Meet The Team

Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy, author, artist, sportsman, musician, missionary, and Christian motivational speaker, gained notoriety in 1964 for the “Jewel Robbery of the Century” when he and a partner stole the J.P. Morgan Gem Collection, including the Star of India, the world’s largest Star Sapphire, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

For that caper and other serious crimes, Murf spent 21 years in New York and Florida prisons. In 1986, he was released from prison on life parole. In 2000, his parole was completely terminated.

Murf’s book “Jewels for the Journey” and a TV documentary he directed, “San Quentin Homecoming Reunion” both won Hollywood Angel Awards for Evangelism. In 1986, Murf was on the team that produced the National Prison Invasion. On one weekend, 20,000 Christian volunteers went into 485 American and Canada prisons where they introduced 25,000 inmates to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jack was a keynote speaker in Jerusalem at the 1st World Conference on Crime Prevention and Recidivism through Religion. He is a regular on Christian Radio & TV and has appeared on the Larry King Live show. In 1997, Murf was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Legends HALL OF FAME.

For over three decades Jack has served as a professional speaker and witness for Christ with organizations to include Inmate Encounter,  Bill Glass Champions for Life Prison Ministry,  International Network of Prison Ministries (INPM), KAIROS, Chaplain Ray’s International Prison Ministry (IPM), Good News Jail & Prison Ministries (GNJPM),the Coalition of Prison Evangelists (C.O.P.E.), Campus Crusade for Christ, Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI), the Gospel Echoes and Gospel Express, Passion for Prison, 4 Given Ministries, and many other ministries across the world.  Murf has spoken in over 2,000 prisons in America, England, Ukraine, Siberia, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Barbados, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, and South Africa.