All language subtitles for 3vnfigberogbogneo

[overlapping speaking]

[TV announcer]
Three, two, one.

Let's join Pat Robertson,

in the penitentiary now
with maximum security.

[Pat Robertson]
In this prison alone,

the population has tripled.

Some of the toughest men
perhaps in the country

are in this prison in Florida.

534 of these men are locked up
in solitary confinement.

Some are awaiting
the death penalty,

and the electric chair
is still working here.

Homosexual acts
take place here every day.

It's a rough place.

But in the midst of all this,

we found men who were radiant
with the glory of the Lord.

And you're going to meet
the prison population.

For we're getting ready
to hold a service here,

and we're going to pray
that God will do something great

in the Florida State Prison.

[gate buzzes]

["I Got Stripes" playing]

♪ On a Monday
I was arrested ♪

♪ On a Tuesday
They locked me in the jail ♪

♪ On a Wednesday
My trial was attested ♪

♪ On a Thursday
They said guilty ♪

♪ And the judge's gavel fell ♪

♪ I got stripes,
Stripes around my shoulders ♪

♪ I got chains,
Chains around my feet ♪

[Jack] Here I was at the very,
very, very end of the line.

FSP, Florida State Prison.

That's where I started.

And it was mean,
and it was rough.

♪ On a Monday
I got my striped britches ♪

♪ On a Tuesday
I got my ball and chain ♪

[Pat Robertson] The state
prison, located near Stark

in north central Florida,
is not a pleasant place.

It's dark, overcrowded,
and understaffing

prevents many inmates

from getting
much needed rehabilitation.

All of our institutions
are tremendously overcrowded,

and we're continuing
to build facilities.

But that's not going
to be sufficient

to take care of
the population problem.

♪ And them chains,
Them chains ♪

♪ They're about
To drag me down ♪

[Jack]
The head of the prison system,

Louie Wainwright, wanted
everybody in the system working,

so he put guys
out on the road squad.

You see it in old movies
likeCool Hand Luke.

Just rough,
rough manual labor.

♪ On a Wednesday
I'm down in solitary ♪

♪ I got chains,
Chains around my feet ♪

[Bobby Greenwood] Me and Murphy,
we were cellmates together.

♪ And them chains,
Them chains ♪

♪ They're about
To drag me down ♪

[song ends]

[metallic clicking]

[Jack] I went to prison
with two life sentences

and 20 years on top of that,

and with a parole date

that nobody in the world
could ever do.

They're going to
release me in the year 2244.

Everything had just gone insane.

And I'm in that situation
where I don't like it,

and I don't believe it

because all they had
was hearsay evidence.

[camera shutter clicking]

They locked me up
because I'm Murf the Surf.

I'm the guy in the news.

It's like
the name Charlie Manson.

It sells newspapers.

♪♪♪

[crowd clamoring,
camera shutters clicking]

[Jack] I figured I may
never ever get out of here.

So I've tried everything.

And I took one of my cases
to the Supreme Court.

[Chief Justice Burger]
We will hear arguments next

in Murphy against Florida.

Mr. Swickle, you may proceed,
I think, whenever you are ready.

[Harvey S. Swickle] There are
two issues that are presented

here for this court's
consideration today.

Both dealing with pre-trial
publicity in a criminal matter.

The first question is
whether the jurors' knowledge

through the news media of
a defendant's prior convictions

is so inherently prejudicial

that the jury
should be excused for cause.

News articles were
permitted into the jury room--

news articles which branded
the defendant as a hoodlum,

as a convicted felon,
as a convicted murderer.

[Chief Justice Burger] But none
of the actual jurors in the case

said that he himself,
or she herself

had formed
an opinion about guilt.

[Harvey S. Swickle] No one said
they had a fixed opinion.

[Chief Justice Burger]
Right. Thank you, gentlemen.

The case is submitted.

[gavel bangs]

[news reporter] Murf the Surf's
Supreme Court appeal

was shot down
by the High Court last week,

but few would know
because Murphy's latest move

only generated
two paragraphs of news coverage.

♪♪♪

[Jack] I just got turned down
on the Supreme Court,

and I'm sitting there
battling this,

but I had another thing going on

with a group
I had connections with.

[female reporter]
The Underground Weatherman Group

is now publicly
claiming to the media

that its members
helped LSD enthusiast,

Timothy Leary,
escape from prison.

[Timothy Leary]
I escaped with the help

of the Weatherman Underground.

They not only helped us escape,
they helped my wife, Rosemary,

and myself leave the country
with great efficiency.

[Jack] The Weathermen
were going to get me out

and take me to Algeria

where I could stay
with Timothy Leary

and some of those other
screwballs over there.

And that thing was rolling.

I was going to get picked up
and do an escape.

Former partner of mine,

highly decorated Navy Seal,

was going to come and get me.

Piece of cake, no big deal.

[Jack]
And then he gets busted

coming into the States
with a phony ID.

And so that shuts
that whole thing down.

[birds chirping]

And so my escape plan
is shot down.

My Supreme Court thing
is shot down.

I had big attorneys.
They weren't enough.

Whatever I had going for me
was not enough.

[gate alarm blaring]

The fat lady cleared her voice
and sang her aria and gone home.

It was over, baby. [laughs]
It was-- it was done.

♪♪♪

And I'm just looking for some
more drugs to kill the pain.

[Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
playing]

♪ Dear Mr. Fantasy,
Play us a tune ♪

♪ Something to
Make us all happy ♪

[Meryl Gordon] The sentence
was so long when you know

that this is
going to be your life.

It was incredibly hard for him

after having
this free-spirited life,

I think there was
a level of disbelief

that finally it had
all caught up with him.

He had
a really rough adjustment.

Initially, he got into
a lot of fights.

He wasn't particularly
well thought of by the guards.

And he really had to fight
to convey to the world

that he was
not to be messed with.

♪♪♪

[Kitten]
Florida State Prison

was the worst prison in Florida.

The noises,
microphones going off,

and bells ringing
and doors clanging,

and the screaming
was the real horror.

Somebody threw a bit
of lighter fluid in a cell

and set fire to
the Black guy that was in there.

Somebody gets thrown off
the second floor,

people getting stabbed.

It's no wonder
that people go crazy in there.

But Jack was a leader,
and leaders survive.

♪♪♪

♪ Dear Mr. Fantasy,
Play us a tune ♪

[Domenic Fusco] One thing to do
is have the drugs come in

in a laundry truck.

Bobby was a lookout.

Jack would go out there,
and he would take

the laundry bag
with the drugs in it,

and he would stick it
under some of the boards

that were part of the nursery
and then go get it later.

[Jack]
And after a while,

I'm running
a narcotics operation.

I am connected with
these big, giant dope dealers,

and I get a good piece
of coke coming in there,

and I get morphine,
and I get whatever I want.

I got my shades on,
and I got a bodyguard.

I happen to be the man.

♪♪♪

Some guy,
he owed me $200 for dope.

My bodyguard
sent him to the hospital

with his collarbone broken.

You have to do that
in that business.

It's ruthless,
and that's the way we live.

[clanking]

[crowd chattering]

[James Tilman] Well, I think
that Raiford is a powder keg,

because in any situation
where you simply herd people

together like cattle,

you cannot expect to treat them

with any degree of human dignity

is really a necessity as far
as rehabilitation is concerned.

[rock music playing]

[Jack]
Florida State Prison was

a horrible, horrible place.

Finally, it got to
a point where I said,

"There's got to be
some change here.

I'm not going to live
like this the rest of my life."

And a whole bunch of guys
in there had the same attitude.

So in February 1971,

I started
the only major prison riot

in the history
of Florida's prison system.

♪♪♪

[Kitten]
Jack called for a strike.

"We weren't gonna
eat this slop, sir,"

that kind of thing.

[alarm blaring]

[Jack]
Nobody worked, nobody ate,

nobody came out of their cells.

And they went crazy.

They brought in
the Florida Marine Patrol,

which is kind of like
the Florida National Guard,

and they brought in
all the security teams

from all over the state there,
and it got busy, busy, busy.

[Kitten] We got calls at
the TV station where I worked

that they were locking it down,

and no reporters were
gonna be allowed through.

The goon squad
was a group of officers

whose sole purpose
was to go beat up the guys.

The goon squad loved it
because they could be

as brutal as they wanted,

and they were brutal.

Jack got hit in the back.

He got hit
in the face with a rifle.

Yeah, he got hit
a bunch of times.

[gun shots firing]

[reporter] Approximately
700 inmates took part

in a sit-down strike,
causing prison guards

to open fire on them,
wounding 63 prisoners.

[Nate Scott]
In those moments of glory,

Jack has total control
of his narrative.

Did the newspaper
seize on Jack as a ringleader

because that was the name
they recognized him in the list,

you know, or was he
actually really the guy?

Who knows?

[clanking]

[Jack] That's when
they locked me on death row

for seven months
because I was the cracker

that pushed the button on that.

I didn't have a death sentence,

but they wanted to isolate me
because they were afraid

of somebody
who could organize like that--

get guys to quit eating
and quit working.

It would be cold,
and it would be dark.

Get to take a shower,
like, every third day,

a three-minute shower.

And while I'm there,
I'm trying to figure out,

"What am I doing here?
What am I doing here?"

I played music on the big stage.

I'd traveled all over.
I'd played tennis.

In my reign as Murf the Surf,
I went undefeated.

Do you ever get there where you
wonder, "Will this ever end?"

[Kitten] I asked him
if he ever thought of suicide,

and he said, "It's for cowards."

[keys jangling]

[lock clicks]

[Jack] Well, I'm sitting
down there, and the guy says,

"They want you down
at the warden's office."

The thing is this, you never go
to the warden's office.

When you go in there,
you're usually on the hot seat.

And I walk in there,
and there sits Louie Wainwright,

probably the most famous name
in American corrections.

This is the big gun.

He says, "I want you to know,
if you don't make some changes,

it's going to be
a long, rough ride."

"You think you're a leader?
You think you're a shot caller?"

He said,
"Let me tell you something.

"Real leaders lead their people
to higher ground."

"I'm going to bring
some real leaders in here,"

"and what you need to do is
sit down, keep your mouth shut,"

and maybe you'll learn
how to be a leader."

He said, "You need to
get in these faith programs

and turn this thing around."

[Frank Costantino]
It is good to be with you today.

It is good to be able
to share with you

the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Man, I'm convinced
of this one thing.

Above all other things,

that the power
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

is able to make men change.

-[applause]
-Amen. Hallelujah.

And I'm going
to share it with you today.

[Kitten] Louie Wainwright,
who became friends

with Frank Costantino,

who was a hoodlum,
who became the head

of a very large ministry
called the Bridge.

And Frank would work
with Louie on getting people out

and convincing Louie
that a man can change.

[Domenic Fusco]
Frank was a typical Italian

from the North End of Boston.

Really rough guy.
He was charged with robbery.

I want you
to raise your hands.

[Frank Costantino] The things
that we are ashamed of

right now,
Lord Jesus, erase them.

All of the things
that caused us to just sit there

and agonize in shame,
remove that guilt.

We don't want that
to be who we are.

[Frank Costantino] And for you
men who have never asked

Jesus into your life,
pray this prayer with me.

Say, "Lord Jesus,
give me a new life...

today."

[Kitten]
Once Frank got his thing going,

he had time
to work on getting Jack out.

[Jack] Costantino was
a real good friend of mine.

We knew each other
way back from Miami Beach.

We'd be in
the nightclubs down there,

with Ike and Tina Turner,
kicking it.

Frank would be there
with some Mafia friends of his.

I'd be in there
with my Irish mad men.

He said, "Listen, you make

Wainwright's programs
look good,"

he said, "That man
will watch your back."

He told me, he said,
"If you don't get

in this chapel,
you'll die in prison."

At the time, my parole date
was in the year 2244.

So I got in the programs.

["Diamond Head" playing]

[Kitten] I had started working
at a television station

in the late '60s,
worked as a reporter

and a variety of jobs
in a small station

that everybody ends up doing,
you know,

some editing and copy work.

I met Jack in 1975.

I went to Florida State Prison

to do a story on this
religious program they do.

They were all murderers.

And, um, when I met Jack,

he did not look like
he was an inmate.

Everybody else was in blue.

He came up in his white uniform,

white Italian loafers,
a yachting belt,

and he introduced himself.

And I thought,
"Oh, he can't be Murf the Surf."

♪♪♪

Well, I grew up
in Naples, Florida,

so when he was
in the newspapers in Miami,

he was
in the newspapers in Naples.

He was a character.

He never seemed like
a danger to anybody

because it was always the fluff
piece about the jewel robbery.

People didn't think
of the murders.

So I went in and I saw him.

And that weekend he said,
"One of the things"

that I lack
are my people skills."

And he said, "So I thought about
this, and we'll do a contract."

I said, "A contract, huh?
What is this gonna say?"

And he said, well,
basically he would like me

to visit for six months,
but only if I wanted to.

And if I wanted to stop,
that was okay.

But he wanted to work
on his social graces.

And then in six months,

if we're still seeing
each other, we'll rewrite it.

The biggest question
that I got was,

"Was it love at first sight?"

No. [chuckles]

Because here was a man in prison

for a double life sentence
in 20 years.

He was always intense.
He was just an intense person.

You can tell there was
somebody behind those eyes

that you didn't want
to meet in a dark alley.

[tense music playing]

I had gotten the case files
from Whiskey Creek.

And I just read it
because I wanted to be convinced

that Jack
wasn't absolutely nuts.

[reporter] Describing Murphy
as a public enemy

who never again
should enjoy the free world

of a law-abiding society,

Judge Stedman sentenced
the former beach boy

turned jewel thief and murderer
to life imprisonment

and 20 years of hard labor

for his part
in the Whiskey Creek killings.

♪♪♪

[Kitten]
I had asked Jack Griffith

about Murphy's
guilt or innocence,

and he had said,

"You think Jack
was driving a boat?

Well, he wasn't innocent."

I read the transcripts,

and nobody can say
who did what definitively.

So I just-- I let it go

because I didn't want to make
our relationship about that.

And I had several people
ask me if I was afraid

and if I was
a victim of mind control.

[Kitten laughs]

What do you say? I mean...

I knew I was safe
after visiting him

six hours a day, twice a week.

We spent more time together

knee to knee
than most married people do.

I could have
conversations with him

that I never had
with a normal date.

I fell in love with his mind.

Very likable, very charismatic.

After visiting him for years,
you talk about everything.

You learn an awful lot
about somebody in that time.

He was a man in control,
always in control.

[motor boat whirring]

One time, Jeff called
this guy who had been

an old smuggler and said,
"Take Kitten to the Bahamas."

I thought I was just
going on a vacation.

It wasn't supposed to be
anything else.

But they were going over
to get some drugs and things,

and that I won't talk about.

You know,
after a couple of those, I said,

"I'm not doing
any of these anymore.

I'm just not gonna do 'em."

[percussion instrument plays]

[dog barking]

[Louie Wainwright]
It's extremely difficult

to keep drugs out.

We have lots of visitors
of the inmates,

and it's difficult
to search a person to the extent

that they cannot bring in
drugs of some kind.

But we don't at this time

have hardcore drugs
within the system.

It's caused us
no serious problem.

[Kitten] Even though
he had been going to these

religious programs
for years now,

Jack and some of his friends

were still handling
the drug business in the prison.

And I told him this,
"You need to stop

"being involved
in the drug business

if you're telling people
you've been saved."

You know,
it just couldn't go on.

And he said,
"I can't get out of it."

But did you know that sometime
that we can even

con our conscience to think
that we're all right,

think that we are good
and we are perfect,

and we're better
than our neighbor?

But, you know,
when God looks upon us,

he sees it's all a lie.

We are, by nature, sinners.

[Domenic Fusco]
When you get saved,

you're a part
of the family of God,

but you still have your mind.

You have your soul
and your psyche.

That takes a while to change.

And Jack
was not instantly changed.

It took him years
to make the full commitment.

♪♪♪

[Kitten]
I know Jack feared God,

and there are some sins
that automatically restrict you

from going to heaven,
and one of them is murder.

[gate buzzes, clank]

Jack never pled guilty,

but he said, "I figure I've got
a lot of payback to do."

[Jack] When I was locked up,
I received mail, a lot of mail.

And I would
get letters from Christians,

and I didn't know
who they were.

But they all said
the same thing.

"I pray for you every day."

And I'm thinking,
"Oh, man, that's sissy stuff.

That ain't me."

And then one day
I'd hit rock bottom,

and I get a letter from a guy
on a boat down in Key West.

And that's where
the change starts right there.

The guy says,
"I followed your crime career.

Every, uh, morning,
I read the Bible."

And he said, "This morning
I read the story about Jonah

that ended up
in the belly of that whale."

And he says,
"God had a plan for Jonah,

but Jonah didn't want to hear
and wanted do his own thing."

"He's a lot like you."

"And he was underwater.
And then Jonah says,

"'Out of the belly of hell
cried I,

and you heard my voice.'"

The guy in the letter said,
"Did you ever cry out to God?

You gotta give God a chance."

["Shifting Sands" playing]

I'm sitting in the cell,
and it's just like

something taps me
on the shoulder, says,

"You know, this old man
is praying for you.

He's speaking some good stuff.
You got to give God a shot."

♪ You know the love ♪

♪ I gave you ♪

Well, let me ask you this.
How do you talk to God?

How do you pray? You've never
done it in your life.

It's all foolishness.
So you're bewildered.

♪ 'Cause I was born ♪

♪ To wander ♪

And that for just
some reason I said, uh,

"God, I need some help, man.

I-I need some help."

And the guy in the cell
next to me says,

"Hey, Murf,
you're talking to me?"

I said, "Oh, no, man.
No, man. I was just singing."

♪♪♪

I said, "Lord, I'm a sinner,

"and I've got
a lot of problems.

Would you please
forgive me of my sins?"

At that point,
something starts happening,

and it's kind of, like,
did you ever do acid?

All of a sudden
the walls are breathing,

and people are looking funny
and things are melting.

And you try
to explain that to somebody,

and they said,
"Oh, you're kidding me."

And it's the same way with being
a member of the family of God.

Things start happening
that aren't a coincidence.

Everybody has sinned,

and the price
we pay for that is hell.

You don't go to heaven unless
your name is in God's Book.

If you want to have a new life,

if you accept Christ,
all things pass away,

and all things become new.

[calm music playing]

Well, now, I've asked
the Lord to direct me

and tune me up and make me
the man he wants me to be.

I'd be out in the hallway,
and I'd see some guy.

I said, that guy would be
better off if somebody piped--

if somebody took him out,
because he's a jerk.

Well, now my thinking
is changing, and I'm looking.

I said, "That poor sucker.
I wonder what happened to him."

Because my thinking changed,

my behavior has changed.

If you'll do God's business,

he'll take care
of your business.

♪ If any man be in Christ ♪

♪ Then he has become ♪

♪ A new creation ♪

♪ Old things
Have passed away ♪

♪ Behold,
Everything has become ♪

♪ New in him ♪

[Rick Bair] John 1:10 says,

"If we truly are sorry
for our sins

"and we get down on our knees
and confess them to Jesus,

they're forgiven."

♪ Praise Him ♪

[reporter]
Can you be truly redeemed

without confessing your sins?

[Rick Bair] I know
that Jack confessed his sins.

Um, he didn't do the shooting.

Um, but I don't want
to speculate and say,

if we don't confess our sins...

um, I'll have to think
about that one.

♪ The name of Jesus ♪

♪ Praise ♪

♪ Him ♪

♪♪♪

Hallelujah.

[applause]

Praise the Lord.
Praise the name of Jesus.

[static buzzes]

♪♪♪

[reporter] Jack Murphy,
alias "Murf the Surf,"

playboy, acrobatic diver,

ballroom dancer,
musician, painter,

inmate of Florida's
maximum security prison.

He was brought to national fame
when he stole the Star of India,

now serving two life sentences
for murder.

I asked him why.
Why, at the age of 27,

did he turn to crime?

I chased after, uh, happiness,

and I thought it was
an entertainment venture,

but nevertheless,
there was that emptiness.

I had tried everything else,
and being an adventurer.

I said, "Well, we're just
gonna give this one a try."

I asked the Lord
to come into my life.

I said, "I've made
a miserable mess of it

"and I need some help.

"Lord, if You can
help me with my situation,

"if You can help me with my--

my grief that I have,
all glory is yours."

And just as in that poster
that I did of Jonah,

Jonah cried out,
and God heard him

in the belly of the whale,
and I cried out,

and God came into my life.

Jack, what do you think about
what's needed in prisons?

-We talk about rehabilitation.
-Yeah.

I've seen men
who I would have given up on,

and I've seen the miracle
of God work in that man's life

and transform that man.

Many people, when they say,

"I see God in the sunset
and I see him

"in the trees
and the flowers and the desert

that's in bloom
and the ocean and all."

But we see God here
in the junk pile.

We see God
in the garbage can here,

and we know
that God is real in here.

["Jesus Is Just Alright" plays]

The Bible says, "Behold,
I stand at the door and knock.

"If any man will hear my voice

and will open the door,
I'll come in."

There's a nail-scarred hand
knocking right now

at the door of your heart.

[Frank Donnelly] I tend
to be skeptical, I guess,

of most
religious transformations,

but in his case,
maybe even more so.

♪ Jesus is just
Alright with me ♪

♪ Jesus is just alright,
Oh, yeah ♪

[Frank Donnelly]
But if you're a believer

and you want to find
the good in someone,

Murphy didn't give you
any reason not to believe him.

♪ I don't care
What they may say ♪

It doesn't matter
how many people you've killed.

It doesn't matter how often
you've robbed somebody.

It doesn't matter
how many lies you've told,

how immoral you've been.
It doesn't matter.

♪ Jesus is just alright,
Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Jesus is just alright ♪

[Domenic Fusco] He really
was touched by God,

and he shared the Gospel
with people,

prayed with people,
cried with people.

[Pat Robertson] Your whole life
has been crucified.

It's gone, dead, buried.

But there's a brand-new life
that rose again.

And you can have
a brand-new start,

a brand-new life

if you will come
to Jesus Christ right now.

♪ I don't care
What they may know ♪

[Jim Kelly]
I think people can change.

I think with Murphy
it was bullshit.

It just reeks of corruption.

♪ Jesus is just alright,
Oh, yeah ♪

[Jim Kelly] "Oh, I found God.
I'm not a bad boy anymore.

I'm gonna go to confession
and receive Holy Communion."

That's a bunch of bullshit.

♪ Jesus, he's my friend ♪

[Sonny Grech] I think that
Frankie Constantino

planted the seed,

and Murphy took it
and ran with it.

This is your only way out.

[John McNally] From
a detective's point of view,

a lot of guys go into jail,
and they do that.

They do anything
they can to get out, you know?

And so if that worked for him,
it worked for him.

[Meryl Gordon] When someone has
a religious conversion,

you're really not
in a position to judge.

So I don't feel capable
of judging him on that level.

♪♪♪

[Kitten] When Pat Robertson
came up to FSP,

it meant a lot to Jack.

He said, "Because
if I'm part of something

"that Pat Robertson endorses,"

then maybe I have changed."

♪ Jesus is just
alright with me ♪

[Pat Robertson]
Thank you, Jesus,

that you've heard my prayer,

that you've come into my heart,

that you saved my soul,

that you've given me
a brand-new life.

Thank you, Lord.

♪ Jesus is just alright,
Oh, yeah ♪

[Michael Hamm]
Prison officials were skeptical,

except for a few of them
that decided

there's hope for this boy here,

because they saw his conversion
and saw it was real.

You know,
a person becomes a new person

when they get born again.

And that was Murphy, man.

He wanted to help the guys.

[Kitten] I mean,
I remember the day

he wrote this book,
his little pamphlet thing,

and it literally was in one day.

He wrote it that size
because it could be read

in one sitting,
and he wrote it for inmates.

You know, he said, I want this
so that the guys that here

on cell blocks at the end
of the line with bad lighting

that you can't even read by,
that they can see the words,

and the people
that are illiterate

can look at the pictures.

[Jack] The following pages
have been written

for a specific audience.

Gangsters, conmen,
hustlers, hookers, dopers,

high rollers,
tough guys, and anyone else

who might view the world
as a ballpark full of fools,

takers, hypocrites,
users, and liars.

[Kitten]
When he wrote that book,

you know,
he prayed before he started,

and he said, "Well, people
either get saved or they won't."

[Jack]
My life is undeniable evidence

that even when the lights
go out at the end of the tunnel

and all the money is long gone,

when everything shuts down

and living or dying
doesn't make any difference,

that there
at the end of the line,

at the bottom of the pit,
it isn't too late!

[Kitten]
Some of these prisons

only had a handful of books,

and they'd read them
and they'd pass them on.

One guy was considering suicide,

and somebody
passed him this book,

and, uh, he told Jack
it had changed his life.

Well, you hear that
from ten people,

it tends to ignite you.

[Franky Donnelly]
More and more, Murphy begins

enrolling in every self-help,

motivational course,
religious program

that the prison has.

[Bob Williamson]
Once he became a Christian,

he turned on a dime.

He was just a model inmate.

[Kitten]
When Jack finally got out of

the drug business for good,

the only thing
that he could think of

that would
make him money was artwork.

And so he started painting.

He took orders
for one Christmas,

and he made a lot of money,

but he almost
went blind doing it.

[Tom Arnold] He was
a very confident person.

He knew how the game was played.

You got to show that you're
changed and rehabilitated.

I knew he was
doing the church stuff,

and for his sake, I hope
he was telling the truth of why.

But only him
and the good Lord knows that.

[Jack] With most guys
doing long sentences,

the worst time in prison

is when you go
to the parole board.

[Kitten] You try not
to get excited, but you do.

And they have to give you
some kind of hope,

or the system fails.

[Frank] All of you
who felt the shame...

[Kitten]
Frank and I had a fight

because he kept telling me,

"Oh, yeah, I can get them out.
I can do this, I can do that."

I finally got fed up with it.

And I said, "Look,
if you're not gonna do it,

tell me, and I'll go elsewhere
to get Jack out."

[Jack]
Here's an opportunity

that the door might open

and so you're all
pumped up for that.

And then they turn you down,

and they said, "Well,
we'll see you in five years."

♪♪♪

[Kitten]
Louie Wainwright,

he went to
the parole board for Jack,

he's never been to
the parole board

before or since.

♪♪♪

And he said,
"If we're to tell these guys

that, 'You're going to prison'

and you're gonna
rehabilitate them,

then who better than
show them Jack Murphy?"

[reporter] "The continuous media
exploitation of 'Murf the Surf'

has haunted my life
beyond belief.

But it is Jack Roland Murphy

whom I'd like you
to consider at this hearing."

[Pat Robertson] "I would say
that he is a sincere Christian

"and has truly had
a change of heart

from the type
of person he once was."

[Kitten]
"After 15 long years,

"it can truly be said
that Jack Murphy

is a changed man,
changed for the better."

[Jerry Spicer]
"I feel so strongly

"about Jack Murphy's
sincerity and genuineness

"that if it were possible,

I would gladly
do his time for him."

[prisoner 1] "Jack Murphy
is a menace to society,

"a con and as phony
as Santa Claus

"coming down the chimney.

"Some people can forgive,

"however, you never forget.

What he did
was ghastly and horrible."

[Ken Glassman]
"Murphy 'found religion.'

"Is it wrong to be cynical
at the high percentage of felons

"who become converts after
they lay a trail of carnage?

"When one considers
the violence,

loss and bloodshed
that Murphy caused,

is this the man that society

wants back
within its community?"

[Harry G. Hinckley] "I read
with horror that Jack Murphy

"is being considered for parole.

What a mockery this type of
justice makes of our system."

[woman] "I read in this
morning'sArizona Republic

"about the pending release
of Jack 'Murf the Surf' Murphy.

"It has bothered me all day
that he could have killed

a woman less than 20 years ago
and is about to go free."

[superintendent] "Because Jack
Murphy is intelligent

"and has the ability
to be manipulative,

it is difficult
to judge his actions.

Has a career criminal
with superior intelligence

matured sufficiently
to allow him

in the community safely?

The decision will
most probably have to be made

by somebody someday.

I hope it isn't myself."

[Edna Buchanan] He was
never supposed to be able

to be out free.

I called some of the cops

that he'd used to deal with
and I said, "Guess what?

They're gonna parole
Murf the Surf."

One cop was so upset,

he said--
you can write this down.

He said,
"If I see him in Miami Beach,

I'm gonna
put a bullet in his head."

♪♪♪

♪♪♪