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“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”
— Tacitus
Much isn’t known about what Murphy’s earlier life was like. What little we do know is that he used to work at a movie theater when he was a kid, and that he’s hailed from from Boston, Massachusetts. Given his keen aptitude with cars, it might be safe to assume that he used to work on cars, or he was at least a handyman of sorts.
It’s stated that he grew up in an orphanage, and thus was potentially raised Catholic. Given that he mentions no other family except for a grandmother (and the only thing he remembers about her is a gramophone), Murphy had a pretty troubled childhood. What more, he fell into delinquent status pretty early in his life. Nothing more than petty theft and property damage, and he was never caught as he had a relatively clean record.
When he met Carol, everything was sweet. Somewhere down the line he even became a family man — a loving husband to Carol and doting father to Charlie Pendleton, where they would live in a rather pleasant neighborhood in Boston. Murphy would spend time with his son, flying kites and playing ball together and... you know, typical stuff that happens between father and son. Murphy also shared his fondness for cars with Charlie, as the two used to work on them together. For several years, Murphy Pendleton could have considered himself to be the happiest man alive.
As expected with any horror story, the life as Murphy knew it took a turn for the worse when Charlie had been kidnapped while walking home from Robbins Elementary School by Patrick Napier. Napier was the Pendletons’ mentally unstable next-door neighbor. He was also a pedophile.
Some time afterwards, Napier drove the van to a nearby lake, stuffed Charlie into a canvas sack, and threw the boy into the water where he ultimately drowned. Charlie was only six years old when his life ended.
For Murphy, his life no longer had a future, either. He tried to mend his marriage with Carol by way of grief counseling, but as what the death of a child oftentimes does to some surviving parents, the relationship went sour and they began to split apart. Murphy became withdrawn and angry with himself, and Carol just began to resent him for it. All he could think about was how his son was dead, but his killer was still alive, and how he couldn’t rest until he found the monster who had taken his baby away.
before we met and even after.
How you came to know me, see me for what I am and love me.
Now I need your forgiveness more than ever as I can’t forgive myself.”
After struggling through therapy sessions with Dr. Rett Cairn, a psychiatrist specialized in helping parents cope with the loss of their child, Carol finally filed for divorce. Murphy desperately sought forgiveness from his wife, but she vehemently turned him down, telling him that he destroyed everything she had left. She left him with a rather cruel letter (“Don’t call me. Don’t write. I never want to see you again,” she said), it was over. After they separated, Murphy moved out, tortured by the final words that Carol had offered him.
As a result, Murphy’s grief turned into something much darker: When his neighbor was convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and murdering an eight-year-old, Murphy figured out who his son’s killer was. It should also be noted that Patrick Napier was apparently not convicted for killing Charlie, but a boy from Brahms named Daniel Stephens. Murphy may as well have put two and two together. Although he had tried to find peace knowing that Charlie’s killer was locked up, Murphy was too hellbent on revenge after losing control of everything else that his life had become. And it all just went downhill from there.
but for me the world stopped the moment your smile left it forever.”
On February 25th, police reports stated that Murphy had broken into a parked police cruiser, which he hot wired and took off recklessly, speeding out at 10:45pm. He was then pursued southbound down Interstate 94. This chase continued for ten hours and well into Ashfield, where police were able to set dispatched road spikes to take out the stolen police car the next day. Murphy had been apprehended for car theft and evading police arrest.
The idea of running for so long in order to cross the state line between Massachusetts and Maine was most likely so that Murphy could get the maximum sentence. It was also decided by endangering as many civilian lives as he could. For several years Murphy Pendleton had been incarcerated at the Ryall State Corrections Facility, though for how long it’s never stated. It can be safely assumed that he had spent enough time being surrounded by hardened criminals, that Murphy himself had become benumbed to the everyday violence that surrounded.
Over the course of Murphy’s incarceration, he had developed great respect for his corrections officer, Frank Coleridge. Frank would present Murphy’s case to the parole board, and put forth a lot of effort towards Murphy’s release, always looking out for him. Murphy’s past actions admittedly confused Frank, as someone who checked out with a clean psych record and no history of violence. To Frank, he saw no reason for Murphy’s mindless car chase down the eastern seaboard. “Maybe I just needed to escape from the world for awhile,” was Murphy’s answer.
In truth, Coleridge had walked in on the corrupt officer, George Sewell, attempting to strike up a deal with Murphy. When Coleridge inquired about it, Murphy simply explained that it was just “unfinished business” that he had to take care of, and that he had it all under control. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Because Napier had been a sequestered prisoner, that had rendered him untouchable. This meant that Murphy needed inside help to actually reach his son’s murderer.
Murphy made an agreement with Sewell that, in exchange for owing him a favor, he would set up a chance for Murphy to kill Napier. Focused on his own agenda, Murphy didn’t think about Sewell’s possible ulterior motives at the time. He believed Sewell to be all right, though — certainly not the kind of guy who would go against his word.
So he agreed. The C.O. tricked Napier into the secluded showers, where Murphy was there waiting for him. Murphy then proceeded to violently beat, slash, and stab Napier to death. The investigation following Napier’s murder was ultimately unsolved after Sewell did well to scrub up the incident, leaving Murphy in the clear.
With his son’s killer out of the way, it was Murphy’s turn to fulfill his end of the bargain. In return for killing Napier, Murphy would have to kill someone else, to which Sewell assured that the guy “deserved it”. Murphy was due to leave prison soon, but if he refused, Sewell would report what Murphy did to Napier, which would undoubtedly prevent his release. Recognizing a blackmail when he saw one, Murphy agreed. Like Napier, Sewell arranged for Murphy to meet this person in the washroom in the midst of an orchestrated prison riot. With the other guards distracted, Murphy would have the chance to take out his second hit, thus finishing his end of the agreement.
- but you just love to play those games of yours, don’t you? Offering a deal that is hard to decline.
Well... I couldn’t.”
The man meeting him in the showers turned out to be Frank Coleridge. After the decorated officer had become aware of Sewell’s involvement in several cases of drug trafficking, coercion, and violence among the prisoners, Coleridge had initiated an investigation on Sewell. What more, because of the investigation Coleridge had placed on Sewell for illegal activities, the C.O. was unable to discuss any promotions or merit wage increase for some time. Sewell had set up this incident in order to force Murphy to take Coleridge out for not keeping his mouth shut. Once he realized what Sewell had got him into, Murphy broke his end of the deal, unable to kill someone that he genuinely respected. Sewell then lashed out, bludgeoning Coleridge and then Murphy before stabbing the decorated officer with a shiv. With Murphy’s prints on the weapon and his word over an officer’s, Sewell had no trouble pinning the whole attack on him.
The pathetic irony of it all was that Coleridge had successfully presented Murphy as a “model prisoner”, who was due for early release because of the non-violent nature of his original crime. While Coleridge did survive the attack, his injuries had rendered him into a vegetative state, leaving the decorated officer wheelchair bound for years before he finally died. With the promise that cop killers don’t make it long in prison, Sewell practically signed Murphy’s death warrant.
The riot was eventually brought to an end when prison guards stormed the place armed with tear gas, batons, and shotguns. Four prisoners were killed, and a number of officers (Frank Coleridge included) were injured. Even after a full investigation, no evidence linked Sewell to being the instigator of the riot.
Some years afterwards, Murphy was to be sent to Wayside Maximum Security Prison, along with a group of seven other prisoners. While boarding the prison transfer bus, he met the Wayside C.O., Anne Cunningham. She didn’t seem to like him in particular very much, darting proverbial daggers with her eyes during the bus ride from Ryall State Corrections Facility. Then again, no one liked a cop killer, especially if you were a cop. But Cunningham’s was a very special kind of dislike for a reason that was beyond even Murphy.
Of course, passing trips through Silent Hill for troubled individuals never quite go from Point A to Point B. After one of the fellow convicts, Sanchez, started asking Murphy about what happened to Coleridge, Cunningham was set off. The driver, distracted, veered the bus off the road in attempt to avoid colliding into one of the many chasms surrounding the town’s foggy reality. They landed in a ravine. The crash was devastating, and when Murphy regained consciousness, he was thrown several feet from the bus. Everyone had mysteriously vanished. So did his handcuffs.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Murphy decided to take his chances by putting as much distance between himself and the bus as possible. He hiked through the ravine, discovering a mangled body of one of the prisoners that clearly hadn’t been caused by the wreck. Unnerved by this discovery, Murphy ventured deeper into the wilds, meeting with Cunningham, a gun aimed at his head, and a chasm in between them. Though baffled, Murphy was more inclined to talk the C.O. down before getting herself killed trying to cross the perilous rock-side. As expected, she slipped, dangling over the rocky ledge. Despite any efforts made to help her, she fell into the chasm anyway.
Making his way to the outskirts, Murphy met Howard Blackwood, an overly friendly mailman who seemed a bit too quick to strike a casual conversation with someone dressed in a convict jumpsuit, and even jokingly asked him if he was headed to prison. Though Howard showed no hurry to call the authorities, Murphy was immediately on his guard (it didn’t help that he did just catch Murphy as he was about to break into a car). Regardless, Howard gave Murphy some helpful advice, telling him that the roads are all out, but he could take the sky-tram to get out of the area. As Murphy glanced away briefly, he caught sight of a disfigured-looking person hanging out in one of the windows of the adjacent houses, but vanished with a second glance. Not witnessed to the figure, Howard left to supposedly “deliver mail” (to a completely abandoned town), and Murphy went about his own merry way into the Devil’s Pitstop diner. It was there where Murphy underwent his first Otherworld experience...
In his attempt to extinguish a fire he had accidentally started in the diner’s kitchen, the walls proceeded to shed away into a hellish, watery reality. Obviously questioning his sanity at this point, Murphy continued on, only to be run down by a red Void. With the memory of Frank Coleridge’s voice prompting him to run, Murphy didn’t hesitate, and gave chase with the Void hot on his heels.
Eventually, Murphy managed to escape the nasty prison of his own ugly mind, and somehow wound up back at the diner again, just as it had been before. Either way, it didn’t affect his resolve to get out of this crazy town and never look back. He left the diner, and explored the hotel next door, where he stumbled upon what appeared to be Sanchez violently beating a woman. While Murphy attempted to wrestle Sanchez off of the woman, a monster stood up, slit Sanchez’s throat with its claws, and proceeded to attack Murphy who was more quick to defend himself.
Deciding that it would be better to keep a low profile after his last encounter with Howard, he managed to find a set of civilian clothes in one of the abandoned houses. In the pockets, he discovered both a key to the outside gate, and a mourning police badge (the black ribbon around it signifying the death of the officer that owned it).
After obtaining a ticket to the sky-tram, the next stop was the Devil’s Pit (a gorge on the southeastern side of town). There, he met JP Sater, who was formerly the tour guide of the Devil’s Pit. Sater’s melancholy use of past tense when referring to the kids who used to ride the train in the mines reeked of bad news, but Murphy wasn’t one to pry. With only his own welfare in mind, he had Sater point him the way out via the old train through the mines. When Murphy asked him to show him the way to the train himself, Sater simply replied, “Sorry. There’s some place I gotta be.”
One romp through the monster-infested mines later, Murphy ran into Sater outside once again. This time, Sater had taken it upon himself to “enjoyed the view” of the Devil’s Pit. On the lookout rail, no less. Having read some newspaper articles regarding the train accident that killed eight children, and a drunk and belligerent Sater who had caused the derailment, there was no question as to what he was doing hanging over the edge. Literally. Murphy had issues finding any sympathy for a guy whose negligence killed all those kids, believing Sater to be a coward taking the easy way out. Sater told him that there’s nothing easy about being a coward, and then jumped to his death. Murphy couldn’t even bring himself to regret his inaction, going so far as to believe that the “world’s better off without him.”
It sounded like an apology and an accusation at the same time,
but just a little bit underneath I wonder... did he even pity me?”
Murphy then took a ride on the nightmare train (truly fun for all the family), before blacking out and being flown from the ride. He woke up, finding shortly afterward that Cunningham had somehow managed to survive that fall into the chasm. And she was not in the least bit happy. Determined to take Murphy down, she pushed him up against the wall, and discovered the mourning badge in his pocket while patting him down. Shocked by this, she demanded where Murphy had got it, then nearly shot him there on the spot. Realizing that she lacked the resolve to finish him off, she backed away, now wrought with tears and apologizing profusely (but seemingly not to Murphy). Flipping between anguish and whatever kind of vendetta she had with Murphy, she told him to go. Still thinking that they should be helping each other instead of pointing guns, Murphy hesitantly acquiesced the request. He had no idea why she seemed to hate him so much. She wasn’t anything like the corrupt guards who got their kicks abusing the prisoners under their watch. Even Howard later told him that her beef with him had to be something personal.
When Murphy finally made it to Silent Hill, there was no sign of civilization to be found. He was instead met with a completely deserted town, populated solely by monsters and a terrible storm overhead. Seeking shelter in one of the buildings, he caught word from a voice over the radio, frequently making song dedications to Murphy Pendleton. Figuring that it was someone who could give him answers as to what was going on in the town, he decided to seek out the radio DJ, Bobby Ricks. Howard showed up briefly once again to point Murphy in the direction of the WLMN FM radio station in the Centennial Building, before vanishing without a trace just as he had before.
During Murphy’s trek through the town, he began picking up odd pieces of paper pertaining to his personal life. The police reports from when he’d been arrested, parole papers regarding his early release... Even pictures of the crime scene from when Charlie was murdered, down to his son’s missing posters began manifesting throughout Silent Hill.
Murphy eventually managed to make his way up the Centennial Building, meeting up with DJ Bobby Ricks at the WLMN FM radio station. He casually greeted Murphy, but once dropping the act, revealed that he had a boat that he would take out of town if someone hadn’t jacked the keys. Murphy then found himself at gunpoint when Cunningham showed up again, demanding to use Ricks’ phone. This hostile reunion was cut extremely short when the station was attacked by a group of monsters, and everything went dark. When the lights came on, everything was silent and Murphy was alone again, trapped in the blood-splattered radio station.
but in the end that narrow margin between knowing and doing,
that little bit of courage to do things on your own, he lacked."
As a result of purposefully starting a fire in order to gain access to the emergency exit, the world began to peel away again; bringing forth more of the hellish reality that sprung from Murphy’s psyche. The red Void made an untimely reappearance, and another chase began. Here, Murphy encountered the strange, wheelchair-bound creature he’d seen hanging in the windowpane by the Devil’s Pitstop. But before he could confront the figure, the ground gave way and Murphy fell through the building, catching passing glances of a little girl and Cunningham running across a couple catwalks — and a figure wearing a gasmask and a raincoat (the Bogeyman). He was then thrown onto the clocktower, where he began falling to his death. He woke up, however, on a roadside bench, completely unscathed.
Howard showed up again, delivering a letter addressed to Murphy from St. Maria’s Monastery. Frustrated with all of the cryptics, Murphy threw the letter down, and lost his temper with Howard. The mailman, handing another copy of the same letter to Murphy, casually informed him that it wasn’t a matter of what he wanted. Howard left, and that was the last time Murphy would see him. He then resigned to his next destination.
I still can’t figure out whether I should fear him or trust him, but still...
he’s the closest thing to what I would call a responsible person around here.”
At St. Maria’s Monastery, a nun was seemingly waiting to tell him that he was the only family that they were able to find. Murphy was confused by this, most likely because he didn’t have any family left for anyone to contact. Despite insisting that there had been a mistake, the nun invited him inside anyway, told him to have a look around, and that she’d be waiting for him in the morgue. Before Murphy could ask her what was going on, she was gone.
The monastery was in dismal condition, making it impossible to reach the morgue without finding a roundabout way to get there. Murphy shortly encountered a little boy playing with a toy police car behind a locked door. While attempting to strike up a conversation with the kid, the boy believed Murphy to be “the Bogeyman” because a girl had told him so. In order to prove that he wasn’t the Bogeyman, Murphy was forced to track down a rhyme that the boy said could prevent the Bogeyman from hurting you, deciding that he was going to help the boy and girl get out of this town. Sadly it was too little too late, as when Murphy finally made it back, the boy was being attacked by the real Bogeyman Murphy had seen in the Otherworld. Unable to recite the rhyme fast enough while desperately trying to break down the door, the Bogeyman snapped the boy’s neck right in front of Murphy. The door then opened, and Murphy approached the boy’s body as he began to recall the death of his own son. While regretting that he hadn’t been able to act fast enough to save both boys, the girl (notably, the same girl that had been running through the Otherworld with Cunningham, and Murphy had been previous chasing all over the monastery) appeared. Screaming, the girl accused Murphy of killing the boy, and fled. Murphy promptly ran after her, fearing that she would get herself killed too, as the monastery transformed into the Otherworld. Here, Murphy encountered both the Void and the Bogeyman himself while trying to track down the little girl. He managed to escape both, finding the girl talking to the creature in the wheelchair. Before Murphy could catch up with them, the floor fell through and plunged him into an abyss.
Murphy woke up on a gurney in the morgue, where he met the nun standing over a covered stretcher. Outraged when she had told him that he had to sign for his son’s body, Murphy explained that he had already buried his son a long time ago. When the body was unveiled, his “son” was revealed to be the Bogeyman. Murphy exclaimed that it was a murderous monster, to which the nun responded, “I suppose that runs in the family.” Murphy accepted that what he did to Napier didn’t solve anything, but continued to justify his revenge because his son was gone, his life was out of control, and he didn’t see any other way but to choose the path he’d taken. The nun asked him at which point does the path to revenge end, which apparently allowed Murphy to "accept" his actions rather than just making excuses for them. Telling him that the answers were in front of him if he looked for them, Murphy noticed the Bogeyman wearing Ricks’ boat keys around its neck.
Just when Murphy claimed the boat keys, the Bogeyman grabbed him, lifting Murphy and hurled him into the wall. While the nun began praying, the Bogeyman whacked Murphy with its cinder-block/hammer, and all faded back to black. Murphy was then lying in what appeared to be the front yard of his old house in Boston, while hearing the voice of Charlie screaming for help in the distance. Following the sound of Charlie’s cries, Murphy was led down to the lakeside that resembled the place where Napier had murdered his son, and was forced to confront the Bogeyman. Murphy managed to defeat the Bogeyman with its own hammer, and was transported back to the morgue (perhaps implying that it had been a dream he was facing). Standing over the corpse of the Bogeyman, the revealed face flickered between Napier and Murphy’s own face. Charlie then manifested, telling his father that he had just defeated the Bogeyman. Murphy said that it didn’t matter, because nothing he did could bring Charlie back, which in reality was all he ever wanted. “It’s not your fault,” Charlie told him, and disappeared. Murphy apologized for what he had done to Napier, and left.
Murphy made his way to the boat docks, using Ricks’ keys to start the boat and began to leave Silent Hill off into an almost-too-peaceful sunset. Unfortunately, his moment of reprieve was a short one when Cunningham showed up behind him with a gun to his head, ordering him to turn the boat around so that they can “finish what [he] started”. Dumfounded that she would ask such a thing, Murphy flat out refused and told her that she may as well have to shoot him. This time, Cunningham did not have as much trouble pulling the trigger.
She’s not the abusive guard type who is turned on by bullying inmates.
No, she doesn’t enjoy it at all,
and yet no guard has ever pointed a gun at me the way she did.”
Whether Cunningham actually shot him or it happened by fluke of the town’s intervention, Murphy was not dead. Instead, he woke up in a prison cell. The strange, wheelchair figure that had been following him up until now lingered outside his cell, before it turned and moved away. Suddenly, the cell doors opened, leaving Murphy to the horrific realization that he was neither at Ryall nor Wayside. Rather, he was at someplace called Overlook Penitentiary, on an island within Silent Hill’s very own Toluca Lake.
Like everything else in town, the penitentiary was deserted, solely inhabited by crazed-looking prisoners. Murphy fought his way through, and narrowly avoided being killed by escaping into one of the vents. He fell through, and wound up in a cafeteria with more prisoner monsters. He was eventually led into the shower room, not much unlike the one from Ryall, in that it reflected the aftermath of a very familiar crime scene. Murphy collected a mourning badge — the same kind he’d found in the pocket of his clothes — as well as a prison shank, and some gloves. Then, the showers started to get a little weird... turning on their own, blood pouring out of the sink, the locker, from the floor, and spilling from the door. At the end of the blood trail out the door, Murphy found a body bag. But before he could open it, the world dissolved once again into the Otherworld. The Void made its final appearance, and Murphy gave chase through the hell-brazen prison. He eventually lost it as he escaped up several flights of stairs, and wound up in some kind of bizarre holding for the wheelchair-bound creature. Only this time, it was gargantuan in size, clinging to its existence on life support. While seemingly helpful in nature on Murphy’s path through Silent Hill, the Wheelman assaulted him with full force. Murphy figured out how to kill it by shutting off its life support, and the massive creature thrashed about in throes of agony before it died.
What’s the point in helping just another screw up - constantly dismissed even by his loved ones...
- and yet you somehow found a reason to believe in me.
Well, you shouldn’t have done that, my friend."
Somehow, Murphy found himself back at the prison bathrooms, standing over the withered corpse of the creature he’d just killed. He was then confronted by Anne Cunningham, who saw not a monster husk lying dead on the floor, but her father, Frank Coleridge. Murphy was shocked by this, and tried to explain to her what happened. Anne wouldn’t listen, explaining how she had to watch this man, who she greatly respected, deteriorate into a vegetable, and all she could see was the monster that did that to him. Then, Murphy changed, turning into the Bogeyman himself — a manifestation of hatred and vengeance. After she shot him, it seemed that he had lost humanity for a brief period of time, attacking Anne ruthlessly into the ground. With Anne at his mercy, the Bogeyman raised his hammer, but Murphy prevented the final blow, and spared Anne.
It seemed that the memory of what happened the night at the Ryall State Prison Riot was shared with Anne. Murphy apologized, deeply regretting not being able to help her father, who had been the closest thing Murphy even had to a friend he had. She forgave him as they embraced. Her forgiveness seemed to free them from the prison, as they were suddenly standing by the lake where the transfer bus had crashed. They shared a brief conversation, before Murphy started to leave. When Anne asked him where he was going, he told her, “There’s some place I gotta be.”
