He Didn't Stand a Chance? The Joe Murphy Story

When a boy grows up in such extreme poverty and with such extreme abuse that his life seems destined for failure, is it fair to impose the death penalty even for the most heinous of crimes?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Midwest Crime Files. I'm your host, Gina. I'm here to tell you the stories of small towns and the heinous crimes that change them forever. This week's story is called He Didn't Stand a Chance, The Story of Joseph Murphy. So this is a story of a man who did commit horrible crimes, and but it's also more of a story of his background and a decision for the reader to make, or in this case the listener, um, to decide whether or not you think Joseph Murphy's childhood mitigated his circumstances and whether or not you believe that he deserved the death penalty. So let's jump right in. Jackie Valentine, a supervisor for the homemaker and chore program for Marion County, the Department of Human Services, which delivered meals to the elderly, received a call on the morning of February 2nd, 1987, stating that one client was not answering her door. Concerned for the client, Ruth Predmore, a 72-year-old, Jackie went to Ruth's home and entered because the front door was unlocked. Ruth's home, inside she found the woman lying in a puddle of her own blood. Her throat had been savagely slashed to the point where the woman's head was almost decapitated from her body. In order to cut someone's throat so severely that you almost decapitate them, imagine the amount of force you have to use. Jackie, shocked and devastated, immediately called the Marion County Police Department and a murder investigation was started immediately. The first officer to arrive was Sammy Justice, appropriately named for a police officer, I will say. He discovered bloody footprints on the porch, blood splatter on the screen door, and the wooden front door. More investigators arrived and found a note inside the home. The note threatened Miss Predmore that if she didn't provide money, she would be killed. More blood samples were also collected. Meanwhile, down the street, 21-year-old Joseph Murphy, a young man who had run had multiple run-ins already with the law for theft, arson, and he was admitting to his family that he was the one who slashed Miss Predmord's throat. He said it happened during a botched robbery. He said he was trying to get money to help his sister who was having medical problems. He then took off with his girlfriend to his aunt's house in Virginia. He was quickly on the police's radar, however. The police searched his aunt's house where he was staying and found a pair of shoes with bloodstains and a bloodstained vest. They also found blue jeans and other items of clothing that contained the same blood type as Miss Predmore. We have to remember this was before DNA testing was readily available in the standard. They also found a knife that revealed traces of blood. They found a bank card belonging to Ruth Predmore in Joe's possession. He admitted that he wrote the note stating that state it stated, quote, leave money out or I will kill you. On February 11th, 1987, Joseph Predmore was charged with the capital murder of Ruth Predmore, meaning they wanted to seek the death penalty. Joseph admitted that he killed Ruth Predmore. His innocence was never a question. He states that Miss Ruth Predmore was a nice woman who often paid him to do odd jobs for her. He stated that he regrets that day and he wishes he could take it back. However, others see that note that he left the day before as premeditation to the murder. And they see it as he wanted to rob the woman and threatened to kill her if she did not comply to the robbery. And so it's been seen a couple of different ways. According to Joseph, it wasn't premeditated. What he says is that he was going to rob Miss Predmore of a VCR that February day for the sole purpose of helping his sister who needed help after a motorcycle accident. Although he was never charged, he alleges that his brother-in-law was also involved and was breaking into the back of the house as he broke into the front of the house. He said that he heard Miss Predmore and got scared. He said that he took his knife out to cut the phone line, but he wasn't sure which line was the phone line. When Miss Predmore caught him and said, What are you doing? Get out of here. He swung the knife and then ran off. It's noted though that the deep neck wounds that almost decapitated Miss Predmore, they don't really align with just somebody getting scared and swinging the knife quickly. These were very deep wounds. The defense in Joseph Murphy's trial knew that he would be found guilty of first degree murder. So their primary goal was not to find him innocent. Their primary goal was to avoid the death penalty for Joe Murphy. Joe Murphy was char um was born, I'm sorry, on March 22nd, 1965, to Jerry and Stella Murphy. He was the third of their six children. Life started in Clay County, West Virginia, where they lived in a tar paper shack. Tar paper is roofing material that's made of cardboard waste coated in tar to make it waterproof. There's actually a picture of one of the shacks that they lived in. They lived in multiple because they would start on fire and they'd have to have new ones. The family lived in absolute poverty that most of us cannot imagine. Their home was filled with cockroaches, mice, absolute filth. During childhood, they did not have running water or sanitation. And this is something for somebody that was born in 1965, this is something that most of us cannot even imagine. The type of poverty that Joe Murphy actually lived in. His father, Jerry's alcoholism, was so severe that he when he ran out of alcoholic drinks, he would drink the rubbing alcohol from the kitchen or from the bathroom rather. He also traded his sons to men for sex in exchange for alcohol, including Joey. Joey suffered sexual abuse from a very young age. He remembers coming home after one instance of sexual abuse bleeding from his rectum and telling his mother about the sexual abuse while bleeding from his rectum. His mother started beating him with the switch, believing he was lying and that he had been playing in a creek and cut himself on glass instead. On one occasion, Stella became worried about the so uh the social worker seeing the many welts from being beaten on Joey's back. And according to Joey, she told her his dad to do something about it, and he took him out back, tied him to a box spring, and lit him back on fire to cover the welts. Now Joey's brother sees remembers that story differently and remembers Joey setting himself on fire. Um sort of back to the sexual abuse. Um his father, Jerry, was known to have affairs with men, and this caused him and Stella to divorce and remarry three different times. Uh the sexual affairs that his father would have would include with his brother-in-law's um and his son-in-law's. His um the abuse with his mother was pretty severe. They told Joey that he was retarded, and I don't use that word except for that that was the word that they called him. Otherwise, I would not use that word. Um the Joey's IQ was very low, and they collected a social security check for him, and they were very concerned about that check. According to Joey, um they were always very concerned about receiving the Social Security checks. Joey once accidentally set a fire before his mother was preparing to beat him for some di indiscretion. With all the excitement of the fire, his mother forgot to beat him. Joey said that's the day he started setting fires after he would do something that upset his mother because that would have helped him to avoid beatings. And so he got the nickname Pyro Joe, and he was diagnosed as a pyromaniac, although he says he doesn't truly believe that's accurate because it was more of a defense mechanism. Joey was placed in facilities from time to time and diagnosed with various mental illnesses. He apparently killed small animals, set fires, committed robberies, and participated in other petty crimes. Some of this he admits to, but others he says are not accurate and are just things his mother said to continue to collect Social Security checks on him. He states he was blamed for some things that his parents did. He was made to sleep on the floor at the end of his parents' bed every night. He was then uh once when he was discharged from some of these facilities as a juvenile, his social worker would buy him new clothes and his mother would always give them away to his siblings. Once he bought once she bought him a large suitcase to put his clothing in, and his parents made him sleep in it. He said, though, that it was more comfortable than the floor. When the verdict came in for the murder trial, Joey was of course found guilty of first degree murder, and he was also given the death sentence. Despite multiple appeals, they were all denied, and it seems the state of Ohio was not concerned about the abuse or horrific childhood of Joe Murphy and was content on executing him. However, the family of Ruth Predmore was concerned about the horrific abuse that Joe had growing up. They stood with his attorneys and asked Governor John Cash I can't pronounce his last name, guys, Cashish to give him clemency. The governor said, quote, the murder of Ruth Pregmore was heinous and disturbing, and he deserves and continues to receive severe punishment. Even though a child and adolescent, Murphy even though as a child and adolescent, Murphy suffered severe and sustained verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from those who agreed to have loved him, it does not excuse his crime. After examining in this case in detail and with counsel, I agree with Chief Justice Moyer, the National Association of Mental Illness, and the parole board's unanimous eight-no decision that considering Joseph Murphy's brutal, abusive upbringing and relatively young age at which he committed this terrible crime, the death penalty is not appropriate in this case. Thus, I have commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. End quote. So he did get clemency and his sentence was commuted to life without parole. The irony of that situation, though, is that Joe Murphy's life is better in prison than it ever was before he went to prison. His life, actually, even on death row, was more peaceful than it had ever been outside the prison walls. He has more safety and security in prison than he did as a free man. He is no longer being abused. He no longer has contact with any of his family. His father and older sister have since died. Apparently, his I say apparently and allegedly, his mother was very upset that he was not executed and was against clemency. Um, Joseph has spoken to and been forgiven by Ruth Predmore's family members. They believe that it is his parents' fault that he is the way that he is. He has become part of a spiritual community in prison. He's also working on his reading and writing skills despite his low IQ, and they are improving. It seems that he has taken advantage of some of the resources that he's been given, including animal therapy inside the prison walls. And to watch a documentary where he is very attentive, playing with a cat, to imagine him killing animals as a small child, it's hard to put those two things together. So I wonder if that's something he really did or something that they just told the social worker for um to ensure that he continued to get a check. So what do you think? Did Joe Murphy stand a chance? I think the amount of abuse that he faced was horrendous. Horrendous. I think the statute, but for the statute of limitations on some of those things that happened to him, like child abuse and sex abuse, I think that his parents deserved to be in prison, quite frankly. Um they literally pimped their child out for alcohol. He was never shown any love whatsoever. His mother was abusive and used him as a paycheck. His father used him, um, literally pimped him out for alcohol. Do I think he stood a chance? Um, I think everybody stands a chance if they want to. I don't think anyone is destined to become a murderer. Um, I still think he's lying a little bit about the situation of that day because you don't just swing a knife and almost decapitate someone. He had to have had a lot more force with the brutality of that murder. So I don't think he's being completely honest about that. Um I think he still has some soul searching to do, to be completely honest. Um do I think he stood a chance? Yes, but I don't think he got what he needed. I think they should have taken him away from those parents and never given him back. And he would have done a lot better in his life if they had taken him away from those parents and never given him back ever. Um, do I agree with the commutation of his death sentence? Uh I think I do. I don't think he's someone I think the mitigating circumstances do outweigh the heinousness of the crime in this situation. I really do believe that. Um and I believe that he is actually honestly living a better life in prison than he ever did out of prison. I believe he's somebody that is being shown God's love and mercy for the first time in his entire life, even if it isn't behind bars. And I believe that he's someone that can be shown love and mercy for the first time in his life and live out his life behind bars without being a threat to anyone else, and actually become saved, if that's what you want to call it. I hate saying that word, it makes me sound like an Uber Christian, but like he's someone that can actually learn and be redeemed and find redemption even if he never is a free man again. He can live out his life behind bars and actually be a good person or learn to be a good person. Um I think he can find Jesus behind behind bars, that's my opinion. So, yes, I I agree with his the commutation of his death sentence. I think there's more that to Joe Murphy's life, or there could be more to Joe Murphy's life, but from behind bars, I don't think he should ever be eligible for parole. And so, did the mitigating circumstances outweigh the brutality? I don't I don't know if I want to say it would outweigh the brutality, but I do think that it it meets somewhere. I think there should be another opportunity for Joe Murphy to be safe and learn about life away from his mom and dad. That's my opinion. So will you guys tell me what your thoughts are? Did Joe Murphy stand a chance? Do you agree with the commutation of his sentence? Um, do you agree with the clemency? What do you think? So let me know. Like and follow us on Facebook. Visit us at www.themidwestcrimefile.com. Become a Patreon member if you like. And also I want to know what your guys' thoughts are on last week's episode, the um Jade's story that has been a story in the making for over five years. So let me know what your thoughts are. Have a good day.