How the fall of murderer Alex Murdaugh has gripped America trends now
Alex Murdaugh has been found guilty on two counts of murder after savagely shooting dead his wife and son outside their 1,800-acre hunting estate in South Carolina.
The trial of the disgraced legal scion, 54, has engrossed America, and he is now expected to spend 30 years to life in prison.
But the story that lead to the horrific 2021 killings of Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, started two years earlier. Then aged 19, Paul Murdaugh had ventured for a booze-laden cruise along the South Carolina coast with friends on the family boat, when a collision knocked three of the friends into the icy water - with only one body not surfacing, Mallory Beach.
Alex Murdaugh, who like previous generations of his family has wielded immense judicial power in the region, had allegedly attempted to pressure survivors of the accident to say his son had not been at the helm. But the young Murdaugh was soon charged with three offences including boating under the influence resulting in death.
While the case never came to court, Beach's family filed a civil suit against Alex Murdaugh, claiming he was liable for her death because he lent his son the boat and turned a blind eye to his underage drinking.
Then, just days before the hearing for the civil case - which, crucially, would have required Murdaugh to provide a full picture of his finances, and for Maggie and Paul to testify - the wife and son were killed.
Alex Murdaugh's (second right) killed his wife Maggie (second left) and son Paul (left) in 2019
Mallory Beach (pictured) 19, was killed in a a boat crash in 2019 and Paul Murdaugh was charged. But the case was never came to court
Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head and injured on September 4, 2021, months after he killed his wife and son
The trial of Alex Murtaugh began earlier this year on January 25, in a courtroom where a portrait of his grandfather used to hang before it was removed by a judge for the duration of the legal proceedings.
Prosecutors argued that the 54-year-old murdered his wife and son in an attempt to win sympathy and save himself from being exposed as a massive fraudster.
For Americans who have been enthralled by the trial, it seems to have everything: ruthless lawyers, claims of political corruption, multi-million-dollar fraud, a fatal boat crash involving a beautiful young woman and even an apparent assassination attempt on Murdaugh himself.
The defence portrayed him as a devoted father and husband who would never dream of butchering his loved ones. The prosecution counters that 6 ft 4 in Murdaugh committed the killings to avoid 'personal legal and financial ruin' by distracting attention from evidence that he had tricked millions of dollars out of clients and his own firm.
Both sides agree, however, that the story behind the murders really begins two years earlier, on the night of another tragic death. In February 2019, Alex's son Paul Murdaugh, then 19, had taken out the family's 17 ft-long fishing boat one night with five friends for a short booze-laden cruise along the South Carolina coast.
As they were returning home in the early hours in thick fog, the vessel hit the pilings of a bridge before running into a bank with a smashed hull. Of three passengers thrown into the icy water, only two surfaced. The body of the third, 19-year-old Mallory Beach, was found a week later in a nearby marsh.
Alex Murdaugh (left) shot his wife Maggie (right), 52, and their son Paul, 22, on the family's land in 2021
Murdaugh is led out of the court by sheriff's deputies after being found guilty of murdering his wife and son yesterday
Alex Murdaugh cries during the murder trial that suddenly transfixed America
His surviving son Buster appeared stony-faced and sat with his hand covering his mouth beside his girlfriend Brooklynn White who looked down at the ground yesterday
Paul Murdaugh, a wayward youth described as a 'teenage Caligula', was an aggressive drunk and he was allegedly steering the boat when it crashed.
Despite his influential family's alleged attempts to pressure survivors of the accident to say Paul had not been at the helm, he was charged with three offences including boating under the influence resulting in death.
Although that case never came to court — an illustration, some said, of the power of the Murdaughs — Mallory Beach's family filed a civil suit against Murdaugh, claiming he was liable for her death because he lent his son the boat and turned a blind eye to his underage drinking.
Just days before Murdaugh's wife and son were killed, a future hearing for this civil case had been scheduled. Crucially, it would have required Murdaugh to provide a full picture of his finances which could have revealed he was fleecing his clients.
The lawyer bringing the civil suit had specifically requested his wife Maggie and son Paul to testify about the reportedly boozy culture on the Murdaugh hunting estate, known as Moselle, where underage teenagers were said to be allowed to stagger around drunk.
Prosecutors argued Alex murdered them not only to delay the civil suit (which the killings succeeded in doing) but also to distract attention from himself by suggesting that the Murdaughs had been targeted by people wanting to avenge Mallory Beach's death in the boat crash.
Indeed, his trial was shown video evidence from the body cameras of police officers who attended the scene of the murders. It showed an apparently distraught Alex Murdaugh offering his thoughts about the possible motive.
'This is a long story. My son was in a boat wreck . . . months back. He's been getting threats,' he said. 'Most of it's been benign stuff. We didn't take it serious, you know, he's been getting like punched. Um, I, I know that's what it is.'
And to reinforce this idea that the murders were in fact carried out by people intent on revenge for Mallory Beach, it's alleged that Murdaugh then faked an assassination
