Episode 649: Alex Murdaugh Part II - A Legacy of Liars

Summary

Last Podcast On The Left

Episode 649: Alex Murdaugh Part II – A Legacy of Liars

Release Date: January 23, 2026
Podcast Network: The Last Podcast Network
Hosts: Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ed Larson

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Episode Overview

This episode is Part II of the deep dive into the Murdaugh family—the infamous South Carolina dynasty whose recent scandals have captivated the nation. The hosts trace the arc of Alec Murdaugh, focusing on the family’s smothering grip over Hampton County, their mix of privilege and pathology, and the events leading up to the notorious murders and criminal revelations. With the usual blend of macabre humor, irreverence, and investigative detail, the show dissects structural rot, generational abuse, overt corruption, and bizarre excess within the family. This episode zeroes in on Alec’s criminal entrepreneurship, the family’s social insulation, and the many “suspicious deaths” tied to their legacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Move to Hampton County

[03:41 – 05:36]

• The Murdaugh family (pronounced "Murdock") moved to Hampton County in 1999 against Maggie Murdaugh's wishes.
• Hampton County: poverty-stricken, largely poor, easily manipulated, and dominated by the Murdaugh law firm, PMPED.
• Maggie’s depression and social withdrawal set the stage for her children, Paul and Buster, to grow up without boundaries or consequences.
• Notable quote:
  “Alec Murdoch moved his young family to Hampton county in the late 90s to rule in hell. And Maggie quickly began withering away into a depression over the realization that this was where she was going to spend the rest of her miserable fucking life.” – Henry Zebrowski [05:04]

2. PMPED: The Engine of Suffering

[07:18 – 15:37]

• The law firm thrived on personal injury and wrongful death suits in a county riddled with accidents due to poor infrastructure.
• Murdaughs (and their partners in PMPED) manipulated juries by doing small favors for locals—like making speeding tickets disappear—in exchange for verdicts.
• As lawsuits rarely went to trial anymore (corporations settled instantly with PMPED), the family’s reputation among the poor began to wane.

3. Generational Decline and Loss of the Illusion

[13:34 – 16:57]

• The newer Murdaughs, notably Paul and Buster, were unrepentant terrors.
• Alec abandoned any attempts at concealing his misconduct or maintaining the desultory “good old boy” illusion.
• Notable quote:
  “A true crime leader knows how to push and pull and do all the things you need to do to keep the house up ... The illusion always must be maintained. When the illusion falls apart, then everything falls apart.” – Henry Zebrowski [14:24]

4. The Embezzlement Scheme

[19:47 – 26:15]

• Alec began skimming additional money from client settlements, partnered with Corey Fleming (attorney) and Russell Lafitte (banker).
• He’d simply lie about the settlement amount and pocket the difference, taking advantage of vulnerable locals unfamiliar with large sums.
• Over 15+ years, Alec stole upwards of $11 million from “needy clients”; in several cases, victims died because they couldn’t afford care.
• Notable quote:
  “[Alec] could look at them and lie so easily to their face for 15 years ... shows you that ... this is 15 years of a scam that gets thick.” – Marcus Parks [25:30]

5. Murdaugh Family Dynamism: Opulence and Criminal Tactics

[26:40 – 29:33]

• Alec used stolen funds to finance lavish lifestyles (hunting trips, custom clothes, parties) and to pad the local high school’s budget, extending their protection.
• In 2005, Alec chose not to take the prestigious “solicitor’s” job—possibly to avoid scrutiny over his scams.

6. Substance Abuse and Social Corruption

[32:55 – 36:08]

• Multiple generations, including Alec and son Paul, struggled with substance abuse—alcohol and later opioids for Alec.
• Alec’s opioid addiction led to bizarre habits (Capri Sun and sugar binges) and forged a link with his cousin/drug dealer “Fast Eddie.”
• Notable quote:
  “A 50 year old man, if he did not have Capri Suns in the house, he would freak out.” – Henry Zebrowski [47:44]

7. Oxycodone, Drug Smuggling, and The Moselle Estate

[49:19 – 56:25]

• Alec wrote hundreds of checks to Fast Eddie—totaling over $2.5 million—ostensibly for “personal use” oxy but likely to bankroll a sprawling, state-wide drug operation.
• Proceeds helped fund the purchase of Moselle, the massive Murdaugh estate, acquired with help from Barrett Bulware, a notorious drug smuggler with close family ties.
• Moselle: described as two times the size of Central Park, with an airstrip for smuggling.

8. Sex Parties, Law Enforcement Corruption, and Allegations of Trafficking

[58:55 – 66:08]

• Moselle was a hub for exclusive, vice-fueled gatherings; drugs and sex workers were brought in by plane.
• Sex worker Lindsay Edwards claimed Alec was violent during encounters; a “madam” told her Alec had "special privileges."
• Notable moment:
  “At first, Lindsay said that Alec was charming ... once they were alone ... Alec’s personality changed ... he choked Lindsay against her will during the sexual encounter, coming very close to killing her.” – Henry Zebrowski [63:01]

9. Raising Monsters: Paul and Buster, Early Violence and Privilege

[66:11 – 75:28]

• Paul, in particular, was raised with no boundaries—exhibited violent and disruptive behavior from early childhood, celebrated by his mother.
• Substance abuse normalized; Murdochs were the “cool parents” getting kids drunk at parties attended by powerful local figures.
• Paul’s personality “switched” when drunk—his alter ego “Timmy” was notorious for violence and unpredictability.
• Abuse and threats against women (pulling knives, animal cruelty) were overlooked or laughed off.

10. Rumors, Deaths, and the Stephen Smith Case

[75:28 – 93:54]

• The suspicious death of Stephen Smith, an openly gay teenager, who was connected to Buster through rumors of a secret relationship.
• Smith’s death was hastily ruled a hit-and-run despite evidence suggesting blunt trauma; the Murdochs inserted themselves into the aftermath, suppressing scrutiny.
• State trooper investigations encountered a wall of silence, but persistent rumors linked Buster (and possibly Paul) to the crime.
• Notable quote:
  “To this day, Buster has still never even been questioned in the death of Stephen Smith.” – Henry Zebrowski [93:27]

11. The Death of Housekeeper Gloria Satterfield

[94:13 – 104:53]

• Gloria Satterfield, longtime Murdaugh housekeeper, died under mysterious circumstances after a fall at Moselle. Alec quickly coordinated a wrongful death insurance scheme through his accomplice Corey Fleming, keeping the payout for himself.
• Notable quote:
  “Alec laundered the insurance money gained from his housekeeper's brutal death through the Forge account … and he kept every cent for himself.” – Henry Zebrowski [103:52]

12. The Boat Crash: The Fall Begins

[105:13 – 117:42]

• Paul, drunk and violent, crashed a boat in 2019, causing the death of Mallory Beach. The Murdaughs tried to orchestrate a cover-up, pressuring witnesses and shifting blame.
• This tragedy marked a turning point: the family’s social protection began to erode, outsiders got involved, and cracks in the Murdaugh armor became visible.
• Local attorney Mark Tinsley sued on behalf of the Beach family, setting in motion events leading to the family’s final downfall.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Murdoch sociopathy:
  “For Alec Murdoch, the miseries of the poor, unfortunate souls of Hampton County were simply a resource to be mined. And because Murdaugh was a total sociopath, Hampton County became a consequence-free playground of debauchery for the entire Murdaugh family.” – Henry Zebrowski [15:46]

• Describing the Murdaughs' grip:
  “They pretend your family, and you keep them just poor enough to need you and act like they need and do things for you that you don't want to do.” – Ed Larson [16:51]

• Both comical and chilling:
  “Buster's face is a crime. His entire head is shaped like a blood ... a period blood flavored icy cone. I hate that. Fuck.” – Marcus Parks [06:51]

• On laundering Gloria Satterfield's settlement:
  “He laundered the money off of the person who used to do laundry for him. Company called Forge, where he got the check that was given to him ... This is crazy.” – Ed Larson [104:24]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:41] – Recap and resuming Alec Murdaugh’s story in Hampton County.
• [07:18] – PMPED’s history and predation on local suffering.
• [13:34] – Worsening criminality and lack of checks in new Murdaugh generation.
• [19:47] – Detailed breakdown of Alec's embezzlement scheme.
• [26:40] – The fallout and how bribes shaped local perception.
• [32:55] – Alec’s opioid addiction and the rise of “Fast Eddie.”
• [49:19] – Drug smuggling, laundering, and the Moselle estate.
• [58:55] – Sex parties, trafficking, and Lindsay Edwards’s testimony.
• [66:11] – Paul and Buster’s violent upbringing and normalization of misconduct.
• [75:28] – Stephen Smith’s death, evidence of Murdoch family coverups.
• [94:13] – Gloria Satterfield’s suspicious death and the insurance scam.
• [105:13] – The 2019 boat crash and its historic significance in the family's unraveling.
• [117:42] – Mallory Beach wrongful death suit: the domino that brings the house down.

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Tone and Language

• The episode’s tone is darkly comic—mixing brutal, often grotesque, realism with satire and Southern gothic absurdism.
• The hosts oscillate between macabre humor and moral outrage (“These guys make my fucking blood boil!” – Marcus Parks [16:26]), offering compassion for victims while roasting the powerful.

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Summary for the Uninitiated

This episode traces the staggering rise and rot of the Murdaugh empire—a opaque mix of inherited privilege, unchecked criminality, and multi-generational abuse. With each incident (embezzlement, suspicious deaths, opulent drug parties), the hosts draw connections between structural corruption and personal depravity, culminating in a series of “accidents” and escalating violence that ultimately spell the family’s public undoing. Whether you know the broad strokes of the Murdaugh saga or not, the episode unpacks not just what happened, but how a culture of impunity, greed, and narcissism metastasized over decades, leaving shattered lives in its wake.

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End Note

The episode concludes with the family’s social stranglehold finally breaking—after generations of getting away with everything, the scrutiny around the boat crash exposes cracks in the Murdaughs’ armor—the first dominoes in their spectacular collapse, to be continued in Part III.

Transcript

[Marcus Parks]

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[Henry Zebrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Henry Zebrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Henry Zebrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Henry Zebrowski]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Ed Larson]

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[Marcus Parks]

Per month when network is busy.

[Ed Larson]

See terms.

[Henry Zebrowski]

There'S no place to escape to. This is the lost on the left. That's when the cannibal started.

[Marcus Parks]

What was that?

[Ed Larson]

So this is in South Carolina?

[Marcus Parks]

No, this is South Carolina. I actually, I wanted to bring this up to Marcus. Did you see this? And I, I, I don't, I just want to do this here because again, this is our biggest m. Microphone that we have, you know, and I wanted to spread all over. Yeah, I did. But I did want to spread some awareness over an issue that I thought pertain to you and pertain to a lot of our listeners.

[Ed Larson]

Okay.

[Marcus Parks]

Have you heard about how ADHD is linked to big butts? Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No. Are you serious?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

No, it's because I sit down too much.

[Marcus Parks]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We really, we sit down very little.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, we're always out moving, picking up stuff all the time.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

The day after Christmas, this came out. It was, it was a, it was a study that showed that on Boxing Day. Yep. That autism and ADHD sometimes lends towards bigger butts.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know why? I, I can actually tell you why. We drop a lot of stuff. So we always, we're always having to bend down to pick stuff up. We're doing a lot of squats. We have to because we're very, very, we're very clumsy. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Well, I guess that explains it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Sneaky sign of autism. Yes. I have a massive ass. Oh, my God.

[Ed Larson]

No, therapist couldn't see it because you're always sitting down when you talk to them.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, apparently, though. No, actually, I'm Rereading this wrong. It's because adhd, ADH sometimes have a postural issue called anterior pelvic tilt. So their butt sticks out while they walk like a duck.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Welcome to the last podcast. On the left, ladies and gentlemen. My butt is exactly where it should be. Yes, it's massive. Yes, it's bubbly. Yes, it sticks out when I walk. And yes, I have posture problems. My name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Henry Zabrowski, who's bringing the information to the people today. Thank you, Henry.

[Marcus Parks]

That's why I say it's really amazing all the kind of medical training I receive and the expertise that I get in my dreams of some of the most important medical information that can be disseminated right now in the year 2020, 26.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. And that is RFKKK.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And we also had the man with the plan, Ed Larson.

[Ed Larson]

All right, and here's the plan. Go outside, get drunk and yell at your sister. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We are in South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

Y sister? You mean my wife? Come on. Come on, y'. All.

[Ed Larson]

It's South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

Sorry, guys. We're just getting it up now.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And we're here for the continuation of the story of Alec Murdoch. So when we last left the life story of Alec Murdoch, the year was 1999. And his wife Maggie had just given birth to their second son, Paul. This was just after the family's move to Hampton county, which had occurred against Maggie Murdoch's wishes.

[Marcus Parks]

And we were all wondering what it's like to party in that year while Nelly was telling us what temperature it was in the room. 1999, a year to remember.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Maggie preferred to stay in Beaufort county, which while it was still a part of South Carolina's low country, it was still relatively affluent. Beaufort was where the nice restaurants were. It was close to the country club. It was a place where Maggie could spend her days gossiping with other former sorority girls who were also settling in a lives leisure with their new frat boy husbands who were just starting their new frat boy jobs. But while the Murdoch family certainly had power across the entire low country and throughout South Carolina, to a certain extent, their true stranglehold was on Hampton County.

[Ed Larson]

Someone's got to own the mud.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's right.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. You can't just sit there, man. Cuz if not them Native Americans are going to squat on it. So key is you're going to want to. You want to put some kind of piece of paper underneath them feet.

[Henry Zebrowski]

All right, well, Hampton was where their law firm PMPED, had their headquarters but almost 30% of the population in Hampton county live below the poverty line, which made them far easier to control and far easier to manipulate. And so Alec Murdoch moved his young family to Hampton county in the late 90s to rule in hell. And Maggie quickly began withering away into a depression over the realization that this was where she was going to spend the rest of her miserable fucking life.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, you know, what are you going to do?

[Marcus Parks]

You gotta suck your way out. That's what my mother did. Suck your way to the middle of the world, right to Queens.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah. All the great people in history suck their way into Forest Hills.

[Marcus Parks]

Hey, Julia Roberts, Fred Trump. Forest Hills. Big place.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But Maggie's depression meant that Maggie neglected her two young children, Paul and Buster. These two little butt nuggets very quickly grew up to be terrors in their own right, because they were living lives even more free of consequence than any Murdoch man who had come before. And if you're keeping track, this is Buster number two. Named after the Buster we discussed in the first episode. This is the Buster that grew up to look like a be stung Archie Andrews. He's the one who inherited his father's uncanny valley skull shape in which their heads look like AI generated potatoes infected with a crimson alien spore.

[Marcus Parks]

They look like mold covered pumpkins filled with coals from hell.

[Ed Larson]

I was going to say walking around Easter eggs that leave Easter eggs to their own crimes.

[Marcus Parks]

Buster's face is a crime. His entire head is shaped like a blood. I'd say a period blood flavored icy cone. I hate that. Fuck.

[Ed Larson]

No, he definitely looks like he sleeps upside down.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. God, I hate these fucks.

[Ed Larson]

Could you even find a pimple on a face that looks like a pimple?

[Marcus Parks]

I don't know. He's so ghastly white.

[Ed Larson]

Someone will pop that fucker one day.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, Hampton county was indeed poor, but much of that was due to the machinations of the Murdaugh family. They'd kept Hampton isolated from the rest of the country for going on a century by this point, partly so they could maintain control, but partly due to how their law firm, pmped, made the majority of its money. As author Valerie Bowerlein put it in her book, the Devil at His Elbow. The Murdoch law firm was an engine that ran on suffering, specializing in personal injury and wrongful death in a place with no shortage of it. See, this is rural South Carolina. And if you've ever driven in South Carolina like we have, or a state like it, you know that infrastructure is non existent. I have never in My life. Seen so many road signs hanging off of the post. Missing, just missing one bolt. Like it's everywhere in South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I always remember, you know, driving through Mississippi. One of the most, one of the, the biggest codes I've ever seen was just seeing a highway sign down in the middle of the highway with just caution tape around it and everyone was just driving around it like it wasn't a problem.

[Ed Larson]

Well, remember the, the. I think that South Carolina can always rest on its laurels that it's not Alabama or Mississippi.

[Marcus Parks]

Everybody can, Everybody can. So can places like Ukraine and, and Haiti earthquake, Many places.

[Ed Larson]

Arkansas, you're on the fence.

[Marcus Parks]

You gotta watch it though. We liked, we did like where we went.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Where?

[Ed Larson]

Oh, in Mississippi, you know, Huntsville, Alabama. Alabama.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Ed Larson]

That was fine.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. You've never been to Arkansas.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No.

[Ed Larson]

A lot of these places, I will say whatever you want to say about them. A lot of them do have a publix.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that's, yeah, that's the big. True, true, true.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But non existent infrastructure went double in a county like Hampton. In Hampton county, most people drove broken down cars on crumbling roads to dangerous low paying jobs working in unregulated industries that did not provide insurance. So when people inevitably got hurt or killed just going about their daily lives, the Murdoch firm pmped was always quick to provide legal representation.

[Marcus Parks]

It's also important to note it was a very large law firm.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

So it wasn't just the Murdochs that were making money off of the pain of the people of Hampton County.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It was not.

[Marcus Parks]

And there was a lot of people that very actively sought to keep their position in Hampton County. So I don't think it's just the Murdochs that kept it that way. I think it was all them flabby ass white boys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, the Murdochs are just the M in pmped. There's still a P, a P and E and a D making money there and all the associates working underneath them. By the time Alec Murdoch had set down roots in Hampton with his young family in the early 2000s, PMPED had found an extremely lucrative niche specializing in car crashes caused by defective tires manufactured by Bridgestone. Y' all probably remember this. I know I do. Yeah. When all the Ford Explorers, the tires kept exploding on the highway.

[Marcus Parks]

I remember that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

I hate driving.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, these tires makes me excited.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, these tires had a tendency to separate at high speeds, which naturally resulted in a lot of deadly accidents. But since South Carolina had lax venue laws that allowed lawsuits to be filed in any county where a corporation transacted business or owned property. Hampton county became a hub for high value personal injury lawsuits. Whether the accident happened in Hampton county or not, Usually it didn't. Because of the Murdaugh firm, the number of civil suits filed in Hampton county courts were double what any other county in South Carolina saw. And the settlements were two to three times higher because PMPED rigged the juries.

[Ed Larson]

No one asked any questions either because they just assumed if you live there, you just have bad luck.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, you're here. Well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Posing as defenders of the working class, the Murdoch firm would approach the relatives of jurors who are on civil cases. They would offer to help with traffic tickets and bill collectors. They, of course, didn't come right out with a quid pro quo, but the help was certainly enough to influence decisions. Now, these are small favors in the grand scheme of things, things, this stuff can go straight under the radar, but making a speeding ticket go away can mean the difference between making rent that month or not in the life of a working class citizen. And it did the double duty of giving the Murdochs a good reputation amongst the poor.

[Marcus Parks]

And because they had such good class regulation, they really had figured that out in this part of the world. Oh, yeah. What they also know is that what you could do is make anybody feel like a champion by giving them a little window into the amazing world that you have total access to as the hire your class. So all you got to do is like, if you could get them scratched off a little speeding ticket, that's the whole world to them. And you might make that person help you clean up a crime scene later on, you know, like it's that easy. It means nothing.

[Ed Larson]

It's a misdirect, too, to let you get away with. It's kind of like, like Julie used to work at Buzzfeed and like when they were all told they weren't going to get health insurance, the way they told them is they gave them a Froyo machine.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, I remember those. So, yeah, yeah. And in your name. And instead of giving you guys a bonus in your name, given these wooden blocks that represent trees and it's the thing. This is horseshit. This is a fucking tax write off.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, since the Murdoch firm had helped out so many people in small ways in order to get the verdicts they wanted, the regular folk in Hampton county would defend the Murdaughs when anyone had anything bad to say about them. In other words, the Murdaughs had built a system where the poor kept each other in line for table scraps. Eventually, though, the jury tampering became unnecessary. The Murdoch firm had such a high success rate in civil cases, the corporations began to simply settle at the mere mention of pmped. So cases stopped going to trial. But the drawback here is that without the jury tampering, the Murdaughs were no longer intervening in the lives of the poor and local. Respect for the Murdoch family amongst the hoi polloi began to shrink as the years went by.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, especially when he had Shithead Wanted and Face two. The two of them came out there. Having Paul roll around is not gonna help the reputation of your family.

[Ed Larson]

Not to mention Alec was a fucking terror when he was Paul's age himself.

[Marcus Parks]

They all were. But Paul and Bugster 2 finally broke the rules of all rules.

[Ed Larson]

Well, they got dumber every generation and they got worse every generation. They got less educated every generation because they just get pushed along.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And it's not just Buster and Paul. It really.

[Marcus Parks]

Alec, Alex. Alex. Oh, Alex bad too.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But. And as we're gonna get into, like, Alec let go of the wheel. Like every other Murdoch before him knew that there was a balance here that you had to keep. There were certain illusions, like literally, the.

[Marcus Parks]

Father'S got to hold the line. Somebody's got to be disciplined here. You can't all be doing crimes. It's just how it goes. A true crime leader knows how to push and pull and do all the things you need to do to keep the house up.

[Henry Zebrowski]

There has to be the illusion. The. The illusion always must be maintained. When the illusion falls apart, then everything falls apart.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. And liquor leads to violence. But when you start throwing all those drugs in there, man, it gets really fucked up. It does.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, the lawyers at pmped made quite a bit of money on these cash settlements because every lawyer got a cut of up to 40% on each payout. Alec Murdoch soon became one of PMPED's most successful attorneys. And he was making well into seven figures through legitimate means alone by the time he was made a full partner in the early 2000s. After making partner, Alec began hosting political fundraisers on his family's island. And by 2005, Alec was counseling senators and governors. By the age of 40, Alec Murdoch was one of South Carolina's most powerful trial attorneys. A man who could turn a $100,000 case into a million dol dollar settlement just by saying the name Murdoch.

[Ed Larson]

A defense attorney should not be allowed to hold a political fundraiser.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Sure.

[Ed Larson]

And just a general rule stated by.

[Marcus Parks]

Me.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, Alec Murdoch was outwardly friendly and caring towards his clients. He made them feel comfortable, made them feel like he was going to take care of everything. But in reality, Alec Murdoch had no empathy whatsoever for these people. People who had been maimed, paralyzed, even killed as a result of their accidents. For Alec Murdoch, the miseries of the poor, unfortunate souls of Hampton county were simply a resource to be mined. And because Murdaugh was a total sociopath, Hampton county became a consequence free playground of debauchery for the entire Murdaugh family. To the community at large, Alec Murdoch appeared to be a quote, unquote, good man.

[Marcus Parks]

This is the stuff that makes my fucking blood boil. Oh, yeah. This is the Southern culture stuff that makes me angry. All the. Yes, ma', am. No, ma'. Am. Oh, let me get that for you, ma'.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Am.

[Marcus Parks]

All of this talk, the way that they talk to their. Their. The people that work for them, their help, quote unquote, where they pretend like they're all family. Yeah. And it's this whole thing which is such a bunch of hypocrites. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

They pretend your family, and you keep them just poor enough to need you and act like they need and do.

[Marcus Parks]

Things for you that you don't want to do.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Alec Murdoch coached his kids sports teams. He remembered everyone's names and backstories, always asking, how's your mama doing? He generously tipped one with cash pulled from large stacks he kept in his suv. And the general public, therefore, liked Alec Murdoch well enough.

[Marcus Parks]

What does that sound like? It sounds like. I don't know what it is. It reminds me of. There's something about a guy with a big bankroll that they all think is like. Even though it's all fantasy and mirrors, that they just. That these Southern cucks just seem to lap up like a bunch of horny dogs.

[Ed Larson]

That's because they're just going from golf resort to golf resort, tipping out valet guys, and they're loving them.

[Marcus Parks]

It honestly sounds great. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But where. Alec's forefathers knew that you had to keep the poor on your side on a constant basis if you wanted to truly hold power in the South, Alec Murdoch treated the poor as an afterthought and focused mostly on other people in power. He figured, you throw him 20 bucks here and there, that's all you need to do. Out of everyone in the low country, Murdoch was most attentive with local law enforcement. The state troopers, the police officers, the sheriff's deputies, many of whom had fathers and grandfathers who'd also worked with Alex, father and grandfather and with the cops on his side. Alec could be reckless, driving as drunk as he wanted to drive, doing whatever drugs he wanted to do, and throwing punches whenever he felt like they needed to be thrown. Alec was also smart enough to play the game on a large scale. He became a huge contributor to whatever political party could do him the most favors, even though he was technically also the leader of the local Democrats. But no matter the party, the only way for a local sheriff, judge, representative, or even senator to get elected was to have the support of Alec Murdoch. And so, with the public, the cops, the courts, and the legislature all on his side, the stage was set for Alec Murdaugh to become the biggest criminal the Murdaugh family had ever seen. A man who not only embezzled millions from disadvantaged clients, but who was also involved in drug smuggling, prostitution, and eventually murder most foul.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, baby, you know what we like, dude.

[Ed Larson]

Imagine if John Wayne Gacy came from the Murdoch family.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, he'd be probably. It'd be the funniest one.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, Alec Murdoch had moved to Hampton county because that's where the Murdoch name held the most power. And by 2005, Alec and his good old boy friends came to realize that they had built a world where nobody was asking questions anymore. In fact, most people didn't even know to ask questions.

[Marcus Parks]

How do we get there? I wanted no one to ask questions of me. Did I go untouched and unfettered in my crimes?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Unfortunately, you entered entertainment in a world where there's nothing but questions.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, no.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And so, after years of working personal injury cases for pmped, specializing in cases that sued corporations on behalf of the so called little guy, Alec came up with a stupid, stupidly simple scheme in which he skimmed cash from his client settlements on top of his already generous 40% cut.

[Marcus Parks]

It's important to remember the scam itself is the dumbest shit you could possibly imagine.

[Ed Larson]

You already get 40%, he just takes the money.

[Marcus Parks]

All he has to do is lie to people. Don't know what's going on.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, yeah, let me get into it. But yeah, it is. Yes, 40% is already an incredibly cruel amount. But after enlisting his college roommate, Corey Fleming, and a local banker named Russell Lafitte as accomplices, I mean, I never.

[Ed Larson]

It's a pirate name. It's a pirate name. We all know G. Lafitte. Lafitte is a pirate name.

[Marcus Parks]

And when he shows up and he's like, ah, I'll take it into blue like you like, we ain't got time for your. I got time for sea Bas Shenanigans right now. All right, all right. Lafitte.

[Ed Larson]

All right.

[Marcus Parks]

Captain of the Dark Shadow.

[Ed Larson]

Okay.

[Marcus Parks]

I need you to help me right.

[Ed Larson]

Now with this land based crime.

[Henry Zebrowski]

All right?

[Ed Larson]

This is what we're going to do. We're going to be selling jellyfish.

[Marcus Parks]

And the best part is you can scam them on the peanut butter.

[Ed Larson]

Alpha. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

There's no glass.

[Marcus Parks]

Steagall.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Act on the high seas. Hey. Now, I need you to stop spreading.

[Marcus Parks]

Our secret plan here in your loud powered voice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, after enlisting those two men as accomplices, Alec Murdoch just started lying to his clients about the size of their satellite settlements. If a client got a two million dollar settlement from Bridgestone because they'd been paralyzed after the tires on their car exploded on the highway, for example, Murdoch would tell his clients, no, no, you didn't get 2 million. You got 1.7.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it's all there. You know how it is with the red tape and what you got, you know, hide it. You know, I wish it was more. I wish it was. I wish you see one number and you think it's going to be that number, but never that number. It's a smaller number.

[Ed Larson]

They also. This are people who have never seen $10,000. No 1.7 million, like, they're like, great, thank fucking God they didn't live forever on this. And then told, no, you can't.

[Marcus Parks]

And then he's paying them out in installments in which he can do whatever he wants with the rest of the money. And they have no idea. Exactly. Because. Exactly. They've never seen $10,000 before. So they get one $10,000 check and they're like, we're rich.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah. And that $2 million check was deposited at Russell Lafitte's bank because Russell was also acting as a sort of middleman. Malik and his clients.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, come down, give me your fine shells and jewels his locker. I'm sorry, this is more just sort of our management style. I'm sorry to describe. To scare you with my native. My native accent. If you want seagull, you can follow this map to the extra. It's over here. It's on the court of eighth in Bellevue. It's at the section. There's an ATM there. I'm sorry.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'll be out next week. I'm going to our brunch in the West Indies.

[Marcus Parks]

My cousin's having a bar mitzvah Yar. We're Jewish.

[Ed Larson]

How much for ye daughter?

[Marcus Parks]

Well, Lafitte was the guy ugly a Murdoch daughter would have been let's continue.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. What happened? There was never any female murder ever.

[Marcus Parks]

You know why? It would have canceled itself out.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

That baby would have committed suicide the second it saw its own doge colored body.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, the feet was the guy who took care of the so called complicated stuff. He was the ones who like. No, no, no, no. These legal bills, you don't even need to see them. They're too complicated. They're so complicated. I'm the guy, I got to take care of that stuff. You got to get better, you got to get well. That's what you got to do. You got to focus on your health.

[Marcus Parks]

And how to take care of it. How's your mom? Is she doing good and blah Bl.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Exactly. And of course those legal bills were all extremely exaggerated because. Because Alec Murdoch was also lying about save like experts that he'd have to hire like yeah, I had to hire a forensic expert.

[Marcus Parks]

And he cost X amount.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, he cost X amount. Never hired anybody. The point was the clients were never in contact with the company itself and they never saw the original check. So when the $2 million check came in, the clients had no idea that Alec was putting the extra 300,000 in his pocket. With of course, a little bit vig to Russell Lafitte and Corey Fleming. But because nobody was looking and nobody was asking questions. Alec Murdoch ran this scheme for over 15 years. Yeah, dude. And stole somewhere in the neighborhood of $11 million from needy clients. And it's. And you think like, okay, yeah, it's one point he's taken, you know, a little bit off at 1.7 million. That's the thing though. These medical bills that these people had to pay were incredibly massive. They're huge. Because they didn't have insurance.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And sometimes because Alec Murdoch stole their money, these people would die because the leftovers Alec gave them weren't enough to give them the care that they needed. They'd be put in cut rate nursing homes. And you know, there was this one kid, like there was a, he was a basketball star, got paralyzed. His ventilator was just turned off because he was in a shitty nursing home and he died.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. And I think that people should remember that if you're locked up with Alex Murdoch and you lost a family member.

[Marcus Parks]

But I think it's important to note here we talk about escalation and where do these crimes come from? Right. Like where do, where do this stuff come from? And you can only already see in just that his flat affect. Right. The fact that these are people that are his Truly his constituents. These are the people that grew up around his family. These are really a collection of a lot of people that are probably some of his extended family members. And ext. All these people they knew, people that they grew up with, that they were all in this. And he could look at them and lie so easily to their face for 15 years. Yeah, shows you that. Like, then that's 15 years of a scam that gets thick.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, $11 million, man, all you got to do is give 10 grand to the high school football team and everyone thinks you're a hero.

[Marcus Parks]

That's what he did.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Exactly what he did. That's how, you know, they would constantly give money to the high school. Which of course also kept Paul and Buster out of trouble to a certain extent, to a certain point. But that's how Alec used to always get out of trouble, just give a little bit of money. But it's. By the time Paul and Buster get up there, that act is starting to wear thin.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, well, you know Paul, obviously, if you look at his face, I'm going to go ahead and call it Fetal alcohol syndrome.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, instead of paying for his clients insane medical expenses, Alec used the settlements to pay for expensive hunting trips for the whole family, endless shopping sprees in Charleston for Maggie and custom sports coats with monogrammed cumberbuns for Alec and his tubby sons.

[Marcus Parks]

It's just.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Did you ever have a cumber? You seem like a cumberbun guy.

[Marcus Parks]

No, we never had money. I mean cumberbund, Cumber. Yeah, for prom, I think I did. No, I never do big bands across the belly because I already am. I'm not Gonna just be Dr. Robotnik. I want to be cast as Dr. Robotnik. I would like to be. Yes, I'd like to have to be a proper role. I portray. Sure, Come.

[Ed Larson]

Usually goes in Henry's belly the old fashioned way.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, where every generation of previous Murdochs have been discreet with their money because they knew how precarious the balance of power really was. You don't show your ass too often. Alec was putting on constant large public displays of wealth and grandeur. And that did not go unnoticed by the community. Then in 2005, another decision was made that brought Alec Murdoch standing in the public eye down even further. The same year that Alec began stealing from his clients, his father, Randy Murdoch III, was planning to retire as 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor. Now, someone in Alex family line had held this job for the past 85 years. And Alec had supposedly wanted a job since he was a child. But when it came time to hand pick a successor, Randy Murdoch iii inst. With his assistant solicitor, Duffy Stone. Yeah, or so the story goes. See, it's important to note that it's also said that the solicitor job could have been Alec Murdoch's if he really wanted it. But in order to get that job, Murdoch would have had to give up his position at pmped because the laws had changed since his granddaddy's day. Alec, however, had just figured out how to make more money than he knew what to do with using his skimming scheme. And I think it's far more likely that Alec Murdoch enjoyed going on expensive hunting trips with his dipshit sons a hell of a lot more than he liked prosecuting murders. Because prosecuting murders is hard.

[Ed Larson]

It's hard and it don't make money.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it does not. Either way, Alec Murdoch stepped aside from the solicitor job in 2005. And even though he was still given a volunteer solicitor's badge that he could flash whenever a cop pulled him over for driving drunk, the Murdochs were out of the prosecution game in South Carolina for the first time in almost a century.

[Marcus Parks]

You want to know what my author theory is? That he knows that if he steps down from pmped, all of his crimes are going to come to light as well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Maybe.

[Marcus Parks]

It's very, very possible that he's sitting on top of the only reason why, much like our beloved president, the most reason why he is even being able to be outside of all the crime is because he's holding on to all of the evidence. Yeah, it's all in his little belly. It's like, right here. And he knows that if he leaves it for a certain second, someone's going to go digging around.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's very possible.

[Ed Larson]

And it's not like you don't know Duffy Stone really, really well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, no, it was definitely a contingent thing of like, if you don't take care of us, we're going to replace you. Like, it was still, like, Randy still had his hand on the wheel. Like, Duffy was a figurehead at best.

[Marcus Parks]

And Randy was really very smart. But they flipped the story. I was listening to the Netflix documentary series in the second season, and Paul's girlfriend, you know, now that he's dead, his ex, Girlfri, she said that they flipped the story that the father, Randy, he had written the obituary about the wife to keep her in. Right. He flipped the story. They cut all of the stuff about him being addicted to prostitutes for some reason. I wonder why.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, I think, you know, I remember the girlfriend saying that that story was. She said that Maggie had told her that story. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Definitely flipped it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I think Maggie flipped it. Or the girlfriend was remembering it wrong.

[Marcus Parks]

Who knows? Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And I don't know. That really goes in an obituary.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, my pappy loved to smile, which is why he loved hookers. You know, like, why be. Be honest. He loved hookers. He liked hookers more than your family. You know why? Because hookers are fun. All these kids are just made another crime to pin on the family.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know what's fun is like, all these Murdochs that passed away, they all have obituaries you can go and read. Just laugh and laugh and have a nice time.

[Marcus Parks]

We talked about. Mike submitted a packet for Paul's obituary. I wonder what they used on that. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace is the all in one website platform designed to help your business stand out and succeed online. Squarespace gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place place. From consultations to events and experiences. Showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. The best part about it is it can help you design a funnel in which you can very quickly record commercials so that you can get it done while you were desperately trying to get on break. That's the best part about Squarespace. It can really shorten up the time you spend doing things. You got to get in there. You got to get in there. Use Squarespace. Man, is it fast. It is absolutely incredible. You're going to love your experience at Squarespace. Head to squarespace.com left for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code left to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Ed Larson]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Marcus Parks]

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[Ed Larson]

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[Henry Zebrowski]

Was around the time that Alec Murdoch stepped away from the solicitor position that it became apparent that Alex sons, Buster and Paul were going to be problems with a capital P. They were still children in the mid-2000s, but friends and family could already see that Paul Murdoch especially had a vicious temper that could be unleashed at any provocation, especially when it came to authority figures. Once, when Paul was still just a small child, he threatened their housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield with a kitchen knife, saying, quote, what are you gonna do about it?

[Marcus Parks]

You gonna do about it?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it's fucking a child. I think he's like five or six, waving a kitchen knife. Gloria, who basically raised the boys after Maggie checked out, also routinely saw Paul kill frogs, squirrels and lizards with glee when he was just out of diapers. But I mean, you kill them but not with glee.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, I tied him to bottle rockets.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Had a good time doing lizards and frogs. Never. Never a mammal, never a mammal.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, that's the thing. Once you, once you move on to mammals, that's saying it's good.

[Ed Larson]

It's not just making a confession that I'm similar to this tiny little kill.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Edward, I will join you and I will also, yes, make the confession. I also killed frogs, but there's, there's a distinct difference.

[Marcus Parks]

Cuz it didn't go on to more violence. Yes, Paul was going to show later on he would be very, he'd be a very prone to violence and really would meet it out at a very young age to any woman that was around him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But even though Gloria was doing her best to keep a lid on the fifth generation of Murdochs, Maggie, who hated Hampton county with all of her heart, was constantly telling her sons that they were better than everybody else because they were Murdochs, explicitly saying that the same rules that applied to others did not apply to them. Telling them this from the time they.

[Ed Larson]

Were small children makes them polite.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Since Maggie was bored and miserable, she also used her children as entertainment. Both Paul and Buster had filthy mouse as children. Very fond of the word motherfucker, which Maggie found hilarious. When Maggie enrolled them in a preschool group to try to socialize them, the two ran rough over every other kid, playing violently and calling everyone while Maggie laughed and laughed.

[Ed Larson]

Maggie realizes that she's the mother.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah. It just made her think Alec.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And so the Murdoch boys grew up in a world that was not only without consequence, but a world where bad behavior was encouraged and rewarded.

[Marcus Parks]

She just thought. She is the opinion epitome of what I have heard on the Internet. As termed as a boy mom. Yes, as an evil boy. Mom.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Where the boys could literally murder.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And she would love them more than ever.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Boys. The boys just being boys. Yep. You know, you gotta let. Yeah, I, I've seen this. I saw this so much in the South. Absolute terror of a child. And the mother just laughing and laughing.

[Marcus Parks]

My mom hated, hates women. My mom actively dislikes and distrusts women.

[Ed Larson]

I was always told that if I got into a fight it was totally okay and I wouldn't get in trouble if I didn't throw the first punch.

[Henry Zebrowski]

YouTube.

[Marcus Parks]

But that's not a bad idea. You had a tough father.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. But perhaps the worst thing Alec and Maggie Murdock did when it came to up their sons was how they treated alcohol. See, when Paul and Buster became teenagers, Alec and Maggie just integrated their kids into their extremely drunken social lives. Paul, as young as 13, 13, would drunkenly pick fights with grown men during public parties that his family threw on the sandbars of the Beaufort River. And while a lot of us in the south drank at a young age. I think I have my first drink at 11 or 12. We usually didn't do so with beer taken from the family cooler at our parents insistence.

[Marcus Parks]

It's too much. It's this, it's too much of this idea that we're all just equals and fun and hanging out when it's like.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, kids got to learn how to drink. That's the thing is you don't teach your kid how to drink, ain't gonna know how to drink trying.

[Marcus Parks]

That's not true. I learned. Everybody learns.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

It's real easy to get alcohol and you can in America.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Easy to learn. I don't need, I didn't need my father. My father was wrong at it. I'm way better at it than my dad was.

[Ed Larson]

I will say, as horrible as this is, I imagine that these parties were filled with like judges.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Just picture a red headed drunken 13 year old picking a fight with a judge.

[Marcus Parks]

That's amazing.

[Ed Larson]

He just has to like take it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Which I do find to be funny. Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Objectively, that's funny.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That is funny.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, Al, shut your son up. He's your. Your son said was saying nasty stuff.

[Ed Larson]

Son, go over there and slap that judge's penis.

[Marcus Parks]

Come on now. Come on.

[Henry Zebrowski]

His penis.

[Ed Larson]

Pull your penis out. My boy gonna slap it.

[Marcus Parks]

What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? You learned it from.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Alec and Maggie Murdoch were the so called cool parents. Alec would give liquor to kids during holidays at his law firm's Offices. And both he and Maggie would routinely get Paul and Buster's friends Dr. They threw. Now, it was obvious at these parties very early on that Paul Murdoch was what you'd call a bad drunk. Whenever Paul got intoxicated, which was incredibly often, as we can see from both his and his own mother's social media, his behavior would turn strange and unpredictable.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, he would massively over drink. Her whole account was just. Her Facebook account was just pictures of Paul underage drinking. Everyone liking the pictures.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's just this imposing with like a bunch of jello shots. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And it's just like I. I find it cute. No, I don't care about the drinking. I don't care about the drinking. The idea of your mother being involved in your own drinking is such a lame. Such a lame idea. Can you imagine wanting to be anywhere near your parents, partying? How lame. And, and, and just hacky life choices.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, it is upsetting. Yeah, it is upsetting. I. You know, I hate people that I don't. I don't hate people that drink around their kids, but.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I drink around all these other people's kids.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, well, they're not your kids.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, they're not your kids.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. And again, you know, it's about like a beer here and there, whatever. But these people are getting hammered. Once jello shots are involved, once these weird oyster shots are involved, it's kind.

[Marcus Parks]

Of weird also, like, you know, if you're getting a 14 year old into shooters, next thing you know they're working on Epstein's Island. You know, I mean, they can't. You can't have a 14 year old do over oyster shooters. Okay. It's too advanced.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The south is a very different place. Oh, I know. It's. It's. Yeah. I, I grew up in an environment fairly similar to this.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I understand. I'm not trying to even throw judgment.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

It's just my. I was told as a little. Because my father used to go. To have fun away from our family. No, no, because he couldn't have fun at home. So then when he'd come and be scary. That's what me. That was. My mom taught me fun was scary. You shouldn't have fun because fun is being scary.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But that's the thing. What you didn't know is that dad can be scary anytime. You didn't know.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. You didn't know that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Like, you didn't know that. You didn't have to wait for that. Like, that's the thing. If dad parties around you all the time. Dad can be scary anytime.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, but the thing is that dad didn't understand. Dad was super fun when he was partying. Yeah, I didn't know that.

[Ed Larson]

Well, if everyone's blackout drunk, no one remembers dad being super scary.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, except for the kids.

[Ed Larson]

It haunts them.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, when Paul Murdock would become drunk, when he would get intoxicated, his eyes would become wide, unblinking and black, and his fingers would spread out as if they were stuck. Now it seems like no one's willing to admit this because everyone's like, oh, we don't know why we called him this.

[Marcus Parks]

They know why. We know why they called him fucking Timmy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The finger thing is definitely where the nickname Timmy came from.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. They're making fun of the mentally challenged characters.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes. Yes. When Paul's fingers splayed out during intoxication, they very much look like the way that the mentally challenged character Timmy on South park would hold his hands, which is also how teenagers or say presidents hold. Hold their hands when they're making fun of disabled people. So when Paul Murdoch got dangerously drunk and he lost all control of his body, mind and soul, his friends would laugh it off by saying that Timmy had arrived, even when the drunkenness turned violent, which it often did.

[Marcus Parks]

And I know every one of us has experienced a guy just like this.

[Henry Zebrowski]

God, yes.

[Marcus Parks]

Every coming up, we all experience that abs. Because now you could say it. That absolute royal pain in the ass.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, the monster.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. They would use you change your friend's name. Yes.

[Ed Larson]

And a friend we would call Max every time he got super hammered and he's now sober.

[Marcus Parks]

And it was this funny thing because guess what happens? They either become sober or bad things happen or they die pretty much across the board. Bad things happen to people that are like this.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And he is a. It's just an example of just that. Just the worst little also to exist.

[Ed Larson]

I gotta say, I'm gonna go ahead and think that cocaine's involved because when the hands start getting all crazy, that's.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, no, these boys. These boys couldn't do. I legitimately think what they were doing doing is what teenagers do, which is drinking an absolutely ungodly amount of liquor.

[Ed Larson]

They're right by the water.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They were doing that. But the thing was, is that Paul was diagnosed as adhd. Maybe he had a big butt, I don't know. But let's look at the.

[Marcus Parks]

Pull up the crime scene photos.

[Ed Larson]

Pull up.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's the photo where they put the phone back on his butt. Let's see, let's see.

[Marcus Parks]

He Must have been real nervous if you're looking at that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But he was prescribed Adderall and he of course abused the Adderall, so he wasn't doing coke. But he was definitely taking much more Adderall than he should in order to drink as much as possible. To drink a lot more.

[Marcus Parks]

Slap the shit out of his girlfriend a bunch.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, a lot. Yeah, a lot.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Paul was. He slapped his previous girlfriend.

[Ed Larson]

I'm not sticking up for him.

[Marcus Parks]

No.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Any.

[Marcus Parks]

If you're. If you're headed getting women at the age of 15 years old, that is not a good sign.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. Yeah, you probably not great upgrading.

[Marcus Parks]

I think it might be. It's not a good sign for the future.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. It all starts when you pull a knife on your babysitter and no one cares.

[Marcus Parks]

That's what Ted Bundy did.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, he didn't pull a knife. He just placed knives around his babysitter while she was asleep. That's a different thing altogether.

[Marcus Parks]

He's creative.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And that's the difference between a Ted Bundy and a Paul Murdoch.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, Paul was by no means the only member of the Murdoch family with a substance abuse problem. Paul was obviously a violent alcoholic, but so was his father, Alec. Alec was said to be nice until he wasn't A man with a legendary temper that only got worse with drink. He was quick to imagine a slight and quick to throw the first punch. But his behavior got even worse after he also became addicted to opioids. See, after a series of knee surgeries in 2002, Alec had been prescribed high hydrocodone and he found that he liked painkillers quite a bit. By 2009, Alec had switched to oxycodone and soon became just about as bad of an oxy addict as a man with near unlimited funds and no chance of getting prosecuted by the law can get. Now, Alec claimed that the oxy energized him. But by the time his sons were teenagers, Alec was fallen asleep in meetings and unable to focus on legal proceedings due to his constant oxy intake. Additionally, the oxy also gave Alec Murdoch an insane sweet tooth. He was obsessed with Capri Suns. Always had to have like just a full fridge of Capri Suns in the house at all times.

[Marcus Parks]

A 50 year old man, if he.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Did not have Capri Suns in the house, he would freak out. He also ate bowl after bowl of kids cereals, ate Froot Loops and Fruity Pebbles with spoonfuls of extra sugar added on top, and it was all mixed in with strawberry milk.

[Ed Larson]

As a fat man, that is disgusting.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, I like my sweets, but I'm a savor. Avery boy, you know, when I want to go to town, I go put.

[Ed Larson]

Bacon on your cereal.

[Marcus Parks]

Also, we were going to talk a little bit about this. Is that oxy? Yes, it is a relaxant. And it's a narcotic. Right. Like, it has. It was an opioid. Right. So it has that thing where it's supposed to relax you, supposed to make you feel good. What Alex is saying is something I've heard for many people that have been specifically addicted to oxy, which is much like they say about alcohol. There's something about, like, the way your body consumes it. But how some people. When alcohol turns you into raving maniac.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it is technically a depressant.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. It turns you into, like. There are some people that react to it, and where it makes them like a raving maniac, it makes it so they black out. Their body goes. They can do a bunch of stuff. Oxy can work the same way. So I actually think that when you're watching him skeetering and snorting and coughing and picking at himself and blinking and doing all stuff, it's because he is gacked out of his mind. He's legitimately all zapped up. And so I bet you he does fall asleep. Yeah. You know, inopportune times. He's up all night slamming sugar. I bet you half the crashing is all the sugar he's eating.

[Henry Zebrowski]

There might be, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And all the fucking liquor that's also filled with sugar.

[Marcus Parks]

But the liquor helps you go to sleep.

[Henry Zebrowski]

As far as who was providing Alec Murdoch with all this oxy, seems like he got a lot of it from his cousin, Curtis Edward Smith, AKA Cousin Eddie. But for me, Curtis Smith will always be known by what was probably his drug dealer name, Fast Eddie.

[Ed Larson]

Wow. It's just like you got to come up with a less a name that isn't as suspicious. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

A less illegal nickname. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm not going to think, like Fast Eddie. Who's that?

[Ed Larson]

It's like.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, it's. It's my wife's OB GYN F. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I would love to be 40 girls an hour. Have you met my wife's guy? I know.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

This is Greasy Mike.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Hey, how you doing? Don't call me Doctor, call me Mike. Yeah. Let's see the.

[Ed Larson]

All right, all right. I'm gonna stir up some problems here.

[Marcus Parks]

Let me warm up my feet.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The Fast Eddie was a distant cousin of Alex, who'd been seriously injured in a logging accident in 2007. While the two hadn't been close prior to the accident, Alec represented Fast Eddie in his personal injury case against the logging company. The two became friends, and Fast Eddie started doing odd jobs for Alex soon after. But Fast Eddie also got addicted to opioids because of his severe injuries. Long story short, Fast Eddie before long manufacturing and selling drugs for an operation that was seemingly bankrolled by Alec Murdoch himself. And here's the proof. Starting In October of 2013, Alec Murdoch began writing checks to Fast Eddie for just under $10,000 each, because any amount above 10,000 would get flagged and reported as required by law. And so over the next eight years, Alec Murdoch would write almost 5, 500 additional checks to Fast Eddie, most just under $10,000. By the end of it, Alec had written $2.5 million worth of checks to Fast Eddie, their family. Now, Alec claimed that all this money was used to just buy him oxy for personal use. But after one reporter did the math, the amount of money given to Fast Eddie would have been enough for Alec to do oxy all day for 117 years straight.

[Marcus Parks]

Wow. We're going to be relaxed forever.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Most likely. As prosecutors later alleged, the money given to Fast Eddie was used to manufacture and distribute narcotics with multiple accomplices all over the state of South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, also not so Fast Eddie would say in the documentary that a part of what they were doing was a little bit of a money laundering thing that he pretended not know about.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, because he kept asking like, this isn't money laundering. Right.

[Marcus Parks]

Which is again, just remember that that's for you guys that are under your laundering. That's how you get out of it. You go, you got to make sure to ask, now, this ain't money laundering, right? As long as they say no cash check. Don't even think about it. Just go. Like, just go. Yeah, you're. Oh, why do I even ask? Because he was giving him some of the cash too. So, yeah, he'd get some, they'd split up the cash. Alec would go do whatever shady shit he was doing it. The other guy would get his cut. Everybody was getting cuts.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. And then Alec could always have his fat wad of cash and his car like always.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah. Now, Fast Eddie was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Alec Murdoch and drug smuggling. His connections to this world would also be how he obtained the property where the Murdoch family legacy would finally come to a bloody end. Purchased in 2013 in the small community of Island. Welcome to Landburg. This large tract of land, roughly twice the size of Central park, came to be named after the street where the property had its entrance. Investigators, prosecutors and true crime buffs around the world would come to know the plot of land where the Murdochs lived, played and died as Moselle.

[Marcus Parks]

I hate places with one name.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, Moselle.

[Marcus Parks]

I hate places where they're like, you.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Won'T go on down to Moselle.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, just that idea of like, you so you have to name your house like a city. That's how important your.

[Ed Larson]

But that was the name of the road.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it was the name of the.

[Marcus Parks]

Road called the, the property Moselle.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know, I mean, like, it's like sometimes you're like, oh, I'm leaving Trimble and I'm going to go over to this place.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But our houses suck. This is his house. All right. This is Murdoch's house. All right. This is like this different. He has a compound.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it's a ma. It's a massive two story house that sits on. Yeah, it's like, I mean, it is, I think it's 1700 acres. Like I said, it's twice the size of Central. It's full of hunting. It's got, you know, water. It's got lake access. It's got water, not lake access. I think ocean access. Water access. Yeah, it is. They've got their dog kennels there. They've got so much, so, so much in Moselle, Mo.

[Marcus Parks]

Each one, each one of them had an F150 on that, on, just on that property. And then they had, he had something like 45 cars, guns everywhere, hundreds of guns.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, well, you got to spend that $11 million and something.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And that's the thing though, is that they say, like, when they look at all of the money that Alec Murdoch embezzled and all of the money that was possibly coming in from drug. They're like, they have no idea where it all went. Like, there's no, they think, they think that he may have actually put cash into PVC pipes and buried it around South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

And I would actually go and say that if you're in South Carolina right now, get your shovels, just start digging. Get out to Mosel Dicking looking for that money. I know it's there. Send pictures, send money. When you find the money, send the money now. I, I wonder, I, I.

[Ed Larson]

But his trips were always so extravagant. He spent a lot of money.

[Marcus Parks]

You could be surprised how much money you could. He had what he had crashed two boats. You know that, right?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

That Paul crashed another boat.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, there. There was a lot of boat crashes.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. So it's like. There's a lot of problems. He had several cars. He had trashed his. He had three cars.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But it still wasn't enough. Like, it's. It still was not enough to cover how much he embezzled and how much money he was just making with his paycheck. Wow.

[Marcus Parks]

God. We gotta figure this out, guys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh. How do we embezzle against ourselves?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. How do we be. Yeah. How do we embezzle? Yeah. Because it's not going anywhere else.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. What do we do with it? What crime do we commit?

[Henry Zebrowski]

We'll have a meeting. Why don't me and you have a meeting off Mike where we figure out how to embezzle from each other?

[Marcus Parks]

We won't. That's for certain.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, we certainly won't embezzle from ourselves. No. Moselle had been bought from a Murdoch family friend named Barrett Boo Ware, whose family had been close to the Murdoch since the 1940s when they were all bootlegging moonshine. Barrett Bull Ware, however, was said to be one of South Carolina's most notorious drug smugglers.

[Ed Larson]

It's a name in the south that you hear.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. No. Barra Bulware.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. They'd say he sounds like a true detective character.

[Marcus Parks]

He does. He sounds like the guy that led him to the Yellow King.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Barrett Bull Ware had been a shrimper, and Mosel's access to open water made it easy to use large shrimp boats to travel from the smaller South Carolinian islands to the mainland without raising any questions, which made it perfect for drug smuggling. By the 1980s, Bulware was South Carolina's cannabis king. But the fun nearly came to an end when Bulwer got busted as a part of Ronald Reagan's war on drug drugs. The charges, however, were dropped when a key witness against Bull Weare just happened to step out into the road where he was struck and killed by a car. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

No way.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What a crazy coincidence, isn't it?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The whole case just went away.

[Marcus Parks]

Wow. What a lucky guy.

[Ed Larson]

You should have beware when you go out on the road.

[Marcus Parks]

Especially when you're a. Especially if you're a high level witness to a drug trafficking wing. I'd say stay inside.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And years later, Bulware got caught again driving with seven pounds of weed and a fair amount of cocaine.

[Marcus Parks]

And that's the thing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

If you get caught with seven pounds of weed and cocaine in your car in South Carolina. Most people go to prison forever.

[Marcus Parks]

You get beat to death.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes, but those charges against Bulware, they also went away.

[Marcus Parks]

Weird.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But this time it was said that it was simply his close connections to the Murdochs that set him free. By the time Bulware sold Moselle to alec Murdoch in 2013, it was rumored that the two of them had purchased several islands off the coast of South Carolina for the purposes of drug smuggling.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, it wouldn't be. This might be slander to even think that he would be paying off the cops, right?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Because it's not like his grandfather had already set the precedent of using the cops as his own personal gang to smuggle illegal substances throughout the country.

[Marcus Parks]

Did illegal parties where children drank and drugs were present while police and judges were there.

[Ed Larson]

It sounds like it's like a secret county with a giant fence around it for no one to get in.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, Literal fence around it. Now, in addition to access by water, Moselle also helps. Had its own airstrip for small single engine planes.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, every small town needs one.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it's not. It's not even small town. This is their private personal airstrip on their land. They needed it.

[Marcus Parks]

How else are they gonna fly places? Yeah, you know. You know how guys in Hampton county.

[Ed Larson]

The county, you gotta fly everywhere.

[Marcus Parks]

Always flying places. You know, I'm Hampton County. I gotta go. Oh, I gotta get a Tuscaloosa. Oh, I better take this to Wilmington, Delaware. Other piece of. Is a place.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Apologies. Apologies to all. All our fans in Wilmington.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm sorry, everybody.

[Ed Larson]

Not Tuscaloosa, though, huh?

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, no, I heard.

[Ed Larson]

I saw that, Marcus.

[Marcus Parks]

We understand it's called an elephant that needs to go to a dentist. Let's continue.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The Tuscaloosa.

[Ed Larson]

That's Mark's brother's joke.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes, it's pretty good.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm a comedic historian.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, according to what Paul Murdoch told his friends. Paul Murdoch was telling his friends, like, oh, yeah, daddy's. He's flat in drugs. Oh, yeah. But drugs were allegedly not the only thing being flown in. They were not the only cargo being brought to Moselle by air. According to multiple sources, sex workers were brought in on these single engine planes for exclusive parties thrown at various locations around the low country. And it is a high likelihood that some of these women were trafficked.

[Marcus Parks]

You do know that that is just trafficking because prostitution is already illegal. So just bringing them in is trafficking. So there's already there already would be.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Guilty of crime, let's say traffic against their will.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Okay. All right, I'll amend that.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, they were told to do one thing, that they were going to go there to do one thing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And then.

[Marcus Parks]

And it turns out it's another thing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Alec Murdoch was living an increasingly erratic double life, as our research team put it. It was very quickly becoming something like a Southern version of Twin Peaks. This is when things get really dark.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it's like a goofy version of the good fellows. It's like that breakdown, really. OTA breakdown.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Alec was the type of guy who all in one day, score some pills, cheat on his wife, fix a few court cases, coach his son's little league game, host a wholesome afterparty for the players families, and then end the entire night with a debaucherous drug fueled sex party that was attended by the elites.

[Ed Larson]

I'm tired.

[Marcus Parks]

At 4 o' clock on a work day. Okay. I'm tired. I don't know how they do all this.

[Ed Larson]

Let me get you some oxy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I was about to say, do you thought about oxy?

[Ed Larson]

No.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Like, we can get you some oxy.

[Marcus Parks]

I need drugs. Yeah, man.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Get into it.

[Marcus Parks]

Try it a little loud.

[Ed Larson]

Get clean. Get oxy clean.

[Marcus Parks]

Wow. That's why they call it that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Reportedly, Alec Murdoch would host ultra private get togethers for local law enforcement, politicians and legal professionals. Parties where the alcohol and the drugs flowed freely. Then, at some point point in the evening, a high class madam would bring out a group of girls for the guests to choose from to do with what they wilt.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, won't you check out some of the merchandise I've brought here? Obviously, this is Buffer.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Please, please, please, Matt. High class madam. You're doing a pimp right now.

[Marcus Parks]

I know what you think I'm doing, but you ain't seen my price point yet.

[Ed Larson]

Just do not call this lady a pimp.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm a mother. I'm a mother.

[Ed Larson]

Both are first.

[Marcus Parks]

All right, and the pimp second.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, those are female breasts.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yes, yes. You could not tell by my face or tire.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, it's the hair that confuses you.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it really did.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Really did. I just thought they were plain old male breasts. Another female breast.

[Marcus Parks]

Here's a girl with no legs. You can get her the real quick. Here's a girl with no hands. You get your titties real quick. No, but here's a girl with no face. She's just kind of sad. That keeps you going faster. Yeah, it's nice about you. Look at the sad girl. Make the boner go down and go.

[Ed Larson]

Back in the hot girl.

[Marcus Parks]

Am I making it wrong? Am I making it bad in here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm so happy that we hired this high class madam to come and host our sex party. These sex parties are getting better all the time.

[Marcus Parks]

This sex part is one of the best parties. I've been to this too often. I gotta say, when I. When I put my glossy ejaculate across the mouth of that tender purchase girl, I knew. My God, am I happy to be in a God's America.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, these sex parties, it sounds like a rumor. Sure. But there's a witness. A sex worker named Lindsay Edwards said that she attended several Murdoch parties in 2014 and 2015. Parties where men picked whatever woman they wanted before taking these girls to a party. Private room. And on two occasions, Lindsay claims that Alec Murdoch picked her. Much to her regret. At first, Lindsay said that Alec was charming. And since she was indeed working, she agreed to have sex with them. But once they were alone, Lindsay said Alex's personality changed. His eyes became solid black. Same thing that people said happened to Paul when he turned dangerous. Alec then choked Lindsay against her will during the sexual encounter, coming very close, close to killing her. Lindsay reported the violence to the madam. But the madam said that Alec Murdoch had special privileges. And Lindsay was obliged to provide Alec with whatever services he wanted.

[Marcus Parks]

That would he do. He paid 25 to make a squeeze. Okay. You got to understand child. You know, you like this character.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I mean, the character's good, but these.

[Marcus Parks]

Bats gross things she's saying.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, she's saying awful. Try it again.

[Marcus Parks]

You know how to do it. When you. When you want to make a child like a toothpaste tube. That's what we pay for. He like to make him with a toothpaste tube.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Not quite there. Give me another one.

[Marcus Parks]

I know. You know, when you take a Hans ketchup bottle, smack it on the bottom. Smack it on the bottom. You try to make it make the ketchup come out.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Okay. Yeah. Slight giggle.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Makes the ketchup come out of the. Out of the sex worker. That's very nice.

[Marcus Parks]

You said that. All right. None of this is real.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Also is when they say his eyes turn black, it's obviously he's on a lot of oxy and his pupils are dilated.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, exactly. No, he's not a. He's not a demon. Like. No, his eyes turn. Yes, it's because he's so incredibly intoxicated. Like. And they have beady, beady eyes to begin with. So when those pupils get big, it appears as if they are demonic. But Lindsay said that after the madam told her this guy gets special privileges. Let him do whatever he wants. On the second encounter, Alec pulled Lindsay's hair so hard that he ripped it from her head. And he shoved a washcloth in her mouth while he had sex with her. Shortly after that, Lindsay quit sex work forever. But she never forgot Alec Murdoch. And that don't mean that the parties didn't continue. That just means that she didn't go.

[Marcus Parks]

He's no way, Marcus. He's no way he would do something like this. It's not in his character.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it's not in his character at all. To throw sex parties where I'm sure at least one woman was killed by accident. Oh.

[Marcus Parks]

At least after he shot his own.

[Ed Larson]

Family in the face.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the same time that Alec is hosting private parties with politicians and lawyers, Paul Murdoch was becoming more and more of a constant source of stress. Friends of Alec and Maggie who had kids stayed away if they knew Paul was going to be around because they were afraid. Afraid that Paul would negatively influence or even hurt their children. Paul's behavior was so bad that he was even kicked out of middle school, which is an incredible accomplishment in a town where the Murdochs themselves ran the school board.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, how do you get kicked out of a middle school?

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Need middle school. It's all pointless.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, we know, we know. I never read.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I don't read outside of school, though. Paul's cruelty got worse. Reportedly, when Paul got older enough to drive, he would run over dogs on purpose and take their collars as trophies. He'd also hide in the bushes at Mosel with a BB gun and shoot people working on the Murdoch property. But besides the expulsion, nobody ever admonished Paul for his behavior. Because going against the Murdochs meant that you not only had to go against the most powerful family in the county, but you also had to go against everyone else in the community who was defending the Murdoch dogs. Or at least defend them for the time being.

[Ed Larson]

Where'd you hear that dog thing?

[Henry Zebrowski]

It was in the. Was it Valerie Bauerlein's book? I think. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

One of those where he's. He was escalating wildly and anybody that said different about him wanted just. They wanted it to be different.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah. Anyone who said that now Paul's actually. Paul was actually like a good guy. You just didn't know Paul.

[Marcus Parks]

No, that means nothing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That either means that that person. Person doesn't want Paul to be as bad of a person as they actually were, or that person is complicit.

[Ed Larson]

And what Paul did ask kicked a Lot.

[Marcus Parks]

No, no, he didn't know. They specifically. They ramped up the idea. So that's a part of the whole motive, right? They ramped up the idea that Paul was getting his ass beat and all these guys are coming after him. We're not there yet. We're kind of. We're far ahead right now.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, but even then, like, even when he was a kid. No, no, he would not get his ass. Like, he's too scared.

[Marcus Parks]

The family was too powerful.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But he also liked getting into like he. Also very violent.

[Marcus Parks]

Like he was a fighter.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. He would start the fight.

[Ed Larson]

He's probably good at it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, yes, well, he thought he was.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And I'm sure there was quite a few people who let him win.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Maggie Murdoch. Meanwhile, she was doing all she could just to keep it together. Alec had been keeping her reasonably satisfied by chartering private jets for extravagant trips all over the world, paid for by money that Alec had stolen from his personal interest laundry clients. But in this, Maggie never asked questions.

[Marcus Parks]

And she knew nothing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Nothing, really. What got Maggie most riled up was Alex habitual cheating, which he did not limit to sex workers. Maggie would keep close friends and extended family far away from Alec, especially if they were brunettes. Because while we look at Alec Murdoch as a physically repulsive specimen, in every.

[Marcus Parks]

Way he is objectively.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Some women did find Big Red attractive. Even when he began calling calling himself Big Daddy. No one else called him Big Daddy, but he tried to get people to start calling him Big Daddy and it didn't catch on.

[Marcus Parks]

It might have been the money.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, and then funny guys. Funny guys.

[Ed Larson]

No, he was charming. Everyone knew that he was charming when he. When he was trying to be.

[Marcus Parks]

So.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And those big guys, I mean, as a big man. Some women find that very attractive.

[Marcus Parks]

No, sometimes a woman just wants to be with the big scary man. Yeah. Because it's fun for them to be with.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. They want to be with a scary sunny.

[Marcus Parks]

And sometimes.

[Ed Larson]

Sometimes they want to be with the sexy poet.

[Marcus Parks]

Sometimes they want to be with a man that is.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He might be just as tall, he. As he is round, but eat your pussy until you're dead.

[Ed Larson]

What else do women want, Henry?

[Marcus Parks]

I think women want a little hunt. They want a little hut to bleed in, A little hut to eat in. One little hut to stretch in.

[Ed Larson]

Yes.

[Marcus Parks]

And then one little hut to read the news in so I don't have to hear them crying.

[Ed Larson]

That last hut sounds like it's your hut.

[Marcus Parks]

It's rough hut.

[Ed Larson]

There's a On lot going on the outside, not on the inside.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, Maggie kicked Alec out of the house for cheating again and again. But Alec always managed to talk his way back inside. Because as we said last episode, Murdoch don't divorce.

[Marcus Parks]

And she can't get cut off from all that good ass. She knows she's just going back to wherever she came from. If she leaves this arrangement here and she doesn't want it. She has all of these super powerful people. Yeah, she'll make money in the divorce, but it's going to be a. What do we know about divorce? It's not good.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it's very difficult.

[Ed Larson]

And they still, you know, to their credit, no Murdochs have ever gotten divorced. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Wow. Yeah. And technically cuz you Buster got married.

[Marcus Parks]

We can really look up to them. Buster's wife better look out.

[Ed Larson]

You know she sleeps with one eye open.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

She probably cuz you only got the one.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, as Valerie Bower line put it, Maggie Murdoch soothed herself with cocktails and manicures and shopping and. And the beach. Because the cheating and the alcoholism were not the only problems. Eventually, Alex Oxy addiction would begin causing rifts in the marriage.

[Ed Larson]

Now come over here.

[Marcus Parks]

Sit on my chopper.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What does that have to do.

[Marcus Parks]

Come on. Sit on my chopper.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Is that what he called his.

[Marcus Parks]

His penis? Come on.

[Ed Larson]

Here.

[Marcus Parks]

My chopper.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What does that have to do with his oxy addiction?

[Marcus Parks]

Come on.

[Ed Larson]

Come on. He called it his snatch.

[Marcus Parks]

It.

[Ed Larson]

No, no, no, no.

[Marcus Parks]

That's what I call one of my ch. Chopper goes inside.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's horrible.

[Marcus Parks]

Thank you.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Every so often, Alec would try to quit oxy when it looked like Maggie was about to leave. And Alec would spend days shivering and vomiting in bed at Moselle with withdrawals. And afterward he would tell Maggie everything's different this time. And she would believe him. Until she or Paul would find bags of oxy taped away in hiding places around the house. Paul actually became so good at finding his father's oxy stashes that they saw started calling him the little detective.

[Marcus Parks]

Cute. He's so good.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You're so good at finding your father's illegal opioids.

[Ed Larson]

You're a little detective, aren't you?

[Marcus Parks]

And the cure.

[Henry Zebrowski]

My little detective.

[Ed Larson]

Give me a cigar.

[Marcus Parks]

Rise from your grave. Gas Snacks.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tolls. This trip is draining my wallet.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You're in a good mood. What's your deal?

[Ed Larson]

What's my deal? I saved at Metro with no activation fees and I got one line of 5G for just $25 per month. Kept the phone I love and a 5 year price guarantee on my top Tuxt and data detour to Metro.

[Marcus Parks]

Get that more for your money feeling.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Only at Metro by T Mobile just.

[Ed Larson]

Bring your number $30 first month at $25 after with autopay not available if with Metro or T Mobile in the past 180 days flowers die in three days. Matching underwear for Meundies.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's a gift that lasts.

[Ed Larson]

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[Marcus Parks]

Sxm hey, it's Olivia from Ollie. Getting better sleep this year is totally doable. But skip the lettuce tea and the mouth tape. These sleep trends are getting unhinged. Ollie's sleep gummies help you fall asleep.

[Ed Larson]

Stay asleep and wake up refreshed.

[Marcus Parks]

Just melatonin, L theanine and botanical extracts. No weird wet salad aftertaste.

[Ed Larson]

Better sleep can start tonight. Go to o l l y.com to choose your snooze.

[Marcus Parks]

These statements have not been evaluated by.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose.

[Marcus Parks]

Treat, cure or prevent any disease.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Ollie now even though oxy was a bridge too far for the Murdoch family, alcohol was still all well and good and it made every single one of them aggressive. On occasion, these guys would get drunk and aggressive together. Like the time that Alec and Paul tracked down a girl who had turned down Paul's romantic advances. See, the girl that Paul liked had a boyfriend. And when Alex and Paul found them in a gas station in the boyfriend's car, after they rode around town getting drunker and drunker, they hooted and hollered while slamming their hands on the kid's vehicle. At one point, Alec repeatedly shouted for the boyfriend to quote, get out here.

[Marcus Parks]

And fight my boy. Come find my child. My wife and child. Come fight my child.

[Ed Larson]

My child.

[Marcus Parks]

He's been fought badly.

[Ed Larson]

I wish people would have filmed the out of that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, but he had some get out here and fight my boy.

[Ed Larson]

You ever your dad ever you tells take you to a fight?

[Henry Zebrowski]

What do you mean?

[Ed Larson]

My dad drove me to a fight?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Like an actual fight or like a bare knuckle like Back alley thing.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, I had to like fight this guy once and I had my dad drive me and drop me off at a McDonald's so I could fight this guy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

But he didn't show up, thank God.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, that's nice.

[Ed Larson]

Yes.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

So I just eventually called my dad and like, all right, come get me.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, my dad was constantly at work. He missed all that. Yeah, I'm glad he was working. All of my fights were private and brutal.

[Marcus Parks]

As they should be.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, all this is to say that the Murdochs were provably violent. People who weren't above using violence to get what they wanted. It had been rumored for years that the Murdoch family were perfectly willing and capable of getting rid of people that were inconvenient. And that brings us to the case of Stephen Smith. Stephen Smith and his twin sister Stephanie were both in Buster Murdoch's class at Wade Hampton High. And Steven and Buster had both been on the same little league team when they were kids. But when they got to high school, Buster distanced himself because Steven came out as proudly gay, which was huge thing in a small town in South Carolina.

[Marcus Parks]

Dude, it's. It's almost a homicidal choice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, I don't want to do discourage kids from coming out.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I feel very bad for Stephen, but it's good to do.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well. Stephen bravely endured all the abuse that came his way as a result. But despite the turmoil, he was still a straight A student who remained a caring person to the end of his days, who always lived life on his own terms. Now, even though Stephen was out and proud, Buster still, according to one very gossipy high school teacher, took Stephen's help when Buster needed a science tutor. Steven's sister Stephanie, however, confirmed that Stephen had told her that these tutoring sessions with Buster had blossomed into a full blown homosexual fling, which allegedly continued until they, granted, graduated high school. No proof of this, of course, but there are many, many people are saying things.

[Marcus Parks]

Many people are saying things. And after what we already know, it's hard to discount some of the things. Because Buster definitely looks like he loves to suck dick.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He is, after all, a public figure. Now, the summer after their first year in college, Stephen Smith had returned home from the technical school where he'd been studying to become a registered nurse. And Buster had returned from his first year, Woford College in Spartanburg.

[Ed Larson]

The Spartans aren't gay at all.

[Marcus Parks]

Nothing gay about Greek warfare. There's been nothing gay about it. I don't care what anybody says about the Greeks. Nothing homosexual about their Philosophy or lifestyle.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, that summer, Stephen had gotten into an altercation with a redneck with a Guns and roses tattoo on July 4th. But Stephen had come out unscathed. Stephen did not, however, survive the Night of Dream, July 7th. And the day in question, as well as the night is filled with mysterious events that still don't have any answers. And this all happened in 2015. That day, Stephen called up his sister Stephanie from a gas station asking for help because his car wouldn't start. When Stephanie showed up and popped the hood, she discovered that someone had unscrewed the battery connections and had unplugged the oil drain on Steven's car. Since Steven was an openly gay kid in a southern backwater, this sort of thing didn't faze him too much. So he shot, shrugged his shoulders and headed home to change. He said goodbye to Stephanie at exactly 6pm but that was the last time that anyone would admit to seeing Stephen Smith alive. Now, we have absolutely no idea what happened that night. But just before 4am A tow truck driver was driving down a secluded road near Crockettville in Hampton county when he saw what he thought was a large dead animal lying in the the middle of the road. He called 911 to report it. But when a deputy showed up 40 minutes later, he found the body of Steven Smith splayed out across the dividing line with his skull caved in. Now, a body in the road makes one think that this would be a hit and run. But there were no tire marks, no vehicular debris on the road or anywhere on Steven's body. And no paint scrapes anywhere. Steven's knees were also resting together peacefully as though someone had posed him. As opposed to the usually mangled, tangled body that one sees after a hit and run. A body that tumbles down the road and leaves a long trail of blood and intestines.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

His loose fitting shoes were also still on his feet. That also never happens in a hit and run. His shoes always fly off. Stephen had no broken bones other than his skull, of course. And the only blood on the road was what had poured from his massive fatal head wound. And all of this pointed to the fact that Steven had been killed elsewhere and dumped at this location.

[Marcus Parks]

Could it possibly have been a very small car? Yeah, a flying car could have been.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It could have been Ant Man.

[Marcus Parks]

What?

[Henry Zebrowski]

If you thought about it being Ant.

[Marcus Parks]

Man, it was a Ant man in a car the size of a baseball bat.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Now where in his head was the bruise, do you know?

[Henry Zebrowski]

In the back, I think so he.

[Ed Larson]

Would have to like lean his head so the back of his head would get hit by a car.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He would have had to have tried to headbutt a moving car with the.

[Marcus Parks]

Back of his head, but only that and the rest of his body would be unaffected. So it is he. Obviously it's impossible that he was hit by a car. He was beaten to death. We know that he was beaten to death. And he was left in the middle of the road for it to look like a hit and run. And it sounds, but guess what? That also sounds like a childlike idea of covering up a crime. Sure sound like a teenager's concept.

[Ed Larson]

Or an adult.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, bad dumb adult.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, well I mean dumb. It worked.

[Marcus Parks]

A dumb adult would hit it with the car. But just cuz. Cuz nobody cared. There was no, there was no way to figure it out.

[Ed Larson]

The investigation is open again.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes, well stranger still that night was Steven's car. It was found abandoned three miles away with an empty gas tank which made it appear as if Steven had run out of gas and was walking to get help. Nearest gas station however, was in the eye, opposite direction. And the gas cap was open as if someone had siphoned away all the gas because it's the only reason why the gas cap will be open. How many times have you run out of gas and you go back and.

[Marcus Parks]

Do I go look at it and go oh, I can't see, No, I can't see the gas in it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, no, no one does that. No one goes and opens the gas cap.

[Ed Larson]

And then he was just came from the gas station.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah. He had been at the gas station earlier that day. It's a good point. It's a very, very good point. Steven's wallet was also left behind in his card something. You'd think he would have brought his wallet with him if he was going for gas. Now in South Carolina, deaths like Stevens are investigated by the highway patrol. And it was immediately obvious to them that Steven had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the middle of the road and that this did not involve a motor vehicle in any way whatsoever. But by 6:25am Less than two fucking hours after the body was found by that first deputy, the Hampton killed county coroner had rushed through the autopsy and ruled Stephen Smith's death as an accidental hit and run. Almost as if someone told them hey, this is an accidental hit and run. Why don't you make that happen as fast as you possibly can.

[Marcus Parks]

They also, or hey, never truly put total laziness out.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That is also, I mean that is.

[Marcus Parks]

Guys wanting to wrap it up, have it be done. He was found in the road. Local gay kid. We don't like hit and run.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's one. It. It was one person who was trying to wrap it up. But yeah, it was like, well, they're like, well, they asked us like, well, why do you think it was a hit and run? They was found in the road. Yep, that was it. That was the only evidence they had for it being a hit and run. They was found in the road.

[Ed Larson]

Sounds like a great coroner.

[Marcus Parks]

Hey, man, he didn't even know why he died.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, the troopers still investigating the scene were flabbergasted, but they couldn't do anything to change the coroner's mind. And by 9am the road where Stephen was found was reopened on the orders of Hampton county officials. Bodies found at 2:30am I think roads open again by 9. Yep.

[Marcus Parks]

They just were like, well, that's over immediately. Just like, yeah. Oh, well, you know, we. Hey, we think that.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, you're not going to. All right, we'll go home.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, get out the hose.

[Marcus Parks]

Bye bye.

[Ed Larson]

No one drives on the road anyway. Obviously, if he was sitting out there.

[Henry Zebrowski]

For all those hours and, you know, I can understand if you're thinking, hey, this is an openly gay kid who's murdered in a Southern town. Could have been anybody. Anybody might have killed him. And you know it. Also, I could also see you thinking like, all right, this is a case of the less dead. You know, the coroner's just trying to get this body through and processed as fast as possible. He's a gay kid. No one gives a. Let's not have a murder on the books. But if it could have been anybody, why did the Murdoch family involve themselves so heavily in the investigation? Because reportedly Randy Murdoch III himself was on the scene before the whole thing got wiped away. And there were very few people who could put pressure on the coroner in such a way as to file a bogus cause of death that fast.

[Ed Larson]

Now, this is Randy, the uncle or the grandfather?

[Henry Zebrowski]

This is the grandfather. This is Big Randy. This is Randy iii.

[Ed Larson]

Big daddy.

[Marcus Parks]

Big Daddy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it's a big daddy's son.

[Ed Larson]

Okay. Okay.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

There's so many of these.

[Marcus Parks]

So many daddies.

[Henry Zebrowski]

As many dead as many. Yeah, it's. That's Buster. Yeah, that's.

[Marcus Parks]

It's kind of nice of Alec to eliminate some of the guys we have to talk about. Ye.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The community did actually come to the Smith family side when the news broke. But the tenor changed when one name started coming up over and over again, when people asked who could have done such a thing. That name, of course, was Buster Murdoch.

[Marcus Parks]

They're all like, you know the Murdoch.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And when the Murdoch name got involved, the people of Hampton county once again began self policing themselves because the Murdaughs still had enough goodwill from helping out someone's daddy or someone's mama or someone. Someone's brother. Sometime in the past, where defending this family had almost become a reflex.

[Ed Larson]

Now, was Buster violent, like notoriously as well?

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, Buster was not notoriously violent. Not like, not like Paul was. Buster. Buster could keep. Buster was actually probably the most level headed, at least as far as, like, outward appearance goes.

[Marcus Parks]

Can I view all of them? My view?

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He's the weak, total weak pussy one that'll do whatever daddy says. Maybe he's the lead. He's the lead son. He's supposed to take the family name. He's in law school. He's the one taking up charge. By this point, Paul has already said he doesn't necessarily want to be a lawyer. He's already kind of focusing on his rural dumb. I'm a fake country boy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Paul's still in high school and. And Buster just finished his freshman year undergrad.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. So he went. But Buster is going to be the one. Right, So I think that. What? But Buster is a. So Buster is way more of. Paul's a homicidal maniac.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Let's say Buster did get in a situation with Stephen Smith and this led to somewhere. My call is that it was him, other boys that led to the death. It wasn't Paul on his own.

[Ed Larson]

Paul.

[Marcus Parks]

It was not. Yes. It was not Buster in his own.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, yeah. He couldn't have been bus. I just don't think he has the heart to do it.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I think he's a. I think that he put himself in a situation where all of his boys were all being like, oh, you and Stephen K I S S I n G. Well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let'S get into it. Yeah, yeah. Now, the first red flag Besides Randy, Randy III's presence at the crime scene came when one of Alec Murdoch's older brothers called up Steven's parents out of the blue to volunteer his services in investigating their son's death. This was Randy iv, another Randy. So to avoid confusion, I'm just going to call him the Murdoch brother.

[Ed Larson]

Okay, good.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now this Murdoch did have a previous relationship with the Smith family. He'd represented Steven Smith's father in a workman's comp claim years before. Before. So it wasn't the Craziest thing that he called him up. But that didn't explain why this Murdoch was the second person to call the Smiths right after the coroner called them to tell them that their son was dead. Call number two.

[Ed Larson]

The coroner probably called the Murdochs first.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, I think the Murdochs talked to the coroner before anyone and I think.

[Marcus Parks]

His word was already cycling. Let's say the rumor, let's say we was just a rumor that Buster was involved and it was already circling. That's what, that's what they're immediately trying to suppress.

[Ed Larson]

This is what the, where the solicitor angle comes in because Randy is the, is the ex solicitor. He's going to get all this information before anyone else.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, I think that the entire plan was set into place before Stephen Smith's body was even found. Yeah, let's get into that. Now. The Smiths were of course suspicious about the Murdoch brother calling immediately after the coroner. But that didn't stop the Murdoch brother from showering the Smiths with calls over the next few weeks offering to, quote, unquote, help with their son's tragic death.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, let's sue somebody.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let's sue somebody. But really he's looking for information and he's also trying to keep them close. He's keep them close and put their, the input, the focus of the investigation and the focus of their anger anywhere but towards the Murdoch name. And there were rumors that Stephen had been killed by homophobic cops. But the most persistent rumor was that the people behind, behind Stephen Smith's murder had been them Murdoch boys. Even though the coroner had tried killing the investigation, the state troopers had continued looking into Stephen's death because of the repeated mention of the Murdaughs. But just as soon as they started asking questions about the Murdoch boys specifically, a lot of people stopped answering questions altogether. But since the Murdaugh's grip on the people of Hampton county had been slow, slowly loosening, 10 people mentioned either Buster or Paul Murdoch's name during the investigation, although none of them had firsthand information. And you know, I grown up in a really small town. Like I know how this goes. One person says one thing and another person says another and they just keep talking like, well, 10 people talk. I talked to all of a sudden murders like, well, yeah, those 10 people all talk the same gossip. Is it the same thing? Doesn't necessarily mean that the Murdochs were definitely involved, but it is interesting. And what's really interesting about this is that the state troopers found that when they called up some of those people who had Been willing to talk for follow up interviews. They discovered that some of those informants very suddenly had gone on vacation. And those people never returned to Hampton County. They weren't killed. They just never moved back. Almost as if somebody had given him a shitload of money and said, get the fuck out of here.

[Marcus Parks]

I also believe there is a, you know, nobody really wants to be the sticky wheel. I think a lot of people think that, like, oh, you know, it's easy to come at the Murdochs, like if, let's say it's devil's advocate. It's easy to come at the Murdochs because they're the local rich people. We're going to do, we're going to start a rumor mill about the boys, blah, blah, blah. But up until that point, previous generations, he, they held the respect of the community and they were genuinely liked by the community. And there's something about the switch, there's something about them extending themselves to say, Buster and Paul, not Alec, none of the other old cryptic guys, that it's the sons that have already created this reputation. Obviously they have created a real reputation of violence or, or an aura of violence that they are. Because why else would all of these people say those. There's so many other roughnecks, there's so many other pieces of that you could rat out. Why is it always the Murdochs if it's not something there? Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And this Steven, this Stephen Smith, it got swept under the rug pretty fast and probably would have stayed there if Paul wasn't such a goddamn lunatic. Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now there are a ton of theories about what happened to Stephen Smith, but there's unfortunately no evidence whatsoever proving any of them. One story goes that Buster and Steven had continued, continued at least a friendship after high school. And when Steven ran out of gas on July 7, he was still comfortable enough with Buster to call him for help. Now it's proven that Buster had been playing in a softball tournament that night.

[Marcus Parks]

Interesting.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And it's theorized that maybe one of Buster's friends or even possibly Paul had seen or heard something that had embarrassed Buster enough to inspire violence that night. The softball tournament detail is important because the authority autopsy performed on. Because the autopsy performed on Stephen Smith, even though it still ruled his death as a result of a motor vehicle crash, it placed his cause of death as blunt head trauma. The sort of blunt head trauma someone gets getting smashed in the head with a baseball bat. And the prevailing theory from the state troopers is that Buster and his friends may have seen Stephen walking down the road or standing near his car and they bashed him with the bat, thus causing the fatal blunt head trauma.

[Marcus Parks]

Or maybe they had a couple of beers and they thought it was really funny to do. To scare the dude as on the side of the street. Oh, Buster's boyfriend, let's scare him. And then one of the guy lead does the thing where he puts the bat out the window as they go and he just.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yep, very accident. Yeah. Because the troopers don't believe that they were intentionally trying to kill Stephen.

[Marcus Parks]

I think.

[Ed Larson]

But even if they did it while it was driving, he would have had marks on other parts of his body when he.

[Marcus Parks]

Unless you just went.

[Ed Larson]

But when he fell.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, well he did have marks on other he. There was some scrapes on his body like he.

[Marcus Parks]

Just not enough to say that he was dragged by a vehicle or struck truck and killed by a vehicle.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it. But the thing is the troopers don't believe that these kids were intentionally trying to kill Stephen. But when they allegedly discovered that he was dead, they may have loaded the body and dumped it in the road three miles away before Buster called his daddy or his granddaddy to fix it. And fix it they did. Because to this day, Buster has still never even been questioned in the death of Stephen Smith. The investigation ended after. After only three months when word came down to the troopers from the very top to not pursue this investigation any further in any way whatsoever. And that's the thing is that there is. Yeah, it is. There is no proof here. But there is just so much cover up, such an insane amount of COVID up that it really just does point towards the Murdochs being involved in some way or another.

[Ed Larson]

There's enough evidence to at least question them.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, this is the thing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Very much so.

[Marcus Parks]

If this was just a family and you heard this story, I'd call his. But we got three bodies. Right. And so things couldn't have been going that well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Technically we got five bodies.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. So like we got a lot of bodies here. So the fact that it led to at least one organized double murder tells me that there might be some stuff bubbling under the surface.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of other shit that people could find on these guys, man. It's a big property.

[Marcus Parks]

It's already there. We've already talked about a bunch of rumors.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, but that's the thing is that we didn't like there's so many that I'm sure.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh yeah. Talk about the previous generations. Or when we get to the real helpful Murdoch brother.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now at the same time that Buster may have gotten away with murder. Paul Murdoch was also barreling towards his first brush with suspicious accidental death. See, by the age 18, Paul was drinking booze bought with Buster's ID every day. His girlfriend at the time, Morgan Doughty, remembered a time when Paul drunkenly vomited in front of his parents. But the Murdochs were unbothered by the whole affair. Morgan was also, by this point, on the business end of Paul Murdoch's drunken physical violence. In other words, Paul was increasingly out of control. And it is this lack of control that led some people to suspect that he may have had a hand in the death of the Murdaugh's longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. So on February 2, 2018, Gloria Satterfield was found at the bottom of the brick steps leading up to the Murdoch house at Moselle. At 8:30am her skull was crushed, a dozen of her vertebrae were broken, several of her ribs were broken, and there was a hematoma on her brain. Now, again, we have no idea what really happened here, but Maggie apparently found Gloria and called 911 in the call, Maggie was impatient, irritated, and somewhat put out by the whole affair, showing very little emotion towards the woman who had raised her children for 20 years. You know what she sounds like? She sounds like someone who's annoyed that her dog has eaten chocolate and she's calling the vet to see if she needs to bring her in legitimately.

[Marcus Parks]

Listen to the 911 calls across the board. If you want to reach, really hear what a lie sounds like, listen to it. Because Paul's also on that call.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah, because Paul's present. Like, he's there when he gets on the phone with the operator. He's annoyed that the operator is even asking simple questions. Like, the operator is asking like, is she breathing? Does she have a history of strokes? Paul's like, I don't know why you're asking me questions.

[Marcus Parks]

It's literally what he's like, why are you asking me all these damn questions? He sounds intoxicated.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. It's 8:30am he could be partying all night. Who the fuck knows what the fuck it is? He sounds.

[Marcus Parks]

Sounds like a little. Well, you definitely sounds like you've got disease.

[Ed Larson]

She was outside the house, right?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Steps. And it is February 2nd. She could have been scared by a groundhog.

[Marcus Parks]

And he was coming out there and.

[Ed Larson]

They were all like, get that.

[Marcus Parks]

Stop giving us bad luck.

[Ed Larson]

There's a lot of land. There's ground. There's got to be ground.

[Marcus Parks]

There has to be.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Do we know where Dan AYKROYD was during all this.

[Ed Larson]

No, no.

[Marcus Parks]

Where was Dan Aykroyd?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Where was he?

[Marcus Parks]

Can't believe he's got divorced. Not a good sign, boys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

For all those out there who've seen Caddyshack 2.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, Mr. Wester House. Still one of my. Why do I know they'll be like ch, ch. Go with that jammed up crack.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, paramedics arrived 20 minutes after they called 911 because Moselle was way the out there. And while Gloria was able to give her name and say that she had fallen down the steps, she could not or chose to not say exactly what had caused her fall.

[Marcus Parks]

She literally didn't even say what happened. Remember that, guys? She could communicate enough and she didn't tell them.

[Henry Zebrowski]

She gave them her address but would not tell them what happened. They say, how did you fall down? This is. She said, I don't know. That's what she would say. I over and over again, I don't know.

[Ed Larson]

In the Hulu show, they don't show her like getting killed by Paul with the way they do it. They still found a way to make them all look like they had her like lugging in all their luggage after she couldn't handle all the luggage and that's how she fell down the stairs.

[Marcus Parks]

That's hilarious. That's like, wow, a bellhop step.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But even though Gloria didn't say what happened and Maggie didn't say what happened, when she was on the phone with 911, they asked her what happened. Said, I don't know. Alec Murdoch began telling everyone that the dogs had caused the fall.

[Marcus Parks]

He's really good at coming up with reasons for things.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, he really is.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He said that the dogs tripped her up and she. Oh, she was walking up them steps and the dogs tripped her up. And you know, it's just, just what happens sometimes. You got as many dogs as we got around Moselle.

[Ed Larson]

Everybody love dogs.

[Marcus Parks]

It's just so weird. You can't blame dog, black dog not murdered. You can't even blame that dog. And it's just find it interesting because every. Nobody else said what happened.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No. And well, Alex said that Gloria had told him what had happened before the paramedics showed up, that he had gotten there and he had leaned down and she had looked up. She said the dogs had tripped me. And he began telling everybody that's what happened. He told her sons that's what happened. He told the insurance agents that's what happened. But according to the groundskeeper at Moselle, Alex was never present before during or after the fall. He was never there, so Gloria couldn't have told him anything. Gloria, meanwhile, never regained consciousness. And after three weeks in the hospital where Maggie visited once, and the boys who Gloria had raised for 20 fucking years, they didn't visit her at all. Gloria Satterfield died a horrible death, leaving behind two sons of her own. Her brain just eventually went, yeah, and.

[Ed Larson]

She left, you know, and it just. Just cause the sons didn't visit her doesn't mean that they're guilty. It just, you know, they are assholes too.

[Marcus Parks]

Massive, massive assholes.

[Ed Larson]

We can't discredit how big a prick sound.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We really can't overstate how big of massive pieces of fucking shit. Dog shit butt nuggets.

[Marcus Parks]

It's just too many examples. There's just so much stuff that at least on some level, whether it's evidence or not, shows that these people are so.

[Ed Larson]

Sociopaths.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, the rumor, and again, it's all rumor here, was that Paul Murdoch had lost his temper and pushed Gloria down the steps because she'd found drugs in his room and confronted him about it. It was said that Paul proudly boasted about killing her to his friends and that he'd allegedly told other people around town that he was responsible for her death. Again, this is all small town gossip. But the interesting thing here is not with Paul, but with Alec. Just a month before, before Gloria died, Alec had taken out a large liability insurance policy on Moselle in anticipation of an accident just like the one Gloria suffered a month before. Now, Gloria's funeral. Alec approached her adult son and said, hey, if you want to get a lawyer to sue me for wrongful death, well, that's going to trigger the insurance policy. That payout's going to take care of all your mama's medical bills. Going to leave a little something extra for you and the kids, Cuz, as Alec put it, you kids are like family to me. Y' all are like, y' all are like family to me. And I want to make sure you're taken care of.

[Marcus Parks]

But that guy kills his family. Not yet.

[Ed Larson]

Not yet.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's still a few years away from killing.

[Ed Larson]

He's only planning it at this point.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Just a twinkle in his eye. No. The lawyer that Alec recommended to the Satter Fields was of course Corey Fleming. His. That was his partner in embezzlement. But Alec neglected to mention that Corey was his best friend and his former college roommate. And that's what makes this whole thing fishy, is that he could have easily said like, oh yeah, I know Corey real well. I've known him for forever. But no, he's like, oh, I just. There's this lord, you should call Corey Fleming. You know, he'll take care of you.

[Marcus Parks]

But, yeah, it's like, no, it's. He tried to act like it was somebody he'd. He didn't know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes.

[Ed Larson]

Now obviously knows him if they're giving them the number.

[Marcus Parks]

But he didn't want him. He's not like, this is my best friend.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Now, Gloria's family agreed to the scheme, but as soon as the wheels started moving, the Satterfields were cut out of the process completely. Once Fleming filed the wrongful death suit, he secured a settlement check with the insurance company. Little over half a million dollars. But that money was then transferred not to. To the Satterfields, but to an account that Alec Murdoch had opened with the bank of America a few years earlier. Because his scam had reached its next idiotic level. This was the account that he used solely for scamming people. This account had been opened under the name Richard A. Murdoch, sole proprietor, doing business as Forge. Because Forge Consulting llc. That was a legitimate financial holding company.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that was his company.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it wasn't. But no, Forge Consulting LLC had nothing to do with Alec Murdoch in any way, what whatsoever. It was a completely different. It was a different business.

[Ed Larson]

It was a paper signing business. Right?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. It was like if you open up, like a car dealership and call and called it, you know, Chevy, but it's not Chevrolet, but it's like Henry doing business as Chevy. And so if someone writes a check to Chevy, you can cash that check because you're doing business as Chevy, but the company's not Chevy. You don't work for Chevy. Just like Alec Murdoch didn't work for Forge Consulting llc. But since he had this account that was simply called Forge, he could tell people write out that check to Forge. And he could pretend like that check was going to the legitimate Forge Consulting llc. But it wasn't going to the legitimate Forge Consulting llc. It was going into his personal bank account over at bank of America.

[Marcus Parks]

What a great idea.

[Ed Larson]

It's just crazy. If you have a phony business account, don't call it Forge.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Other things.

[Marcus Parks]

Plagiarism. Welcome to Crime Syndicate business.

[Ed Larson]

I'm sorry.

[Marcus Parks]

I just need the money.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And so Alec laundered the insurance money gained from his housekeeper's brutal death through the Forge account. And he kept every cent for himself. Except, of course, for a little vig given to Corey Fleming. Alec kept telling Gloria's family that he was working on it when they asked what was was happening with the case. But without their mother's income, the Satterfield home was repossessed. And her family never even knew that the payout had happened until the news reported on Alex financial crimes. Years later.

[Ed Larson]

He laundered the money off of the person who used to do laundry for him. Company called Forge, where he got to check that was. That was given to him from. This is crazy.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, you know what you're seeing here, Eddie? Oxy ideas. Like, this is. This is a. This is Oxy ideas. This man is just like. He is an ideas guy. He's like Tesla.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it really.

[Marcus Parks]

No.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What? It's like a fucking sophomore in a creative writing class. And you got to say, like, your metaphors are a little too on the nose. Yes, just a little like laundering money. Forge. Jesus fucking Christ. Hi, my name is Jimford Embezzler.

[Marcus Parks]

It's easy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But out of all the suspicious deaths surrounding the Murdoch family, there was none that did more to bring their sleaziness into the light than the one that occurred on February 24, 2019, or technically the 25th. On the night of the 24th, Paul drunkenly crashed a boat into a bridge with five. Five friends on board. And one, of course, did not survive. This is the incident that brought the Murdoch family to national attention. Now, by this point, Paul was 19 years old and was basically spending his life either drinking or hunting. And on the night in question, Paul was drinking. On the evening of February 24, Paul was driving his father's 17 foot fishing boat, Sea Hunt.

[Ed Larson]

Cunt.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Shunt. C. Okay, all right. Well, he was driving this fishing boat with two other young couples and his on again, off again girlfriend. The girls were Morgan Dowdy, Miley Altman and Mallory Beach. They were all close friends, lifelong friends. While the other two guys, Connor and Anthony Cook, were cousins. Connor was dating Miley. Connor was a nickname, Cotton Top, and that everyone called him, while Anthony was dating Mallory. Although that relationship would end in tragedy before the night was through, Alex was.

[Ed Larson]

Called Oxy Cotton Top. Please continue.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You got it, buddy. Now, even though Morgan had broken up with Paul by this point because of the abuse, the other two girls had convinced her to go up the river with him that night to an oyster roast. Oyster roast is a local country tradition during the chilly winter months. Yeah, you just throw a bunch of oysters on a grill.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it's fine. I bet they got good oysters or whatever, but it's like one of those things where it's just what it's, it's rich people pretending to be poor where.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They were taking Sea Hunt that night because Paul had already been drinking and he'd wanted to avoid the inevitable DWI checkpoints on the road. And that also tells you a little bit about the Murdoch's waning power. Because before Murdoch's gonna blow right through a checkpoint.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, it's because he had already. There's already been a couple of run ins.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Many run ins. Yes, yes. Many, many run ins.

[Ed Larson]

And he's underage too.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And so after funneling multiple beers at this party, Paul decided that he wanted a nightcap at his favorite dockside bar, Luther's Rare. Well and done.

[Marcus Parks]

And these guys, these fucking losers, these two children show up to your bar and you pour them shit shots. And who are these losers working at all of these places aiding and embedding these horrible children?

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's, it's the south, dude. It's seriously. So it's just, it shows the video.

[Marcus Parks]

Of Paul going up to that bar. He's slamming his hand on the bar, doing the. Give me a shot, give me a shot. It's like that was an older man that poured him that shot. He should have been you. Yeah, well, get out of my bar.

[Ed Larson]

They're scared of him, man.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, he's a 19 year old.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They're still scared of him. I know the young adults all hop back in the boat and they took it down to Luther's where they had shots. By that point, Paul had drank enough where his evil alter ego Timmy had come out to play. And after Paul got in a into a fight with a fellow bar patron and started kicking over chairs, the group finally left the bar at 1:13am now, the other kids wanted to call an Uber home at this point, but Paul insisted that he wasn't going to leave his father's boat at the docks and he absolutely refused to let anybody else drive. So against all their better judgment, the other five young adults got back into the boat with Paul Murdoch out of either misplaced loyalty or fear.

[Marcus Parks]

Also just that there's a vibe of if we finally draw our line in the sand, when you deal with these types of guys, he, he's going to blow it up and make it so bad that no one's going to want to deal with it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Right.

[Marcus Parks]

No one wants to deal with how he's holding all of their relationship hostage. And they don't want to deal with it because they don't, they don't want to challenge it. They're too young to understand.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But They've dealt with it.

[Ed Larson]

They.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They've dealt with it many, many, many times.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, they, well, they haven't dealt with it. They've let it sit and they've watched it happen.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, this is what, this is normal. In a weird way, it is. Until disaster strikes. You keep making mistakes, you'll keep up your drunk kid who's never had consequences. I'm talking about the other guys too.

[Henry Zebrowski]

All of them.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. They were all in. In a, in a fantasy world. Didn't exist.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They were in a bubble now. Things devolved quickly once they got back out on the water. Paul began driving in circles just to annoy his friends. And when Morgan finally confronted him, he slapped her, spat on her and called her a. This stunned everyone into silence momentarily because they knew better than to push back when Paul was this drunk.

[Marcus Parks]

Just like on the idea that his buddies wouldn't just KN him in the mouth.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Being like, like just first, you know, number him.

[Ed Larson]

He wouldn't even remember you did it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, dude.

[Marcus Parks]

Like the idea that they didn't just chop him across the face, the out.

[Ed Larson]

Of him right now. Everyone's still alive and it ends.

[Marcus Parks]

And it might end. It might. That might be the ass beating that little needs to get.

[Ed Larson]

Yep.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, it's not gonna end. He's just gonna keep doing it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, until you beat him to death eventually. That's the idea.

[Ed Larson]

Shoot him in front of a bunch of dogs.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

God.

[Marcus Parks]

How lucky was Alec? Everybody wanted to kill Paul and he got to do it.

[Ed Larson]

He was another thing that he stole from everyone in that county.

[Marcus Parks]

That's unfair.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, finally at 2:20am Mallory reportedly told Paul that he was being fucking stupid. Paul stared daggers at Mallory, then slammed the boat's throttle all the way down while heading straight to towards the bridge ahead. Everyone screamed as the boat hit the bridge's wood pilings. Three of the passengers slammed into the boat's boards while Paul, Anthony, Cook and Mallory beach were all ejected into the water. While half of them lay bleeding and screaming in the boat, Paul and Anthony made their way to shore. Mallory beach, however, was nowhere to be found. Now Connor Cook found a working phone with within 15 minutes and called 911 despite having a broken jaw. When the paramedics finally arrived and treated the other kids, most of them were screaming about finding Mallory, especially her boyfriend Anthony. The only one who wasn't freaking out was Paul Murdoch, who just smiled and laughed at the entire situation. Anthony, of course, reacted badly to this. He lunged at Paul yelling that his girlfriend was gone too little Too late. After that, Anthony was put in a cruiser where. Where he told deputies that the boy who'd been driving that boat that night was Alec Murdoch's son. So good luck. Deputies, however, had already been informed exactly who Paul was by who else but Paul himself. Even though Paul reeked of alcohol after having no less than 19 drinks, that's estimated 19 drinks, bare minimum. And even though it took four paramedics and two deputies to get Paul into an ambulance, and even though a girl was missing and presumed dead, no one at the scene gave Paul a field sobriety test. They did, however, let Paul borrow a phone so he could call his grandfather, Randy iii, the same grandfather who'd shown up at Stephen Smith's murder scene four years earlier when Buster was suspected. Paul had always called Randy III when he was in trouble because he was.

[Marcus Parks]

Super close with his grandfather.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He was. And on this night, Paul explicitly told his grandfather that if have been Cotton Top who'd been driving. Cuz already the blame was starting to shift off of the Murdochs.

[Marcus Parks]

Cotton Top still such a cuck that he thinks that Paul is innocent. He's all like all of this.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, not, no, not him.

[Marcus Parks]

The guy that's the, the guy in the. The Netflix documentary that I believe is Connor is the one that's all like, you don't know Paul now.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's Anthony. That's. That's, that's a different one. It's not necessarily that he thinks he's innocent.

[Marcus Parks]

They don't know Paul. You don't know the real Paul. And it's like, yeah, you do.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's. It's not that he thinks he's innocent. He's just. I. I think he just doesn't want to let himself feel all of it fully.

[Ed Larson]

I get it.

[Marcus Parks]

It won't take till later on when he does something bad his own. His own self. Yeah. When. If he doesn't check those emotions, you.

[Ed Larson]

Know, also when someone gets murdered, you kind of. You kind of create a new opinion about them and stuff because you feel bad about what happened to them and like that.

[Marcus Parks]

Sure, I guess.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, Cottontop is quite angry in the documentary. Yeah, he's. He's the one that's got the. Still got the huge scar on his face.

[Ed Larson]

Also, if he's this drunk and he was that hard to get into the cop car, I really am pushing for. He was on a lot of cocaine. I really think this kid was doing coke out the wazoo.

[Marcus Parks]

Have you never seen somebody just alcohol? We forget just how Powerfully powerful.

[Ed Larson]

The amount of cocaine I saw going through all those good old boys in Tallahassee, I, I mean, it's, it's possible.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, I'm not going to say it against him. I just feel like he would know how to get cocaine if he wanted it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's possible. Now, both Randy III and Alec Murdoch knew that Paul was lying about who'd been driving that night because Murdoch did not give up control. So they arrived at the hospital at around 3am in full damage control mode. Instead of asking about the whereabouts of Mallory beach or even the condition of the other kids, Alec Murdoch went from room to room to tell all the other boat passengers that when the investigators asked them who was driving. Be a good idea. Idea if they just said, I don't.

[Marcus Parks]

Know, he's just saying it out loud. In an. A hospital with, with cameras, he's. They're just walking. This is how much power they had. They're just walking in and out. They're saying like, Alec Murdoch's not a doctor. He's walking in and out of all these rooms.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The only room Alec couldn't get into was the one holding Paul's on again, off again girlfriend, Morgan Dowdy. When Morgan saw Alec's terrifying redheaded potato face peering into the window of her hospital room room, she told the nurse, keep that man as far away from me as possible. Because Morgan, she'd been dating Paul on and off for a few years. She knew exactly how the Murdoch family worked.

[Marcus Parks]

Even her thing, when she can't even keep it, like. And I, I still was shocked when it was Mr. Alec. And it's like this Southern thing since they're all still calling him Mr. Alec and all these things, like, he's not a double murderer. It's just like he's not the Papu guy you knew.

[Ed Larson]

He's.

[Marcus Parks]

Jump.

[Ed Larson]

Sorry.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's.

[Marcus Parks]

He's not that guy. He never was.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, but still, it's hard to get that out. It's hard to change your view of somebody.

[Ed Larson]

I get it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know, after. Yeah, we don't have the, you know. Yeah, we, we don't have the. The same.

[Marcus Parks]

What is it?

[Henry Zebrowski]

I don't know.

[Marcus Parks]

What is the term for what that is? Right? What is the term? Is it blind allegiance?

[Ed Larson]

I think it's gonna happen to you, man. You know, you, you wish that it didn't, but it didn't. It's so crazy. They talk about you read about it. It's not something that happens in your life. It's. Especially when you're so well brought up. Well, like they are.

[Marcus Parks]

They just talk about him. Like the people out of Scientology talk about lrh.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there is definitely some indoctrination there. There's definitely like those people were raised their entire lives to, you know, not.

[Marcus Parks]

Necessarily respect him and worship the Murdochs.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But to respect them. You know, it's hard to erase all.

[Ed Larson]

That their grandparents told them to respect them.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I get it.

[Ed Larson]

I got it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, I get that. This makes sense now.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The Murdoch's plan was to keep all the kids from saying who'd been driving because if none of them said definitively that Paul Murdoch Murdoch was behind the wheel, then maybe Paul could get out of it. Alex had also decided that they were going to sacrifice Connor Cook for Mallory's death if necessary, because it was quite obvious that Mallory beach was gone forever. Even if her body had not yet been found, it was actually in the Murdaugh's best interest if Mallory's body was never found. Because if there was no body, there was no crime. And it's speculated that the search was somewhat half hearted as a result. But eight days after the boat crash, Mallory's corpse was found five miles from the site. Tellingly, not by officials, but by volunteers who had spotted Mallory's bright blonde hair. Now, Mallory beach could have just as easily gone the way as Stephen Smith. The Murdoch name, however, had steadily been losing its power over the years, and Paul wasn't exactly the type of person that people wanted to defend. Additionally, this was the third person in four years whose death was connected to the Murdoch name.

[Marcus Parks]

Starting to really build up.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It is where Steven's parents couldn't get a single law firm to take their case. After the Murdoch name was mentioned in 2015, an attorney named Mark Tinsley jumped at the chance to represent the beach family in a wrongful death suit against The Murdaughs in 2019. And as it went, Mark Tinsley's involvement in this case would be the first domino to fall in a series of events that would two years later, lead to the brutal murders of Paul and Maggie Murdoch. And that, of course, is where we will pick back up next week for the conclusion to our series.

[Ed Larson]

Until he's murdered in prison.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, that's more of a side stories thing. You guys, you guys can take. Y' all can cover that, but wow.

[Marcus Parks]

I am God, they make me angry.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, God, yes.

[Marcus Parks]

But you know what, I just think it's interesting. I think it's endlessly fascinating. I've been interested in this case since the very beginning. I covered it inside stories throughout the entire trial. And so I just feel like. I feel like I'm at the Olympics.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I feel like I've been finally here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

It's like I'm the curling.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm on the curling team.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Man. You can put this guy to bed after this. It'll be nice.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Big bed.

[Ed Larson]

It is a big bed. It's a twin bed, but I'm sure, I imagine he's like spilling off the sides of it.

[Marcus Parks]

It's super skinny.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Yeah. It's a smaller bed now. Well, now that he doesn't have access to all the sugary stuff.

[Marcus Parks]

He's super skinny.

[Ed Larson]

Plenty of sugar in jail. It's all honey buns.

[Marcus Parks]

Have you seen him? Have you seen him? Super skinny.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's very skinny.

[Marcus Parks]

Looking great. Patreon.com Last podcast on the left. Pay to watch us do this. And also to pay to see. To be there exclusively to be a part of the chat for last stream on the left stuff live at 6pm PST on Tuesdays.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And to see the unedited version of the stream because not everything makes it to YouTube.

[Marcus Parks]

It doesn't. And we are going to have a lot of fun announcements coming down the pipe. Wait until you see what horrible sights we have for you and go ahead and LP on the laughter. All of our social needs. Check out our new YouTube channels, LPN TV. Check out Bloodbath. LPNRPG. It is completely out. We're packaging it. Check out your. You might want to check your current airwaves. Yesterday, hopefully you saw our wonderful talk back session with all of the characters on Vampire the Masquerade. As you see, we did something that nobody else had the balls to do, which is do a talk back entirely in character.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No. Very nice.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

So we'll see how it goes.

[Marcus Parks]

Watch the movie went fantastic.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm sure it did.

[Ed Larson]

I know it did. It's all on YouTube. People can check it out there.

[Marcus Parks]

LPN TV and this.

[Ed Larson]

We are going to be in Philly next weekend. Next Saturday we're going to be at the Met. You come see us there in Philadelphia. It's going to be a lot of fun the night before. If you got nothing to do, I'm going to do a standup spot over at City Winery with co headlining with Kirsten, Michelle Sills and I got the wonderful Peggy Leary hosting for me.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Philadelphia, his own.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Come check that out. We're in the small room upstairs. Nothing crazy, just a fun little time to stretch my legs in this great town of brotherly love. Then we're gonna be in Austin, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Tulsa and Oklahoma City in 2026. And a whole bunch of dates for side stories just got released. Go to last podcast on the left.com and find out if we're coming to you.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that's it. Bye. Hail Satan again.

[Ed Larson]

Hail Bob Weir again.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, give him one last one.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I got no problem.

[Marcus Parks]

Gas, snacks, tolls.

[Henry Zebrowski]

This trip is draining my wallet.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You're in a good mood. What's your deal?

[Ed Larson]

What's my deal? I saved at Metro with no activation fees. And? And I got one line of 5G for just $25 per month. Kept the phone I love and a 5 year price guarantee on my top tuxt and data detour to Metro.

[Marcus Parks]

Get that more for your money feeling.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Only at Metro by T Mobile.

[Ed Larson]

Just bring your number. $30 first month and $25 after with autopay. Not available if with Metro or T Mobile in the past 180 days.

[Marcus Parks]

El Programa Nacional de Vecas a Serde McDonald's a beneficiado mas de biesiciente mille estudian tesco maziones.