In a wicked tale of wasted potential and alleged thievery comes the story of Lightning Lee Murray. Next to the O.J. Simpson saga, Murray's narrative could be one of the most intriguing sports stories in recent memory. Murray's story weaves an enthralling web that involves petty crime, street fighting, drugs, kidnapping, guns, road rage, jail time, and ultimately grand larceny. It is a narrative that has little to do with wins or losses, or any kind of success inside the cage. This tale has all the ingredients of a major Hollywood film. In fact, his story is currently being developed into a motion picture.
Born in London, England on Nov. 12, 1977, Lee Murray was the son of an English mother and Moroccan father. He was raised in the Barnfield projects in the southeast area of London. Being in a rough neighborhood Murray ran the streets and eventually became embroiled in gang activity. Murray began his craft and fanned the flames of his legend on those streets by taking part in scores of street fights.
Lightning Lee was and is a legend on those tough London streets. Rumor has it that after the first UFC event ever in England back in July of 2002 Murray was involved in a scuffle with Tito Ortiz, allegedly knocking Ortiz out. That rumor is backed up by Pat Miletich who evidently witnessed the ordeal himself. Ortiz has denied these rumors stating in an ESPN the Magazine article by Shaun Assael, "the only thing he made of himself was a fight with me."
Lee began his MMA training at the London Shootfighters dojo. Shootfighters is well known as one of the elite mixed martial arts training schools in all of London; and is home to current Dream Welterweight Champion Marius Zaromskis. Murray began his professional career in 1999 fighting for several smaller promotions.
Lightning Lee would accumulate a record of seven wins with one loss, one no contest and one draw prior to signing with the UFC in 2004. He put most of his opponents away by knockout. Prior to making his UFC debut in January of 2004 Murray took his punishing standup game to Bettendorf, Iowa and placed it in the capable hands of Pat Miletich. Lee had begun to hone his craft with Pat and at UFC 46 Murray would pull off an impressive submission victory over a very skilled Jorge Rivera in less than two minutes into their bout.
Despite his notable victory Lee would never again step inside the octagon due to an indictment stemming from a road rage incident that took place in 2003, prior to his UFC debut. He allegedly attacked and almost beat another motorist to death after the driver struck Murray's vehicle on Christmas day. Murray's pregnant wife and young daughter were inside the vehicle when the incident occurred. The state department was forced to deny Murray a visa thus ending a very promising UFC career. But this is truly only the beginning of the story.
Murray had always been connected with local street thugs and other various objectionable characters. But on Feb. 21 and 22 between 8:30 pm and 3:00 am Murray and accomplices would step up from minor offenses and allegedly commit kidnapping and armed robbery on a scale never before seen.
The story begins in the small town of Tonbridge, Kent. Tonbridge is a small town just outside of London. Allegedly Murray and another cohort kidnapped Colin Dixon, the manager of a Securitas Depot on his way home from work on the evening on Feb. 21, 2006. Two other co-conspirators disguised as local police then went to Mr. Dixon's home.
The men told Mr. Dixon's wife and seven year old son that he had been involved in an accident and that they would take both of them to him. The two men brought the wife and son to a farm in Staplehurst, Kent where they reunited them with Mr. Dixon, only then did they realize they had been taken hostage as well. From there the crooks and their hostages set out for the depot in a single car followed by a seven ton box truck.
Once at the depot one of the armed men entered with Mr. Dixon close to him and forced the security staff to open the vault. They were then followed by six other gunmen into the vault where they pacified the other employees who were inside the vault counting money. The thieves then used forklifts and shopping carts to fill the truck with as much cash as they could.
Early on the morning of Feb. 22 these same men left the depot with just over $90 million dollars in cash. This haul is considered to be the biggest cash burglary in history. Investigators would later allege that Murray was not only involved but that he was the mastermind of the entire heist. The bandits locked all the hostages in the cages inside the vault then fled the scene. Luckily no one was hurt during the robbery.
Within days the police had followed tips and nabbed several of the alleged conspirators. They also found DNA evidence from Murray inside the depot. Prior to the heist Murray had been pulled over for supposed drunk driving but was ultimately released; however, his Ferrari had been impounded by the police and was searched by investigators. Under one of the seats in the vehicle they found a cell phone that had a recorded conversation in its memory between two men that involved the Securitas robbery. The investigators claimed that one of the two voices on the recording belonged to Lee Murray.
By the time the police found this evidence Murray had fled to Morocco and purchased a 1.5 million dollar home in a suburb of Rabat. Lee's father was born in Morocco so by law Murray is considered a Moroccan citizen. In addition Morocco has no extradition treaty with the United Kingdom so they were unable to bring him back to Great Britain for a trial. However, much to the satisfaction of the English government police in the city of Rabat agreed to trail Murray. Murray would eventually be arrested by police due to possession of cocaine and battery while resisting arrest.
Murray had been held in a Moroccan jail for over two years awaiting news in regards to the attempts by the English government to extradite him back to his home soil. There was even a report at one time that the Moroccan government might consider giving the English Murray in exchange for a suspected terrorist wanted for questioning regarding bombings in Casablanca in 2003.
In June of 2009 despite an apparent attempt to escape Murray was officially considered a Moroccan citizen and was released from jail. Shortly after his release the English formally requested to have him tried for his alleged crimes in Morocco so he was promptly re-arrested and jailed. According to Murray's Attorney the maximum likely sentence in this scenario may only be a ten year prison sentence, which is a far cry from what the English were able to get for the other convicts tried in England.
Murray continues to deny any involvement in the heist. Regardless, this story is captivating at its very core and still has many chapters yet to be written. Murray is now 32 years old and would be in the midst of his fighting prime. His last fight in a cage was against none other than Anderson Silva.
Murray lost in a decision to Anderson, but made a better account for himself than almost any of the opponents Silva has faced during his championship era inside the UFC octagon. Murray would without a doubt be one of the sports biggest draws with his ostentatious, heavy-handed fighting style and polarizing personality. Yet it is improbable that we will ever see Lightning Lee Murray fighting anywhere other than inside a courtroom.
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Bob Teal is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, OHIO. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring you up to date on fighters you might have forgotten about or perhaps never even knew. Are there any fighters you would like me to write about? Submit your suggestions to me. You can email me at robertjteal@aol.com.
Man what a great story. Normally I might feel bad for someone stuck in a
Moroccan prison but I don't think a professional fighter has any concerns
about dropping the soap.
