Man who held Pablo Escobar's dead body on a rooftop exposes 'huge lie' about how drug lord died
The former DEA agent who helped bring down Pablo Escobar has set the record straight about what went down during the fatal shootout.
Steve Murphy and his partner Javier Peña - who's story inspired the Netflix hit series Narcos - were an integral part of the operation that put a stop to the drug lord's reign.
The Colombian kingpin, 44, founded the notorious Medellin cartel in 1976 before monopolising the cocaine market across the globe, creating a multibillion dollar empire.
Murphy, who was in law enforcement for a total of 38 years, explained that he and Peña were tasked with 'bringing down' Escobar's crime syndicate in 1987.
Advert
The pair were given the mammoth responsibility after working across US hotspots that were at the epicentre of the drug trade in the late 1980s, earning their stripes in cities such as Miami and Austin.
Ultimately, the DEA agents spent six years chasing Escobar, who was also being hunted down by Colombian authorities and his rivals, as well as the US government.
All of their hard work then came to a head when the drug boss was found hiding out in a house in a residential area of Medellín on 2 December, 1993.
Now, Murphy and Peña have sat down with Harry Robinson and Carl Reigler to clarify exactly what happened that day on the Mad That podcast, which aims to 'interview the most exclusive guests and uncover the maddest stories'.
The two pals gave their guests quite the introduction too, saying: "Steve held Pablo Escobar's dead body when he'd just been murdered. These guys are the real deal."
According to Murphy, the Colombian police got 'visual confirmation' that Escobar was holed up inside a home after tracing his location when he made a phone call to his family.
He explained that the Colonel leading the mission, General Hugo Martínez, had told his men: "Whatever you do, don't let him get away."
"This has been excruciating, that we're still going through this after 18 months," Murphy said. "It was somewhat of an embarrassment to the Colombian government that we hadn't been able to capture him yet."
The former DEA agent, who had a £260,000 bounty put on his head, said that police officers then 'initiated the operation' and tried to arrest Escobar, but both sides quickly began exchanging gunfire.
"Pablo took on the wrong people that day and it cost him his life for doing so," Murphy said, explaining that he and Colonel Martínez later drove out to the scene where Escobar was shot dead on the roof of the property.
Murphy 'just so happened' to have the only camera that worked that day, hence why there is a ton of photographs of Escobar's corpse - and why there's a snap of him holding the dead drug lord.
He recalled how the Colombian cops became 'excited' by their triumph and asked him to take a picture of them, before inviting him to join them in the image - something he's 'not overly proud of'.
"When that picture hit Washington, I caught a little grief over that, because they weren't happy that DEA agent was there," Murphy said.
"And it probably wasn't the smartest thing, because [Peña] and I, we wanted the Colombian national police to have the credit for this investigation. They took their country back from that guy."
However, some of the other images taken that day also help Murphy prove that a certain conspiracy theory about Escobar's death is a 'bald-faced lie'.
During the Mad That interview, he explained that the notorious criminal's son Juan Pablo, now known as Sebastián Marroquín, had tried to pedal a rumour that 'his dad was not killed by the Colombian national police'.
Instead, Escobar's only son claimed that his father had taken his own life - previously telling the New York Post: "My father always told me that he had 15 bullets in his pistol; 14 were for his enemies and the last one for him."
But Murphy insists there is 'absolutely no truth in that statement' and says that the evidence is already out there to disprove it.
Explaining he had worked numerous murder and suicide cases during his time as a uniformed police officer, the ex-cop said knows a lot about the typical circumstances in both scenarios.
"When you fire a weapon, when the bullet comes out the end of the barrel, there are little bits of gunpowder that will follow the bullet out and they'll they'll travel a certain distance till they lose their velocity," he explained.
"They'll fall to the ground. Well, Pablo was shot three times. Once in the back of the leg, once in the butt and the kill shot was in his ear, right through his right ear.
"If you could hold a pistol - and Pablo had two 9mm Pistols that day - even at arms length, it's almost impossible to get that gun turned around and be able to shoot yourself precisely in the ear to commit suicide.
"But even if you could, the gunpowder that follows the bullet out will travel that far, and it leaves what we call gunpowder residue," Murphy said. "It leaves little burn marks in the skin, so there would be little black dots around his right ear.
"Anybody can go look at the pictures online, there's an up close shot of his right ear where the bullet entered his head. Look and see if you see any marks on there, because I'm telling you they're not.
"That's how we know he did not commit suicide," the former DEA agent added. "Now, why would his son say that?
"Well you know what, if my dad was Pablo Escobar, I might want to change that legacy a little bit myself. But it's nothing more than a lie."
Murphy and Peña have been travelling the globe over the last decade 'telling the true story about Pablo Escobar'.
Topics: Pablo Escobar, Crime, True Crime, World News, Conspiracy Theory
Olivia Burke