Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - The Murdaugh Murders: Names to Know

Episode Date: January 28, 2023

Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh is on trial for killing his wife and youngest son, but who are the Murdaghs and how did we end up here? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Alex Murdoch is on trial for the double murders of wife Maggie and son Paul. I need the police to stand up immediately. My wife and child got badly. Alec was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie. Pow, pow.

Two shots, abdomen and the leg, and took her down. Eight women and four men will spend the next several weeks following the evidence. Alec Murdoch took a 12-stage shotgun and shot him. Maggie is shot running, executed. Why? Dramatic opening statements laid out strategies from both the prosecution and defense in the Alex Murdough murder trial.

Prosecutors say forensics will prove Murdaugh, 54, killed his wife and son. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian says, however, that there is no forensic evidence to tie Murdaugh to the murders. Let's look at the people and the names connected to the murders and this trial. The Murdaugh Family Overall The legal legacy of the Murdoch family began 100 years ago when Randolph Murdoch Sr. became the 14th circuit solicitor covering five counties. This is similar to a state or district attorney. Until 2005, a Murdoch has served in that position. The family law firm was established in 1910 and continues. murdaws are practicing attorneys with the firm peters murda parker elstruth and dietrich the firm is known for handling and winning multi-million dollar cases now the victims maggie and paul murdaugh margaret kennedy brand's letter maggie

murdaugh 52 years old and wife to alex murdaugh the two met at the university of south carolina in the late 1980s after they married maggie was a homemaker and mother not working outside the home except for a brief period of time when she opened a gift shop on main street the one thing everyone says about maggie murdaugh is that she lived for her children attending all school functions in the months before her death maggie had been living at the family's cottage in odesto beach while alex murdoch stayed at the hunting lodge in islington maggie was found lying face down after being shot five times with a rifle a forensic expert suggests three of the blasts came while she was standing one of those first shots went through her left breast. The other was fired into the back of her head. At least one seemed to be fired while she was on her knees.

The second victim is the youngest Murdaugh's son, Paul Terry Murdaugh, 22. Paul was well known as a drinker and a bit of a troublemaker in his community. At 17, he earned an MIP charge. That is a conviction of minor in possession of alcohol. At 19, he earned an MIP charge. That is a conviction of minor in possession of alcohol. At 19, he was charged in the boating crash that killed Mallory Beach. Murdoch was allegedly grossly intoxicated and was charged with boating under the influence. Murdoch pleaded not guilty. He was awaiting trial when he was killed. Charges were dismissed after his death. The surviving immediate members of the Murdaugh family are Richard Alexander Alex Murdaugh 54 and Richard Alexander Buster Murdaugh 26 Buster is the

Murdaugh's oldest son Buster currently lives about 70 miles from his childhood home with his girlfriend Brooklyn White and a golden retriever they share a modest one-bedroom Hilton Head Island condominium. Buster was on his way to continuing the family legacy, studying law at the University of South Carolina, but he was allegedly kicked out in his second semester for plagiarism. Buster Murdaugh was also named as a defendant in the Mallory Beach lawsuit for allegedly allowing an underage Paul Murdaugh to use his ID to buy alcohol for the doomed boating trip. He was ultimately dropped from the suit, which has now been settled. Richard Alexander Alec Murdaugh, 54, is at the center of this family and case. He's a 1990 undergraduate at the University of South Carolina where he met his wife.

Murdaugh received his J.D., Juris Doctor, in 1994. This degree is required to practice law. He was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in November of 1994 and became a partner at Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Elstroth, and Dietrich Law Firm. He was part-time prosecutor for the 14th Judicial Circuit Court and assistant solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit Court. Murdaugh was also president of the South Carolina Association for Justice 2012-2016 and chairman of the Hampton County Democratic Party from 1996-2006. On the night of June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 reporting his wife and child had been shot.

Over the course of the investigation into the murders, it is learned that Murdaugh is an opium addict who stole millions from his clients and his own family's law firm. Today, he is on trial for the murders of his wife and son. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Alec Murdaugh has two brothers. Randy Murdaugh, the oldest. John Marvin Murdaugh, the youngest.

John Marvin owns two equipment rental companies in Lowcountry, while Randy Murdaugh continued in the family business, earning his J.D. in 1991. There is one other family member connected to this case, a distant cousin, 61-year-old Curtis Eddie Smith. Smith allegedly was Alex Murdaugh's drug dealer. Murdaugh also claims that he hired Smith in his botched suicide attempt. Originally, Murdaugh called 911 saying that someone had tried to kill him and that he had been shot in the head. Smith was arrested, but he says he didn't shoot Alec Murdaugh.

Murdaugh says he came up with a plan to kill himself so Buster Murdaugh would receive a $10 million payout. Smith says he and Murdada struggled over the gun and it went off. Smith is charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud for the Merda shooting. The courtroom where the case for and against Alec Merda is taking place is the domain of Judge Clifton Newman, 72. Newman has a solid leader background. He earned his undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University and his JD at Cleveland Marshall College of Law. After passing the bar in 1976, he served as a working attorney until 2000.

From 2000 to present, he has served as an at-large judge for South Carolina circuit courts. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, 52, has been the chief attorney state grand jury section at South Carolina Office of the Attorney General since 2010. Waters also attended the University of South Carolina and its law school, graduating in 1996, two years behind Murdoch. He clerked for two years for the late South Carolina Court of Appeals judge, Jasper Curitan. In 1998, Waters started at Attorney General's Office Appellate Division under Deputy Attorney General Don Zelenka, who is now his co-counsel on the Murdoch case. Alec Murdoch's defense team is led by well-known attorney and South Carolina State Senator, Richard Dick Harpootlian, 75. He received a B.A. from Clemson University

and his J.D. from the University of South Carolina. Harpootlian's credentials include Managing Partner Richard A. Harpootlian, P.A., 1995 to present, Deputy Solicitor for Fifth Judicial Circuit, 1975-1983, Richland County Council, 1987-1991, Solicitor for Fifth Judicial Circuit, 1991-1983, Richland County Council 1987-1991, Solicitor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit 1991-1995, admitted to U.S. District Court District of South Carolina 1982, U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit 1985. There are three other names that you have likely heard connected to the case and the Murdoch family, and all three have also died. First,

Gloria Harriet Satterfield, 57. She was the Murdaugh's family housekeeper for 20 years. Satterfield died after reportedly tripping over the family dogs and falling on stairs outside the Murdaugh home. Satterfield was taken to the hospital where she died. Her death, however, was listed as natural causes and no autopsy was conducted at the time the murdaugh said her death was an accident and alec murdaugh reportedly approached the satterfield children and said they should sue and he would help them her family alleges that murdaugh never paid them the two million dollars he agreed to pay out to her estate as part of a settlement over her death a lawsuit was, which has now been settled. Now, Satterfield's body is set to be exhumed. Mallory Beach, as we mentioned before,

died in a boating crash. The 19-year-old was among a group of six friends on the Murdaugh family boat being driven by an intoxicated Paul Murdaugh. When it crashed, three of the six were ejected, including Mallory. Her body wasn't found until a week later. Stephen Smith, 19, was killed in 2015 in what was ruled a hit-and-run in Hampton County, South Carolina. His body was found three miles from his car, which was out of gas. But first, SLED said the LGBTQ activist and nursing student had been shot and beaten up. South Carolina Highway Patrol incident reports list Stephen's injuries as being blunt force trauma to the head with no vehicle debris nearby. Then the agency said hit and run. At the time Smith died, there were rumors that the Murdaugh's

were involved, but there is no evidence that is true. Follow the Alec Murdaugh trial at CrimeOnline.com and listen to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.