The Murdaugh Family Murders and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
The Murdaugh Family Saga
News of the murders of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, led to national news headlines on June 7, 2021. But the murder mystery deepened months later when Alex Murdaugh, 53, a prominent lawyer in South Carolina, was allegedly shot in the head.
Along with the headlines of the brutal slayings of Alex’s wife and son, two other suspicious deaths surfaced that were not so well-known: Mallory Beach on February 24, 2019, and Stephen Smith on July 8, 2015.
When Alex Murdaugh himself was charged in the murders of Maggie and Paul, it marked the beginning of the end for one of South Carolina’s most powerful legal dynasties. The saga of the Murdaugh family murders both entranced and disturbed us for years, but it finally ended, fittingly enough, in a courtroom.
Bizarre Incident
On Saturday, September 4, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 and claimed that he had been shot in the head while changing a tire on his vehicle. The shooter, who supposedly passed him in a truck, then returned and shot him again.
Murdaugh was airlifted to ICU at Memorial Health in Savannah, Ga., where he received a “head-to-toe examination.” The chief resident in the Department of…
