Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘Prison Groupies’: Alex Murdaugh Flooded with Love Letters After Family Murders Conviction

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

Convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh has received messages of love and support from women on his prison-issued tablet. The disgraced lawyer has been in prison for over a month since a jury found him guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy talks with FITSNews founding editor Will Folks about his outlet obtaining the messages and psychologist Dr. John Delatorre about people who write to inmates they've never met.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvLAW&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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry 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. views 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. I'm innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son, Pawpaw. Declarations of love and words of support from strangers for now convicted double murderer Alec Murdoch. What makes someone right to someone they've never met? I've covered a lot of crime

stories over the years and it always gets me thinking about how important it is for all of us to stay safe. Well, there's something that can help you do that. It's this little thing called palm pepper spray. It's a small but mighty self-defense tool. Palm pepper spray sprays up to 12 feet in the air using the strongest legal form of pepper spray

available. It's safe and easy. You just point it and spray. And if you want to try it, you can get 10% off. Use the promo code Law Crime 10 at palmpreper spray.com. And remember, always call 911 if you or anyone else is in danger. Thanks for joining us for Law and Crimes Sidebar podcast. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Alec. Alec Murdoch is in a maximum security prison in South Carolina following his sentencing for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. Murdoch has to be. has a prison issued tablet that contains educational materials and a messaging system that allows anyone who signs up to send him a message. And many people have sent messages to Alec Murdoch. Fitz News in South Carolina obtained some of the messages through a Freedom of Information

Act request. One message from a woman named Nicolette Kay stated, I think I love you. I think about you all day, every day. Lacey Kay wrote, You don't know me and I don't know you. And I hope this does not come off as weird that I am reaching out to you. I apologize if it does. I'm unable to get you off of my mind. Women sent most of the messages to Alec Murdoch, some just offering words of support and a sympathetic ear. A man wrote and asked Murdoch how he was adjusting to life behind bars. And a Netflix documentary producer also wrote to Alec Murdoch, offering him an enormous platform to share his story. I spoke with Will Folks from Fitz News about all of this. His researcher, Jen Wood, actually obtained these messages.

What was your reaction when you first looked at the messages from the various women to Alec Murdoch? Well, I came up in the 1980s, and for me, it kind of took me back to, you know, there's a Jane's Addiction song about Ted Bundy, nothing shocking. And that sort of was where my mind first went. And then you think about, I don't know if we've got any fans of the Smiths out there, but their song about writing to the hero imprisoned. And so a lot of people put these killers on a pedestal. There's a clinical term for it, I think, hubrisophilia, this attraction to these famous killers.

You know, I don't understand it. Certainly it's a commentary on our society. And I think some would even say perhaps it's a commentary on those who are in our business. And I think that's one of the things that's challenging in situations like this. When you cover stories like this, it's news, obviously. You have to report on it. But also it's important, I think, and what? what we try to do is to balance it with the stories of the victims and survivors of crime

as well as that process of obtaining justice for them. But for me, it definitely took me back to some of those. I remember some of those songs in my head about folks who are just obsessed with killers and establishing relationships with them. It's just one of these weird things. These records do not show that Alec Murdoch responded to any of the people who sent messages to him. And notably, not one of his family members has sent a message to him through this tablet. So what prompts someone, a perfect stranger, particularly women, to message an inmate that they've never met? Yeah, Edgit, this is such an interesting phenomenon that we're describing here. And I want to start off by saying that it's very unlikely that there

is an underlying psychopathology. What I mean by that is that it's unlikely that there's a mental disorder associated with this. However, some research into this, and this is, and this It's very limited, and it's very small in scope. It seems to suggest that the women, in particular, tend to have abuse background. So whether it's prior marriages or romantic relationships that were abusive or they were abused, you know, by their primary caregivers or something like that, either way, the notion of love and romantic relationships has warped for these individuals. And so they're more than willing to engage in nurturing, kind of. of behaviors, even though they know the individual that they are nurturing and caring for and offering these statements of support have committed, you know, in particular violent acts.

So I think it's such an interesting concept of how the empathic part of humanity can come across and maybe even sort of turned on its head a little. Hybristophilia is a term that's out there. It's called, I guess, prison groupie syndrome. Do you see some of this being hybristophilia, this classification? Yeah, hybristophilia is such a, it's a unique concept when it comes to parapherias. And it's important to distinguish a parapheria, which is just sexually deviant behavior. And by deviant, I just means something that's outside of society's norm versus a paraphylic disorder.

Now, this is someone who has an actual mental disorder in which the sexual component has become a real problem and is interfering with the person's day-to-day life, perhaps even boundary crossing, though not always. When we look at hybristophilia, generally speaking, we're seeing individuals who get sexual gratification through a connection with someone who is engaged in a serious boundary violation, rape, potentially murder, sadism, these kinds of things in which boundary crossing is a major component. That's where hybristophilia kind of comes from.

Is it possible that some of the women, even potentially men who are interacting with inmates, are having sexual gratification simply from the cross communication that's happening? Sure, but those messages would be very specifically when it, very specific when it comes to the sexual connotation. Just on its surface, offering support or even saying things like, I love you and stuff like that, that's not hybristic. Alec Murdoch did not make any phone calls for most of the month of March. In fact, after he'd been in prison for about a week, I contacted the Department of Corrections

and asked whether or not he'd made any phone calls. I was told he had not. Then on March 23rd, the records indicate that Alec Murdoch tried to place five collect calls. Some were not accepted. Others were not allowed. And so we thought it was very surprising that he had not made or even really attempted to make any calls. And sure enough, when we got the logs back,

You don't see those calls until the very end of March, you know, the 23rd, rather, is when he started making some of those calls or attempting to make those calls. And all of this is done, by the way, on these tablets. Every inmate in the South Carolina Department of Corrections receives a prison-issued tablet. It is vendor-based. They've got educational software on there. They can certainly work on their legal appeals if that's what they want to do. And there is limited messaging and phone capability on that tablet.

of course, it's all heavily monitored, heavily regulated. And so inmates who abuse that privilege can find their access to programs and apps on this tablet restricted, or they could wind up having it taken away completely from what I'm told. But it was incredibly interesting to look at that activity because, like you said, there's a lot of incoming, just not any outgoing from Alec Murdoch. So again, I don't know whether or not he's aware that his communications would be monitored and he wants to be very careful what he says. But it's going to be very interesting to follow in subsequent Freedom of Information Act request

whether or not he starts engaging some of these people. Alec Murdoch will serve his sentence in protective custody until further notice. The prison where he is being housed is not being disclosed for security reasons. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it. on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and we will see you next time.

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