Did millionaire Alex Murdaugh shoot his wife and son dead?

The trial transfixing America: Did millionaire Alex Murdaugh shoot his wife and son dead… and was it a bid to stop himself from being exposed as a fraudster?

• Alex Murdaugh came home to find his wife and son dead of gunshot wounds
• He is in the dock in a double murder trial that has suddenly transfixed America 

Millionaire Alex Murdaugh comes from a long line of eminent attorneys whose name was pretty much a byword for the law for nearly a century in their swampy corner of the Deep South.

But that distinguished reputation changed drastically one night in June 2021, when he rang police to say he had arrived home to find his wife and younger son dead of gunshot wounds outside the kennels of the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate.

There appeared to have been two attackers — his wife Maggie, 52, had been killed by four rounds from an assault rifle while his son Paul, 22, had been blasted through the head by a shotgun fired at point-blank range.

It was an appalling reversal of fortune for the scion of one of South Carolina’s most powerful families, a dynasty in which Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, grandfather and father served consecutively as chief prosecutor in the state’s Lowcountry region from 1920 to 2006.

Alex wasn’t just influential but also immensely rich, running a private law firm whose aggressive pursuit of personal injury claims had earned him a fortune. And yet the family tragedy was soon to become immeasurably darker, eventually landing the bear-like redhead in the dock in a double murder trial that has suddenly transfixed America.

Alex Murdaugh’s (second right) wife Maggie (second left) had been killed by four rounds from an assault rifle while his son Paul (left) had been blasted through the head by a shotgun fired at point-blank range

Alex Murdaugh’s (left) wife Maggie (right), 52, found shot and killed with their son Paul, 22, on the family’s land

Mallory Beach (pictured) 19, was killed in a a boat crash in 2019. Felony charges where filed against Paul Murdaugh

Not only was he accused of killing two members of his own family, but his alleged motive was so cold-blooded as to be barely conceivable.

In a courtroom where a portrait of his grandfather used to hang — until a judge ordered it removed for the duration of the trial — prosecutors have argued that the 54-year-old murdered his wife and son in an attempt to win sympathy and save himself from being exposed as a massive fraudster. The labyrinthine case, which involves two more deaths and numerous complicated financial allegations, has true-crime fanatics and film-makers alike queuing each day to get into the courtroom in the small town of Walterboro.

For them, it seems to have everything: ruthless lawyers, claims of political corruption, multi-million-dollar fraud, a fatal boat crash involving a beautiful young woman and even an apparent assassination attempt on Murdaugh himself. At its centre is a man whose tendency to keep dissolving into tears during testimony may simply be a shameless ploy by someone accused of the most calculating and monstrous behaviour.

Yesterday, he was weeping again, this time from the witness stand, as he ignored his lawyers’ advice and testified. ‘I didn’t shoot my wife or my son any time. Ever,’ he sobbed.

However, he admitted lying to police about not being in the vicinity of the kennels on the night of the murders, blaming his drug-induced paranoia. Quoting Sir Walter Scott, he told the court: ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave . . . Once I told the lie, and I told my family, I had to keep lying.’

Murdaugh, whose name (thankfully for him and his lawyers) is pronounced Murdock rather than Murder, has denied killing his wife and son in a trial now in its fifth week.

The defence has portrayed him as a devoted father and husband who would never dream of butchering his loved ones. The prosecution counters that 6 ft 4 in Murdaugh committed the killings to avoid ‘personal legal and financial ruin’ by distracting attention from evidence that he had tricked millions of dollars out of clients and his own firm. (He also faces some 100 charges, mainly of insurance fraud and theft, to which he has yet to plead.)

Both sides agree, however, that the story behind the murders really begins two years earlier, on the night of another tragic death. In February 2019, Alex’s son Paul Murdaugh, then 19, had taken out the family’s 17 ft-long fishing boat one night with five friends for a short booze-laden cruise along the South Carolina coast.

As they were returning home in the early hours in thick fog, the vessel hit the pilings of a bridge before running into a bank with a smashed hull. Of three passengers thrown into the icy water, only two surfaced. The body of the third, 19-year-old Mallory Beach, was found a week later in a nearby marsh.

Alex Murdaugh is in the dock in a double murder trial that has suddenly transfixed America

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian holds Buster Murdaugh’s 300 Blackout rifle, similar to the one used to kill Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Colleton County Courthouse, February 21, 2023

Alex Murdaugh gives testimony in his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, February 23, 2023

Paul Murdaugh, a wayward youth who has been described as a ‘teenage Caligula’, was an aggressive drunk and he was allegedly steering the boat when it crashed.Despite his influential family’s alleged attempts to pressure survivors of the accident to say Paul had not been at the helm, he was charged with three offences including boating under the influence resulting in death.

Although that case never came to court — an illustration, some said, of the power of the Murdaughs — Mallory Beach’s family filed a civil suit against Murdaugh, claiming he was liable for her death because he lent his son the boat and turned a blind eye to his underage drinking.

Just days before Murdaugh’s wife and son were killed, a future hearing for this civil case had been scheduled. Crucially, it would have required Murdaugh to provide a full picture of his finances which could have revealed he was fleecing his clients.

The lawyer bringing the civil suit had specifically requested his wife Maggie and son Paul to testify about the reportedly boozy culture on the Murdaugh hunting estate, known as Moselle, where underage teenagers were said to be allowed to stagger around drunk.

Prosecutors believe Alex murdered them not only to delay the civil suit (which the killings succeeded in doing) but also to distract attention from himself by suggesting that the Murdaughs had been targeted by people wanting to avenge Mallory Beach’s death in the boat crash.

Indeed, his trial was shown video evidence last week from the body cameras of police officers who attended the scene of the murders. It showed an apparently distraught Alex Murdaugh offering his thoughts about the possible motive.

‘This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck . . . months back. He’s been getting threats,’ he says. ‘Most of it’s been benign stuff. We didn’t take it serious, you know, he’s been getting like punched. Um, I, I know that’s what it is.’

And to reinforce this idea that the murders were in fact carried out by people intent on revenge for Mallory Beach, it’s alleged that Murdaugh then faked an assassination attempt on himself.

Alex Murdaugh swears to tell the truth before he takes the stand during his trial for murder

This week, his surviving son Buster testified that his father was ‘destroyed’ by the murders of his wife and son — so ‘heartbroken’ that he could barely speak

Three months after the double murder, he called police to say that a stranger had ambushed him while he was changing a tyre by the roadside — and that the assailant had shot him in the head. Medical reports have showed that Alex was indeed grazed by a bullet but, as we will see, the man involved was far from a murderous stranger.

Unfortunately for Murdaugh, a passer-by saw the so-called ‘shooting’ and told police it was so unconvincing they thought it had been a ‘set-up’.

This all coincided with a worsening of Murdaugh’s problems when his family law firm, which goes by the acronym of PMPED, revealed it had just ousted him for allegedly stealing its funds.

Following the firm’s disclosure, Murdaugh’s lawyer went on national television to admit that, yes, his client had been stealing money — but only because he had to pay for a 20-year-old opioid addiction, for which he was now in rehab.

The lawyer also blew the gaff on the mystery person who supposedly shot at Murdaugh by the roadside, saying he had in fact been a distant cousin, Eddie Smith, who did odd jobs for him. Murdaugh had asked Smith to shoot him dead, explained the lawyer, and make it look like murder so that his surviving son, Buster, could collect an £8.4 million ($10 million) life insurance policy. Only Smith, he added, had botched it and managed merely to wound him.

The trouble was that Smith then insisted to investigators he had never agreed to kill him and that the gun only went off by accident as he struggled to wrest it from Murdaugh.

Whatever the case, sceptics believe Murdaugh never meant to die at all and simply wanted to strengthen the theory that he and his family were targets.

But what of the financial crimes that, say prosecutors, Murdaugh was so desperate to keep secret that he was even prepared to murder his wife and son? These were already beginning to emerge because journalists had started to look into the family’s affairs following the fatal boat crash.

And it is here that we came to the fourth death in this grim saga. It emerged that Murdaugh’s former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, had died in February 2018 after falling down the front steps of their family home. It has been mooted that she might have been pushed, although Alex Murdaugh has insisted Ms Satterfield tripped over one of his hunting dogs.

What the journalists uncovered was that the housekeeper’s family had accused Murdaugh of tricking them out of a multi-million-dollar settlement over her death.

Buster Murdaugh (left), son of Alex Murdaugh, sits during his father’s double murder trial

Mike Sutton, a forensic engineer, answers questions about shot trajectory from defense attorney Dick Harpootlian during the Alex Murdaugh trial, February 21, 2023

Old hand as he was at exploiting America’s super-litigious culture, Murdaugh actually encouraged Ms Satterfield’s brothers to sue him over her death on the grounds that his liability insurance policies would cover it. And the policies did, paying out more than £3 million — whereupon Murdaugh allegedly pocketed it all.

Only after a lengthy battle did Murdaugh, who is now disbarred, agree in late 2021 to pay the Satterfield family £3.25 million to settle their claims.

Prosecutors say many more examples of his shameless looting over a decade-long period have emerged, including the fact he once stole from a police officer injured in the line of duty, as well as from the family of a deaf man who had suffered a horrendous car accident that left him quadriplegic.

Local people say that he was able to act with impunity for so long because so many of them were intimidated by the Murdaughs, who — despite having reputedly first made their money distilling illicit alcohol, or moonshine — built strong connections with politicians and law enforcement.

‘They were powerful. They own the country,’ said Suzy Murdaugh, a relative, about how she would sometimes enlist her mighty cousins’ help.

‘If you went to court, you won. Didn’t matter what it was. Don’t think Alex, his father or his grandfather ever lost a case. He told the judge what to do.’

Even now in his murder trial, Murdaugh is represented by a lawyer friend who is a senior senator and judiciary committee member in the state congress — a congress that chooses South Carolina’s judges.

For all that historical influence, the trial isn’t going his way, hence his 11th hour decision to take the stand.

Murdaugh has denied killing his wife and son in a trial now in its fifth week

Alex Murdaugh cries while watching a video clip on his son Paul’s phone during his double murder trial

The Murdaughs’ current housekeeper has testified how Mrs Murdaugh had told her that her husband Alex had insisted she return home from their beach house on the night of the murder.

And video evidence from son Paul’s phone placed his father with his family minutes before prosecutors say he killed them — contradicting his previous insistence to police that he didn’t get home until much later and hadn’t seen the pair that evening until he found their bodies.

This week, his surviving son Buster testified that his father was ‘destroyed’ by the murders of his wife and son — so ‘heartbroken’ that he could barely speak.

His defence has suggested that the double killing may have been committed by a drug gang, saying Murdaugh was spending $50,000 (£41,000) a week buying drugs from a man who was in deep debt to the gang.

The state still has the death penalty but prosecutors, perhaps to improve their chances of getting a conviction, have said they won’t seek it for Murdaugh.

If convicted, he faces 30 years to life in prison.

Many believe he was brought down by his own vanity, desperate to live up to the family name.

A jury will have to decide whether the tears rolling down his cheeks yesterday are those of an innocent and cruelly bereaved man or an accomplished but desperate liar.

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