Murdaughs finally get the Netflix treatment as streamer releases trailer for ... trends now

A new three-part Netflix documentary series promises to delve deep into the scandals and murders that have plagued a once-prominent South Carolina legal scion and his family.

The documentary series, entitled Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, will examine the death of Mallory Beach on board a boat driven by a drunken Paul Murdaugh, as well as his and his mother's subsequent murders.

It will also touch on the mysterious death of the Murdaugh's housekeeper as well as the death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of a South Carolina road in 2015.

And it will feature interviews with some of those closest to the multiple Murdaugh cases, some of whom are speaking for the first time. 

The show is expected to premiere on February 22, with a trailer for the much-anticipated true crime documentary released Tuesday.

It touches on all of the scandals and murders that have plagued the Murdaugh family over the past few years.

'There are facts that don't add up and bodies tied to this family,' one man in the trailer says, before a young man describes how 'the Murdaughs would just make someone disappear.'

 The Murdaughs were once a very powerful political family in South Carolina, with one man noting in the trailer: 'For over a century, the Murdaughs were law and order here in the 14th Circuit.'

But after Mallory Beach, 19, was thrown from a boat driven by her friend, Paul Murdaugh, and killed in 2019, questions started surrounding the political dynasty.

Paul, who was 19 at the time, had been drunk when he was operating the vehicle. His older brother, Buster, was accused of lending Paul his ID in order for him to buy alcohol for the joyride. 

Now, Mallory's best friend, Miley Altman, says she and her friends were trying to stop Paul from driving drunk.

'Everyone was like, "Paul don't drive," and Paul would snap back and be like "Well, this is my f****** boat,' Altman says in the trailer, as another friend notes Paul 'was out of his mind drunk.'

They and others in the promo say legal scion Alex Murdaugh, the head of the dynasty,  was 'more worried about a cover-up.'

Paul, 22, and Maggie, 52, were murdered over one year later on June 7, 2021, leading to speculation it was related to the fatal boating accident.

But when Alex later claimed he was shot in the head in a drive-by amid financial troubles, authorities turned their attention to him.

He is now facing a total of 98 criminal charges — four accusing him of orchestrating the double homicide of Paul and his wife, Maggie, and others for a botched suicide-for-hire plot.

'This is a fall from dynasty,' one man in the trailer says. 'It was a fall from grace.'

Last month, it was revealed that Murdaugh told law enforcement his wife's and son's murders were tied to the 2019 boat crash.

Prosecutors say in a court filing obtained by DailyMail.com that the legal scion tried to throw investigators off the scent by falsely linking the murders with the fatal boat crash for which Paul, drunk at the helm, was facing criminal charges, while his father and older brother Buster were facing a wrongful death lawsuit.

But, according to the state, the murders of Maggie and Paul were not revenge killings. 

Instead, they now allege, the 'only person with a true motive to kill his wife and son,' was Murdaugh himself.

In the document filed in Colleton County Court prosecutors write that the 'clouds of Murdaugh's past misdeeds' were gathering into 'a perfect storm that was going to expose the real Alex Murdaugh', who is, they say,  'an allegedly crooked lawyer and drug user who borrowed and stole wherever he could to stay afloat and one step ahead of detection.'

They claim that he was facing imminent 'legal, financial and personal ruin.'

That storm, they state, was due to break on June 7, 2021 – the very day that they allege Murdaugh gunned down his wife and son in a bid to, 'shift focus' away from himself and 'buy some additional time to try and prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered.'

For the first time in his life, prosecutors contend, Murdaugh was facing 'accountability' and the exposure of years of misdeeds and a mountain of debt running into millions.

They will argue that he killed his own wife and son for no other reason than to create a distraction.

The state alleges that Murdaugh was confronted with an 'immediate certainty of exposure,' on June 7, 2021

On that day personnel from the family firm of which Murdaugh was once a partner - Peters Murdaugh Parker Elztroth & Detrick (PMPED) now rebranded the Parker Law Group LLP – confronted Murdaugh about financial irregularities, with an ultimatum for answers by the end of the day, answers that Murdaugh knew he could not provide.

Similarly, the walls were closing in on him in the wrongful death lawsuit as he was facing down the reality of having to produce financial documents at a discovery hearing just two days later, on June 9.

Murdaugh knew, prosecutors allege, that producing his financial records for either party would mean exposure and ruin.

Because, unknown to anyone, Murdaugh had been on an 'incessant financial rollercoaster,' for decades. 

Things only got worse following the boat crash as suddenly Paul was facing criminal charges, and the family was facing 'significant civil liability.'

According to the State, this was the powder keg destined to blow on June 7, 2021.

His status and reputation in the community only made things worse. 

A member of the Murdaugh family had served as solicitor – South Caroina's equivalent of a district attorney – for the 14th judicial circuit for more than 100 years starting with Murdaugh's great grandfather.

But while outwardly Murdaugh gave the 'illusion' of wealth from his successful legal practice, the filing states, 'a series of bad land deals exacerbated by the recession permanently changed his finances.'

Murdaugh was, the State alleges, overwhelmed by debts that required such, 'a velocity of money' just to service them that he turned to crime and fraud, syphoning off $8.7million in client settlements and taking out loans he had neither the intention nor the means of repaying. 

The filing states: 'Since people are naturally expected to love their wives and sons instead of brutally gunning them down, why Murdaugh did what he is accused of doing will unquestionably weigh on any rational juror's mind when deciding whether the State has met it burden of proof.' 

Murdaugh himself put motive 'front and center' the motion claims, 'through his own actions.'

According to the prosecution, 'Within just thirty seconds of beginning to speak to the first officer to arrive at the crime scene on June 7, 2021 [he] suggested to law enforcement that the killer's motive stemmed from the February 2019 boat wreck that resulted in the tragic death of Mallory Beach. 

'In fact, Murdaugh expressed certainty and stated that he knew 'that's what it is' to the responding officer.'

In doing so, they claim, he falsely tried to tie the horrific events of that June night to something that had occurred more than two years earlier while he turned himself into an object of sympathy and support rather than scrutiny.

Prosecutors allege he tried to heighten his profile as victim when suspicion began to fall on him by claiming to have been shot in the head in September 4, 2021.

'Only this time the facts came to light a lot quicker,' they point out.

Within days Murdaugh had admitted to staging the incident on Old Salkahatchie Road claiming it was an attempted 'suicide for hire' and that his motive had been to secure his $10million life insurance pay out for older son Buster, 26.

Murdaugh's motive is so vital to their case that the prosecution has asked the court to allow them to introduce evidence of some of the financial crimes of which Murdaugh

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