Ragsy Murphy was a streetwise orphan from a city in eastern New Jersey who earned his living as a newspaper boy. He was born in Albany, New York to a family of hard-working Irish immigrants. Ragsy's father earned a comfortable living as a construction worker, but when the contractor he worked for refused to replace inferior cement, the building he was working on collapsed, killing everyone inside. Ragsy and his mother were at a loss without his father, however, his mother died of grief shortly thereafter, leaving the young boy an orphan.