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The motorist followed Murdock and confronted him, “exchanging words” with him, which was described as one of the “difficult situations” he has faced in the community.

“You did walk away from this situation,” the board said.

What a change from his history of rage and violence.

“I’ll fight at the drop of a dime,” Murdock once admitted.

He was known on the streets of Hamilton as impetuous, violent, and strong.

Once, when emerging from jail and looking for a job, he walked into Bannister’s, a large and rough strip club in the heart of Hamilton’s downtown, and asked the head of security for a job as a bouncer. “We already have somebody,” the man said, pointing to a large man standing outside the DJ’s booth. Murdock walked through the club, jogged up the stairs to the bouncer, and — without a word — beat him up.

“[I] gave him a couple of shots to the head, kicked him while he was down. He got up and I told him to f— off, he didn’t work here anymore.” When the man in charge of security tried to break the fight up, he too was thrown down by Murdock. “I got my job,” he later said.

Such talent was spotted and cultivated by the Mafia in the city and he was recruited into the Musitano crime family. He served as a loyal and dedicated henchman. When the mob family’s patriarch, Dominic Musitano, died in 1995, Murdock was asked to be in the honour guard at his funeral.

Murdock was willing to do anything for the family.

On Nov. 21, 1985, then 22 and on parole, he opened fire with a submachine gun on a factory janitor who owed his boss money, killing the 53-year-old in his garage.