An old campaign sticker for Richard (Dick) Murphy when he was running for re-election for his position of Dutchess County Legislator for District 18. He has a decades long history of writing anti-gay letters to people. Some have sought harassment claims against him.
Photo Credit: A Little Beacon Blog

The season of former Dutchess County Legislator Richard (Dick) Murphy harassing neighbors in Beacon has started again. A Beacon resident has given a letter they received to ALBB. Dick has a long history of delivering typed and hand written homophobic and transphobic letters to people’s porches and mailboxes who fly LGBTQ flags. In the past, his paperwork has included photos of aborted fetuses in his “Thy Neighbor” campaign of July 2020.

Signed homophobic and transphobic Letter from Dick Murphy which he hand-delivered in July 2025 to a Beacon neighbor who flies an LGBTQ flag.

The contents of this letter covered STDs and gay men. Nothing else will be re-printed from his letter. His unrelenting correspondence has led to neighbors pursuing harassment claims against him. In one case, the Beacon Police Department used one of A Little Beacon Blog’s articles to verify that he was the letter writer. Despite having numerous complaints against him, neighbors were told that there was no proof it was Dick. Until there was proof, when Dick confirmed to ALBB that he sent the grotesque letters, some of which children found in their front yards the year he decided to place letters on cars as well as throw them into yards.

Targeted Harassment of Neighbors

In April 2022, Dick harassed his neighbor Donna Minkowitz for being gay. Donna is the creator of the Lit Lit open-mic reading series in Beacon, award-winning author and former reporter for the Village Voice. Dick had pinned a 3-foot doll into her yard. She threw the doll away after the Beacon Police said they had no use for it when she reported Dick to them. When enough neighbors were upset about it, Donna organized a silent protest march through their neighborhood to end at his house. He did come out onto the front porch to get his mail, and danced a little for the marchers. That video has been shown in this article.

Pushing Reporters

Frustrated that all three media outlets, especially the Highlands Current, mostly ignore his letters, Dick emailed a reporter from the Highlands Current last week, telling him to slip a note under the door of the reporter’s editor, to encourage the editor to print any of Dick’s correspondence. Dick then forwarded the email he sent to the reporter to ALBB.