Lawrence Gustave Murphy (1831-20 October 1878) was an Irish-American businessman of the Wild West. He owned a general store monopoly in Lincoln, New Mexico, and his rivalry with English immigrant businessman John Tunstall and Tunstall's subsequent murder led to the Lincoln County War of 1878.
Biography[]
Lawrence Gustave Murphy was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1831, and he moved to the United States as an adult, serving in the US Army during the American Civil War. He was mustered out at Fort Stanton in 1866, and his connections with fellow Republicans led to him being supplied military contracts to provide beef, vegetables, and other supplies to the Apache reservation. In 1869, he started L.G. Murphy & Co. in Lincoln County, New Mexico, and many important politicians invested in his business monopoly, giving him great influence. He was able to operate with impunity, and he even took a Chinese laundromat owner's daughter, Yen Sun, as a sex slave as repayment for the laundromat's ruining of one of his shirts.
Lincoln County War[]
In 1876, English immigrant John Tunstall set up a rival business in Lincoln, and he sold goods at decent prices, threatening Murphy's monopoly. Murphy had Tunstall murdered in February 1878, leading to the Lincoln County War, in which gangs loyal to Murphy fought against the Lincoln County Regulators under Tunstall's ally Alexander McSween. The war culminated in the Battle of Lincoln in July, in which the Regulators were dispersed and suppressed. However, Murphy fell ill with cancer, and he died that October.