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Tony Murphy was a baker who lived with his wife Janet and daughter Samantha in an apartment building in San Francisco, California.

Through an act of circumstance, Tony found himself drawn into the macabre, underworld lifestyle of the Order and a mysterious assassin called the Extremist.

In the summer of 1993, Tony found a cassette tape that had belonged to his neighbor, Jack Tanner. He attempted to return it, but Jack had not been to his apartment for quite some time. Eventually, he listened to the tape and found it to be Jack's private audio-journal of his secret life as the Extremist. Tony became obsessed about the words on the tape. They dominated his every thought, day and night. He took to waiting on the steps outside Jack's apartment in the hopes of seeing him again, but he never returned home. Instead, he began to see Jack's wife, Judy, making visits to the apartment.

In January of 1994, Tony's curiosity got the better of him. He broke into Jack's apartment only to find more cassette tapes sitting on the nightstand. Playing them, he discovered that Jack had been murdered by someone within the Order and that his wife now assumed the guise of the Extremist in order to avenge his death. He also learned that Judy had spoken to her liaison, Patrick, and had mentioned seeing Tony always sitting outside Jack's apartment. Patrick instructed her to either "seduce him or kill him".

Learning this did nothing to discourage Tony's obsession with Jack, and now Judy. He found Judy's Extremist costume and took it home with him. His wife Janet found him trying it on in front of the bathroom mirror. She was so disgusted by his behavior, that she took her daughter to her sister's house.

Tony tried to find Judy in order to understand what had happened with Jack. He scoured the underbelly of San Francisco and actually gained entrance into one of the Order's secret night clubs. Two men chased him out however, but Tony managed to lose them. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the Order would have him killed.

Tony eventually made contact with Judy and they arranged to meet each other at a hotel room. He told her that he would return her tapes and the Extremist costume. When Judy arrived, Tony remembered Patrick's instructions to her, "either seduce him or kill him". Judy, now completely immersed into the lifestyle of the Extremist slit his throat open with a knife, killing him.

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Footnotes


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Vertigo Character
This character exists under the Vertigo Imprint which is intended for Mature Readers.Their continuity takes place within the context of Vertigo titles although they may cross over into regular DC continuity.
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