sort of
a personal thing.

[Jim] He wanted to be known as
the baddest fucker in the world.

I think all through history,

America has loved the bad guys,
John Dillinger,

Billy the Kid,
assholes like that.

[man 24] And the FBI
obviously thinks that

you or someone
brought some jewelry,

namely the Star of India,
down here.

They keep a pretty close watch
on you all the time now?

They try to, uh...

We understand they've assigned
quite a few more men

down here because of this.

I think they realize that
they're more or less

wasting their time
when they sit up

on the beach all day long

and watch us swimming
and surfing and, uh,

and, uh, and just lounging
around with our friends.

[Jim] Allan Kuhn, we found out
he was staying at a motel

on the beach, and he had
a brand-new Cadillac.

We went got some gas
and poured it all over his car

and burned his car.

He came out in his underwear
and he said,

"Call the fire department.
My car is on fire."

I said, "Shit, Allan,
we're sorry,

but our radio isn't working."

[soft music playing]

[Edna] Bonnie was really
depressed about Murphy.

When they were facing
the charges up in New York,

Murphy said he didn't want her
to wait for him.

[Jack] I told Bonnie,
I said, "Bonnie,

you're gonna have
to get a life."

I said,
"This-- this dance is over."

[Edna] She was heartbroken.

She called up her girlfriend
who worked in the bar

at the Bel Air.

And she was over
on the Miami side

somewhere in an apartment,

and she called
and she was groggy

and she said,
"I just took pills.

I don't want to live
without Jack."

So her girlfriend
went rushing to the rescue.

And when she got there,
Bonnie was still warm,

but she was dead.

[Jack] Bonnie killed herself.

♪♪♪

[Edna] I know
she didn't want to die.

She wanted to--
just wanted to get Jack back.

[Joanne] He was like sunshine
in-- in-- in her life.

[man 25] And do you think
Murph loved her?

[Joanne] No. Not at all.

[Jack] She was a very important
part of my life.

I still go to her gravesite
all the time

and take some flowers out there.

Has the recent publicity
about the museum jewel robbery

markedly changed
your way of living?

That's-- we find people
in the restaurants.

They notice you on the street
and notice you at parties.

[Fred] Everybody knew
that he was a jewel thief.

That was part of his allure.

[Corey] I mean, the public loved
Murf and the legend of Murf.

I mean, first of all,
the name itself, Murf the Surf.

I mean, you can almost
just picture the guy,

you know, just riding
a wave through life.

[man 26] You're going
to court tomorrow morning

on a federal charge.

What do you think
is gonna happen there?

It should take
about five minutes

to throw it out of court.
That's all.

[Bob Dylan]
♪ Ain't it hard to stumble

♪ And land
in some funny lagoon? ♪

[man 27] Do you have a jewel?

Do you have-- where you going?

Where you going?

♪ To land
in some funny lagoon ♪

[Fred] The media gravitates
towards things the public

is interested in.

And let's face it, the public
is interested in criminals.

He was a celebrity even when
everybody knew he was a thief.

♪♪♪

♪ Ain't gonna hang no picture

[Jim] The guys that hit
the front page of newspapers

in the crime world are--
are not your ordinary criminals.

There's something
special about them.

♪ Gonna hang no picture frame

♪♪♪

[John] We live vicariously
in so many ways.

♪ Look like Robert Ford
but I ♪

♪ Feel just like a Jesse James

Elvis Presley got up there
and wiggled and sang for us.

Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis,

we live vicariously
through them,

but we also lived
through Jesse James.

Al Capone, he was the bad guy.
We'd go see the movies. Why?

♪ Ooh, I wish I was

[John] Here's this guy
who's a free spirit,

an all-American kid,
a tennis champion,

twice the East Coast
surfing champion.

He goes and pulls off the jewel
robbery of the century.

♪ Imagine it would be some kind
of change ♪

[Jack] I'm in the front page
of the newspapers.

I'm in television.
I'm a big deal.

♪ I got for good luck
my black tooth ♪

♪♪♪

[Edna] I think
we all think it would be fun

to be able to get away
with something.

But, you know, there's--
there's outlaws

and there's outlaws.

[man 29] When you hear
the name Jack Murphy,

what-- what words come to mind?

[Jim] Murderer.

[man 29] Did you ever think
you'd be caught up

in something like that?

[Jim] I was shocked.

I didn't think he had it in him.

I thought a burglar
is a burglar, you know.

When he did that to young girls,
that was shocking to me.

♪ Don't ask me
nothin' about nothin'♪

♪ I just might tell you
the truth♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪