Larry Murphy is a self-employed carpenter who crisscrossed the Carlow/Wicklow/ Kildare area on building jobs. He usually had two or three jobs on at a time. This type of unregulated working arrangement is suited to someone who stalks and attacks women.
Murphy followed his father's trade, becoming apprenticed as a carpenter after leaving Scoil Chonglais in Baltinglass, where he is remembered as a good football player. He was regarded locally as reliable and hardworking and had regular work, often with a local contractor.
If he had not been spotted by the two hunters at Kilranelagh in the Wicklow Mountains, gar dai would probably have remained oblivious to him as a highly dangerous man. In hindsight, people who knew him in the Baltinglass area have commented on how much of his life was a disguise. Although he gave the pretence of being a contented parent of two young children with a third on the way, it is known he had affairs. Local people speak of one incident where he accosted a woman in a pub, starting a row. However, the incident was not thought serious enough to merit a complaint to the Garda.
No one appears to have suspected how dangerous a man he had become. Murphy comes from a highly respected family. His parents still live in the Stratford area of Co Wicklow, although his wife has moved away, taking her small children with her.