On March 11, 1933 the "Winnipeg Tribune" published a story ('Tom Murray, hockey player, dies in quake') which claimed Murray was one of the fatally injured victims in the March 10, 1933 Long Beach earthquake south of downtown Los Angeles (which claimed between 115 to 120 lives). His name had however been confused with that of a Los Angeles garage employee named Tommy Murray, as he had escaped the earthquake without injuries.