For almost a century, the Murdaugh family held enormous judicial and political power. Though the Murdaughs established their own law firm in 1910, in 1920, Randolph Murdaugh Sr. won the election for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, becoming the chief prosecuting attorney for 5 South Carolina Counties. Election after election, this position was held by the Murdaugh family. After 86 years however, Randolph Murdaugh III left and began working solely for the Murdaugh family firm.

Randolph Murdaugh III had four children including Alex Murdaugh. Though he was not regarded as highly in terms of skill as his father and grandfather before him, Alex still had an extremely lucrative job in the family law firm. Along with his wife Maggie and their two sons Buster and Paul, the family lived lavishly on their 1,700 acre estate, and owned two private islands.

The family appeared to have it all. However, the Murdaugh legacy would begin to crumble starting in 2015.

Over the span of 6 years, 5 deaths would be connected to the Murdaughs.

On July 8, 2015, just a few miles away from the Murdaugh’s estate, Stephen Smith’s body was discovered. It was assumed that Stephen was the victim of a hit and run, however, investigators would later conclude that the condition of his body was inconsistent with a vehicular accident. It was noted that Stephen’s clothes showed no signs of tears, his shoes were still on his feet, and his cellphone was inside his pocket, still intact. It was also noted that it was uncommon for hit and run victims to be found laying in the middle of the road as Stephen’s body was.

One name just kept coming up during the investigation: Buster Murdaugh. According to FITSnews, the Murdaugh family was brought up “over 40 times throughout the course of the investigation,” and more than half of people interviewed mentioned hearing rumors of Buster’s involvement in Stephen’s death.

The same day Stephen’s body was found, Randy Murdaugh, Buster’s uncle and Alex’s brother, contacted Stephen’s father, and told him that he would take on Stephen’s case “free of charge.” According to the Smith family, they found this strange, and were suspicious about why he would offer. However, this remark was not included in case notes by Corporal Michael E. Duncan, who conducted some of the Smith family interviews.

During a separate interview, another family member of Stephen’s stated that several people had asked her if she was aware that Buster Murdaugh and his friends were behind Stephen’s death. Once again, a different officer did not include any information regarding Buster’s suspected involvement in his case notes.

Buster Murdaugh was never interviewed, and the case was eventually closed and left unsolved.

On February 2, 2018, emergency services were called to the Murdaugh estate. There they would find Gloria Satterfield, the family’s housekeeper, who seemed to have suffered a deadly fall.

According to the family, Gloria “tripped over the family dogs on the stairs, fell backward, hit her head violently, and died.” However, this directly contradicts another statement in which the family claimed they had no idea what caused the fall. Gloria would then spend 24 days in the hospital before being pronounced dead on February 26, 2018.

Netflix’s docuseries, “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” goes into detail regarding the events of Gloria’s death.

In the series, Morgan Doughty, Paul Murdaugh’s ex girlfriend, claimed that Gloria found drugs taped to the underside of Alex’s bed, and informed Paul. According to Morgan, Gloria was “too scared” to inform Maggie.

Morgan’s parents, Bill and Diane Doughty, who were also interviewed for the documentary, stated Gloria “knew too much about the family,” and they believed it was that knowledge that got her killed.

Suspicions were also raised significantly around Gloria’s “accidental” death after Alex Murdaugh conspired to steal $4.3 million of insurance money from Gloria’s family.

Alex attempted to mislead Gloria’s sons and divert the money directly to himself by creating a fake company called “Forge.” Additionally, Alex convinced Gloria’s family to sue him for liability, however, he ended up keeping all the money the family should have received for himself. This is only one example of Alex embezzling and defrauding money from his clients, which was something he later confessed to doing often.

Despite all the speculation and suspicious events, Gloria’s death was never reported to the coroner, and an autopsy was never performed. Therefore, any claims of foul play have never been investigated.

The third death took place just a year after Gloria’s.

In 2019, Paul Murdaugh drunkenly piloted a boat into the Archers Creek Bridge, injuring two of his friends, and killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

On February 23, 2019, Mallory and her boyfriend Anthony Cook had plans to attend a house party with Anthony’s cousin Connor and his girlfriend Miley Altman. Before arriving at the party, they met Paul and Morgan at “Murdaugh Island,” one of the Murdaugh family’s river properties. They then took Paul’s boat to the party.

After the party, the group was already highly intoxicated. Miley stated rather than taking everyone home, Paul insisted on driving the boat to a bar nearby so they could continue drinking. Paul and Connor used fake IDs to purchase alcohol, and were seen on security footage ordering two rounds of shots.

At around 1:15 am, the group boarded the boat a final time. According to Miley, everyone had begun arguing with Paul, who was extremely intoxicated and behaving erratically, refusing to give up the boat’s wheel. Morgan testified that she and Mallory were frightened by Paul’s behavior.

At 2:20 am, Paul Murdaugh crashed the boat into the Archers Creek Bridge. Connor’s jaw was broken, and Morgan’s hand was severely injured. Mallory was missing. At the scene, authorities did not record Paul’s intoxication levels, despite his clearly inebriated behavior. When Paul’s blood was eventually tested at the hospital, it was found his blood alcohol content was reported to be .24–three times over the legal limit—hours after the incident took place.

Alex Murdaugh was present at the hospital after the accident. According to staff, he was seen entering rooms and attempting to speak privately with other survivors. Additionally, a security guard reported he overheard Alex saying, “she’s gone, don’t worry.”

On March 3, 2019, Mallory’s body was found roughly 5 miles from the crash scene. On April 18, 2019, Paul Murdaugh was charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence resulting in the death of Mallory Beach, and seriously injuring two other passengers.

Paul Murdaugh pleaded not guilty to the charges, however, he would never see the courtroom. Paul, along with his mother Maggie, were killed on June 7, 2021.

“I need the police and ambulance immediately,” Alex Murdaugh exclaimed in his 911 call. “My wife and child have been shot badly!”

Leading up to her death, Alex and Maggie had been estranged, with Alex living at the family beach house and the pair filing for divorce. Alex was also facing heavy legal ramifications over his embezzlement, forgery, fraud, and money laundering crimes. He confessed to being involved in several fraud schemes, and claimed to be also battling a long opioid addiction.

On June 7, Maggie texted a friend, saying Alex was acting suspicious, and that she felt he was, “up to something.” She arrived at the family estate, where she met Paul, and the two were shot to death with two different weapons—Maggie with a rifle, and Paul with a shotgun.

In the days following the murders, Alex’s father, Randolph III died, and on September 3, 2021, Murdaugh resigned from the family law firm, which later sued him for his years of suspected embezzlement and fraud.

On September 4, Alex called the police, insisting that someone had attempted to shoot him in the head. However, on September 14, Alex confessed that he attempted to have his friend shoot and kill him so Buster could receive $10 million in life insurance payouts. Authorities arrested Murdaugh, and he was charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Alex posted bond and checked himself into drug rehabilitation, however, he was promptly arrested again for fraud charges related to the Satterfield case. After his second arrest, his bail was denied and his assets were frozen.

At this point, the Murdaugh family was making national headlines. The more news attention was drawn to the case, the more investigators seemed to take a closer look at the family’s behavior. Dozens of Alex’s co-conspirators were arrested between November 2021 and July 2022.

It was heavily suspected that Alex was involved in the deaths of Maggie and Paul, but many believed he would never be charged, due to his extensive connections, and the way the Murdaughs always seemed to conveniently evade the law.

“You’ll know a Murdaugh did it if no one is arrested,” said one Facebook spectator.

However, on July 14, 2022, Alex Murdaugh was indicted for the murders of his wife and son. Alex pleaded not guilty, and thus began a lengthy and controversial trial.

Alex Murdaugh lied and contradicted his own statements several times throughout the trial. Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence for Alex was a video that was found on Paul’s cell phone.

In the video, Paul recorded himself playing with one of the dogs in the family kennel, where he would later be shot. There are two voices that can be clearly heard in the background of the video, one Maggie, and the other, unmistakably Alex Murdaugh.

Prosecutors stated that the video was filmed at 8:44 pm, five minutes before the shootings were believed to have taken place. Alex previously claimed that he did not arrive at the kennels until after the killings occurred, but later took the stand and admitted to that being a lie. Instead, he stated he went to the kennels for “a few moments,” and left just before Maggie and Paul were shot.

Alex’s attempts at swindling the jury were unsuccessful, and on March 2, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of the murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul. He will spend two life sentences at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters told jurors that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy—and hopefully draw attention away from his laundry list of financial crimes. Along with the 19 indictments received in court, Alex is facing 99 additional charges, all related to money-stealing schemes dating back years ago. It is believed that Alex stole over $8.7 million from friends, family members, clients, and his family’s own law firm.

Following Alex’s conviction, the Stephen Smith case has been reopened, and is now being investigated as a homicide. Additionally, the Satterfield family wants to exhume Gloria’s body to further investigate claims of foul play. A settlement between the family of Mallory Beach and the Murdaugh family was approved by a judge in January 2023.

The South Carolina judicial system turned a blind eye to Alex Murdaugh’s felonies for centuries. The Murdaughs had centuries of knowledge regarding the ins and outs of the system that nobody else did. Thir abuse of power and privilege is what led to the family’s disastrous downfall.