Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Was Alex Murdaugh Actually Shot? Part One (S01E11)

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

Alex Murdaugh was allegedly shot in a botched "Assisted Suicide Plot" on Saturday, September 4th, 2021. According to arrest warrants, Alex Murdaugh concocted a scheme to commit suicide with the help of Curtis "Eddie" Smith so his son Buster Murdaugh would receive a $10,000,000 insurance payout. Smith's attorney Jarrett Bouchette rejects this assertion. We also hear claims from Murdaugh's defense attorney and prosecutor's pleas for enhanced monitoring while out on bond for multiple felonies. Mandy addresses Dick Hartpoolian's comment made during Murdaugh's bond hearing. And a special thank you to: The Bannon Law Group - From sitting by the fires to setting them, the Bannon Law Group has got you covered. Lauren Taylor Law - Few events are more traumatic and stressful than a divorce - let Lauren Taylor make a plan tailor made for you. Visit Lauren Taylor dot com to learn more. Gilstrap Roofing - Leading the way in quality roofing services. Spanning four generations, the Gilstrap family holds the same values today as we did back in 1935. Maven Real Estate: - Maven Realty is a full-service real estate brokerage servicing the Charleston Sc market. No transaction is too large or too small for their talented team. SERG Restaurant Group & Nectar Farm Kitchen For current and accurate updates:  Twitter.com/mandymatney Buy us a coffee to keep us going at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MurdaughMurders Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know if anyone shot Alec Murdoch. I'll repeat that statement. I don't know if anyone shot Alec Murdoch. But ever since the alleged shooting, we've watched the former prominent attorney's reputation unravel in front of us in real time. And again, the more we find out, the more disturbing it gets.

My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director for fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Murdoch family for more than two years now. This is the Murdoch Murders podcast. Two weeks after Alec Murdoch appeared injury free at his bond hearing in a suicide for hire scheme, one big question remains

in the made for Hollywood Murdoch murder saga. Was Alec Murdoch actually shot? The disgraced attorney appeared without a scratch at his Hampton County bond hearing 13 days after the alleged shooting, raising major questions about everything we heard from Murdoch's attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Arpulian this month.

Is he actually in rehab? Was he ever shot? Where did all of his money go? Did he really have a drug problem? And what are they trying to distract us from? To recap, on September 4th, 2021, which was a Saturday of Labor Day weekend, fitsnews first broke the story

that Alec Murdoch was allegedly shot. Almost immediately sources close to the situation told fitsnews that Alec's story was suspicious and not adding up. The South Carolina law enforcement division, which is the same agency that is investigating nearly all of the alleged crimes associated with the Murdoch family,

released a statement the day after the shooting that said that Alec's head wound was superficial. They never called him a victim. They never gave any suspect descriptions of the shooter. And they kept their statements simple, which to me was a hint that the story that the Murdoch camp was feeding the media was false. Around the same time Alec Murdoch's lawyers,

Dick Arpulian and Jim Griffin, started to embark on a week long spin campaign in an attempt to control the narrative and make Alec appear like the victim. They repeatedly fed the media a story that did not make sense, that Alec was changing attire on the side of a rural Hampton County road

when a man drove up to him and shot him. And then things got weirder. On Labor Day, that would be two days after the alleged shooting incident, a family spokesperson released a statement saying that Alec Murdoch was going into rehab and resigning from the law firm built by his family. And that would be PMPED.

The timing was interesting considering Fitzsnews published a story about Murdoch's opioid addiction and issues at his law firm just hours before that statement was released. And then they issued an apology from Alec, which was also very strange considering he was supposed to be the victim of a shooting. In the statement, he said,

I am immensely sorry for everyone I've heard, including my family, friends and colleagues. Then he asked for prayers as he rehabilitates. So keep in mind, the Murdoch camp was really pushing this opioid addict's story line hard right after the alleged shooting, which they'd never done before. On that same day, PMPED,

the law firm started by Alec's great-grandfather in 1910, released a statement to the media claiming that Alec Murdoch misappropriated millions of dollars from their law firm. They leaked that story to the New York Times as if they wanted the whole world to know. These allegations obviously raised a lot of questions about the double homicide.

And for another recap, three months before the shooting, Alec Murdoch's wife and son were found murdered on the family's 1700-acre property in Collison County, South Carolina. Now that we know that Alec was stealing money from his own law firm and he had a hearing coming up in the boat crash lawsuit that would force him to reveal his financial situation,

it's clear that Alec was facing an immense amount of pressure around the time of the double homicide. The question is whether that pressure has anything to do with the double homicide. And keep in mind, Alec Murdoch is a person of interest in that investigation, and he has been the only one that law enforcement

has referred to as a person of interest in the double homicide. Okay, so we're gonna go back to Labor Day weekend. On that Monday, which would be two days after the shooting, Alec was allegedly released from the hospital and entered an out-of-state rehab. So on that same week, which would still be days after the Labor Day shooting,

or a lead shooting, shall I say, the South Carolina Supreme Court suspended Alec Murdoch from practicing law due to evidence of misconduct that is under investigation. The next day, which would be September 8th, 2021, a few days after the shooting, my boss, Will Folks at Fitznews, broke a huge story confirming the first piece of this puzzle

that this alleged shooting was basically sketch. Sources close to the situation told us that police recovered the knife that slashed Alec Murdoch's tires from the alleged shooting scene. And that knife was connected to Alec Murdoch. Harputlian and Griffin continued to serve the media spoonfuls of stories that didn't make sense. Harputlian claimed that Alec had an entry and exit wound

and was temporarily blinded in the shooting, while Griffin said that Alec's skull was fractured and his brain hemorrhaged. Murdoch's attorneys also told reporters that he was released from the hospital two days after the alleged shooting. So which is it? Was it a serious injury or was he released two days later?

The injuries certainly were not the only holes poked in the stories coming from the Murdoch camp this month. They told reporters that Alec was airlifted to MUSC in Charleston, but he was actually flown to a hospital in Savannah. He told reporters that Alec was changing a tire on the side of the road, but the Mercedes-Benz SUV had run-flat tires

that he was driving that day. They told reporters that Alec was on his way to Charleston from Moselle, but the road that he was on was out of the way from that route. Fitznews appeared to be the only media outlet holding the lawyers to account and calling out their lies. Everybody else was just running around

acting like it was a normal thing. However, the Murdoch spin campaign was abruptly thrown off course on September 10th when sled officials arrested 61-year-old Curtis Eddy Smith. Smith was hit with several serious charges, including assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm,

insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. In the arrest warrants, we learned that Alec Murdoch admitted to setting up a suicide scheme so his son Buster could collect a $10 million insurance policy. News of Eddy Smith's arrest broke late at night on September 10th, around 11 p.m.,

but just hours later, Dick Harputlian appeared on The Today Show the next morning where he continued to push this opioid narrative. Harputlian claimed that Murdoch was trying to get off opioids on the morning of September 4th and decided to end his life. He called this guy who met him on the side of the road,

agreed to shoot him in the head, and this fake car breakdown. 30 minutes later, this guy's shooting him in the head. However, Eddy Smith tells a totally different story about what happened on September 4th, 2021. So who is Eddy Smith? I spoke with Eddy's attorney, Jared Beshet, who told me about his relationship with Alec Murdoch

and what he was saying he was doing on September 4th, 2021. They met initially probably about, I think in excess of 30 years or so ago, when Eddy was participating in a other community or a church softball league, and Alec was, I think still in law school at the time, and was maybe home for a summer or was living in the area,

something along those lines, and they played and knew each other casually then, and then subsequently didn't have a lot of contact, except maybe seeing each other around town and associating that kind of thing until Mr. Murdoch represented him in a case, I believe it was a complicated case, approximately seven years or so ago.

Eddy was a logger for most of his life, he was in a logging business and got injured with his lower back, which happens, unfortunately, a good bit of time for folks that work in that area, but I said that was about six or seven years ago. And after that, he does what he can, sort of when he can,

he'd do some light mechanical, light welding type stuff. He had a small shop there in the back of his house, and he would do some work, foot Murdoch's in for others, and he would, sometimes it'd be for pay, and then sometimes it would just kind of be as a favor for people.

So here, attorney Jared Bouchette is telling me about what his client says happened on September 4th, 2021. He received a call from Alec Murdoch that asked if he could go to, I believe it was his parent's house, Mr. Murdoch's parent's house, and said to bring the truck,

which was the, he understood to mean his work truck, and that work truck made Eddie believe that, well, he was coming to do some kind of odd job. They eventually, they did not, I think he was en route to the parent's house, and then they met there briefly, or he may have called him back to redirect him, and they went to, Eddie followed him to another location,

and that's where he burst encounters Mr. Murdoch in a suicidal, very agitated state. And he had a gun, correct? Is what Eddie is telling, and Eddie possibly threatening to kill himself, and which is why Eddie reached for the gun, correct? That's right, and he was at that time, Murdoch was requesting that Eddie,

that essentially a system in shooting, it weren't Eddie to shoot at that time, to which he refused, and the state of Mr. Murdoch just continued to deteriorate, and there was a struggle for the weapon that went off at some point, and after that very intense session, they, Eddie left the scene, and Mr. Murdoch was still there

with no visible signs of injury at that time. According to Eddie Smith, he was not present when Alec Murdoch called 911 to report that he had been shot on Old Salkaadview Road near Barnville, South Carolina, at 1.34 p.m. on Saturday, September 4th. What's weird is that Alec was driven away from the crime scene after calling 911 and transported via car

by a couple of unknown, quote unquote, good Samaritans. This is weird that Alec left the crime scene, and what's even weirder is that after calling helicopter companies for hours, I figured out that a care flight helicopter actually was dispatched 12 minutes before the Hampton County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the scene.

Now, this timeline is super strange because the Hampton County Sheriff's Office should have been the lead law enforcement agency on scene that day. When for a shooting, they should have been dispatched immediately, which again, also raises the question, was he even shot? And it also raises the question,

why was a helicopter called? When two weeks later, we don't see any signs of wounds. So when Curtis Smith was arrested in arrest warrants, we learned that Alec Murdoch admitted to setting up the suicide scheme so a son buster could collect a $10 million insurance policy. And this storyline just doesn't add up.

What kind of a father would want to kill himself so his son, who just lost his mother and brother in a horrific double homicide, could collect insurance money? And why did he feel the need that he had to look like somebody was shooting him? And how come we haven't seen any evidence that he was actually shot?

Another thing that doesn't add up is that while the PR team said that Eddie Smith was Alec Murdoch's known drug dealer, Bouchette rejects that statement about his client and says it doesn't even make sense. What we can tell and what we know by what's been put into the public sphere already is that something doesn't add up with this case.

And the first thing is just the narrative that's been put out there that Eddie was Mr. Murdoch's long time drug dealer, a drug dealer that apparently benefited to the tune of around $10 million because I believe the statement was that the majority of the $10 million which had been misappropriated from the law firm had been used to pay for this opioid addiction

and by consequence went to Eddie. Eddie has little to no criminal record at all over the last 20 years, nothing drug related. And so what that tells me is one of two things. Either Eddie is just one of the most successful drug dealers I've ever seen in terms of evading law enforcement or he's not a drug dealer and certainly not a drug dealer that would have been able to supply and benefit

from the quantities that have been stated in that $10 million range. So when we start with that, we know that that doesn't make any sense. The second thing is that he doesn't have any criminal record, nothing to suggest that Eddie would be complicit in a scheme and not just complicit would be active in a scheme which would require him

to shoot a fella in the head, presumably killing for what doesn't appear to be any personal gain. The allegations as best I can tell only allege that the supposed insurance proceeds would have gone to benefit Mr. Murdoch's son. There doesn't appear to be any real allegation that there was an arrangement where by Eddie would get some percentage of it.

I mean, it just doesn't seem that he'd have any benefit to doing that. Then we look at the fact that the majority of the allegations were the substance of the allegations. It seemed to come from Mr. Murdoch who was undisputedly in a serious opioid withdrawal or relapse or opioid episode of some kind. And so it's very concerning that they've placed

so much credibility in his version of events which don't seem to add up just because within a few days of this incident, he has no visible signs of either an injury or of operation to his head. And I would think even a superficial gunshot going to the head if that's even such a thing would at least show where there had been some type

of stitching or bandaging or hair shaves to access the area. None of that seems to be the case. So it's not even clear at this point that Mr. Murdoch actually suffered a wound to the head. And if that's not established, then the entire scheme, the entire basis for the arrest starts to crumble and fall away.

According to probable cause Ava Davids, the South Carolina law enforcement division appeared to rely a lot on Ellick Murdoch's narrative for Smith's arrest. Considering the fact that Murdoch is an admitted drug addict on a downward spiral who has also shown no physical signs of ever being shot, questions should be raised about Smith's charges too.

Now, two days after Smith was charged, Ellick was also charged with three felonies in this alleged suicide for hire scheme. In Hampton County court that week, we watched two systems of justice play out in live action. One for people like Ellick Murdoch and one for people like Eddie Smith. So first of all, Ellick Murdoch showed up

without a single scratch on his head at his bond hearing in Hampton County, South Carolina, which would be his home court where his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all ruled a solicitor for nearly a hundred years. Ellick didn't even bother to slap on a band-aid. His closely cropped hair provided no cover for the presence of a head wound,

nor was any part of his scalp shaved, which is what we would expect in this circumstance. And this bond hearing was less than two weeks after the alleged shooting. Oh, and several hours before Ellick's bond hearing, it appeared like his bond had already been set for him online in the public index, which showed a $20,000 PR bond,

which means that he wouldn't have to pay for it. Now, during the bond hearing, Creighton Waters, a prosecutor at the South Carolina Attorney General's office, argued that the bond should be much higher, a $100,000 surety, which means he would actually have to pay for it, or some of it.

And he argued that Ellick should be considered a danger to the community. Your Honor, at this time, we would request a $100,000 surety as well as GPS. Your Honor, the reason for that, he hasn't acquired a record. However, while the charges here under the law are not violent, the underlying facts are violent. They indicated it was allegedly an intent to harm oneself,

and that makes that person not only a danger to themselves, but that it answers the danger to the community in that regard. And indeed, they also are a mercy, and that means working with others for criminal activity, so that it answers the danger to the community. However, Dick R. Putlian, who is Murdoch's high-priced attorney, argued that his client is not a danger to the community,

but only a danger to himself. He painted Ellick Murdoch as a desperate, broke drug addict, while failing to mention how this desperate, broke drug addict could afford him as an attorney. But anyways, he asked for a low bond and argued that his client didn't have any money. And guess what the judge set Ellick Murdoch's bond at? $20,000.

The exact amount that was online several hours before the bond hearing, which is not how it's supposed to work. Was there a fix-in before the bond hearing? And while the prosecutor asked for a GPS monitor, the judge denied that request also. So while Ellick Murdoch's bond was set at $20,000, Smith, on the other hand, was set at $55,000 cash.

And there's one more thing I want to mention about the bond hearing before I put it to rest. And I'm only mentioning this because it was in the media today again, and I just have to say something on my podcast that what happened with Dick Harputlian at the bond hearing and his comment about me was not okay. For those of you who don't know,

State Senator Dick Harputlian, Ellick Murdoch's lawyer, checked the room at the bond hearing and looked for me. He was caught on camera doing this. So when I wasn't there for personal reasons that I will disclose in a book someday, he made an incredibly rude, sexist comment about me. Again, wall national cameras were rolling. How did the man do that?

How did the man do that? How did the man do that? Pissed me. No, my dog, he used to be there. She'd be there for him. Pissed me. Pissed me. Where's Pissed me?

Didn't make it. She didn't. She didn't. I don't know if she... Does she really exist? I don't know. No. Will folks alter sexual ego?

Could it be? Well, that's what you never know to them. Very possible. He may be coming out with a judge, you know. All right. Sorry. So what you're hearing there is the media who wouldn't know the half of the story

if it wasn't for me, laughing with him. The media has been gobbling up Dick Harputlian's spin campaign and failing to hold him accountable for months. So it's not surprising to see this, but it's jarring to see across the board corruption from media to politics on full display. I have no idea what Dick meant by the statement that I am my boss's alter sexual ego,

but I never want to hear my name come out of Dick Harputlian's mouth along with the word sexual in my boss's name. That is disgusting and wrong. And to me, the statement implies that me, a woman, can't possibly be my own human separate from my boss, will folks. And it also shows me that while Dick Harputlian

should have been preparing for his client, he is thinking about me and who is gonna hold him accountable in that room. Remember also, Dick Harputlian is a Democrat state senator. He's an elected official who has a lot of power in South Carolina, including his influence that the media often ignores his role in selection of judges in our state.

He has not apologized to me for his sexist comments and appears like he thinks he doesn't have to. He has not earned the grace that the media constantly is giving him in this case, but he's highly quotable and entertaining to some of the media who would rather share a laugh with him and hold his feet to fire as they should be doing. It is no wonder our state is in shambles

when we have reporters who will not hold the most powerful people in our state to account. I totally understand that I am not the victim in the story. I speak with the actual victims in the saga almost daily. And if any person in that crowd knew the victims like I did and knew their pain, they would not be laughing with Dick Harputlian. But this good old boy behavior must be called out.

Otherwise, they're just gonna keep good old boying. I made a big deal about the media covering this case because it's our job to expose those contributing to the system that is failing so many people. But yet this Sunday, October 3rd, the state newspaper, one of the largest newspapers in South Carolina, published a fanboy puff piece

about the two quote unquote bulldog attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harputlian. The piece was written by an old school journalist named John Monk and it basically praises the two attorneys while briefly mentioning this awkward comment and not mentioning that it's sexist and wrong. While they will do puff pieces like that, I will continue to expose the truth

in this case wherever it leads. And while Alex might've gotten off easy in court this month, his battle with the law is far from over, both in the criminal and civil side of court. There are six criminal investigations related to the Murdoch family right now. In my boss, Will Fulkes at fitsnews.com will not rest until we get answers for each of them.

So stay tuned to fitsnews.com for the latest updates in this story. That's FITSNews.com. A special thank you to the Surge Restaurant Group for their gift certificate to Nectar Farm Kitchen. Following the story is hard, but being able to enjoy the most amazing meal at Nectar Farm Kitchen on Hilton Head Island

was simply divine. I can't wait for Nectar Farm Kitchen to open and bluffed in this winter. Check out NectarFarmKitchen.com to learn more. Stay tuned to the Murdoch Murders podcast and as always, check out fitsnews.com. That's FITSNews.com for the latest updates in this insane saga.

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.

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