While the most gripping true crime stories take us into the darkest parts of the soul, rarely does a case open the ugly heart of the nation itself. The labyrinthine case that’s come to be dubbed “the Murdaugh murders” feels like one that could only happen in America — a tale of generational power and corruption. This is a Southern Gothic morality play about a wealthy but fading Southern family whose huge amounts of wealth and influence fueled a jaw-dropping spree of recklessness, greed, and murder.
The trial that gripped a nation — and resulted, March 3, in the conviction of Alex Murdaugh for the double homicide of his wife and son — is about much more than one family tragedy.
What one article aptly called “a lot of dead people and crime” involves the Murdaugh (pronounced “Murdock”) family, which has amassed power and wealth in South Carolina for over 100 years. But that century of power has crumbled in just half a decade due to a long list of financial crimes and five suspicious deaths beginning in 2015: an alleged homophobic hate crime; a deadly boating accident; a mysterious fall and insurance scam; the double murder of the family matriarch and favorite son; and a bizarre roadside incident that may have been another insurance scam. The whole tangled web culminated in the indictment in a South Carolina county court of the floundering patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, for the 2021 murders of his wife and son — bringing the total number of charges he’s facing to over 80.
Murdaugh pleaded not guilty to the murder charges on July 20, 2022, setting the stage for a bombshell trial and media circus that ultimately resulted in a guilty verdict and two consecutive life sentences. The lead-up to the double homicide arguably came about in part due to a hit podcast that began as one local journalist’s attempt to bring attention to the case. En route to the trial, the Murdaugh murders became a national true crime obsession, spawning documentaries on HBO and Netflix and riveting tens of thousands of livestream courtroom viewers daily.
