Murdaugh family saga: a tangled web of secrets and murder

On Sep 18, 2021

It sounds like someone took a list of sordid elements and stuffed them all into a crime thriller so twisty it could only be fiction.

But the tortuous tale of the Murdaughs, a prominent South Carolina family with shadowy secrets, is real. And it’s far from over.

The story took a fresh turn this week when investigators arrested patriarch Alex Murdaugh for allegedly hiring a hit man to kill him in a failed attempt to collect millions in life insurance for his surviving son, Buster. This came three months after Murdaugh’s wife and other son were gunned down on the family’s secluded estate.

These events led authorities to open investigations into several other mysterious deaths — dating back years — with apparent ties to the Murdaughs.

Now the family’s legacy of influence is crumbling and the rural area around Hampton, some 75 miles west of Charleston, is buzzing with theories. The evolving saga has inspired at least one podcast and gripped amateur sleuths around the state — and the nation.

“Around coffee shops and barber shops, that’s all people have been talking about,” said Akim Anastopoulo, a Charleston attorney and former prosecutor who has crossed paths with Alex Murdaugh. “You cannot believe how this thing changes every day. The new information that comes out — it’s amazing because everyone is living this in real time.”

The mystery indeed has a tangled web of characters and events. To unpack it all, we have to go back at least six years.

A family history of power and connections

The Murdaughs have long been a potent legal dynasty in this part of the Carolina Lowcountry, a quiet stretch of farms, woods, marshland and small towns that feel far removed from the tourist bustle of Charleston or even Hilton Head, some 60 miles south.

For nearly a century, the family controlled the local prosecutor’s office.

Beginning in 1920, Randolph Murdaugh Sr. was the first in three generations of solicitors for the 14th Judicial Circuit, which oversees prosecutions in five counties. His son, Randolph Murdaugh Jr., succeeded him in the position for nearly five decades.

Randolph Murdaugh III — Alex Murdaugh’s dad — then replaced him and served through 2005, marking 87 consecutive years that the family led prosecutions in the area.

But even with the family no longer running the prosecutor’s office, their connections run deep.

The Murdaughs, including Alex and his younger brother Randy, have long been partners in a regional law firm with offices in three counties. They have focused mostly on personal injury litigation and have won big settlements for their clients.

“We’re no different than anybody else. We’ve just been here as attorneys for a long time,” Randy Murdaugh told ABC News in June. “I see words like ‘dynasty’ used, and ‘power.’ But we’re just regular people …”

Randolph Murdaugh III died in June at the age of 81 — three days after his daughter-in-law and grandson were killed.

A boat crash in the middle of the night

The Murdaughs’ troubles, at least in the eyes of the public, began in February 2019.

Paul Murdaugh, younger son of Alex Murdaugh, was piloting his father’s motorboat with five friends early in the morning of February 24 when it struck a…

Murdaugh family saga: a tangled web of secrets and murder

A family history of power and connections

A boat crash in the middle of the night

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