[3] In July 1918 he shipped off to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station to serve in the United States Navy in World War I after 3 years at Creighton University.
[6] After the war, he spent two years practicing law in Falls City, Nebraska, before coming to Omaha to work as a lawyer in 1921.
Julius K. Johnson, the pianist who performed the soundtrack of the 1925 movie, "The Wizard of Oz" (not the more famous 1939 version) and who wrote the Boy Scout Parade March was originally from Omaha.
Murphy was a guest along with George Mascott, August Herman, Frank Hodek, Billy Meyers, Chester Heyn, Dr. E. H. Wilson, and Henry G.
James J. Morrin under a committee of Paul L Martin, Edith Beckman, Charles Bongardt, William P Lynch, and L J Te Poel.
[26] He was also co-chair of a project by the North Omaha Kiwanis club to provide fresh fruit on all World War II hospital trains passing through town.
[27] He announced that he opened a law office with Clair M. Roddewig at 418–19 Union State Bank Building in downtown Omaha at 19th and Farnam in April 1930.
[30] To that point, police court gave only very little time to each case and allowed very unruly behavior, which Murphy and others claimed resulted in many who were being tried for drunken driving not being adequately prosecuted and escaping without punishment.
[33] However his public stature was quite grown, and in February 1937 he was notified that he would be accepted as assistant to the District Attorney in Omaha as a replacement of Fred Q. Hawxby with approval of the US congress.
In 1938 he prosecuted an interesting case against Lester Morehouse who ran an illegal still on a river island or east of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.
[38] He remained involved with politics, campaigning in his home neighborhood of Florence on behalf of Democratic House of Representatives reelection of Charles F. McLaughlin in 1938.
[41] In a case he cited as his most memorable when he resigned as assistant district attorney in 1945,[42] Murphy was the lead prosecution in the successful trial of the First Mortgage Acceptance Corporation head L C "safety Sam" Holmes for fraud, the group selling over a million dollars in participation certificates in mortgages which the prosecution claimed were worthless.
[43] In March 1945 his fellow assistant DA, William H. Meier was replaced by Warren C. Schrempp,[44] and he himself resigned in August 1945 to be succeeded by Anthony Z.
He was survived by his wife, Georgia, his sons District Court Judge John E and Lt. Col. Melvin, daughters Mary Mea (m. William Collamer), Joan (m. Richard Hill), and Marguerite (m. Dennis Murphy) of Omaha.
[58] He was remembered a "having a brilliant legal career, being a strong supporter of education, both public and parochial, and quietly assisting many young people who needed help".