Murdaugh Murders Podcast - How Many Crimes Will Alex Murdaugh Be Charged With? Part One (S01E18)

Starting point is 00:00:00 I don't know how many crimes Elick Murdock will be charged in, but a South Carolina judge ruled again that he is a danger to himself and the community and he was denied bond for a second time. My name is Mandy Matney and I've been investigating the Murdock family for more than two and a half years now and this is the Murdock Murders podcast. This week, Fitznews was first to report that Elick Murdock was denied bond for the second time after Judge Clifton Newman received Murdock psychiatric evaluation following his bond hearing on charges related to the botch glorious Satterfield Settlement. Newman ruled that Elick Murdock was a danger to both himself and others. I'll read apart from his ruling.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Following the initial denial of bond, the court received a psychiatric evaluation of the defendant dated on October 22, 2021. After considering the arguments of counsel, the evaluation submitted pending charges and other investigations and the apparent character and mental condition of the defendant, the court finds the defendant is a danger to both himself and the community. This was the third time in just three weeks that a South Carolina judge ruled against the disgraced attorney whose father grandfather and great grandfather all served as a solicitor over a five county region in the low country and that is a big deal. To recap, Elick Murdock was arrested at a rehab center in Orlando, Florida

Starting point is 00:01:44 and charged with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses related to the glorious Satterfield case. He's been behind bars for a month now. Now, after Judge Newman made his ruling this week, I spoke with Eric Bland who is an attorney representing the Satterfield family and who has been a key figure in uncovering evidence that led to Alex's arrest. Bland said it's clear to him that Judge Newman was looking beyond Alex's two charges when making his decision to determine that Elick is a danger to the community. The key point he says in Newman's ruling is the part where he talks about pending charges and other investigations. I think it's very telling the way Judge Newman operates here. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:02:31 he is presiding over all the criminal matters being designated by the Supreme Court, but he's hearing things and being exposed to different things from law enforcement officers seeking warrants, whether they're search warrants or people who appear before the grand jury. He's hearing and seeing things that they were not seeing and obviously it has caused him almost unilaterally without a hearing here to make a decision that Alex is not only a clear present danger but he's a flight risk and he's making assessments on potential crimes that go way beyond the Satterfield matter. There are seven ongoing criminal investigations involving Elick Murdock and his family right now and it's important to note that the South Carolina Chief

Starting point is 00:03:22 Justice appointed Judge Newman to oversee all of those criminal proceedings. He fully analyzed it, heard all the facts, looked at the submission, looked at the report by the psychiatrist, but again it's much bigger than the single crime. He is looking at the totality of what is coming before him by way of search warrants, by way of grand jury witnesses and testimony and he's hearing and seeing things that none of us know about and whether it's related to drugs that Hartutlian's talking about or it's related to the Cowboys like some of the articles last week said. We don't know but he did say to the public it's not just based on Satterfield, it's based on other investigations. He is a danger and he doesn't see it ending.

Starting point is 00:04:18 As this case keeps expanding it's difficult to keep track of all the investigations going on that are related to the Murdock family so we're going to do a quick recap starting back in 2015 and working our way up to a couple weeks ago. This name people associated with this name have been going around kind of kind of threatening or putting the heat on people saying you know keeping mouth closed if you heard something whatever. Buster was was on our radar long before you were you know the Murdocks know that they know that he's okay that he's on our radar. I don't have anything against them but if it happened like you said I mean if it happened the first investigation tied to the Murdock family is the Stephen Smith case. Stephen Smith was a gay 19-year-old man from

Starting point is 00:05:18 Hampton County South Carolina who was brutally murdered in 2015. His death was initially misclassified as a vehicular hit and run even though information from the crime scene was inconsistent with that conclusion. The Murdock name came up more than 40 times in the investigation however there were never any suspects named in the case. On June 22nd 2021 the South Carolina law enforcement division officially opened an investigation into Stephen Smith's death and that was based on information gathered during the course of the double homicide investigation of Maggie and Paul Murdock. So far no arrests have been made in the new Stephen Smith investigation and Sled has not updated the public on the status of Stephen's case. The second investigation is the inquiry into both Gloria

Starting point is 00:06:10 Satterfield's death and wrongful death settlement. Sled officially opened a criminal investigation into the suspicious 2018 death of Murdock family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield who died of a traumatic brain injury allegedly following a trip and fall incident caused by dogs while working at the Murdock's home at Moselle. According to Sled the investigation into Satterfield's death was open based on a request from the Hampton County Coroner as well as information gathered during the course of Sled's other investigations involving Ellick Murdock. When they opened the investigation authorities initially believed that Satterfield died at the Murdock's Hampton County home however it was later discovered that the incident that led to her death happened at Moselle

Starting point is 00:06:57 which is the same place where the double homicide of Maggie and Paul occurred. Sled is also looking into the botched Gloria Satterfield settlement that happened after her death. In the Satterfield case Murdock and others are accused of making off with millions from her wrongful death settlement. Ellick Murdock's latest charges stem from an investigation by South Carolina attorneys Eric Lan and Ronald Richter who uncovered a shocking paper trail showing how Ellick Murdock allegedly stole more than 3.6 million dollars from Satterfield's settlement. Think about the type of courage it finally took for them to go see a lawyer and pursue a possible claim against the Murdock's. Now they want answers which they wanted from the start about the money

Starting point is 00:07:44 now they want answers about their mother and you know right now until Ellick is proven otherwise she died because of the dogs but they also want justice now. Justice comes in many forms you know it comes in getting the money like you said that they deserve but if somebody you know if a 57 year old woman died prematurely at somebody's hands well then justice has to be served for that too. The third criminal investigation involving the Murdock family is the obstruction of justice investigation into the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. In February 2019 a highly intoxicated Paul Murdock was allegedly driving his father's boat when 19 year old Mallory Beach

Starting point is 00:08:32 was killed in a horrific crash near Parris Island South Carolina. In July 2021 attorneys representing Connor Cook who was a survivor of the 2019 boat crash dropped a petition alleging that law enforcement conspired to shift the focus of the investigation away from Paul Murdock prior to him being charged with three felonies in connection with the crash. Paul's father Ellick Murdock and his grandfather who was former solicitor Randolph Murdock the third appeared at the hospital 10 minutes after Paul Murdock did according to witness statements. In fact multiple victims and hospital employees told police that Ellick Murdock appeared to be more concerned with orchestrating a plan in the criminal investigation than he was about finding

Starting point is 00:09:34 Mallory Beach and this was in the early morning hours of February 24 2019 right after Mallory Beach was ejected into the dark water only to be found dead a week later. A security guard overheard Ellick Murdock on the phone saying she's gone don't worry about her when Mallory had only been missing for a few hours and on scene Mallory Beach's boyfriend Anthony Cook told police multiple times that Paul Murdock was the one driving when they crashed but only one officer wrote that down and that one officer was later fired from the Beaver County Sheriff's Office. So that brings us to number four the double homicide investigation the case that shoved the Murdock family into the international spotlight this summer. Ellick Murdock claimed

Starting point is 00:10:38 to have discovered the bodies of his wife Maggie Murdock and his youngest son Paul Murdock on his family's 1700 acre hunting property known as Moselle on June 7 2021. Paul Murdock was killed by a pair of shotgun blasts to the head and to the chest while Maggie Murdock was reportedly killed by a semi-automatic rifle at or around the same time that her son was killed. Her cell phone was discovered the following day along a South Carolina rural road near where the killings took place. In just a couple weeks ago Jim Griffin who was one of Ellick Murdock's bulldog attorneys admitted to reporters that his high-profile client is a person of interest in the double homicide and that the South Carolina law enforcement division

Starting point is 00:11:41 has not eliminated Ellick from its investigation and that is a big deal. That brings us to the alleged shooting slash assisted suicide on Labor Day weekend which would be the fifth investigation involving the Murdock family. On September 4th 2021 Ellick Murdock called 911 to claim that he had been shot in the head while on the side of a rural Hampton County road in broad daylight. Many question if he was actually shot due to the fact that he appeared in a bond hearing just two weeks later without a scratch on his head. After evidence started piling up against him Ellick Murdock told police that he paid a man named Eddie Smith to shoot him in the head on a

Starting point is 00:12:57 side of the road so his son Buster Murdock could collect a 10 million dollar insurance payout. Just last week Ellick Murdock was indicted on three charges of conspiracy filing a false police report and a new charge of presenting a false claim for insurance payment of more than 10 grand. So now we're at the sixth investigation into Ellick Murdock and his family which would be about the PMPED money. It was uncovered that he had perhaps well not perhaps he had uh converted some client and and law firm money to his own use to and again spent most of that on opioids. Yes you just heard from Murdock's attorney Dick Harpalian on the today's show claiming that his own client committed a crime. So on September 13th Sled launched an investigation

Starting point is 00:13:51 to determine whether Ellick Murdock misappropriated funds in connection to his position as a former lawyer at the law firm started by his great grandfather PMPED. In the aftermath of the roadside shooting on September 4th PMPED all of a sudden accused Ellick of misappropriating more than 10 million dollars from the firm and its clients but the weird thing is PMPED never requested the Sled conduct this investigation. So Sled without PMPED's request launched its own. It's important to note here that PMPED filed a lawsuit against Ellick Murdock for the alleged missing funds. On Friday Ellick who is now being represented by his criminal defense attorney Griffin and Harpalian pleaded the Fifth Amendment when he responded to this lawsuit.

Starting point is 00:14:43 The implication there is that he is avoiding incriminating himself in the case. And that brings us to the seventh investigation the drugs. On the day of Ellick's hearing about his assets, McClatchy Newspapers published a report that said a grand jury investigation was specifically targeting a low country gang based in the Walterboro area believed to be named the Cowboys. Both the Post and Courier and McClatchy which are mainstream media who have tended to side with the Murdock family cited anonymous sources in referencing the grand jury investigation which appears to stem from checks written by Ellick Murdock to a drug courier apparently. However my sources have said nothing about this Cowboys investigation. Since the assisted suicide situation

Starting point is 00:15:35 the defense has repeatedly pushed Ellick's alleged drug addiction to the media. However it's important to note that Fitznews has reported on multiple other drug pipelines with alleged connections to the Murdock family. Particularly Fitznews founding editor Woolfolks has uncovered deep connections between the Murdochs and alleged drug smuggler Barrett Bowler. His name is spelt like Bowler but apparently pronounced like Bowler. Murdock was Bowler's legal representative and business partner prior to Bowler's death in September 2018 following a brief battle with cancer. Bowler was widely believed to be involved in the drug trade. In fact at one point during the early stages of the war on drugs he and his father faced charges in Florida in connection with

Starting point is 00:16:22 the South Carolina drug smuggling operation. Ellick Murdock and Barrett Bowler were co-owners of multiple properties in the low country and actually Barrett was the former owner of Moselle which we all know as the Murdock family hunting lodge that became infamous as the site of the brutal double homicide in June of this year. Colletin County property records state that Murdock paid Barrett Bowler's wife $5 for Moselle but as my boss Woolfolks has reported the transfer deed dated back to April 10th 2013 referenced the exchange of light kind replacement property totaling $730,000 which is a part of a multi property non-simultaneous tax-free exchange transaction. And what's also interesting about Moselle it has a landing strip and a barn with doors that can fit an airplane

Starting point is 00:17:16 according to multiple sources who have seen it and pictures that I've seen from the property. And that's just what we know so far who knows how deep this gets and how many other criminal investigations will begin. Sources have said that Judge Newman can only consider allegations against Murdock that are on the record when it comes to determining bond. But essentially he's looking at a man who's clearly unstable who is dangerous considering all of the factors at play here. Ellick Murdock is a man who allegedly hired another man to shoot him just a couple months ago. He is a person of interest in the double homicide investigation of his wife and son according to his own attorney. Ellick Murdock is a person who didn't have a single family member show up at his

Starting point is 00:18:04 volunteering. He has links to multiple drug smugglers. He is accused of stealing millions of dollars from his dead housekeeper's family and other clients. And he has concocted complicated twisted plans to steal from people and hide the money. He is a person whose assets have recently been locked up by the court and handed over to court appointer receivers to dig through. And he is a person who's pulled tricks from jail to keep victims away from his assets. Eric Bland said it's very possible that Newman saw the shady moves a couple weeks ago from his attorneys when Ellick Murdock confessed judgment and lawsuits against him that were filed by his brother and his former law partner. Last week after we published our podcast on Ellick's money

Starting point is 00:18:51 situation I highly suggest you going back and listening to episode 16 if you haven't already. We discussed yet another shocking and shady move by the Murdochs. Less than 24 hours after Ellick Murdock was sued by his own brother Randy Murdock IV for a total of $90,000 of unpaid debt in money and equipment the disgraced South Carolina attorney confessed judgment in the lawsuit. And after we found that out we discovered that Ellick Murdock confessed judgment in another lawsuit filed by his former law partner John E. Parker and in that case Murdock allegedly owed him $477,000. Confessing judgment typically means that a defendant is acknowledging the amount owned as a valid and enforceable debt and authorizing the South Carolina court system to enroll a judgment

Starting point is 00:19:42 against him in that amount. This would essentially prioritize Ellick's debt to Randy and to Johnny Parker ahead of a long line of alleged victims who are currently suing Ellick Murdock. But when Ellick Murdock attempted his backdoor move to confess judgment totaling in $567,000 to his brother and former law partner the new receivers John T. Lay and Peter McCoy sprang into action. In a three-page motion submitted earlier this month which was one day after Ellick's latest confession became public, Lay and McCoy asked Judge Hall to issue an emergency order which would essentially block the enforcement of that shady legal maneuver. Eric Bland told me that these recent moves of confessing judgment just shows that Ellick and his family have and will always

Starting point is 00:20:34 game the system. He said that they don't think decency and the rules apply to them. He's a 100% full-blown coward and he's going to abuse and use the legal system in our state and he appears to have lawyers willing to help him do it. And speaking of the South Carolina legal system and those lawyers willing to help Ellick Murdock, soon after Judge Newman made his ruling last week to keep Ellick behind bars at the Richland County Detention Center, Ellick Murdock's quote-unquote bulldog attorneys have filed a habeas corpus petition with South Carolina Supreme Court in an attempt to get the disgraced attorney out of jail. Reporter Avery Wilkes of the Post and Korean newspaper first reported that attorneys Dick Harpatlian and Jim Griffin petitioned to

Starting point is 00:21:21 the Supreme Court to overrule Judge Newman's decision keeping Murdock behind bars as the court found that he was a danger to himself and society. According to the Post and Courier, the petition said that Murdock's psychiatric evaluation concluded that Murdock was not a danger to the community but rather it painted him as a recovering opioid addict who needed to get back to rehab. When Judge Newman previously denied bond for Ellick Murdock on October 19th, he never guaranteed that he would release him pending the results of a psychiatric evaluation. He just said that he would consider it. Now multiple attorneys told Fitznew that that latest move by the Murdock camp to file the habeas corpus motion shows that Ellick Murdock is begging to get out of jail.

Starting point is 00:22:07 Murdock's attorneys are arguing that because their client was charged with nonviolent crimes, he's entitled to bond based on the state's constitution. Murdock, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all served as the 14th Circuit Solicitor for nearly a hundred years, has been behind bars for a month now. Eric Bland told me he didn't think that the South Carolina Supreme Court would rule in the favor of the Murdock camp. It's a desperate act. They're not going to overturn what Judge Newman is doing since he's the assigned judge on the case and he's the one who's hearing all the information and just like we talked about this morning in his order, he said other investigations. So he's privy to things that aren't just satterfield related

Starting point is 00:22:59 and he's making the decision that while, yes, there is a presumption that somebody is entitled to bond, it's not absolute and it's discretionary and he has his finger on the pulse and is privy a lot of different things that are having to do with the grand jury or whether they're issuing search warrants or different subpoenas and he's made the calculated decision, you know, after analyzing it and giving it a lot of thought that he still represents a danger to the community and to himself and so just because they submitted an evaluation from a psychiatrist that says that he's an opioid addict and that he was on his way to recovery, that doesn't mean that he gets fine. There are other factors and those factors are it could be that he looked at the confessions,

Starting point is 00:23:47 the judgment that he was signing, that he's a risk and a flight risk or it could be totally unrelated related to the cowboys or related to cousin Eddie or drugs or whatever. We have no idea what he's doing, but I don't think the Supreme Court's going to superimpose themselves and now sit like Judge Newman is and say that he's entitled to bond. It's not going to happen. Blan told me that he thinks Judge Newman's decision should stick and on a broader scale, Eric believes fit Newman's decision shows that the wheels of the South Carolina justice system are now spinning in the right direction. I think our justice system is now working as fully intended that you have a judge that based on his background use these crimes

Starting point is 00:24:30 seriously to that they're not treating Alex Murdoch or his high power lawyers any differently than any other charged criminal in this state and that Alex now realizes he's drinking from the same cup of justice that every other charged criminal in this state must drink from and that has to scare him because he can't manage his defense from a jail cell and he can't manage his finances anymore because they're now in the hands of a court appointed receiver who is in real time you know taking actions based on what Alex is doing like last Friday they filed a motion to say the enforcement of those confession judge me the noose is tightening around Alex's neck that's that's that's the noose of justice and finally we need to update you on the glorious satterfield case on November 11

Starting point is 00:25:28 attorneys Eric Blan and Ronald Richter announced that Palmetto State Bank settled with glorious two sons Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriet for an undisclosed amount the action ends the pending lawsuit against Palmetto State Bank and leaves Alex Murdoch as the only remaining defendant who hasn't agreed to a settlement Palmetto State Bank is the fifth potentially liable party to have settled or resolved differences with the Satterfield family since Blan and Richter filed their lawsuit in September the two attorneys have recovered more than 6.5 million dollars in total for the Satterfield family according to Eric Blan you know we're proud obviously uh it's just for our clients that's what we wanted to do you know get them justice as quick as we can not you know delay

Starting point is 00:26:19 it over time and so you know it's not like we accepted fast quarters against slow dollars because I think we got a lot of dollars you know obviously they were only entitled to 2.75 million from the original 4.3 million and we've recovered more and we're not done yet we feel like we're gonna recover more from other parties including Alex we just feel like that there was such a pressure on these parties that were defendants or target defended parties to settle for business reasons and to disassociate themselves from Alex because anybody that I believe that gets within an arms reach of him is going to you know suffer a character loss of their character loss of their reputation or loss of business and certainly from the business

Starting point is 00:27:15 clients we sat settled with they they made that decision that it you know whether they had legal defenses to our claims or what we were contending I don't think they had the luxury of time to test them out because Alex is just that toxic Eric Blan told me that he's also proud to have contributed to a case that ultimately holds bad actors accountable Blan said that there's something a lot more important that happened with this work that Mallory Beach and Gloria Satterfield did not die in vain their deaths led to major changes in the justice system that are still happening they really did end up dying for a purpose and that is you know not only to bring people like Alex to justice and and others around him whether that justice is a criminally or through their

Starting point is 00:28:07 professional licenses but I think long term it's going to have a dramatic effect on our system on how judges deal with lawyers and settlements and how willing they're willing to go off the record or not have a transcript or do it in chambers and I think that whether there's another Hampton County in South Carolina where somebody has a little bit of a stronghold or a lot of stronghold on the justice system there I think that's going to wane I think people are not going to tolerate you know a single family or a single law firm having a stronghold on the justice system in that county so I think that long term Mallory Beach and Gloria Satterfield will have a dramatic effect on our justice system and make it purer and the way it was intended to be

Starting point is 00:29:01 On Monday November 15th Fitznews founding editor Will Folkes exclusively reported that the South Carolina statewide grand jury is convening in the state capitol this week to consider matters related to the Murdoch murders we're not sure which matter that is but stay tuned to Fitznews.com that's FITSnews.com for the latest updates on this developing story On a really exciting note I am proud to share big news that I've been sitting on my best friend journalistic role model and partner in true crime Liz Farrell is joining the Murdoch murders podcast and Fitznews.com Liz taught me everything I know about investigative journalism and I can't wait for y'all to meet her and she will be on the next episode and many more episodes to come so stay

Starting point is 00:29:57 tuned. There's so much to unpack in this case and Mandy works tirelessly to expose the truth but the truth is she works hard and she does get tired if you believe like I do that Mandy is the best in the business and I'm a little biased visit murdochmurderspodcast.com and click the support the show link to learn how you can help leave a five-star review to offset the haters refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee or advertise your company product or service we can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs help us get Luna some treats so she doesn't interrupt the show as much and absolutely subscribe to FITSnews.com Mandy and Will are revolutionizing journalism and your subscriptions are invaluable to that

Starting point is 00:30:43 mission plus you get awesome content every day and don't forget to leave a five-star review unless you're going to be nasty and talk about my vocal fright. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me Mandy Matney and my fiance David Moses produced by Luna Shark Productions

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - How Many Crimes Will Alex Murdaugh Be Charged With? Part One (S01E18)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.