Murdaugh family

Randolph Murdaugh Sr. was born in Varnville and graduated from law school at the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1910.[8] Upon graduation he founded a one-man law firm in Hampton, South Carolina, about 65 miles inland from Charleston.[3][5][12] In 1920 he became solicitor in the 14th judicial circuit and held the position until 1940, when he was killed in a collision between his car and a train.[8] He also ran a local daily newspaper, The Hampton County Herald.[6]

Murdaugh Sr. was succeeded by his son, Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., who served from 1940 to 1986.[13] In his forty-six years in office, Buster ran opposed only twice.[6] Buster was known for "his love of chewing tobacco, his courtroom prowess and his flair for acting out murders before spellbound juries".[10] According to Professor John Blume of Cornell Law School, Buster was rebuked several times by the state supreme court for his closing arguments in several death penalty cases.[10] In 1956 he was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly warning a bootlegger to move a still into a neighboring county to avoid the police; he was acquitted.[10] Buster retired in 1986 and died in 1998.[10]

Buster was succeeded as solicitor by his son, Randolph Murdaugh III, who took office in 1986.[14] He ran unopposed in every election and held office until retiring in 2006.[6] Randolph III was married to Elizabeth Alexander[15] and had four children including three sons, Randolph IV (called Randy) and Richard Alexander (called Alex, b. 1968), both of whom entered the family firm; and John Marvin.[4] In 2019 Randolph III was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian recognition, by Governor Henry McMaster.[10] He retired in 2006 and died of natural causes June 10, 2021.[5]

Alex graduated from USC in 1990 and from the USC School of Law in 1994.[16] He soon joined the family firm, volunteering part-time in the 14th circuit solicitor's office. Alex married Margaret Kennedy Branstetter (called Maggie)[17] and had two sons, Richard Alexander Jr. (called Buster) and Paul Terry, who was born in 1999.[15][17]

In 2015, teenager Stephen Smith was found dead from blunt force trauma on a road in Hampton County and the case ruled a hit and run with no suspects arrested.[21][9][22] Smith was openly gay and a high school classmate of Alex Murdaugh's oldest son, Buster.[23] Witnesses interviewed as part of the original investigation repeatedly implicated Buster as having been involved in a relationship with Stephen, but the case had gone cold.[9][24] According to The Greenville News, "rumors hinting at a cover-up and the possible involvement of one or more members of the Murdaugh family...began circulating around the Hampton County area" soon after Smith's death[21] and according to the Beaufort County Island Packet, the case "reeked of insider interference".[25]

In June 2021, SLED re-opened the investigation into Smith's death based on evidence found while investigating the deaths of Alex Murdaugh's wife and son, which had also occurred in June 2021, in which Alex is charged for murder.[26] No charges or indictments have been issued thus far in Smith's killing.

On February 2, 2018, the Murdaughs' longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, suffered a severe head injury when she fell down the front steps at the family's Moselle estate and died on February 26, 2018 of complications including a stroke. It had been reported as a "trip and fall" accident, but no coroner was notified, no autopsy was performed, and the death certificate incongruously said it was by "natural causes." A coroner testified that describing her death on the death certificate as "natural" was improper.[27] Alex demonstrated suspicious behavior around her death, including arriving on the scene before the EMTs and insisting he heard Satterfield say that his dogs had caused her fall, contradicting her own statement later that she had no idea what caused her fall.[28]

Satterfield's two sons were awarded an insurance settlement for the accidental and/or natural death, but by 2021, they had not received any money. According to multiple indictments, Alex Murdaugh, Chad Westendorf and attorney Cory Fleming, conspired to steal the Satterfields' $4.3-million insurance policy settlement. The scam worked by diverting the insurance payout to Alex's account, then not notifying the Satterfields that insurance settlement had occurred. It involved forgery, Murdaugh's law firm PMPED, and Palmetto State Bank. The Satterfield sons were ultimately able to recover more than $6.5 million during subsequent lawsuits.[29][30][31]

On September 15, 2021, authorities announced they were opening a criminal investigation into Satterfield's 2018 death. In June 2022, authorities received permission to exhume Satterfield’s body in order to continue the investigation into her death.[32]

In February 2019 Alex's younger son Paul Murdaugh (1999-2021) was charged with three felonies, after the death of his teenage friend Mallory Beach in a boating accident.[3][15] Paul's blood alcohol content was .286, over three times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle, yet despite being the driver of the boat, Paul was not given a field sobriety test, was not taken to jail for booking, nor was he ever handcuffed. This led to the speculation that he had received special treatment by virtue of his family connections.[3][5][11][33] The judge denied a prosecutorial request that he wear an alcohol monitor.[3][33]

In court documents, Beach's family implicated Alex and Buster in providing alcohol to the then-underage Paul.[34][35] As of September 2021, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) were investigating allegations that police may have been pressured not to charge Paul.[7] The family of Connor Cook, another of the teens onboard the boat during the accident, filed a lawsuit claiming Alex had encouraged the Cook family to retain a long-time friend of Alex's, Cory Fleming, in order to orchestrate the protection of Paul.[31]

The Beach wrongful-death case began the unraveling of Alex Murdaugh's criminal enterprise by exposing financial information that spiraled into an inquiry into Murdaugh's alleged financial wrongdoing. In the days before the killing of his wife and son on June 7, 2021, Murdaugh was under immense pressure. A judge had scheduled a hearing for June 10 to consider a motion to compel Murdaugh to turn over his financial information. Likewise, his wife Maggie had made arrangements for a forensic accountant to review the family finances.[3][5][36]

On June 7, 2021, Alex called police from his cell phone at 10:06pm, saying he had discovered the bodies of 22-year-old son Paul and 52-year-old wife Maggie near the dog kennels at the family's hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina.[3] Both had been shot multiple times and with different weapons.[22][37] Alex reported that at the time of the killings (around 9pm it was later determined), he had been with his terminally ill father, Randolph III, and mother, who has dementia.[9][38][39]

Maggie at the time was estranged from Alex and living separately at their beach home. Police reports indicated that Alex had called Maggie to meet him at the lodge, and he proposed the two of them would travel together from there to see Randolph. Maggie didn't want to go to the lodge and suggested they meet at a public place. Maggie texted a friend saying Alex sounded "fishy" and was "up to something". Nevertheless at Alex's insistence she went to the lodge, and after parking her car at the house walked to the dog kennels, where she found her son Paul. This was the location where they were murdered and the bodies found.[40]

In October 2021, it was revealed that SLED had regarded Alex as a person of interest in the homicides since the start of the investigation.[39] A South Carolina lawmaker described SLED chief Mark Keel as a "straight arrow" who wanted to have an airtight case, "He knows he's up against the good old boys who will bury him if gets the tiniest thing wrong. He's not dropping anything until he's absolutely sure."[41]

In July 2022, the Colleton County Grand Jury issued an indictment charging Alex Murdaugh with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul. Further details in the "Indictments" section below.

On September 3, 2021, Alex resigned from PMPED after the firm confronted him over his years of suspected embezzlement.[5] According to The New York Times, the amount involved was "in the millions."[5] At this point forward "Alex Murdaugh's house of cards began to collapse", and the case became a national sensation making regular mainstream headlines.[28]

On September 4, Alex was allegedly shot in the head while changing a tire on a rural road. He claimed a truck slowed down, shot him, and then drove away. The injury was superficial and he was released from the hospital soon after.[42]

On September 6, Alex released a statement saying he was entering a rehabilitation facility in Orlando, Florida for substance abuse treatment.[3]

On September 14, SLED announced that Alex's former client, Curtis Edward Smith – who had also been Alex's source for an oxycodone addiction – had been arrested for having conspired with Alex to kill him in the roadside shooting so that his remaining son Buster would receive a $10 million insurance payout. Smith was charged with assisted suicide, aggravated assault and battery, and insurance fraud. Alex, suffering from "massive depression" and wanting to kill himself, admitted to concocting the assisted suicide as murder scheme. He was motivated by a mistaken belief that his son Buster would not receive the insurance money if Alex committed suicide.[43]

Attorney Justin Bamberg represents eight people from whom he says Alex Murdaugh stole money while serving as their lawyer.[44] He later said the total number of Murdaugh victims may be between 30 and 50, and the total amount stolen could be as high as $20 million. According to the Island Packet it is unclear where the money went.[45]

The first case involved Gloria Satterfield, Alex Murdaugh's housekeeper who died in a falling accident on his property in 2018. Satterfield's two sons were awarded a settlement of about $500,000, but by 2021 they had received nothing. Alex Murdaugh was charged with two felonies related to the missing money.[27]

Hakeem Pinckney was a deaf African-American man involved in a 2009 traffic accident that required permanent life support. Murdaugh personally represented the Pinckney family in a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the tires on the vehicle; the family was awarded a settlement. In 2011, Pinckney died at a care facility after his ventilator was, according to a Pinckney lawyer, "mysteriously unplugged".[46] Murdaugh's law firm handled a wrongful death lawsuit against the care facility. Murdaugh allegedly introduced Pinckney's family to Russell Laffitte, the CEO of Palmetto State Bank, to manage the Pinckney finances due to the size of the settlements. The Pinckneys received some money, but an estimated $800,000 to $1 million went missing. In January 2022, the board of Palmetto State Bank fired Laffitte after allegations came to light he was involved with Murdaugh to defraud Pinckney. The board is composed of mostly the Laffitte family, who founded the bank in 1907.[47][46][48]

Blondell Gray was killed in an ambulance crash in 2012. According to Bamberg, Gray’s family is owed in excess of $112,000 and the money was stolen by Murdaugh.[44]

Sandra Taylor was a Beaufort woman killed by a drunk driver in Colleton County in 2019. Indictments show Murdaugh reportedly told Taylor's mother she would only receive $30,000 as a settlement, when that figure really was over $180,000.[44]

As of December 2022, Alex Murdaugh faces a total of 106 grand jury criminal charges including financial fraud, drugs and murder. There are three charges from the Hampton County Grand Jury, four charges from the Colleton County Grand Jury, and 99 charges are from the State Grand Jury. He is also a defendant in three separate lawsuits. He has been disbarred, his assets seized and he is currently incarcerated.

The Murdaugh family, including Alex, are defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit, filed in March 2019, that is scheduled for trial in 2023. The lawsuit accuses the Murdaugh family of enabling Paul Murdaugh's underage drinking. Mallory Beach died in a boating accident while Paul was driving and extremely intoxicated.[49]

On November 4, 2021, the Hampton County Grand Jury issued three charges against Murdaugh for a murder-for-hire suicide scheme to gain $10 million in insurance money, related to the events that occurred on September 4, 2021, in which Alex was allegedly shot in the head while changing a tire on a rural road. Murdaugh's accomplice in the scheme and the alleged gunman, Curtis Edward Smith, has five charges.[50][51]

On November 19, 2021, the State Grand Jury issued five indictments against Alex Murdaugh on 27 charges of embezzlement and other crimes including breach of trust, fraudulent intent, money laundering, computer crimes and forgery. The victims were Thomas L. Moore (patrol officer), Deon J. Martin, Gloria Satterfield (Murdaugh housekeeper), and Manuel Santis-Cristiani. Altogether the fraud amount was about $4.8 million.[52][53] On December 9, an additional 21 criminal charges were filed connected to an alleged scheme that sought to defraud victims of more than $6 million.[54][55] On January 21, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a further 23 criminal charges, which included 19 breaches of trust with fraudulent intent, and four counts of computer crimes. The indictments allege that he stole more than $2.6 million from clients Natarsha Thomas, Arthur Badger, Deon Martin, and the family of Hakeem Pinckney.[56][57][58] On March 16, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a superseding indictment against Murdaugh and Cory Howerton Fleming that includes four new charges against Murdaugh related to an alleged scheme to defraud multiple insurance companies in the course of surreptitiously delivering to Murdaugh a share of the proceeds.[59] A further round of superseding indictments against Murdaugh were issued in April 2022 involving four charges of conspiring with former banker Russell Lucius Laffitte, and former attorney Cory Howerton Fleming.[60] On August 19, 2022, the State Grand Jury issued a new round of indictments against Murdaugh, Spencer Anwan Roberts, and Jerry K. Rivers. Murdaugh was indicted on nine charges related to the theft of $295,000 from his brother and his old law firm.[61][62]

In total, the indictments indicate he may have stolen $8,789,447.77 from more than a dozen people.[61] The indictments allege crimes going back to at least 2011. Murdaugh would secretly negotiate a settlement for his clients, then pay them only enough so that they would be content and thankful; while he would then steal the rest. His clients were usually minorities who were not well off. They included a state trooper, family friends, a deaf man, and an immigrant living in the country illegally. Murdaugh allegedly used money orders given to an unnamed family member to help launder the cash.[63] Although some of the amounts to Fleming and Laffitte overlap as to the alleged amounts for Murdaugh, the State Grand Jury indicted Fleming on 23 charges for schemes to defraud victims of $3,725,203.85. Laffitte had 21 charges against him for schemes to defraud victims of $1,832,772.30.[60]

In September 2021, Alex gave broad powers of attorney to his son Buster, including the power to sell and dispose of his assets, which Buster proceeded to do. Buster was soon after allegedly seen at a Las Vegas casino. On November 1, a judge ordered the Murdaugh assets to be frozen. Buster and Alex sought to overturn it, saying they had no money to pay for food, medical insurance and utilities.[64][65][66]

Alex's assets were placed into a receivership, which was created because evidence suggested that the Murdaugh family was moving and hiding money from potential creditors, including multiple plaintiffs. The Murdaugh family and attorneys have been trying to unwind the receivership in civil court.[67]

On October 14, 2021, concurrent with his release from the drug rehabilitation facility in Orlando, Alex was taken into custody by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) on two felony counts of Obtaining Property by False Pretenses, related to the Satterfield case.[68][69]

Murdaugh had been given a $7-million bail on the fraud charges which he was unable to pay and remained in prison. After the murder charges of his wife and son he was denied bail entirely.[70]

Murdaugh has been held in custody at Alvin Glenn Detention Center in Richland County from October 14, 2021 to present.

In June 2022, Alex Murdaugh was indicted on two counts by the State Grand Jury related to conspiring with accomplice Curtis Edward Smith (a distant cousin) to purchase and distribute narcotics using a money-laundering scheme involving $2.4 million in stolen money. The indictment alleges that Murdaugh and Smith used hundreds of illegal transactions "to facilitate the acquisition and distribution of illegally obtained narcotics" in several counties throughout South Carolina over an eight year period starting in 2013.[71][72]

On July 12, 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an official order disbarring Alex Murdaugh from the practice of law in South Carolina. It was based on Murdaugh's "admitted reprehensible misconduct." Murdaugh was given the opportunity to contest the disbarment but did not.[73]

In July 2022, the Colleton County Grand Jury issued an indictment charging Alex Murdaugh with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul. The indictment says Alex shot his wife with a rifle, and his son with a shotgun.[74][75] Sources close to the investigation said that high-velocity blood spatter on Alex's clothing as well as cellphone footage had placed Murdaugh at the scene when his wife and son were shot dead.[76] Prosecutors suggested a motive was Murdaugh sought a distraction from his financial crimes which were beginning to go public and to garner sympathy. "Ultimately, the murders served as Murdaugh's means to shift the focus away from himself and buy himself some additional time to try and prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered, which—if revealed—would result in personal, legal, and financial ruin for Murdaugh."[77] Alex pled not guilty, while state prosecutors said they will seek life without parole, not the death penalty.[78][79]

On September 12, 2022, Forge Consulting announced it would file a lawsuit against Alex Murdaugh and Bank of America because Forge "suffered serious harm to its business reputation and credibility because of Murdaugh and BoA". Forge alleges Murdaugh "set up a fake bank account using the Forge brand in order to take millions of dollars from his clients and colleagues", and further blames BoA for not doing basic due-diligence to detect the fraud.[80]

On October 7, 2022, a lawsuit was filed that names as defendants Murdaugh, Crosby, Barnes, the PMPED firm, Laffitte and Palmetto State Bank as part of a conspiracy to defraud plaintiff Manuel Santis-Cristiani of Chiapas, Mexico of accident settlement money he was awarded but never received.[81]

On December 16, 2022, Alex Murdaugh was indicted by the State Grand Jury on evading nearly $487,000 in state income taxes. It reflects he stole nearly $7 million meant for his law firm's bank accounts and failed to pay taxes on the ill-gotten gains.[82][83]