As we drove to the sleepy South Carolina town where Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial was taking place, the billboards felt relevant.
Personal injury lawyers tout their profession: “In a collision, an easy decision”, youths are warned “Underage drinking can block your dreams”, while another sign advertises the nearby crematorium.
At the time of the brutal murders of his wife and youngest child, Murdaugh was facing a ruinous trial for the death of a 19-year-old girl in a drunk boating accident in which his slain son, Paul, was driving.
“I’m not saying Paul deserved it, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” my waiter Ed tells me with a nervous laugh at Walterboro’s local diner, Cracker Barrel.
Locals all know the Murdaughs, a family that has ruled the law and the land in this corner of the Lowcountry for three generations. In the courtroom where Murdaugh was sent for life, a portrait of his grandfather, Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., had to be removed before the trial, leaving the seat eerily empty.
But now his reputation and life are in tatters after the court heard how he stole millions from customers, tried to lie his way out of the boatwreck case and even recruited his opioid dealer cousin to help him for three months later shooting in the head murders in a botched life insurance scam designed to net his surviving son, Buster, $12 million.
Alex Murdaugh speaks with his attorney Dick Harpootlian Friday at his sentencing hearing at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro
Maggie, Paul, Alex and Buster Murdaugh with their dog Bubba in a new family photo from
The main house on the sprawling 1,800 hectare Moselle hunting estate. Murdaugh shot and killed his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, in the kennels of the property on the night of June 7, 2021
The Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, where his fate was decided, is a half-hour drive from the sprawling 4,000-acre Moselle hunting ground that became a murder scene on the night of June 7, 2021.
No Trespassing signs are posted on the locked gates of the overgrown driveways.
Two trials enthusiasts, David and his wife Kathleen, took photos two weeks ago at the entrance to the kennels, 150 yards from the main gate.
“That’s where he shot her,” said David. They were from nearby Clarendon and seemed intimately familiar with the case. “This is the gate the family used,” he said, unconvinced by Murdaugh’s claim that he had been in and out of the main entrance that night.
Meters from where we spoke, the bodies of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, had soaked the pine needle-strewn grass with blood.
Maggie was hit by three bullets before collapsing to her hands and knees. A fourth bullet pierced her left breast and entered her brain, and then a fifth was fired execution-style into the back of her head as she lay face down on the floor next to the kennels. She was already dead.
Paul was standing just yards from where his mother’s body was found when a 12-gauge buckshot blasted across his chest. The 22-year-old staggered towards his father, who then fired a second shot at point-blank range that “exploded his head like a watermelon” and spurted blood and brains through the kennel’s feeding area.
This vivid description comes from his father’s own defense attorney, Democratic State Senator Dick Harpootlian, who opened the trial by declaring that it was his “honor to represent the killer.”
Murdaugh killed the couple because he faced a “coming storm,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said. On the day of the murders, he was confronted with over $792,000 that had “disappeared” from his company. After Maggie and Paul’s deaths, it turned out he had stolen more than $10 million since 2011. His victims included orphans and quadriplegics.
Later this week he was due to appear in court for a financial disclosure hearing in the boat case. He claimed he was broke as he frantically transferred stolen funds from his company to the personal accounts of his wife and employees.
Murdaugh stood handcuffed on Friday as Judge Clifton Newman told him it was “one of the most disturbing cases” he’s ever presided over — not just because of the ferocity with which he butchered his wife and child — but because he a pillar of the legal community who even “acted as a lawyer before me”.
The murders have rocked the city of Hampton, where the law firms of Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick have stood proud for more than a century. This is where the Murdaughs raised their children before moving to the Moselle.
A 23-year-old man, who went to school with Paul and was coached by his father in basketball, said last week he hoped Murdaugh would “beat the case,” saying there are “a lot of people who think like me.” .
He fondly recalled how Murdaugh “teached us life lessons, he’s been great to us,” recalled how the father-of-two once convinced him not to leave the team, telling him, “If you give up now, you will.” you forever be a quitter. ‘
Maggie had moved far away from Hampton County before she was killed. Approximately 70 miles away, along winding roads overlooked by curving oak trees covered in Spanish moss, sits the Murdaugh’s stunning beachfront property on Edisto Island, perched at the end of a waterfront cul-de-sac
A US$3.9 million bid was accepted on Moselle in December 2022 when the sale was approved on condition that proceeds be held in escrow pending their division in court
The kennel where Maggie and Paul were found shot dead is pictured
Alex and Maggie Murdaugh together in a photo from their Facebook page
The murders have rocked the city of Hampton, where the law firms of Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick have stood proud for more than a century. This is where the Murdaughs raised their children before moving to the Moselle
The young man, who declined to be named, said he took Paul to their home after school, where they rode around on ATVs and swam in the pool.
“They were actually the first white family to let me into their home. They have given me freedom in their house,’ said the young man.
“I have a lot of white people here that I really love, and the Murdaughs were one of them.”
He said he believed Murdaugh “loved Paul because Paul was always with him.”
He described Maggie as “always very happy”.
“Every time she drives past the stop sign here, she’s gone, window down, wave and talk,” he said.
‘Maybe she’ll stop by the side of the road. And that’s every time she’s not gone, drive by and don’t stop or wave.
But Maggie had moved far away from Hampton County before she was killed.
Approximately 70 miles away, along winding roads overlooked by curving oak trees covered in Spanish moss, sits the Murdaugh’s stunning beachfront property on Edisto Island, perched at the end of a waterfront cul-de-sac.
A neighbor who only gives his name when Richard pointed to the pastel blue frame house and called it “Maggie’s home”. “I don’t remember ever seeing Alex,” he added.
In fact, it was here that Maggie was staying when the killer lured his 27-year-old wife to their Moselle estate with the emotional jolt that his father, Randolph III, was dying of cancer.
Maggie was disappointed when she drove to the mosquito-infested swamps, complaining to her housekeeper, Blanca Simpson, and her sister, Marian Proctor, on the way there. The doting mom oversaw the renovations at Edisto and planned her Fourth of July party.
Edisto’s neighbors said the Murdaughs keep to themselves and host their own group of friends at the house, not local beach people.
Richard said, “We didn’t really know the Murduaghs… SLED (State Law Enforcement) came by here when they were searching the house and I told them the same thing.”
“Maggie was a dog lover though,” added the man, in his fifties. “My wife actually helped her look after some puppies she was raising here.”
As he spoke, a car pulled up at the Murdaughs’ house and a telephone appeared at the window. “Selfies,” Richard sighed. “We’ll get that now.”
The jury heard how the Murdaugh marriage was strained by Murdaugh’s addiction to opioids, threats of ruinous lawsuits and, according to Maggie’s sister Marion Proctor, who testified as a witness for the prosecution, suspicions that he had been unfaithful was
Friend and housekeeper Blanca Simpson told the court she found Maggie’s wedding ring under a seat while clearing out her Mercedes SUV
Sheniqua Riley, a hairstylist who lives less than a mile from Murdaugh’s old home in Hampton, said the family is good people.
“They have always given a lot to the community and everyone here knows them. A lot of people I know grew up with them and went to high school with them,” she said.
When asked if she thought he would be convicted, Riley shook her head and said, “He’s a lawyer.”
Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said he did not believe Murdaugh killed his wife and son.
“Most people in Hampton don’t believe he’s the killer,” the local government official said.
“He was a family man, he was very close to his wife and children. I just don’t understand how he could have done that.”
Isaac Smith, a Vietnam veteran and former county councillor, said: “It’s amazing and I’ve been saying since it happened you don’t want that for your town. Quiet community, before that nobody knew about Hampton, South Carolina, until now nobody knew much about Walterboro in Colleton County. And that’s not what you want to be known for, but I think it attracted a lot of tourists.
‘I think he’s gone’ slapped the killer rapper. But because of the other allegations against him, he will never see the light of day. He stole from his partners, he stole from his clients – black and white – he stole from poor people, he stole from his lawyer friends. This company is named after his grandfather.
“People don’t care if you kill someone, but don’t steal their money. I hate to put it that way, but you can get away with murder – you can’t get away with stealing $10 million.
But those who doubted his guilt may be less vocal now that Murdaugh is doomed to spend the rest of his life in a cell.
At the center of the state’s case was a video taken by Murdaugh’s son in the kennel just before he was shot with his mother. It proved the disfellowshipped attorney’s downfall as he had told police he had never been at the crime scene.
Last week he took the stand and claimed he only lied because his drug addiction made him paranoid. Murdaugh desperately altered his alibi to match the damning evidence, claiming he only went down to the kennels briefly before heading back to the main house, and then drove out to visit his ailing mother. But prosecutors used cellphone data to prove his wife and son were already dead.
On the witness stand, the floodgates were opened for the state to brief the “master liar” on his decades-long financial crimes against clients and partners, as well as his opioid addiction.
Among the most egregious cases was Hackeem Pickney, from whom Murdaugh stole around $1 million after he was left paralyzed in a car accident. The 21-year-old died just four days after Murdaugh reached the settlement.
The court also heard how he stole from the sons of his housekeeper, who died in a fall at the Murdaugh family home – a death that remains mysterious.
He promised Tony Satterfield and his brother Bryan, a vulnerable adult, that he would look after them at their mother Gloria’s funeral. But he went on to steal more than $4.3 million without giving them a dime.
The state also told jurors about his botched roadside suicide attempt three months after the murders. Murdaugh survived with a surface wound and initially told police he had a flat tire and someone stopped to offer help before shooting him.
It was only later that he admitted he had asked his drug dealer cousin, Curtis “Eddie” Smith, to shoot him in the head in order to earn a multimillion-dollar life insurance payout for his son, Buster.
As Murdaugh’s defense attorney said Friday morning, the only family-related scandal that did not make it to trial during the trial is the mysterious death of a young boy, Stephen Smith – who has even been discussed in true-crime documentaries. on Netflix and HBO.
After six weeks of blockbuster testimony, it took the jury less than three hours to find Murdaugh guilty.
The next morning, perhaps as confused as everyone else, the judge questioned the killer during sentencing, offering the legal scion one last chance to admit the murders.
‘Remind me of your expression on the witness stand. Oh what a tangled web we weave. What did you mean by that?’ asked Newman as he stared Murdaugh in the eyes.
“I mean, when I lied, I kept lying,” he replied as matter-of-factly as he had on the witness stand a few days ago.
“And the question is, when will it end? When will it end?’ The judge admonished him, reminding him that “You have continued to lie and lie throughout your testimony.”
Alex Murdaugh broke down in tears as the prosecutor ended his explosive grilling with evidence the alleged double killer lied to police about his alibi
Buster, 26, leaned forward and covered his face with his hand as he listened to his father describe meeting his younger brother Paul on March 7th, 2021
Buster Murdaugh leaves court with his aunt Lynn and other family members after Friday’s verdict. They were flanked by sheriff’s deputies
The judge added: “But in your own soul you have to deal with it.”
The room went dead still as Newman looked at the killer and spoke to him as if it were just the two of them.
‘And I know you need to see Paul and Maggie at night when you’re trying to sleep. I’m sure they’ll come and see you, I’m sure,” the judge said.
Murdaugh replied, “All day and every night.”
The judge, looking down on Murdaugh, wondered if it could have been “the monster you become” that night after gobbling up as many as 60 opioid pills in one day.
Newman said: “I’ve seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, although it is the same person.’
That sentiment echoed the words of the more than 70 witnesses who testified and the townspeople of Hampton and Walterboro who painted a picture of a man apparently no one knew.
The legal successor, who sobbed for weeks at his trial, looked petrified as the verdict was read last night and this morning when he was convicted.
“Nobody knew who this man was,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury.
‘He fooled them all, and he fooled Maggie and Paul too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you either.”
For many, the unanimous decision by five women and seven men to find him guilty on the charge offers a glimmer of hope for Murdaugh’s battered legal system — and proves once and for all that absolutely no one is above the law.