Update:: Murdaugh has been sentenced to life without parole.
The story of the Murdaugh family in lowcountry, South Carolina is sordid and infuriating. They come from a long line of influential, well-connected DAs and acted above the law, with impunity, for decades. Alex, 54, was addicted to painkillers and embezzling money from clients at his law firm. His son, Paul, was boating drunk in 2019 when he caused an accident that resulted in a young woman’s death. His older son, Buster, was rumored to have been in a relationship with a young man who was found dead in 2015 by blunt force trauma. Alex’s wife, Margaret, was at home in 2018 when the family’s longterm housekeeper was found dead from a head wound following an alleged fall down the stairs. Alex collected the multimillion insurance payout from her death, laundering it with the help of local banks and not paying a penny to her surviving sons. So many people had personal beef with the Murdaughs. When both Margaret and Paul were found shot dead in June, 2021, the list of suspects was long. Their father, attorney Alex Murdaugh, was just convicted on all counts of their murders after a highly publicized trial. Prosecutors are seeking life without parole.
In a case that has captured nationwide attention, Alex Murdaugh was convicted Thursday evening of murdering his wife and son in South Carolina, where the death penalty is legal. But prosecutors have said they are not seeking capital punishment.
“After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a December statement. Robert Kittle, a spokesperson for Wilson, said that is still the state’s intention following the guilty verdict.
Murdaugh was also convicted on two counts of possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime, which could add an additional five years each of prison time, though that does not apply when a defendant is sentenced to life without parole, according to South Carolina law.
He faces a minimum of 30 years in prison and potentially life behind bars without parole.
A juror in the Murdaugh case said that the cell phone footage placing Alex Murdaugh at the dog kennels, the place where Margaret and Paul were murdered, helped him declare Alex guilty. I didn’t follow this trial but I watched the three part HBO docuseries on the Murdaughs, Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty. I came away feeling sympathy for their victims and anger that they were allowed to escape the law as long as they did. How many other families and dynasties exist who get away with murder and robbery? A three part Netflix series about this family just came out, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, and it’s number two on Netflix’s TV ratings this week. I’m glad this case is getting publicity and that Alex was convicted and will hopefully never see the other side of a jail cell. I also hope that this family’s victims will get restitution.
BREAKING: Jury finds Alex Murdaugh guilty of double murder. https://t.co/LZCGGhjDFL pic.twitter.com/J6tFqLJOzz
— ABC News (@ABC) March 3, 2023
It’s likely the Murdaughs have a long legacy of murder and fraud.
The founder of the Murdaugh legal dynasty, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., was killed in a suspicious train crash, from which his son benefited, in 1940. https://t.co/nKPwk4NJWg
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 3, 2023
Photos credit: Netflix and via Instagram
What an awful man an awful family history this family has.
I tried to follow the entire family history late last night but it was so crazy and the more I read – the more I thought I must be comprehending it incorrectly because of how awful this family was. @CB, you did a great job summarizing this crazy evilness.
The definitive expert on this case and this family is journalist Mandy Matney, The Murdoch Murders podcast. She deserves much of the credit for the justice finally coming to this family and for the public awareness.
Yep, She opened this whole thing up! She deserves some props for sure.
Mandy is proof local journalism matters. Although I can’t help but think if Alex didn’t lie about going to the dog kennels, he never would have been charged. Law enforcement would have believed whatever he told them about what he was doing after he went to the kennels. The lie is what did him in.
The part that blew me away about the murders of his wife and son was how law enforcement told the public they weren’t in danger!! Like surely they knew, two people getting gunned down at home would definitely be cause for public concern, but they just said nah don’t worry!
Police rarely say there is a danger to the public when someone is murdered. I didn’t read anything into that.
I live in SC in what is considered the Upstate. This trial has dominated the news here. I watched both the HBO and Netflix docs and I’m just starting her podcast from the beginning.
YES! I’ve been listening to her podcast since the beginning, really well done and deeply sourced. She had a lot of threats and blow back from people in the community for continuing to pursue the story. She has also done an amazing job of continuing to center the victims.
I was so elated he was found guilty, I was really hoping but was trying to prepare myself for hung jury.
The great great (?) grandfather who was killed by a train and the case that his son brought against the company that started the whole dynasty, local word is that the man killed himself using a train.
Me too. From the beginning. Interesting to see others jump on the bandwagon and get critical details wrong. Mandy ,Liz and Eric are great. Follow their Cup of Justice podcast as well. Hope to see the Smith family and others get justice.
Yes. Mandy has been amazing & they’re going to pursue more cases of corruption as well.
It’s driving me crazy to see all these MSM outlets–even shows like Dateline etc–not even bothering to mention Mandy’s name. She absolutely BROKE this story as an independent journo. this story should NEVER be talked about without saying Mandy’s name and giving her her due credit.
Drives me crazy, too. That’s why I commented here. Give the woman a Pulitzer.
Agreed. Especially that NYT lady.
I agree – I did not enjoy the podcast and stopped listening, but she really did dig deep and got the ball rolling on all this.
I’ve never heard of Mandy! Thank you so much for this information, I’m going to go find her podcast now!!
Ryan Murphy is crafting as we speak. You can feel the generational bad in this clan a million miles away.
I just watched the Netflix documentary about the Murdaughs last night. For those new to this story, I can highly recommend. Right after I finished I learned about the guilty verdicts which seemed like a fitting conclusion to the series.
Even better, on the news this morning: two consecutive life sentences, one for each murder.
The whole family is trash, entitled trash that got away with murder until yesterday. But highly respected because they were rich, connected, and white. Disgusting.
I agree and was so relieved that he was found guilty. My hopes were raised when he testified and came across as manipulative and evil but I still held my breath for the verdict. I feel for his son and hope that he can start over and live a good life.
Isn’t his son Buster a suspect in the murder of the young man found in the middle of the road? I fell asleep at the end of the series so I don’t know if it’s Alex or Buster but I thought it was the son!
@ Jessica – holy cow, i hope not but did not see the documentary. if so, i revoke my good tidings and hope that justice is served.
Yes, Buster is a suspect in Stephen Smith’s death. Stephen was a gay kid Buster’s age. There was a rumor that he and Buster had a relationship. Stephen was found dead on a county road. It appeared that his head had been struck with a baseball bat. This family has a lot of unexplained deaths around it.
@Jessica, law enforcement re opened the investigation into Stephen’s death because of something they found in the course of investigating Maggie and Paul’s death. Hopefully something comes of it. I’m very interested to see what they found.
If you’re interested in more of the case, the Murdaugh Murders podcast with Mandy and Liz has 4-5 episodes very early on that cover his death and all the law enforcement weirdness, and oddities with the case. I think it’s in the first 10-15 episodes.
I hope justice is also served with Buster if he was responsible for that young man’s death.The rumor and at this point just a rumor that Buster was in a relationship with this kid and Paul and Buster killed him.He was reportable run over by a car but there was no evidence on his body that such happened.Paul was facing 25 years for that boat wreck that killed that girl.That seems to be when this started unraveling for this family.I do hope that kids death is reinvestigatef and Buster faces justice if he had anything to do with it
H
Alex’s testimony seemed to have worked against him.
One of the jurors was on the news saying that he was close enough to see that he wasn’t really crying, that it was all an act.
I saw several mentions of Mandy Matney.
Mandy has been following and denouncing Alec Murdaugh for over 4 years. Her podcast MMP and the new one Cup of Justice are really good.
She has been supporting Murdaugh’s victims and or their families for over years too. She’s genuine.
Mandy is probably the person who knows all the ramifications of Murdaugh’s deeds the best.
She declined invitations to participate in the Netflix series. Don’t know for HBO.
Yup. Been listening for 2 years I think.
It reminds me of the royal families of Europe throughout history, though. They weren’t just entitled and willing to murder siblings to jump a notch higher, but horribly inbred, so not even the best at judgement calls. I don’t know anything about this family except what I’m reading here (gonna checkout the Netflix series0, but I often suspect elite families of some degree of inbreeding from generations cousin marriages (pre twentieth century) to keep the money in the family.
don’t forget about your royals there in the US too, the kennedys
Last weekend my stylist suggested the Netflix doc and then I fell down the rabbithole. I watched the HBO one and the one on Discovery as well. This man was guilty as sin….but I’d love to know how many bodies this family actually has. All of the docs only went back to the Stephen smith murder and that was less than 10 years ago. As long as that family has been running the district, how comfortable Alex and his father were with covering up Paul’s crimes, and the knowledge of locals that the Murdaughs could make people disappear tells me they’ve been getting away with murder for decades.
I’ve seen some forums where people mention that they’re glad Paul and Maggie got justice and hope they rest in peace-please! Aside from Paul killing his friend in that boat accident both of them were as in the family crimes as Alex. I’m glad he got the verdict he does but Maggie and Paul don’t deserve any sympathy either.
It’s true they were the least sympathetic victims. Unfortunately, their murders were the only ones to result in indictment and convictions.
I haven’t seen anything about Maggie being a criminal.
Sadly, this is not unique to the Lowcountry. Some of this is SC history (like who settled these parts way back when, how judges get picked by prosecutors and defense attorneys –not elected, things like that). But some of it is that these places are news deserts . This is a corruption case at least as much as it is a murder case, and few of his associates have been identified or charged for their roles in this. There is a definite link between newspapers closing and public corruption in small towns. UNC has an institute with a database where you can see these effects. (https://www.cislm.org/)
Just confirming that low country comment. I’ve got family all up and down the east coast, NC to Florida. The wealthy essentially own the towns. A phone call gets their kids public sector jobs. Whatever business they end up running is a small monopoly. The local law enforcement are all friends of the families and give them preferential treatment. Talking about the job specifically, one of my wealthy cousin’s daughters actually quite literally stole a teaching position from another cousin with a simple phone call. She hadn’t even applied to the job.
My mom’s family is from Louisiana, and it’s the same in small towns there too. (One of the many reasons she left Baton Rouge for college and refused to move back.)
And not just South. It’s really important for people to realize how much of the US is under the control of corrupt local landowners and businessmen. The farm states used to be progressive because of the farm workers. When the farms mechanized, landowners impoverished their communities to better control them. Landowners play “family farms” to gain sympathy, but they make their money through tax breaks and subsidies. American land was stolen and worked by slaves. The people who currently own it still behave like thieves.
Great comment, Concern. Thank you.
More to the point, it’s important to remember that this is how the system was designed, to protect wealthy white landowners. We call it corruption, but actually it’s a feature not a bug of the U.S. Justice system.
The law firm partners compensated all of the victims that were clients of the law firm. Those partners are out millions of dollars. Does anyone know who will get the money from the sale of the property? IIRC, Buster is Maggie’s beneficiary and Alex put the property in her name because of the boat case, so does the sale of property go to Buster?
The house has a $2 million lean that needs to be paid off, $600k goes to another bank (I think) and the rest goes to Buster.
Some of the money will go to the family of the girl killed in the boat accident and two other kids who were injured in it as well.
Buster agreed to a confession of judgement (I think that’s what it’s called). Theoretically, the Beach family (family of the girl Paul accidentally on purpose killed) (he purposely wrecked the boat) gets $4+ million from Maggie’s estate, and I think he’s supposed to get left with $500k, but some other creditors have tried to claim that.
Buster will get about 500K and the reminder goes to victims and I believe the murder case. It was published a few days ago. Sorry I don’t recall more details.
I just discovered Kendall Rae’s Youtube channel, so heard about that story there.
The amount of twists and privilige would be weird even in a novel.
This whole saga reminds me of a V.C. Andrews novel!
Sickening. All of it.
He was obviously guilty. At least they didn’t botch the trial.
I couldn’t watch the Netflix doc.
The Murdaugh reputation is destroyed. This family/firm has gotten away with crimes for too long. I hope everything for them crashes and burns with this conviction.
I read an article last night about the potential sale, and it said Buster would get $530K.
Well, if he’s anything like the rest of his family, he’ll blow through that quickly. According to the Netflix documentary, he got kicked out of the University of South Carolina for plagiarism, which to me speaks to the entitlement in this family. He’s also connected to the suspicious death of Stephen Smith.
Does anyone know if Gloria’s family got their $4.3 million back?
Yes they have. The bank that was involved paid them restitution and I think the insurance company? They recently started a foundation in the mother’s name.
Alex stole millions, and during that time the youngest son, who is developmentally disabled and lived with his mom in a trailer, was evicted. The bank that helped steal the millions evicted him for owing $16k. If Alex had paid off the trailer and given them $10k, probably none of this would’ve come out.
This case was infuriating yet despite having everything that Hollywood makes movies about, it mostly flew under the radar. I didn’t watch the the whole 6 week trial but caught a lot of it. The way Alex lied so easily to and on so many people and his friends didn’t really know him was fascinating. LawTube also provided a lot of coverage. I also watched the Netflix doc. I definitely thought he was guilty.
That dynasty got away with a lot more crimes than we will ever know. After all, for generations, they were the law. At the beginning of the trial, the courthouse had to remove a photo of Alex’ grandfather or great-grandfather. That’s true power. I’m glad the jury found him guilty bc most of the evidence was circumstantial. That cell phone footage was indeed the most damning evidence.
Mostly flew under the radar? Every detail and lots of speculation has been non-stop in the news since it happened.
I live in Beaufort, very close to where it all happened, and this has been the biggest thing to go down here in years. People were outraged back in 2019 and they were outraged now. The Good Old Boy Club is alive and well and probably will be forever but this went beyond the pale. I was out for dinner last night and people were literally toasting when the verdict was read out.
I was amused because the crime podcast Redhanded released an episode about this yesterday, saying that at the time of recording, the case was ongoing and the verdict could take months. Lo and behold, a swift Carolina jury!
I’ve been watching this shit show for a while now (seems like forever ago), and then BAM, all these documentaries pop up, had to watch each one lol. This family is so disgusting. Vile. Reprehensible. That poor housekeeper. The high school girl…when you hear her boyfriend the night of the accident crying and pointing at the inebriated and laughing Murdoch son, it’s heart wrenching. I’m glad they’re not killing him. I hate it when evil is laid to rest.
I vaguely remember his face and the name but it fell off my radar and just like you said then BAM it’s everywhere. So glad justice was served.
The Murdaughs have left a trail of dead bodies and stolen funds in their wake.
That’s what I got from the articles I read late last night and just could not comprehend how one family was capable of all that awfulness and how they got away with it for so long.
No one knows all this family was involved in over the years. They had an airfield on their property. They were close to Paris Island where Marines are trained. The law firm and legal jurisdiction became nationally known for high dollar tort litigation paydays. I don’t think anyone’s really gotten to the bottom of what was happening in that community and with that family. I am glad of the conviction but there are so many unanswered questions especially about the money. What happened to it? They had expensive taste but they couldn’t possibly have spent all that money he stole. I think this community was part of some huge nefarious, illegal operation. Don’t mean to sound paranoid but when does the Attorney General of a State get involved in a local homicide case. SC is covering up something.
I’m from SC & have watched almost every minute of this trial. Alex, his family & his law enforcement buddies did everything they could to make this a hard case to prosecute. The prosecution did an outstanding job, especially when they got Alex on the stand & in closing. As an attorney who doesn’t practice in this area, I found it fascinating to watch.
Before the trial, Eric Bland (attorney who recovered the stolen money for Gloria Satterfield’s sons) had heard Alex’s attorneys truly believed in his innocence. That seemed crazy to me, but watching Jim Griffin’s closing, he truly seemed like a broken man. He knew Maggie & Paul. I think he realized over the course of the trial, having seen their horrific injuries so many times, that his client & friend killed them. Jim looked like a man who didn’t believe what he was saying.
Went down the Murdaugh rabbit hole too and it was just so much sleaze and dysfunction it was hard not to watch! I followed the trial and it was so infuriating that most of the legal media and live steamers were harping on about how it was going to be a ‘hung jury’ for weeks. They felt kind of arrogant, like that the some of the jurors were just too small town to see the logic!
I grew up in SC in the Charleston area and I have been following this case. Only want to point out that the Lowcountry is a region, not a town or county. The family is from Hampton, SC, the murders occurred in Colleton County and the trial was held in Walterboro which is a town in Colleton County and in the Lowcountry region. Walterboro is about an hour drive from Charleston. The region is called the Lowcountry because it is both the southernmost region of the state and is comprised of low wetlands, many below sea level.
My thought; I didn’t hear this rebuttal to the excuse AM gave for lying. He said at times the addiction would cause him to be *paranoid*. My answer to that would be; of course! When you murder, embezzle, lie to family, friends, everyone, engage in buying and taking illegal drugs you are breaking the law FFS! Its normal to be scared of getting caught!
Though there is that attitude he had of being above the law. I guess where a regular person would be afraid of getting caught breaking the law; AM and his ilk, don’t worry about getting caught and punished. They attribute what is guilt for regular folks to be a psychiatric problem; paranoia.
I’ve been occasionally following it for a while, so glad he was swiftly found guilty.
The Netflix doc was the first time I saw the other kids from the boat crash, I can’t imagine the ongoing trauma of all this, and the poor girl who died, her poor family being surrounded by this all the time too. I didn’t think Paul was a good kid before, but seeing the doc and hearing about the abuse he inflicted on his girlfriend…it seems like the whole family is just rotten to the core.
OmG loved the judge.prosecutor did a good job but big Trumper.The judge was my favorite told Alex he probably should have gotten the Death penalty
When I learned of the huge level of corruption, greed, murder, drug use, stealing from bedridden and dying clients, etc. that this family has gotten away with for decades it beyond belief.
#1. Seize all assets.
#2. Death penalty. AM deserves the chair as fast as possible.
I’m against the death penalty but for this slime, I vote yes.
Also, the scum that murdered his pregnant wife and 2 kids and put their bodies in oil barrels.
I’ve blocked his name but he did confess. I saw that in the Nextflix doc about him.
Watched that, and his own Father comes in while the cameras are running, and asks him
“My God,son. What did you do? Where are the girls? Where are they, son?” and as cold as ice, he matter of factly answers him. The Dad/Grandfather is just devastated and goes white as a ghost. I thought this poor man was going to have a stroke upon hearing it.
Yeah. That was Chris Watts. I thought same about the Dad/Grandfather as you could see him processing the unimaginable deed your “son” the monster did to innocents. Surprised he didn’t keel over. Sad. Supposedly Mom didn’t believe son did it even after confessing.
I’ve been following the story about this family since the murders of the mother and son. In terms of Stephen Smith, I also heard/read that the rape kit taken of that poor young man went “missing.” At the time, the police officer at the scene did not believe it was a hit and run and said so, but the verdict at that time WAS hit and run. A truly evil family.
I grew up in 1950’s/1960’s rural Texas and remember hearing about a certain elected official who was also a lawyer and according to local lore was absolutely corrupted to the gills. But he kept getting re-elected because not only was he cheerfully open about it, he got shit done.
“Need a paved road on CR12?” “New mailboxes on Vulture Lane?” “What’s that? Little Timmy’s wagon done come up missing? Putting Sheriff Wahoo on it right now” Stuff like that.
THIS family. Gives me the shivers. I heard someone say depending on what you did, and what was in it for them, either the Murdaugh’s got you off or got you sent up.
I also wonder if it wasn’t the wife that pushed the housekeeper down the stairs.