Join us on a trip to a time before Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son - when we were just talking about his arrest and the horrible things he was accused of doing. We dig into this truly Southern Gothic tale - we imagine cicadas in the air, the humidity is hazy, and everyone is pretending to be nice but probably wants to murder you. Dramatically. Today's re-release is the Murdaugh Family Murders. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
Join us on a trip to a time before Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son - when we were just talking about his arrest and the horrible things he was accused of doing. We dig into this truly Southern Gothic tale - we imagine there are cicadas in the air, the humidity is hazy, and everyone is pretending to be nice but probably wants to murder you. Dramatically.
Today's re-release is the Murdaugh Family Murders.
Pictures via NBC news and AI // we asked for Southern Gothic & we had originally asked for Henry VIII in the south and that is great too!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod
Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
hi everyone Taylor from Doom to fail today we are re-releasing our episode on the Murdoch family murders this since
then this actually has been I guess resolved because the patriarch Alex is actually in jail now and has been
convicted of murdering his wife and son and I think they've opened up a second case or another case um for the other
son Buster because he probably killed someone as well so it's wild it's a
Southern Gothic tale as we like to say hope you enjoy see you on the other side
in a matter of the people of State of California versus orthal James Simpson case number ba0 and my fellow
Amer I want what your country can do for
you what you can do for your so I
[Music] will okay I'm ready moving sucks yes so
it sucks it's so bad I know it's the worst every time I give like a
bag away to like the thrift store or to charity or whatever I'm like this is a bag that I don't have to move in the
future I'm always like happy to get rid of stuff so far between the two houses
I've done eight runs personally with my pickup truck today a giant
mover took pretty much whatever was left I still am going to have to go do like two three more runs at the old house
like it is yeah anyways I'm ranting it's not reflective of what we're talking
about here anyways so let's get on to the True Crime Story of the week and I got to tell you Taylor and I've told you
this I texted you about this last night I absolutely just love this story so much it just feels so old timey in
Southern and not in like a Texas Southern way in like a really like just gritty [ __ ] up Southern way well I
think that you know I I know that one of our we want to like you know Tire episodes together but also want to like
surprise you with what I'm telling you so I have to figure out how we do that but I do think that there's a connection
between these two stories cuz it's about like dynasties and people need to be in charge right yeah that's actually a
really good way to put it so also just so everybody knows me and Taylor don't talk about our stories beforehand for the most part so last night I texted
Taylor that I'm really excited about today's podcast because it's about this particular family and this was a huge
news and me and Taylor pow out about it years ago when it first came out and so she does know the topic of this
conversation but for the most part we don't actually discuss it but getting back to this family this is the story of
the mura family Murdoch Murdo I know murdoff Murdo you're supposed to know I
didn't do that enough research um I'm gonna go with murof murof family because because it's d a u GF like laugh with a
d so mdof sounds right to me fine okay whatever this is the story of the murd
off family and I can't stress enough that this is an actual true story it's going to it's going to Veer into like
[ __ ] Scooby-Doo territory but it's actually like a true story with like a really really real
family it has the Ambiance and Intrigue of Midnight in the Garden of Good and
Evil did you I love Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil oh my God I love it I was talking
to someone years ago and they said Savannah and I like I went like ah and they're like have you been to Savannah and I was like no no I just [ __ ] love
midnight in the good Garden of Good and Evil so much yeah so um I've read the
cliff notes of it and actually like it feels like something I should probably make an like incorporate into an episode
at some point because it's it's a fascinating tale amazing characters it's
just which I'm G to actually get into here in a sec so in General Southern
Gothic Vibes have always intrigued me you're not from the South Taylor
I'm not and but given what you literally just said I think the answer to this is yes but when I say so or not yes like I
think you're going to have an answer for this when I say Southern Gothic what comes to mind immediately was the season
of American Horror Story where they witches in New Orleans is that close you know what I
thought of Have You Ever Seen The Skeleton Key yes with Kate Hudson yeah it's witchy it's like gritty it like
it love it so much um this just so humid that's my only that's my only problem
mosquitoes lots of mosquitoes lots and lots of mosquitoes so Southern Gothic is defined as literature stories movies Etc
that include a presence of irrational horrific and transgressive thoughts
desires and impulses grotesque grotesque characters dark humor and an overall
angst-ridden sense of alienation that's a lot right I love it
yeah and this story is all of that it is all of it it's I'm so excited about this
one um side note I I obviously did a deep dive into what like Southern Gothic
is examples of Southern Gothic literature and content um and I was wondering what is the Cory
to that in the north and there isn't actually I don't know exactly why that
is but in general it's considered that American Gothic is the closest correl to Southern Gothic in the
north I mean I imagine here's what here's what I would think like the
history of the South is different than the history of the north you know and
like they from the very beginning they were divided over a whole bunch of stuff
mostly slavery but obviously like they you know lost that big old war they won't can't get over and like I feel
like maybe that is like a cloud so I actually have a paragraph in this
outline that I sketched out or crossed off that's all about why Southern Gothic
exists in the way that it exists tying that directly to essentially not just
slavery but the inherent desire to not progress forward and not to have things
change and how the cruelty of that and the evils of that instilled directly ties to this what's
being described here irrational horrific and transgressive thoughts desires and impulses grotesque characters like it's
all one Continuum yeah so totally cool
let's go ahead and get into the main characters that we're be discussing we have Alex murdoff he's the main person
we're going to be talking about today and the patriarch of this family we're going to go really deep in Alex
background here in a moment we have Maggie murof oh go ahead sorry Taylor I'm sorry does he pronounce it Alec no he doesn't okay I thought a l x
totally okay continue yep uh you have Maggie murdoff who was Alex's wife they married in
1993 and you have Paul who was at the time of the events we're going to discuss Alex's 22-year-old son they also
have another son he's semi relevant but not really I I'll talk about him for like a second so let's dive in Alex's
background to say this guy was privilege would be doing a disservice to the word
privilege he was Uber privileged he was Kennedy family levels of
privileged I remember when this story first broke and I'm sure you did too Taylor because you brought up the dynastic nature of families how this
prominent South Carolina legal family and I was like am I supposed to [ __ ] know that like am I supposed to know
every family that's like a big shot in their [ __ ] Backwater town
right the side note of having a really good mic now in a mic setup is you everybody can probably hear every sound
my dog is making in this room so I only heard it just now like I didn't hear her until right now okay good good I heard
like a bell was that her she a bell that was her yeah okay I'll figure I'll figure out a new routine for you should
get two dogs so they can hang out with each other if I didn't have my family here in the other room then I would just
put Luna in her kennel but then my mom's going to start being nervous about it and try to let her out here oh hi yeah
they're all here everybody's everybody's trying to help me move so a um hold on Luna
place okay let me let me see if I can just let
her out
okay no
okay can you hear me oh yeah you were you were far away for a second but you came back um okay you ready yes
okay this family was legal royalty in South Carolina from 1920 to 2006 three
members of the family served as a district district attorney for the 14th circuit wow I can't think in terms of
circuits like the size and scope and all that [ __ ] so let's just say that they were the DA for five highly
consequential counties because the county makes more sense to me okay 1920 to 2006 that is that is backto back
that's that's three members who held office the same office for 86 years so
they were in wow they were not primary there was not like you know they weren't being challenged for this totally the
only lawyers that I know that well said you but like I know I I can name name some of the like injury lawyers in Las
Vegas because the Billboards all the time you know but like yeah I like the ones who do the commercials where like
slam a big hammer down yeah um so people actually refer to these five counties as
murdoff murdoff country like that is it is colloquial their name is a
colloquialism that's the extent we're talking about here totally Taylor have you seen nothing but trouble yet yeah
yes but I was like really young as far really long time ago and I feel like if I tried to make my husband watch it now
he would not watch it so we should probably watch it together when's the last time you saw it it was like a month
ago oh my God how was it like how was it have you had you seen it
before no no so I mean that was the whole thing like our favorite podcast keeps talking about nothing but trou we're supposed to see it and one night I
was like what I'm just going to finally get around to watch again it is [ __ ] horrible like it is it is shitty it is a
shitty [ __ ] movie um it's fun it's fun because you can see Dan award having fun you can tell he really really
relished that moment and so out of love of Dan aoid I enjoyed that piece of
it but the reason I bring it up is that bobo who is Dan ary's character in
trouble he runs a Podunk little town where he's kind of like the judge and
the jury and everything that's kind of what this is like this
family we're gonna get into it like the amount of influence like I'm I'm so understating it right now yeah no and
you're and it sounds like a lot yeah yeah and by the way when I say this family I'm talking about Alex's father's
side of the family like this is all lineage from Alex's Father's Side um and like from what I can gather like this
family just doesn't lose in addition to their Public Service I.E the da stuff um
they also run a really prominent civil litigation firm as well even the way they became prominent
in civil litigation is kind of shady because they don't lose like they'll find the [ __ ] way to get to
the outcomes which like I kind of admire um don't don't be a don't have a
criminal lawyer have a criminal lawyer yeah exactly that's exactly right do you
remember that it wasn't Breaking Bad I didn't make that yeah that was uh Saul's yeah that was Saul right yeah um again
we are on a legal procedure show but there's this concept I'm going to go into in law around jurisdiction and a
court has to determine if they have jurisdiction over the parties and to the
claim to accept a civil case there's a reason why I'm bringing this up it's called subject matter of jurisdiction in
a lot of cases it is not up to the person the plaintiff who files a lawsuit to decide where they're going to file a
certain court has that jurisdiction and others do not in South Carolina they
passed a law that made the concept of forum shopping I'm using quotation marks is a term of art super easy
that's what really led to the success of the mof families Law Firm because they're so prominent and because form
shopping was so easy they could choose to file claims in places in districts
and in courts where they knew the people that would get the outcomes they were looking for does that
does that make sense so as the as the lawyer or as like the the person hiring the lawyer you could do like I choose to
do it in a place where I know I'm going to have good representation or the lawyer would say like oh listen I know
the chief of police in Jonesville let's go there the person finding the claim doesn't know [ __ ]
right okay they're going to their lawyer and saying how much money can I get for this accident they're like oh well yeah
we'll figure it out they'll find the claim wherever they know where their golfing buddy is the judge yeah ask for
a bench trial right and and move forward that so anyways like that that's a big
part of this is that this family again Stacks all the chips in their favor
it's kind of like the movie The Firm I'm we're referencing a lot of movies today you've seen the firm right yeah okay
okay yeah but it's it's kind of like that they just they seem like they would basically do anything to maintain their influence and Power in the stin of the
woods part of the firm I remember is when they were dancing in the living room and Tom Cruz turns the music up because he knows the house is bugged it
was it was so yeah it was it was such a happy awesome movie when he's like he's
just like a happy go-lucky you know law student and then it's just
just derails so hard most of the following that I'm going to list off to you really has
nothing to do with the main story that we're talking about but it is pertinent to the type of people that we're talking about the following our list of let's
just call them events that this family has been involved in number one in 2015
a gay teen named Stephen Smith was found dead on a road in one of these murdoff counties it was rumored that Alex's
other son Buster was involved in a relationship like a sexual relationship with Stephen the death was ruled to hit
and run at the time and they had no suspects local papers that I read all
but came out and said that this family covered this up and made it seem like a hit and run so that an investigation
actually just restarted into this kid's death because now that everything happened that I'm going to go into
they're like uh something there's more to this story so I feel
like I wish you hadn't said his name Buster in the middle of telling that story because that story is terrible and
it's also a [ __ ] Delight that his name is Buster and development of course I am just it's so funny and hilarious
like could you imagine and like um did you know that job in rest of development was named that way after uh Jeb Bush
Bush seriously CUA Jeb Bush his name is his initials his name is like Joe Edward
Bush and that's what wow really job's name is is like John Oliver Bluth or
whatever that's incredible yeah I didn't know that it's making fun of him because J's both Jeb Bush's name as his initials
except you missed it because it's it wouldn't be John because job is go o oh
right yes they would call him Gob anyway it's just hilarious to be
named Buster these days and I can't believe that you call from that but also I feel like you meet rich people all the
time named like [ __ ] willow you know they're like poppy you know like I mean
if you come to the witches Market you'll meet a lot more of them anyway that story is terrible and
I'm so sorry for that that poor boy family and that's absolutely awful yeah
and in in the second jce yeah of course and they presumably they're going to get there because like I said the case has
been reopened the second side track here is in
2018 their the family housekeeper of the mofs Gloria fell down the stairs of
their estate and ultimately died the circumstances of this were
suspicious for a number of reasons but the most telling of which was Alex trying to steal the proceeds of This Woman's life insurance policy like steal
it not like he wasn't in charge of it he wasn't going to like be the you know ex
um executive of her state or anything he was outright just going to steal it this
part I dug so deep Taylor to find an answer to this because she was in sh to
the tune of $4.3 million that's crazy I mean I don't know
if you have life insurance I have life insurance my life is not worth 4.3 million like no I have like my work life
insurance yeah yeah it's not that much it's very much much much less so I don't
so I don't get how whatever like that's just it's in bold here of like keep
digging trying to figure out why her life sh policy was the way that it was but anyways that's number two of weird
[ __ ] we with this family the third and really the biggest and one that actually is PR into this story is in 2019 Paul
the youngest son went out boating with friends drunk as [ __ ] wrecked the boat
and killed his friend mallerie as a result and to show how much influence this family actually had after the
accident Paul wasn't given a field sobriety test he wasn't taken a jail he wasn't booked he wasn't handcuffed
nothing he just called his dad his dad's like I'm gonna come down I'll take care of it privileged like these people are [ __ ]
yeah like you can kill someone privileged I'm looking up how many people die falling down the stairs and
I'm like I can't tell if this what I just found is just um the us but I think
it is because it's from the national Safety Council guess how many people die a year falling down the stairs okay because if you include old people it's
going to be a lot it's G to be at least 10,000 12,000 yeah it's more than I thought yeah continue but I mean there's
probably not many like 30 year olds who are dying falling downstairs right I would assume the bulk of that 12,000 are
going to be like seniors yeah remember that like falling as a senior is literally the biggest health hazard like
yeah that could kill you it's terrifying um um but yeah that's awful and and also
for that poor girl dying in a boat accident yeah yeah yeah except except it
unlocked a lot of things so that accent sounds like it kind of started
everything that we're about to go into so going back to that part of it soice say that Alex had his hands in
many white collar crimes given the fact that he was trying misappropriate funds and he's doing coverups all the other
[ __ ] that I just went into as part of the lawsuit that was filed by mallerie's
family against the mofs because of the wrongful death suit that they were going
to file Financial records were being requested or more accurately Alex was
going to be compelled to reveal a ton of financial information that just would not have looked
good this state is important a hearing was scheduled for June 10th of
2021 that was to decide whether Alex would have to turn over his financial
records in relation to the death of the girl in the boat yeah yeah how come why
well because part of it is that when you when you tabulate damages in civil cases
oh you know their net worth and all that you need to know like what you're going after what assets are available what you're actually asking for a lot of
times what you're going to do is look at loss potential earnings in the future pain and suffering and things like that
and it's usually a proportion of what that person can give got it and so
that's part of what they're asking for um it's it's always the trail of money
that [ __ ] people like remember this folks like if you're if you're doing shady [ __ ] the issue is never getting
the money the issue are the way points that money takes as it travels before it gets to you yeah
and you were also not the king of England to just another thing you know I feel like this guy probably thought that
he was like Untouchable because he was like the lawyer King of the county but you're like it's not the same like you
can't I mean some people are like above the law and they shouldn't be but this
guy's not above the law he just thought they was right yeah he um he sounds kind
of like the combination of arrogance mixed with
stupidity but because he's so privileged he doesn't know that because he's like
everywhere I go the se's part so like I'm [ __ ] I'm great you know yeah
totally so I'm gonna get to Red Flag number one I don't know very much about Maggie but she did a really interesting
thing around this time around the time of pre being compelled to reveal financial
information by the court she had a forensic account to look into her own family's finances you know what a
forensic accountant does right yeah like looks at everything with a yeah yeah it's like it's like a
personal audit of your own finances like where did money come from how to so she knew something was wrong but was hands
off enough to not know exactly what I'm kind of going to blame Maggie for this
for reasons I'll get into a little bit later it seems that as early as 2016 the
super obvious Shady financial [ __ ] was kind of right under her nose like she was a part of in a way like there's no
way she didn't know yeah yeah what I'm gonna tell you later on happened in
2016 I mean I think anybody would have just had like alarm bells ringing in their in their
head so things are unraveling Alex is about to be forced by the court to give up his financial secrets and if that
doesn't get him his wife's friends account surely will it's also worth noting that by now at this point Alex
and magu are strange they live separately at one of their beach homes so they're kind of just like
walking past each other and whatever they're not like really close that is very very BL family of them God you're
right I love that you brought up the rest go back and watch for rest of development um mean okay another quick
Sidetrack I'm going to run through the tldr of just what we know of Alex's
Financial [ __ ] his trial actually started three days ago we're recording this on Saturday January 28th so a ton
more is about to come out but here's a short list and I'm going to leave out a ton of details because otherwise just
this section alone could be 45 minutes and you'd fall asleep driving so here is is the [ __ ] Alex is accused of stealing
or at least attempting to steal his housekeeper $4.3 million Life Doll life insurance claim his deaf client life
support mysteriously being unplugged after Alex represented him in his traffic accident and then handling the
wrongful death suit that followed $800,000 to $1 million of that settlement went missing a woman was
killed in a crash who Alex represented she never received or her family never received $112,000 of that settlement
another woman uh another woman's family uh another woman who was killed by a drunk driver was told was told by this
uh Alex that the settlement was 30,000 when it was actually 180,000 yeah I mean dropping the bucket
his financial crimes alone amount to misappropriating around $8.7 million wow
so think about that 8.7 million and what I mentioned earlier he never got the 4.3 million of that life insurance policy he
was trying to steal so like 4.3 like it is just 8.7 that he actually got around
to stealing so that's Alex for you gross
let's get to the murders because OB jail for that alone so I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about that there's the prosecutors
on that piece said something really really interesting that I'm going to get to um so let's get to the murders because obviously there's going to be
murders on June 7th of 2021 so 3 days before his motion is to be heard Al
calls the police saying he found the bodies of his son and wife at their hunting lodge they've been shot
repeatedly with different weapons convenient happened at a hunting lodge
what continue yeah it all tracks right um
Alex says that during the killing he was with his parents who conveniently for him have
dementia so that's his Alibi reminder again Alex and Maggie weren't close this
time apparent Alex wanted to meet up with Maggie that night and Maggie had texted a friend that Alex sounded quote
fishy and quote up to something she didn't want to go like her alarm Bells were ringing but Alex had told her that
hey let's go visit my father together and M uh Maggie was like [ __ ] that I'm not I don't want to try that so how long
but they were married for like 93 93 to 21 so what is that oh 30
years 20 eight years yeah yeah okay it's a long time yeah it's legit red flag
number two that I wrote here is listen to your gut if your gut tells you someone is giving off bad vibes there's
probably a reason for that totally I mean you've had that experience right before teller where like somebody invites you out or somebody at like
you're you're with someone and like for whatever reason like man I don't know what it is about you I just don't [ __ ] like you like yeah you're like I
just gotta go yeah yeah and and and that was the case here like Maggie legit was like I'm not doing this and he just
insisted and insisted and insisted and then finally she relented it sounds like she was so close I mean not that she's
Innocent but it sound like she was close to leaving but then also remember we talking about how when you're leaving an
abusive relationship whether however abusive he was definitely like psychologically he's obviously crazy
like you that's such a dangerous time so like what did she know that he didn't want people to
know you see you're getting into motives right now and applying motives here is
going to get really murky they were not in an abusive relationship for what it's worth apparently they they seemingly had
like this like Charmed you know King and Queen Fort vibe in South Carolina
um right I mean like as like he's I guess I'm thinking that like she's like he's being weird yeah recently you know
yeah there's something going on with him yeah yeah yeah so like I said Maggie ultimately relented to this assistance
meeting of the lodge we're kind of going to leave this part of the story here Maggie arrives her son Paul is there
Alex calls the police roughly an hour after their estimated time of death and
that's it so we're gonna move on weeks go ahead sorry I want to know
more but tell me tell me later yeah yeah yeah we're definitely going we're gonna back
great seven weeks after this event so in
September jeez beard catching up to me seven weeks after this event so in
September Alex resigns quote unquote from his family firm because they too had gotten wise to his financial
Shenanigans like I said resign is a nice way to put it they just told him to P shouldn't get out basically he had
devised so many ways to Swindle money fake invoices fake bills fake hours work
charging personal expenses to his clients in the firm funing money through multiple bank accounts
it's weird how he was smart enough to do all of this and not smart enough to know that it was a complete House of
Cards yeah prosecutors also called this a Ponzi scheme remember when I brought that up with the tote like they also say
he was Ponzi scheming himself essentially just same way Tony tote was um it gets this piece Al alone gets so
complicated because he was also really close friends with the president of this
secondary bank that was like on the side that he was using to M to funnel all this
money he did a lot of [ __ ] up [ __ ] and brought a lot of people into his issues
yeah totally um the things that the thing I don't really understand is given his prominence he would have been fine
as just like a normal civil litigation lawyer yeah it was reported that his
annual salary was around $250,000 a year I think that's an understatement though
because it sounds like he was a partner in The Firm given that family and if he was he would have been part of their
profit sharing right but even without it I would assume 250 Grand in South
Carolina like it's not 250 Grand in La like in South Carolina it's probably a
super comfortable life for a family of four right lot of money I did you watch The Bernie made off doc on Netflix so
like same with him like he had a legitimate business that was doing well but he like
needed I don't know like control or like more or more and more and you're willing
to do stuff that you know is illegal to get more and you're like was it when is enough enough and it's probably never
probably never I don't think these guys have that pause button and Alex definitely didn't um so
as an example of conspicuous consumption that made no sense given his income and
that shockingly nobody got on caught on to the lodge where his son and wife were
ultimately killed it was a 1700 acre estate this was not
some deer lease in the middle of [ __ ] [ __ ] nowhere this was immense the property was listed for sale after these
Murders At 3.9 million after the murders so like you would like you would imagine
that it's probably that probably means it's worth like six seven million right without [ __ ] ghosts haunting the property totally totally wow yeah like
like this house in celebration that was soone less than the others after someone murders their family in it yeah yeah
they also had a beach house like I said earlier that's where Magie and Alex were mostly living and they that was recently
sold for just shy of $1 million again looking of this like just
go off of like the market rate after the murders is 3.91 Milli that's like $5 million in property yeah totally you
don't nobody thought themselves how's this guy if you're like a fellow lawyer are
you like how the [ __ ] is Alex like well I think I I would assume it was family
money actually yeah that's fair that's fair you know I'd be like oh you're from
a line of rich people I imagine that you have property yeah actually that's a
really good point my mind I mean obviously I don't come from that so like my mind went to like if I just started
like buying Lambos all cash people going people should ask questions right no a
call yeah exactly um so let me go back uh hold
on back you're good all good I'm back I left you all
good so so going back to how aware Maggie was
or wasn't one thing Alex did in 2016 is
convey the 1700 acre estate to his wife for $5 H so it seems like Alex started to
ECT that this house of cards was eventually going to collapse right what's so [ __ ] stupid about it though
is that Maggie's will was never updated so there's a 2005 version of this will
that said in the event of her death everything conveys to Alex so he later tries to uninherited
part of his assets and that it could convey to his son Buster so let I'll so
he should have given it to so he gave it to someone but he needed to give it to someone
else he should have not killed his wife well yes that's our over charging theme
but no because if he didn't kill his wife and he just went down for the financial crimes then creditors wouldn't
be able to attach the property to his debts but because she was dead it came
back to him it conveyed back yeah okay I know Taylor I know we're not oh stop it
stop thinking if you're thinking about it don't do it like I said we're the only podcast in America who consistently
Advocates against murdering your family so we others are really for it so yeah we should get points yeah yeah so that
was the entire idea the entire idea was he knew in 2016 something was about to go down and he wanted to keep the bulk
of his net worth which is in these properties out of creditor's hands
Court's hands so that eventually it could be inherited by his son that was the entire idea around this and and then
and then like how he connected the dots like let me just kill her and like I we again motives we'll get into that in a
minute anyways so we're back to the events the next day the day after he is
booted out of his Law Firm Alex claims that he was shot in the head while changing a car car tire do you remember
this I forgot this part [ __ ] incredible it's so incredible oh my God tell me more
he apparently had one of those Shug Knight head shots where it just kind of glanced him so physically he was totally
fine he went to the hospital he was there for like a couple hours and he was he dipped 10 days after this event I
love this detail 10 days after this event his oxy dealer a guy named Curtis
was arrested for conspiring with Alex to shoot him with the intent on killing him
so that his remaining son would receive a $10 million insurance payout
so he knows a guy named Curtis who sells him oxie he called
listen I know a lot of folks who like slang and it's all good I don't know any that I would call and
say I want you to be a part of an incredibly intricate insurance fraud
scheme where you gonna call if not your drug dealer so so he could have killed
himself he didn't know this but in most so in most this guy's not like he's I
don't again I don't think he's that smart or that good of a lawyer he like practiced law the way I practice law so
he could have killed himself because in South Carolina you can kill yourself and still get the insurance pay on in Most
states you can right in Most states kill yourself you can can't get the insurance P he didn't know that that's why that's
why he called Curtis and was like buddy he just was like watching movies where
you learn you can't do that and like wasn't actually checking the law yeah that's so funny I just keep picking this
picturing this guy playing FIFA at home and getting this phone call like anyway
oh my gosh oh my goodness H that's so funny and it only took 10 days like it
was yeah that's how long it took for them to arrest him Alex I don't
understand I'm so I'm so sorry but like I feel like if I had a gun I could kill
you I don't think I could graze your head if I I feel like I could could do it it's his oxy dealer like we're not
talking like a trained assassin this is not like the I think it' be much harder to graze someone's head on purpose than
it would be to kill them he dude this guy is about Good Times like he's not out there like trying to run down cartel
members like this is not like a John Woo movie like right right odd choices being
made Alex later admitted to coming up with the whole scheme because of course
he did because Curtis didn't think of this on his own I'm sure yeah and like I said like yeah he could just he
literally killed himself and it would have been totally cool and fine wow it's so funny that he didn't know that I mean
yeah that's ridiculous continue um so let's recap okay at this point your kid
is responsible for sure for killing one kid your other kid maybe killed another
kid you certainly had a hand in killing your wife and kid you've been fired and
you've tried killing yourself which you actually could have done the last part first earlier
yeah yeah what again going into the motive like why did the the sequencing
of events he just like absolutely not I'm not going to give any money to his wife and his other his first kid he
wants to give it all the Buster yeah maybe he just [ __ ] hated them I don't know the money is in the
banana stand Buster's The Golden Child um God I hope I I wish she only
had one hand too that' be incredible oh my God it's so good so Taylor like if you were in this situation
right what would you do like would you go to jail forever or would you find a way to get the [ __ ] out I feel like I
would go to jail forever because I would give up but also can't imagine being in
the situation because I feel like I would have made better decisions but if I were I mean I don't
know what what are your choices like I feel like there's a choice I'd be like would I you know want to die by Suicide
and not go to jail obviously he's like not able to do that so I mean that's a terrible thing to say too I apologize
but like I don't know it's a tough it's a it's a if you're staring down rest of
your life in prison I don't know what you do so I'm for sure running like no
no questions asked like not even a single second of Doubt I've already planned this out yeah don't stop stop
telling me I I wrote like multiple bullet points on how this going to so the secret that nobody knows is that you
have to do it before your passports flagged so the second like you don't wait until the shoe is about to drop you
dip two weeks before the shoe's about to drop right like way before you're about
to kill your like in 2016 when he was going to con the property that's when you yeah you don't wait until your kid
kills another kid in 2019 you know he's gonna come on Paul probably did a lot of [ __ ] up [ __ ] right like killing
mallerie probably wasn't the first sign that something was gonna happen with Paul so he probably knew what was
going on but yeah you just go leave go to a different country get a bunch of Travelers check find a bunch of
friends in different countries send them your Travelers checks and your credit cards have them charge [ __ ] on it so
then now you have multiple tracks oh that's smart and then it's a that could be a
cool social network idea but anyways um that's okay I have ideas
um well I'm glad you told me all of this but also you just implicated yourself if you try to run away but that's a great
idea but it can be anyone right I could be Greek I could be Hispanic I could be you know Italian like I'm I'm I'm like
ethnically androgynous I think is a term maybe great spot to the
end okay so we going back to the story like I said the trial uh just began so
we don't know much more than what is being kind of stated here um but I have
some thoughts in General on the case in cases like this I want to go into with you so yeah totally as I was digging in
the story it occurred to me that the only things I remember about this case were prominent lawyers wife and kid are
found dead and then months later prominent lawyer whose wife and kid were found dead is shot in the face and
survives right that's kind of all I really I didn't know about like the the
the boys potentially killing people or all the financial crimes yeah yeah and
and the more I learned about this guy and what he was up to the more C it got
it made me think about the salacious versus the nuanced parts of True Crime like I went super deep on this and the
things Alex was involved in you could write a treaties on just his financial
crimes and that shit's boring and but it does paint a picture of a person
who once you get to the salacious part of the like at least the salacious part
of everything the insane boring Financial White Collar [ __ ] is why
all the rest of this stuff ends up happening right so that's like the red flag yeah yeah yes I I wrote down to
this really did remind me a lot of the tote family for reasons that I mean for
reasons like you would know if you listen to that podcast this one doesn't gross me out the way that one
did things that he did just don't seem as like I don't know it doesn't sound like well
I don't know you're going to tell me more but it doesn't sound like he was like in the house with their dead bodies for a week it was just less depraved I
don't know how to describe it like he I mean but also that's terrifying because it sounds like it was like very like
systematic you know just like yeah but it reminds me it remind me of a
lot of that just like a lot more elaborate version of that and that people just weren't asking the right questions around like what this guy's
inw working with his finances were we just thought that this guy was incredible nobody really won't went further than that and your point
actually makes a lot of sense to me now we like oh it's probably just family money so don't ask right like why so I
don't know like good point I didn't think about it that way but yeah I feel like you don't buy a hunting lodge you like inherit it but he maybe bought it
yeah I don't know maybe he bought it but like it feels like something I'd be like oh I assume that my rich friend Muffy
has a hunting lodge yeah it's it's same with people who have
boats right it's always that run with the boat exactly it it made me think a lot of like how with these situations
these stories it always kind of boils down to two things it's money or infidelity that's basically it and and
somebody feeling like they're gonna get left behind um yeah unfortunately yeah like it sounds like in this case
obviously money was a big factor in it and Maggie was aware but she probably became aware a little bit too
late and I said about as I said about this as I said about his trial for the murders the financial crimes haven't
actually started yet they haven't been scheduled or anything like that and I told you I'd come back to this
apparently just his financial crimes alone would be enough to keep him in jail for the next 900
years I'm not exaggerating I I swear like if he was convicted and given
mandatory minimums it would total between 900 and a thousand years wellow
that's a lot of time he sounds like a criminal Jesus yeah the part I don't
totally get is how he thought killing his family would help with the financial stuff right that's what you're saying
like I guess I mean I think it sounds like he just didn't want his family to get any of the money no so what what the prosecution
has been saying about the murders was that it was to distract everyone from his financial crimes oh yeah he was
trying to get away with with that and he was like oh well if I kill my family then nobody's going to look at me like
don't kill your family that makes that makes worse or maybe better because maybe they were
annoying yeah I just don't I mean I don't know like don't kill don't kill people and that's
crazy the dots just aren't there like you know anyways um his uh his defense uh is
someone oh yeah that's right his defense to all of this is that someone was upset
with his son for causing mallerie's death on the boat and that person is the
person who probably killed them we don't know who it is there's no there's nothing that's the only that he has
right like is is he trying to find the killer like [ __ ] OJ what he's working
on his first draft of if I did it right um random fact that you might know given
your podcast diet Alex's defense attorney is a guy
named dick harutan does that ring a bell no damn okay who's he so he was the
prosecutor in South Carolina who prosecuted and got life before he got
ended up getting death ging getting life for Peewee asins you remember him yeah
yeah the redneck Charles Manson that's the final truth the final truth that's the final truth um yeah that's funny
yeah so that was like in the 1930s but I guess not no no it was it wasn't that so now he's his defense attorney so yeah
and he sounds like a real piece of a [ __ ] actually um he said like he says like random casual racist
things about the judge who is African-American he's just not he doesn't sound yeah he doesn't sound like
he's um really gone forward with the times in South Carolina there but yeah yeah yeah that is um that's the mdof
family and hopefully once this Tri wraps we'll do like a little postcript and and
discuss what happened so but he did he shoot are they did they how the mom and
the clai did they get shot in the hunting watch yeah they got shot in the head multiple times by multiple
guns did they find the guns yeah they're there yeah they found the guns they did
they fingerprint the guns so I don't the details of the guns I've seen pictures
of them um so I know they have them but I don't know the details of whether they were able to again his son killed
somebody and nobody asked him a single question and didn't book him like fingerprint him like it wouldn't be that
big of a stretch of the imagination with them be like hey can we take gun residue off your fingers like like what are you
talking about why would you do that to me I'm Alex and I feel like it's the other thing
is if he hadn't have done that that stage try to kill herself thing maybe he could have got away with
it more so like it was like that made him so look so much more guilty than anything else ever could it wasn't stage
he was trying to kill himself and he failed like that's I just
don't understand I feel like I'd be like do it again that doesn't I don't understand that makes no
sense guy one bullet so I like this guy probably didn't know that his story was
national news like I mean I think at the time we were living in LA right maybe
yeah maybe and and we were hearing about
this yeah like his front page news because it was just an insane story and it's like did he not know that people
were paying attention that this wasn't in like the Backwoods of South Carolina like this was National new I mean maybe
not but he try to shoot himself with Curtis in the head and Curtis [ __ ] up
because he's probably highing on [ __ ] oxies and I don't think Curtis gets high
in his own Supply he feels yeah you think Curtis has a rep good reputation I do
um that yeah I don't that no no no I don't because I don't understand how you can not if someone's asking you to do
that I don't understand how you don't do it I don't I guess I mean I guess if you
you can chck not oh my God this is terrible not chicken out because obviously I don't think I could physically do it maybe he got like sick
and like I can't do it but either way I mean I guess all the things it's confusing because you're like why are
all these people making these decisions that seem super irrational and like you were saying like he could have he could
have died by Suicide and by law the money would have gone to Buster and that that would have been what he wanted but then he just didn't do that like people
are making like weird irrational decisions yeah um yeah actually actually
what would have happened like if I remember anything from family law is because his wife died
before he died all of her assets conveyed to him so when right he died if
they had filed a suit which they had on the Financial crimes and on the wrongful
wrongful death crime that would have not gone to Buster it would have stayed with the
court until a resolution was reached with his former clients and creditors
but no matter how he died yeah his only out would have been to either have his
wife change her will then kill her so that it would convey to Buster that's
actually the only way to do it yeah he should have done that he should have just killed her he should have just like gone her taken her to the family law
office changed the who gets everything when she dies and then killed her then or or just not at all or just not
don't just not at all yeah I'm trying to do the math on how to actually get this I'm trying to forgot how how the [ __ ] do
we get Buster paid um yeah how um tell me more about how how this the Southern
Gothic of this yeah have you seen pictures of this F
yes when when I hear the term grotesque characters I think of these guys I well
I think of the sons and the dad mostly not the mom necessarily they just seem I I thought
of Savannah too I know that South Carol I know it's in Georgia not South Carolina but I thought a lot of like
Savannah heat humidity like discomfort that you have to like Rebel in and being
of this like Elite status there where like yeah you know
you're the king of [ __ ] a place that nobody wants to really be king at and I
don't know it it just all kind of like gave me this like Southern witchy Vibe
of like of course you're also involved and killing teenagers and you know like
all the other things um yeah I feel like in like the I feel like the nighttime is very
loud cuz there's like bugs everywhere you know and the humidity is like hanging and then like obviously midnight
in good and Garden of Good and Evil it's very like creepy and witchy but also there's like they have this like
wonderful like social Gatherings where like everyone is just like trying to cool off and like survive and like be
together that one You definitely heard and you're breaking out Taylor
Wonder why to out no oh it says my internet connection
is
unstable okay you're good now okay um no I just think it's like you know you're
thinking of a heavy a heavy nighttime Vibe because of the air and because of the bugs and because of the humidity and
you know weird stuff happens it's also like loud but quiet and yeah I don't
know there's a part of it that like is hitting me a little
bit that when you're in the South again growing up in
Texas within certain um socioeconomic status there is absolutely no
diversity everybody dresses the same has the same
teams love the same Sports go to the same bars they end up marrying the same
they go to the same church and the only things that stand out is when someone's different and when
they're different there's an animous attributed to them that results them becoming
famous like or famous for wrong reasons like in you know the Garden of Good and Evil right like like
it's there's a piece of that that resonates with this story which is
everybody was different because nobody was in this [ __ ] up world of privilege
mixed with also just constantly doing shady [ __ ] like it's
um it's very compelling yeah and it was definitely like about to come crashing
down any some in some way there was no way it wasn't gonna crash down it's it's also interesting to me because like I
don't actually find these people that that um sad I like I don't feel the same way that I felt when I talked about the
toad family and like what those kids went through because I'm like do I really give a [ __ ] about Paul Paul
sounds like a [ __ ] yeah [ __ ] absolute shitthead like sure like am I ha I'm not happy
that a 22-year-old kid is dead obviously like he could have turned he could have been something different but I he grew
up in this family like he was whatever I'll just get [ __ ] up and just drive this boat and whoever like I don't know
these people just don't seem sympathetic to me yeah I agree I agree um
yeah I'm curious I wonder what's going to happen I wonder if he's going to like confess and tell everybody what happened
or not because I feel like there's no I'm pretty sure he did it nothing else
makes any sense you know yeah yeah diar pran's argument is that there's video of
him with Paul like having a great time planting a tree like hours before this murder like how could this guy possibly
flip a switch it's like he's clearly a sociopath I didn't say this but like I glanced over it but like that guy was
the one that he that they think he unplugged the life support from right he
was in a horrible accident where like he needed round thee clock support like he
couldn't live on his own anymore he was in he was in a assisted living facility and at that place is when suspiciously
this plug came out and that's why ended up actually ultimately dying so like he had the upside of the initial suit for
the accident and then he got the upside for the wrongful like he's clearly like a [ __ ] up mentally it's like yeah of
course you could potentially kill a son after playing with him but yeah of course anyways that is the murdoff
family um [ __ ] yeah that's horrible dude yeah
yeah and I think I mean to tie them together I think there's something to' be like oh my family's always been safe because we've always done things this
way you know and so he probably thought himself Above the Law because his parent his like yeah his lineage being like the
district attorney and all those things for you know almost hundred years you know all of that is like it makes you feel like you can do whatever you want
and then there's times like King Henry VII could do whatever the [ __ ] he wanted you know like in in in a way where he
was like okay well if I cannot do things like do something against the church
then I'm going to just not have the church anymore and you're like Okay Okay and like like they called this Bluff and
did it you know so I think there's like and he was and there was so much violence then we see we see so much less
now honestly even though we see so much violence but um if he s Alex Murdoch
sounds like someone who could have easily just like been a violent person in a different time you know like the
extent that certain status people will go to to
get what they want that's really what it is get what you want like I want to marry 17 women so I can have a son like
I'll do whatever it takes to get what I want and I have the ability yeah and I have the ability to do it and this guy's like I make 250 Grand a year that's not
enough I need millions of millions of property and so I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get there like it's just yeah yeah chill out guys chill out like be
happy with what you have oh my God like get had a good job but like calm down
yeah yeah and there shouldn't be a monarchy anymore and don't kill your family the only podcast in America that
Advocates that yeah good for us good for us being on the right side of history with this
controversial topic we're doing fantastic um I hope this audio quality
is much better I know this I will only know for sure after I finish editing
this but thank you for the feedback everyone yeah thank you and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Doom toil pod
send us messages let us know if you have any ideas um any questions any new news
we'd love to you know do a follow up and talk about it we'll definitely follow up this one because there's more to come here I'm sure and um I'm excited thank
you fars after your long day for joining me anyway thank you for being patient
with me of course awesome no problem bye all all right thanks fam see you later