If you’re a fan of true crime documentaries and followed the double homicide case enveloping a prominent legal family, the question of why Alex Murdaugh murdered his family was argued in front of a South Carolina court.
The disgraced former injury attorney was found guilty of murdering of his son Paul, 22, and wife Margaret, 52, on March 2, 2023, and his sentence was handed down a day later. The trial coincided with the release of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, which is available to stream on Netflix.
The victims were found with multiple gunshot wounds on June 7, 2021, after 911 dispatchers received a call from Murdaugh at around 10pm. “I’ve been gone,” Murdaugh, his voice quivering, told a dispatcher, NBC reported at the time. “I just came back.” He later told investigators he’d been spending the day with his mother, who has dementia, and her caregiver that day. On September 6, Murdaugh released a public statement to say he’d resigned from his family’s law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, saying he’d “made a lot of decisions that I truly regret” (per WCSC) and cited an addiction to prescription painkillers. Shortly after, the firm released its own statement alleging Murdaugh had misappropriated funds. This story gets wilder, so read on.
Why did Alex Murdaugh kill his family?
Why did Alex Murdaugh kill his family? Prosecutors argued it was to gain sympathy so a jury would be lenient when determining his guilt for his many, many financial crimes. As mentioned, Murdaugh was convicted of double homicide after facing charges of murdering his wife and son, who died from multiple gunshot wounds on June 7, 2021. These are in addition to 100 or so financial charges that he’s yet to face. He pleaded not guilty to their murder and maintained his innocence despite his conviction. The prosecution contended Murdaugh shot his wife and son to “escape accountability” for more than 100 financial crimes including fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and forgery.
Alex Murdaugh; Morgan Doughty; Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh. Courtesy of Netflix
What was Alex Murdaugh’s verdict?
What was the Alex Murdaugh verdict? Jurors took less than three hours to determine Murdaugh’s guilt. Judge Clifton Newman asked Murdaugh if he had anything he wanted to say before sentencing him to two consecutive life terms, and the South Carolina attorney maintained his innocence. “As I tell you again, I respect this court. But I am innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son Paw-Paw,” Murdaugh responded. “And it might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become,” when taking large amounts of prescription painkillers, Newman replied, per AP.
What was Alex Murdaugh’s sentence?
What was Alex Murdaugh’s sentence? As mentioned, Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life without parole behind bars. Prosecutor Creighton Waters said before sentencing: “The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there on this witness stand—your honor, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law-abiding citizens.”
But there are more layers to this story. On September 4, 2021, Murdaugh was injured in a roadside shooting in Hampton County. His lawyer Jim Griffin told news outlets at the time that Murdaugh’s car, a Mercedes-Benz SUV, had a flat tire and he’d pulled over when someone opened fire, Murdaugh escaped with a superficial headwound. Two days later, Murdaugh resigned from his law firm.
“The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life. I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret,” he said in a statement, citing his addiction to oxycodone. “I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated these murders. I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues. I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.”
A little over a week later, authorities looking into the roadside shooting said Murdaugh had hired someone to kill him so that his surviving son, Buster, could collect on a $10m life insurance policy. In a written statement, Murdaugh’s legal team Griffin and another attorney, Richard Harpootlian, said it had become “clear Alex believed that ending his life was his only option. Today, he knows that’s not true. For the last 20 years, there have been many people feeding his addiction to oxycodone. During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs,” the statement said, according to NBC. “One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alex’s life, by shooting him in the head.” During his own testimony, aired live on the New York Times, on February 23, 2023, Murdaugh revealed he’d asked a distant cousin to fatally shoot him. He said he did not want to kill himself because he believed it would prevent his surviving son, Buster, from collecting on his life insurance policy.
Over the next few months, Murdaugh amassed a, frankly shocking, number of charges for financial crimes. By January 21, 2022, he faced 71 charges involving the theft of about $8.5 million over the course of 11 years. In July of the same year, a jury rules to indict Murdaugh for the murder of Paul and Margaret. Authorities believed a cell phone video placed Murdaugh at the scene of the slayings shortly before they took place and contradicted Murdaugh’s timeline of the events on the day his son and wife died. Murdaugh pleads not guilty to the murder charges. By December 2022, Murdaugh faced over 100 charges of financial crimes, including fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and forgery, in addition to two counts of murder.
Murdaugh’s trial began on January 23, 2023. In his opening statement, Creighton Waters, the state’s lead prosecutor in the case, noted that neither Paul nor Margaret had defensive wounds, “as if they didn’t see a threat coming from their attacker.” The details of the injuries suffered by Murdaugh’s wife and son are “gruesome”, Waters told the jury. He also noted cellphone data that placed Murdaugh at the scene of the crime just minutes before his family’s phones would “go silent forever”. Police also found a “wadded up” raincoat inside Murdaugh’s parents’ home that was “coated in gunshot residue.” Waters painted a picture of an increasingly desperate Murdaugh.
Alex Murdaugh. Image: Joshua Boucher/Pool/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The prosecution alleged his decades of financial crimes created a “perfect storm” that led him to kill his son and wife as a way of garnering sympathy and diverting attention from the money he was accused of stealing. “You’re going to reach the inevitable conclusion that Alex murdered Maggie and Paul! He was the storm,” Waters told the jury in his opening statement. “It’s complicated. It’s a journey. There’s a lot of aspects to this case,” Waters said. “But like a lot of things that are complicated, we start to put them all together, piecing together like a puzzle—all the sudden, a picture emerges.”
Harpootlian, on Murdaugh’s defense team, insisted there were numerous holes in the prosecution’s case. “I want you to hear that 911 tape, a man hysterical and in grief,” he said, frequently referring to Murdaugh as a family man who loved Paul and Margaret deeply. “There’s no direct evidence. There’s no eyewitnesses. There’s nothing on camera. There’s no fingerprints. There’s no forensics tying him to the crime. None,” Harpootlian continued. If found guilty, Murdaugh faces up to 30 years to life in prison for the deaths of his son and wife. He’ll also face other trials in the future over the numerous financial crimes of which he’s been accused.
If you’re interested in learning more about the family, don’t miss Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal on Netflix. The synopsis of which is as follows: “The Murdaughs were one of South Carolina’s most prominent families, but the death of teenager Mallory Beach in a drunken boating accident began the unraveling of their legacy. When Paul Murdaugh – the alleged driver of the boat – and his mother Maggie are found brutally murdered, a century of corruption, power, and cover-ups in the Low Country is brought to light. The three-part series will feature first-hand accounts from those on the boat that fateful night, many of whom have not spoken about the crash or double homicide of Maggie and Paul until now, including Paul Murdaugh’s longtime girlfriend, Morgan Doughty; Mallory Beach’s childhood friends, Miley Altman and Connor Cook; Mallory’s boyfriend, Anthony Cook; and, several others.”
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal is available to stream on Netflix.
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