Law&Crime Sidebar - Alex Murdaugh's Powerful Family Dynasty: Inside the History and Corruption

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

The low country of South Carolina is no stranger to the Murdaugh name and their powerful family. Alex Murdaugh, a fourth-generation lawyer of the family, currently faces a slew of charges against him, including allegations he murdered his wife and son. Strange deaths of people close to the prominent family have prompted the question of whether the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, along with Alex's other misdeeds, are connected to the family. Who are the Murdaughs and why do some locals think they can "make stuff go away?" The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy breaks down the history of the Murdaugh dynasty with historian and genealogist Sara Holstein Graves.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Did you ever become a full-time solicitor? No, sir. And so you went into private practice, I think with Mawson Coon, is that right? Yes, sir. The Murdoch family, both revered and feared in South Carolina's low country. Their legacy built over a century. So how did it all begin? I'm Ann Janette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. Three generations of the Murdoch family served as solicitors of the 14th judicial circuit. That's basically the prosecutor or the district attorney for the area. It's possible Alec Murdoch could have followed in the footsteps of

his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, but it wasn't meant to be. Joining me to discuss the Murdoch dynasty and their history in the low country is Sarah Holstein Graves. She's a genealogist and a local historian, and she also grew up with John Marvin Murdoch, who is the younger brother of Alec Murdoch. Sarah, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. This family goes back a really long time. So when did the Murdox really kind of put down roots in that Hampton County area. I'll start off by talking about Randolph Murdoch, senior, because he is the one who established the legal lineage in Hampton County. His parents were actually more from the Colleton County area, and at that time, there was no Hampton County. Hampton County

was a part of Beaufort. The father of Randolph Sr., Josiah Putnam Murdoch, kind of broke with the family tradition of farming, and he went out on his own, moved to Charleston, and got into the phosphate industry. And at the time, phosphate was an alternative to fertilizer. And it was very lucrative. There was a lot of phosphate mining going on, and it was centered around Charleston because they had the ports, they had the sites to dig, and they had the means to transport it. And so he made a good bit of money doing that. But he had also been a soldier in the Civil War, and as he aged, his health got to be pretty bad, and his eyesight started to fail. So he retired, and they moved to what was then Beaufort, but what became

Varnville, South Carolina, which is in Hampton County. And so Randolph Sr. was actually born in Charleston, but spent most of his life in Varnville. He was born in 18th,000. He was born in 18. which is Hampton County was formed in 1878, so very close after that. And he was the youngest of seven children. So of all of them, he truly did grow up in Barnville. His dad dabbled in a few businesses around there. His brother owned a store on Main Street, Barnville that was very successful for a very long time. But Randolph Sr. was always a go-getter and a hard-working young man. He went to the University of South Carolina. While he was there, he joined just about every club that there was. And if he was in a club, he was typically one of the officers. You know,

he was a treasurer. He was a president. He was a joiner. He went to U.S. as a track athlete. He was described by many of the athletic directors there as the single most utilitarian athlete that they had, very committed, very hardworking, very fast. And so he spent his time at USC, loved it there. But in 1906, he got the opportunity to compete for a slot as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in an hour. And he won that slot. So he spent a semester there. He returned to USC, continued on with the track team. His event was the 100-yard dash, which he could do in under 11 seconds. That's fast. Yes. He also had the 220-yard dash, the running high jump, the hurdles.

But one of the things I found interesting was, you know, the University of South Carolina had a football team. But football was not as big a deal back in. that time. And their board of trustees in 1906 decided to discontinue the program. And the reason was because Clemson and Carolina had played their first game and there were fights and there was all kinds of terrible conduct. You know, that's our big rivalry in the state and that's when it started. So the board of trustees decided to do away with the football program because the faculty had been complaining about the coarseness of the chance at the games and the ungentlemanly conduct. So they didn't have football for a couple of seasons, but then the student athletes joined together

and they petitioned the board of trustees during Fair Week. And nobody expected they were going to be successful, but they petitioned them to please let them have the football program back. And surprisingly, they agreed. So they had a... an impromptu parade right there in the middle of Fair Week, and now we have football at USC again. Problem is we had no football players. So they took people, you know, Randolph was one of the people that got it started again. So he said, I'll play. So, you know, 145 pounds of him. The average weight on the football team was about 150 pounds that year. But they played, and they only played three games, but they won all three, and they were only scored on four times. Charleston College

scored on them, but they still beat them 14 to 4. They beat Georgia 4 to nothing, and they beat the Citadel 12 to nothing. And they were coached by Christy Bennett, who was a USC educated attorney at the time, but had played football at USC before. And he couldn't coach him in 19, 2008 because he'd been elected as the Fifth Circuit solicitor. So he had a connection to a solicitor very early on. Yeah, sounds like it. So is that how he got interested in the law? I would imagine so because he spent a lot of time with him. And the Fifth Circuit was right there in Columbia. So he would have seen him quite a bit. He also, one of the other guys on his team was Robert Gonzalez, whose uncles started the state newspaper. And Robert was a reporter at the state newspaper.

for a while. Sarah, the power of the Murdoch family came up in the trial this week. Mark Ball, the former law partner and longtime friend of Alec Murdoch, was asked about that on the stand. So let's listen to what Mark Ball had to say about the power of the Murdoch family. This law firm's been in existence. How long? 1910.

1910. And we're no longer. I'm sorry? We're no longer. It was. It was until he. came along, right, until all this happened, right? Until September

of 2021. September of 2021. And was a relative of Alex, his great-grandfather was part of that initial law firm? Is that right? His great-grandfather was the beginning of that wall firm.

And was he also the solicitor for the 14th Circuit for this area of the state? He was from, I believe, 1920 until 1940 when he was killed in a train accident. And then did the defendant's grandfather become solicitor? Buster's the chief prosecutor for this area? Buster took over in 1940 and was the solicitor until 1946.

And then Randolph was appointed by the governor, and then was until he was 72. And his father became solicitors what you said, is that right? Right, Randolph. Until about when? Randolph was 82 when he passed away so 10 years ago maybe around there and Buster became Buster left the solicitor office in 86 when he became 72 at the end of 86 beginning of 87 I think Randolph took over and Buster became the assistant solicitor. All right. And how long was Randolph solicitor?

Until about 10 years ago. So Sarah, he's saying this family is very powerful. It's going back a century that this family came into power. So Randolph Sr. becomes the solicitor. How does that come about? So remember that back in his college days, he made a lot of very influential friends. He made friends that would go on to to have senator positions, to have business owner positions. So he knew a lot of powerful people. And he was also. very, very motivated to be politically active, socially active. When he graduated from law school, he had no life, no children, but he was still appointed to the school board. He was in the National Guard. He was, he just, he was as active as he could be in the community. So when he started his law practice, the county was still in its youth and there were not a lot of attorneys. So he not only got positions as attorney, but he also acted as a receiver for some of the banking cases

that were going on. So when he graduated in 1910 and was admitted to the bar, he came back home to Hampton and he started his firm. He's never had a sign on the outside of the door. He just said, people know where I am. And to this day, there's no sign on the front door. And it's this big, it's, I mean, this is the big firm. This is the big firm. Of course, it didn't look like that then. Right. But he, so Hampton shared a solicitor with Buford, and it was a very informal type of position. So around 1920, they decided to assign a solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, which was five counties. And he ran against a gentleman named R.M. Jeffries, and he was from Colleton County.

And he was a big name in Colleton County. And they actually did have to have a runoff. But he came out victorious, and I think every time he ran after that, he ran unopposed. And it wasn't because of great fear or, you know, it was just that he was doing a great job and people really liked him. And so was he considered somebody, not to interrupt you, but was he, you're saying people liked him. They weren't afraid of him. I mean, was there any hint back then that anything was a miss? Or was this just somebody who was, you know, respected in the community?

This was a man who was very respected. He put his money where his mouth is. I'll give you an example. Again, we were a young county at that time, and there were a lot of things that were happening were very grassroots. We know that there's a road that connects Hampton to Crockettville now, which is where the Stephen Smith incident happened.

But back in his day, there wasn't a road there. And the community was approached about ways to fund this. And he was one of four local citizens, who said, the first thing you need is clay, and it costs this much money, we'll pay for it. And they paid for it to better the community because we had a railroad out there at the time and the transportation was very needed. So when things like that would happen, he would step up and he would contribute. He would serve on any committee or any board that was making improvements to the area.

And he really went out of his way to make it a better place. So a pillar in the community, highly regarded, well respected. Then he's killed. He dies on train tracks. Tell us about that. You know, of course there's rumors, and I typically do not speak about rumors, but there's been enough, there's been enough evidence that something, you know, may have happened. It sounds fishy. Right. So the story that I was always told was that he was visiting friends. It was late at night. His car stopped. on the train track and he was hit by a train. But I've also always heard the rumor that he was ill and he knew that he was ill. And so he drove onto the train tracks, apparently backed up to get centered and waved at the train as it was coming.

So maybe he died by suicide knowing he was terminally ill. And the only reason that I would even repeat that, because again, I'd, I'd, I'd don't deal in rumors. However, in my research, I have found, you know, he was 53 years old, still a young man, I have found a couple of hospitalizations that happened within the year. And they were attributed to a kidney issue or a stomach issue, but he had been hospitalized a couple of times that year. So the rumors that he may have had a serious illness are not completely unfounded.

Yeah, so it sounds like maybe he had cancer or something, and back then... I have heard it was stomach cancer. Yeah. Again, that's a rumor. But I do see enough evidence to support that. Okay. Well, let's fast forward now to Buster, Randolph Buster Murdoch, who took over the solicitor's seat eventually. He retired in 1986, and he actually got into a little bit of trouble, right?

He did. He did. He was arrested. along with many other people in a bootlegging scandal over in Colleton County. The allegations were that when he knew a raid was coming, he would inform them so they could move their stills and he would be paid in liquor or moonshine. But he was a little more geographically removed. That was happening a county over. And the local sheriff there was a was prosecuted and convicted, but Buster was not.

Interesting. So is this where we see maybe we go from Randolph Sr., the upstanding pillar of the community, then Buster gets into the seat and maybe there's some stuff going on? You know, Buster, and again, I can only speak from what I know personally. I've heard so many rumors that people were afraid of him and all that. But I've talked to so many people over my lifetime. And then in the last year or so, being hyper focused on researching this, I've spoken with even more people and older people in the community that would have very firsthand knowledge. And I have honestly been unable to find anybody who has ever felt legitimately threatened by him or that could even tell a story of, well, my brother was threatened by him or something of that nature.

I've never seen or heard anything personally that lends any credence to that. So, Sarah, Buster's mother had some pretty good political connections. She did. His mother's name was Etta Cousie Harvey. Her father was the local doctor in Hampton. And her brother was Brantley Harvey. Brantley Harvey went on to become a senator. And his son was a lieutenant governor.

Brantley Harvey. So Senior and Buster have always had that connection as well. Unfortunately, when she delivered their second child, she developed sepsis and she died two weeks after, very young. And the result of that is that Buster spent a lot of time with his father. So when his father was traveling the circuit and making day trips out of the circuit to go to court, Buster would usually go with him. Buster grew up in the court. room. And the interesting thing for me, too, is with this notion that they've had this life of privilege is that, you know, Buster graduated law school in 1938. We're looking at fresh out of the Depression. His father lost everything he had in the Depression. So when Buster was ready

to go to college, he didn't have money to send him to college. But Buster had played football in high school, and he was able to win a scholarship to USC. And he paid for his college by playing football. And that's where he earned the name Buster, because he would bust through the offensive line. That's so interesting. Let's get to Randolph III now. Randolph the Third, they call him handsome. We've heard that during the trial. How does he come into the solicitor's seat? Yeah, he, when his, when his oldest grandchild was born, they were trying to figure out grandparent names, and they asked him what he wanted to be called. And he said, well, nobody ever calls me handsome.

And so it just kind of stuck. And then everybody called him handsome after that. So, you know, Buster grew up in the courtroom. And so he had been working with his father. He'd been working while his father was ill, all of these things. And Randolph kind of did the same thing. There was a little scuttlebutt in Beaufort back in the, 70s, I believe, where some of the local officials were charged in Buster with allegations

of nepotism for hiring his son. And he said, look, I would love to hire somebody else, but nobody wants this job. It doesn't pay very much. You deal with the most horrendous crime scenes, murders, rapes, abuse. It is a lot for somebody to carry and the pay is not good. So I've tried to get people to come here and work as an assistant solicitor and nobody wants this job. So my son is willing to do it. And so my son helps me. But if you have any other candidates, please send them. I'd be glad to take a look at them. So it was very much presented as a job that people just didn't want. It was burdensome. It didn't pay well. It was hard. You had to make a lot of really hard decisions. The thing that Buster and

Mr. Randolph, Handsome, were both very good at, and I think you've heard them say the same thing about Ellick here, was they knew how to read people. And they were very good at assessing a first-time criminal and kind of making a quick determination as to that person's ability to be rehabbed. They knew when to give people a second chance. They knew when to come down hard on somebody. And they were very good at that. I found them to be very fair. That's interesting, because we've heard in the courtroom that Mark Tensley said he thought Alec was very good at reading people. So maybe this is something that came down through the generations. So we've heard all of this stuff about how this family has covered up things, you know, you're a historian, you're a

genealogist. Like, you are there. You, you've lived there. So is this true, like, that they are doing all these nefarious things and covering things up? And what is your feeling on that? You know, when there's smoke, there's fire. So there's got to be something there. And I don't doubt that there have been little things here and there, or maybe some big things. I don't know. But I will say this. I have heard far more stories of them. I won't even say bending a law, but maybe trying to work around the legal system

to help people more than to cover things up. Now, do that, does that mean that, you know, there's a charge and they've made it go away? Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure that that happened. But I also know of, a couple of situations where there were people that were in foreclosure and the only step left in the process was for them to get served and there were legal means crafted to keep them from

getting served until they could, you know, buy a little extra time to come up with the money they needed to prevent the foreclosure. Things like that are the stories that I'm hearing more than anything. I know that for me and my parents and my father's family was in that community for over 100 years. None of them had this fear. I've never heard of any of that. I hear a lot of rumors around town, but I hear rumors about everybody and I hear some really outlandish rumors about people. Rumors do spread. So I don't doubt that there's rumors about them, well as other, you know, families in the community, but for me personally, I have not seen it and I have not had any conversations with any people who can tell me of an example of something

that was done to be hurtful or out of revenge. I've only heard of things that have done to be helpful. You grew up with John Marvin. So did you guys go to school together? I mean, me about that relationship? In our area, it's definitely small, but there are a lot of smaller communities. So we all would go to the elementary schools based on where we lived, and then once we would come to high school, then we were all in the same school together. So John Marvin and I went to separate elementary schools, but then we finished school together. In addition to that, we both went to the Methodist Church. So we knew each other that way. So, yeah, I grew up with John Marvin.

I've been very open about saying I've never been a fan of ELEC. I were never friends. And why were you not a fan of Alec? I felt, you know, the family is very political in nature because not only because of the solicitor, but as an attorney, you have to be likable because you are, you know, you are, you are, trying to advocate for another person, and you need to be trustworthy and believable. So the family's always been very friendly, very social, very community oriented, and they've always been very genuine about it. For me, personally, I never felt like Ellick was genuine

about it. I felt like if he would be nice to me, but I also felt like if I, if I, I didn't have some benefit for him that I wasn't somebody he was going to waste time talking to. He didn't have time for you. Yeah. Interesting. He wasn't ugly about it, but he definitely, and I've spoken to a bunch of people since this have happened and that's been the general, that's been the general feeling. He's just not as genuine as his siblings are. So is he the black sheep then? Is he a bad apple? I mean, is that how you're, is that what you're telling me? Because I, you know, I watched the documentaries. Actually, I watched one documentary before, you know, all about this.

And it suggests that this family is just rotten to the core, you know, going back generations. But are you telling me that you feel that Alec is like a bad apple, a black sheep? I'm not going to say a black sheep. And it's funny because John Marvin actually refers to himself as the black sheep because he didn't become a lawyer. But no, I'm not going to say he's a black sheep. but I am going to say that I can only compare him closely with Randy because they're both males, they both grew up the same way, they're in the same profession, they're in the same office.

So it's easy to compare them. Randy is smart, he's studious, he's driven, he's focused, he's genuine, he's very good to people, and you can trust what he's telling you. ELEC, I think, was there because that's the path that was laid out before him. And he was able to, to coin a phrase, you know, he's born on third base. And so all he had to really do was behave himself. And he had an opportunity that most of us don't have. Randy has capitalized on that opportunity. He's honored it. He's given back with it. And he has

done his family proud. ELEC hasn't done that. I don't know why that is. But ELEC has always been a little more interested in ELEC. And I don't find when Randy or John Marvin to be that way. Interesting. This has been fascinating, Sarah. I'm so. happy you came on and agreed to talk with us. I wish we had more time, but we will have to wrap it up there. We hope you'll come back. Absolutely. I'll be glad to. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. You can download and listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time.

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