Murphy, Texas

"*Don’t mess with MURPHY!*"
―Near prophetic words from an older citizen of the town.
**Murphy, Texas** was the ninth investigation into internet sex predators conducted by the *Dateline NBC* series **To Catch a Predator**. Due to the circumstances surrounding the attempted arrest of Louis Conradt, this was the episode that led to the segment’s cancellation.

## Plot synopsis

*25 men over the course of four days would be exposed at a sting house in Murphy, Texas. One with tragic results.*

## Background

The sting itself was met with negative reception from the residents of the town because they believed the exposure would attract more predators to the town rather than deter them from coming. During the sting, the citizens against the sting staged protests in front of the sting house that were presumably broken up by Murphy Police. The operation was proceeding as usual when one of their planned meets with an Assistant District Attorney by the name of Louis Conradt went silent. Because in Texas the crime occurs during communication and not a physical appearance, the decision was made to arrest Conradt. Murphy Police arrived at the Conradt residence with a SWAT team from Terrell, Texas which was where Conradt resided. Police decided to breach his house because they were afraid he was destroying evidence. Conradt would approach the SWAT team with a gun to his head and then take his own life. The fallout of this incident would lead to a lawsuit against *Dateline NBC* as well as speculation that the bust was done for television sensationalism rather than conducting a just arrest. This would lead to the series being discontinued on *Dateline NBC* after its sting in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Collin County DA's office would also decline to prosecute any of the men arrested in the sting, dropping all of their charges, partly due to the fact that it could not be proven the decoys were working in Collin County at the time of the chats and partly because Perverted Justice refused to cooperate in the prosecution by refusing to answer questions and provide evidence. Asif Khokhar was the only man indicted and convicted of any charges from the sting because he lived in a different county and was charged by their DA’s office.

## Notes & trivia

* Although the DA's office declined to prosecute the arrested men, it should be noted that they weren't on board with the sting from the beginning, drafting a letter to police chief Billy Myrick that they would not be taking part, saying, "We are in the law enforcement business, not show business."
* This sting has yielded the largest number of deceased predators yet. Edward Hollingsworth V (1971-2012), Stanley Kendall (1952-2017), Timothy Knowles (1971-2016), Timothy Gilliam (1974-2011), William Dow (1943-2023), and the aforementioned Louis Conradt (1950-2006).

## Predators and Personnel

A list of people involved in the Murphy investigation.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a3269/to-catch-a-predator/
2. ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19486893
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090223190031/https://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-sexsting\_07cco.ART.North.Edition1.43f5731.html