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Hachette UK
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The Destroyer#9Murder's ShieldThe DestroyerBook 91973
Murder's Shield
- Writer
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
A coordinated wave of killings targets criminals who have escaped ordinary justice, and a congressman suspects police officers are organizing the hits. CURE sends Remo undercover into the network, where he must decide how to stop a conspiracy that recruits cops in the name of law and order. His growing rapport with the leader’s circle complicates the mission, while a national police association prepares to go public.
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Congressman Francis X. Duffy notices a pattern of reciprocal killings of protected criminal figures and confronts his friend, NYPD Inspector William McGurk. McGurk confirms a growing secret police network and promises Duffy protection, but when his unseen superior calls, Duffy is knocked unconscious; authorities later treat his death as suicide. CURE sends Remo Williams to investigate, despite his reluctance to kill fellow officers. Remo adopts the alias Remo Bednick, buys local police protection, and encounters Captain Morris Milken, who introduces the Men of the Shield and its leader, McGurk. The network broadens its hits, including Wyoming ranch owner Jim Hardesty, Las Vegas prostitution broker Nicholas Parsoupoulous, Philadelphia crime boss Stefano Colosimo, and others.
Remo witnesses Savannah Inspector Brace Ransom and two officers murder lawyer Emiliano Cornolli, while Commissioner O’Toole learns of McGurk’s secret training. McGurk intends to turn the Men of the Shield into a national pressure group, use staged crime clues to gain public attention, and pursue political power. Remo becomes McGurk’s supposed recruit and training officer. McGurk’s jealousy over Janet O’Toole leads him to attempt to kill Remo through a four-officer ambush; Remo kills three officers and spares McGurk, pretending to join. McGurk orders Remo to kill Commissioner O’Toole, describing him as the organization’s founder and a threat. Remo confirms that O’Toole understands McGurk’s threat, kills him, and receives his signed account.
A second ambush sends police attackers after Remo; the text’s totals for those killed are inconsistent. Remo and Chiun reach the Men of the Shield kickoff. McGurk attributes O’Toole’s murder to the Mafia and falsely announces that police killed Remo. Remo reveals his own role and reads O’Toole’s account; McGurk kills himself rather than face the officers. Remo reports to Smith but protects the remaining officers from exposure, then visits Janet in Miami and concludes she was not part of the assassination plan.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- As the Planet RevolvesWork
- ChiunCharacter
- Conn MacClearyCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- Rad RexCharacter
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
Characters 27
- Atrion Belliphant
- Brace Ransom
- Carlo DiGibiassi
- Chiun
- Conn MacCleary
- Don Mario Panza
- Elijah “Big Pearl” Wilson
- Emiliano Cornolli
- Francis X. Duffy
- Harold W. Smith
- James Hardesty III
- Janet Brachdon
- Janet O’Toole
- Morris Milken
- Nicholas Parsoupoulous
- Rad Rex
- Remo Williams
- Rocco (Murder’s Shield)
- Rogers Gordon
- Stefano Colosimo
- Tracy Cole
- Unnamed NYPD deputy chief
- Unnamed U.S. Attorney General
- Unnamed U.S. President (Murder's Shield)
- Unnamed/first-name unstated Commissioner O’Toole
- Vance Masters
- William McGurk
Places 14
Organizations 11
Groups 1
Works 1
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
Duffy notices the serial killing of protected criminals, deduces reciprocal police hits, and confronts his friend McGurk, who confirms a growing secret force. After McGurk gets an order by phone, Duffy tries to flee and is knocked unconscious; the chapter closes with his vision of a counterforce.
Chapter 2
During Remo’s darkness and trapeze training in a Fort Worth circus, Chiun debates him about right and wrong. Remo admits the CURE mission appears to require killing fellow officers, and recalls becoming its operative after his staged execution.
Chapter 3
McGurk tells the unnamed Attorney General that Duffy was paranoid, but agrees to investigate Big Pearl’s killing. The Attorney General speaks with the unnamed President, who rejects a new secret force; the President then contacts Smith, who says CURE is pursuing the killers and receives permission to continue.
Chapter 4
A five-man police team murders Philadelphia crime boss Stefano Colosimo and his bodyguards, then McGurk marks the new city on his map and anticipates expanding toward Washington.
Chapter 5
Smith equips Remo with nearly a million dollars and orders him to pose as a racketeer who buys police protection. Remo argues against killing the conspirators, destroys some cash, and kills four would-be robbers who try to steal the cases in Union Square.
Chapter 6
Remo and Chiun settle into the alias Remo Bednick’s Queens house. Remo uses cash to buy a Cadillac and furniture and begins bribing a precinct, where Captain Morris Milken takes his offer and introduces the Men of the Shield badge and McGurk.
Chapter 7
Poisoned cattle baron Jim Hardesty and Las Vegas prostitution broker Nicholas Parsoupoulous are killed by the police network. McGurk celebrates the first out-of-region operations and imagines building a political following, eventually under his own name.
Chapter 8
Remo meets Inspector McGurk and pays him heavily; McGurk arranges a meeting with Commissioner O’Toole. Captain Milken describes O’Toole’s daughter Janet’s trauma and role as a computer analyst. Remo attempts a tentative introduction, then challenges the commissioner’s reform-minded approach to safety.
Chapter 9
Smith reviews the growing map of killings and the western expansion, then Remo reports that McGurk leads a group called the Men of the Shield and agrees to hasten his investigation.
Chapter 10
Don Mario Panza tries to force Remo into a meeting and sends Rocco and three others to intimidate him by binding Chiun. Chiun instead kills Rocco and leaves his head in Panza’s bed with a lotus blossom; the men also secure an autographed Rad Rex picture for Chiun.
Chapter 11
McGurk trains three officers to fire on command and prepares them for ambush work. A deputy chief overhears the session and warns Commissioner O’Toole, who decides they must approach the state and FBI; McGurk later reports the breach and apologizes to O’Toole.
Chapter 12
Teams kill gun-runner Rogers Gordon during a public exposition and porn-film financier Atrion Belliphant in Los Angeles, leaving clues and stealing cash. McGurk stores the evidence and assigns Savannah inspector Brace Ransom and two officers to murder lawyer Emiliano Cornolli; Ransom questions the network’s purpose but obeys.
Chapter 13
Remo tails Ransom and two officers to Cornolli’s New Jersey estate. He secretly incapacitates Cornolli, removes Cornolli’s armed companion from the house, and leaves; the officers enter and shoot Cornolli, believing he fainted.
Chapter 14
Remo hides in McGurk’s office while McGurk and Ransom discuss the killing. McGurk lays out the Men of the Shield’s public launch as a national law-and-order pressure group, hints at presidential ambitions, and says the staged clue cases will generate publicity. Janet discovers Remo in the closet.
Chapter 15
Remo deceives Janet about his shyness and they have sex in McGurk’s office closet. When McGurk returns, Janet is more self-assured; Remo tells Smith that the group has forty members and suspects McGurk is doing useful work, while Smith warns Remo may be too close to the police.
Chapter 16
Jealous of Janet’s affair with Remo, McGurk leads three officers in an ambush at Remo’s home. Remo kills the attackers, recognizes McGurk’s motive, and pretends to join the Men of the Shield to avoid killing him and to infiltrate the organization.
Chapter 17
Remo trains four officers in nonlethal hand-control techniques. McGurk lies to the Attorney General about finding evidence of a killer-police organization, while the unnamed President presses Smith to expedite CURE’s investigation. Janet and Remo resume their sexual relationship.
Chapter 18
McGurk orders Remo to kill Commissioner O’Toole, claiming O’Toole created the organization but is about to expose it. Remo verifies that O’Toole understands McGurk’s power grab, then kills O’Toole, who gives him a signed account of how the squads and political plan began.
Chapter 19
Several police officers move to kill Remo after he leaves O’Toole’s house. Chiun joins the fight; the pair kill the attackers, and Remo tricks one into confirming the two-ring signal to McGurk. Remo heads to the kickoff meeting. The narrative gives conflicting totals for the attackers killed.
Chapter 20
McGurk tells the forty officers that O’Toole was murdered by Remo Bednick and that Remo was killed by police, using the death to promote the Men of the Shield. Remo arrives, gets past two guards with Chiun, and calls McGurk a liar.
Chapter 21
Remo reads from O’Toole’s signed statement and admits he killed O’Toole at McGurk’s instruction. McGurk draws a gun but, challenged to face the officers, commits suicide. Remo tells the officers to go home, and they throw their badges onto or beside McGurk’s body.
Chapter 22
Remo reports the outcome to Smith but refuses to name the network members. He flies to Miami and tests whether Janet helped plan the killings; seeing her behavior and hearing from motel staff, he concludes she was only the computer operator, leaves a note, and departs.
Editions & covers
Explore cover historyReferences & notes
Sources 35 references
- stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Destroyer.html
- www.fantasticfiction.com/series/destroyer
- www.warrenmurphy.com/index.php?page=books
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/murphy_warren
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sapir_richard_ben
- www.45cat.com/book/title/created-the-destroyer
- www.hachette.co.uk/titles/warren-murphy-5/murders-shield/9780751558050
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
- www.seikei.ac.jp/university/library/pdf/mystery_youtosyo.pdf#page=86
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Edition and source notes
Names are the bibliography’s title-level “written by” attribution key, not a verified edition byline. credited_authors is null because no first-edition cover/title page was checked. A creator name in the general franchise metadata must not be treated as proof of sole drafting.
cataloged copyright-year notation: 1973. Describes the copyright-year notation on an institutional holdings entry, not a verified first printing, original publication year or on-sale date. The physical copyright page was not inspected. Source
Murder’s Shield:
Publisher's description: A rogue police group secretly kills people it believes the justice system cannot reach, forcing CURE to confront a vigilante operation.
Presidential clues
Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.
The incumbent’s response to the killings
The unnamed U.S. President rejects the Attorney General’s proposed secret police force, contacts Smith about the killings, and permits CURE to continue. The novel also says a President is among those who know of CURE.
- In ch03 the President speaks directly with the Attorney General, then calls Smith from the Oval Office and says the killings cannot be tolerated.
- The President allows CURE to pursue the unidentified killers, despite distrust of the agency.
- In ch17 the President again asks Smith to expedite the response.
- Ch02 recounts that the President is one of the few who know CURE exists, but does not say this President created it.
high for the unnamed incumbent role; no confidence for a named real-world identity
No name, party, term, calendar date, or identifying historical clue is supplied. Publication year is not treated as story date.
McGurk’s political aspirations
McGurk imagines becoming mayor and eventually reaching the White House, but never announces or wins an election in the narrative.
- Duffy predicts McGurk might become President.
- McGurk imagines himself first as mayor and later speculates about running for President.
- The Men of the Shield’s political strength is part of his power plan.
high for aspiration; not an actual officeholder
No campaign or presidency occurs.
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