This South Carolina Lawyer Tried To Arrange His Own Murder So His Son Could Collect His $10 Million Life Insurance

In June 2021, the wife and youngest son of Alex Murdaugh were murdered at their rural estate, sending him into a spiral that ended with him hiring a hitman to kill him.

With a wife and two sons, South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh appeared to have it all. That is, until June when his spouse and son were killed in an unsolved murder case. The pain of losing them caused him to fall into a deep depression exacerbated by his long-standing opioid addiction.

By the end of August, Alex Murdaugh had arranged to have himself murdered so that his surviving son could collect the $10 million life insurance, which Murdaugh falsely believed wouldn’t be paid out if he died by suicide.

It was the culmination of years of scandals and accidents that plagued this prominent South Carolina legal dynasty, whose roots in the area go back 111 years.

According to CNN, the 53-year-old attorney was shot in the head in the middle of the street on Sept. 4 but managed to survive. Murdaugh initially told authorities that the gunman was a stranger with a blue truck but has since admitted to having hired the man himself — a former client named Curtis Edward Smith, who also supplied Murdaugh with oxycodone.

The 61-year-old shooter has been charged with assisted suicide, assault, and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Alex Murdaugh himself was allowed to surrender at the Hampton County jail on Sept. 16. He has been charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, as well as with filing a false police report in connection with his 911 call after his failed suicide by proxy.

According to NBC News, Murdaugh orchestrated the failed murder to occur while he was fixing a flat tire that didn’t need fixing. While attorney Richard Harpootlian maintains his grieving client was depressed when he arrived at this decision, Murdaugh’s past has presented some rather pressing questions.

“The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life,” Murdaugh wrote in a public statement. “I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. I’m resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders.”

It appeared that Murdaugh enacted the failed scheme after several months of increasing opioid abuse. He had previously represented Smith in an unrelated case and provided him with a gun and instructions to gun him down in the middle of a South Carolina roadway.

“For the last 20 years, there have been many people feeding his addiction to opioids,” his lawyers said in a statement. “During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs. One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alex’s life, by shooting him in the head.”

While this harrowing saga might now appear concluded, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has noted some strange happenings in Murdaugh’s past. The office has reopened several cases involving mysterious deaths in proximity to Alex Murdaugh and his family.

In 2018, the family’s housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, was found dead in their home of a purported “trip and fall accident.” She had served the wealthy family for more than 20 years, although the Hampton County coroner has now noted some troubling inconsistencies in the manner of her death.

“The decedent’s death was not reported to the Coroner at the time, nor was an autopsy performed,” the coroner told SLED in an official request to reopen the case. “On the death certificate the manner of death was ruled “Natural,” which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident.”

Satterfield’s estate had sued Alex Murdaugh for $500,000 following her death but has yet to receive a penny. This week, her family’s lawyer, Eric Bland, filed another lawsuit against Murdaugh and the Palmetto State Bank on Wednesday. In the meantime, authorities have begun to detangle yet another case with possible connections to the family.

Stephen Smith was found dead in an apparent hit-and-run about 10 miles from the Murdaugh’s rural property in 2015. It remains unclear just how the 19-year-old was connected to Murdaugh, though SLED has found it imperative to reopen an investigation into his death as a result of Murdaugh’s arrest and the recent murders of his 52-year-old wife and 22-year-old son.

Ultimately, Murdaugh has never wavered from his vehement denial of responsibility in regards to his family tragedy.

Two days after he was reported shot in the head, Murdaugh released a public statement in which he announced he was headed to rehab and had resigned from his law firm amidst allegations he had misappropriated millions in funds to sustain his addiction for two decades.

“I am immensely sorry to everyone I’ve hurt including my family, friends and colleagues,” he wrote. “I ask for prayers as I rehabilitate myself and my relationships.”

As Murdaugh’s attorney Richard Harpootlian said, his losses “took a tremendous toll on him” and sent him into “a massive depression.” Hiring Smith to shoot him merely “was an attempt on his part to do something to protect his child.”

And, according to Harpootlian, Alex Murdaugh’s arrest provided him with sobriety for the first time in months. “We actually had the first conversation we’ve ever had with him where he wasn’t on opioids or oxy,” he said. “And as a result of that, he clearly knew what he had done was wrong.”

And as it stands, Murdaugh is cooperating with SLED on all accounts in hopes that police resources can be redirected back to finding who killed his wife and son.

Comments

History’s Worst Execution Methods: Flaying

History’s Worst Execution Methods: Flaying Flaying — better known as “skinning alive” — has a long and grotesque history. Records of the practice exist as far back as the Neo-Assyrian Empire (beginning in 911 B.C.), but it has cropped up in most civilizations at one time or another, including Medieval Europe (where it tended to be used as a punishment for traitors) and in the ritual human sacrifices made by the Aztecs in Mexico (the Aztecs, at least, are believed to have skinned the body after the sacrifice had been made). Various techniques have been utilized in the many different cultures in which flaying has been employed, but the basis remains the same: Slowly, excruciatingly slicing the skin from the body while keeping the victim alive for as long as possible (and when feasible, removing the skin intact). Rendering Of Flaying Wikimedia Commons Carvings from the Assyrian period show the process beginning with incisions to the thighs or buttocks, while the European method — pictured...

The Macabre True Story Of Edward Paisnel, The Beast Of Jersey

The Macabre True Story Of Edward Paisnel, The Beast Of Jersey Throughout the 1960s, Edward Paisnel appeared to be a pillar of his small community on the English Channel Island of Jersey. He was a family man who was devoted to his wife Joan and her young children, and he even played Santa Claus at Christmastime for the young foster children at the group home that Joan founded. But when he wasn't spending time with his family or doing good deeds, he was donning this mask and sneaking into his neighbors' homes at night in order to sexually assault women and children. It would take more than a decade for police to finally catch up with the “Beast of Jersey" as they repeatedly focused on other suspects, blind to the fact that a man like Paisnel could commit such crimes. Officers only caught him when he ran a red light one day in 1971 and they happened to see his mask sitting right there in his car. Edward Paisnel committed more than a dozen rapes and assaults in the Channel Is...

BTK serial killer's daughter: 'We were living our normal life. ... Then everything upended on us

BTK serial killer's daughter: 'We were living our normal life. ... Then everything upended on us "He asked, 'Do you know who BTK is?' I was like, 'You mean the person that's wanted for murders back in Kansas?' And then he says, 'Your dad has been arrested as BTK.'"⁠ ⁠ On February 25, 2005, Kerri Rawson found out that her father, Dennis Rader, had tortured and killed 10 people, many of them young women just like her. After an FBI agent broke the news to Rawson, she first tried to defend the dad she thought she knew. But then, Rader confessed to all the horrific crimes he'd committed while being a seemingly normal suburban husband and father. This is the full story of the BTK Killer's daughter — click the link in our profile to read more.⁠ Late one February evening in 2005, Kerri Rawson went online and listened to a recording of the BTK killer from 1977. It was a 911 call in which the caller casually reported a homicide he had just ...

75 Biblical Reasons Why You should Not Drink Alcohol

75 BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL DRUNK Many people have argued About whether it is right for Christian to drink alcohol or not. Some say it is okay to drink but not not to drink too much. However, that is not what the bible says. The bible says that, you should not even look at alcohol no matter how alluring it might seem to you. look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it bitten like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. prover 23:31-32 1) Genesis 9:20-26 - Noah became drunk; the result was immorality and family trouble. 2) Genesis 19:30-38 - Lot was so drunk he did not know what he was doing; this led to immorality 75 Biblical Reasons Why You should Not Drink Alcohol 3) Leviticus 10:9-11 - God commanded priests not to drink so that they could tell the difference between the holy and the unholy. 4) Numbers 6:3 - The Nazarites ...

She poisoned 21 people including her own mother, children and husbands. So why has no-one heard of Britain's FIRST serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton?

She poisoned 21 people including her own mother, children and husbands. So why has no-one heard of Britain's FIRST serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton? The motivating factor behind Mary Ann Cotton seemed to be money, but it was surely not the final motive of her evil deeds. Mary Ann Cotton was responsible for the deaths of three of her four husbands, and she is thought to have murdered 21 victims in all, which includes eleven of her 13 children as well as her own mother. The main instrument she used for her murders was arsenic poisoning, which caused great gastric pain and the speedy decline of life force in her victims. After a 20-year long spree of mysterious murders surrounding Cotton’s life, she was eventually arrested and put on trial in 1873. Mary Ann Cotton was convicted of the murder of three of her husbands and was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was not a smooth one; Cotton’s trap door proved to be too short, and she writhed wildly at the end of her rope until she...

Mansion where mobster Bugsy Siegel was shot hits the market for $17M

Mansion where mobster Bugsy Siegel was shot hits the market for $17M After founding Murder Inc. and pioneering the early development of Las Vegas, Bugsy Siegel was shot multiple times while reading the Los Angeles Times inside his home in 1947. Though it's often reported he was shot through the eye, it was actually the pressure of a bullet going through Siegel's skull that caused his left eye to blow out of its socket.⠀ ⠀ See the chilling photos and meet the notorious gangsters from the height of the Public Enemy era by clicking the link in our bio. In the 1930s and 1940s, Bugsy Siegel thrived as one of America’s most notorious gangsters. He ran gambling and bootleg rackets in New York, rubbed shoulders with movie stars in Los Angeles, and poured money into building hotels in Las Vegas. But his violent delights had violent ends. More than anything, Siegel is famous not for how he lived — but for how he died. After establishing himself as a formidable criminal presence on both c...

Mixed or same sex schools: Before you choose

Mixed School Vs Single-Sex School - Mixed School Vs Single-Sex School - Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of single-sex schooling was common before the 20th century, particularly in secondary and higher education. Single-sex education in many cultures is advocated on the basis of tradition as well as religion, and is practiced in many parts of the world. Recently, there has been a surge of interest and establishment of single-sex schools due to educational research...

Abraham Lincoln: The US President who honed his political skills through wrestling

Abraham Lincoln: The US President who honed his political skills through wrestling Before he became a politician, Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler, due to his long limbs, the great Emancipator only ever lost one out of 300 total matches Years before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln first made a name for himself as a wrestler. Over a 12-year period, Lincoln won almost every single one of his matches — and rivals were terrified to take him on. After defeating one opponent, the future president allegedly challenged a crowd of onlookers: "I'm the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns." ⁠ ⁠ Find out how the 16th President of the United States became a county champion wrestler, why he was celebrated for a victory in Illinois, and who the only person to beat him in 12 years was. Abraham Lincoln is one of the most famous politicians in history, but it is less known that he had an equally impressive wrestli...

The Harrowing Story Of The Whaleship ‘Essex’ That Inspired ‘Moby Dick’

The Harrowing Story Of The Whaleship ‘Essex’ That Inspired ‘Moby Dick’ After the whaleship "Essex" was sunk by a vengeful sperm whale, its crew was left on the high seas for 90 days — causing them to resort to cannibalism. November 1820, a vengeful sperm whale barreled into the Nantucket whaleship "Essex," sending it to the bottom of the South Pacific. For the next 90 days, the crew of the "Essex" was left adrift in three rowboats on the high seas, where they quickly ran out of food and desperately resorted to cannibalism. When the men were finally rescued, the captain was found sucking on the bone marrow of a shipmate he had killed and eaten — his own cousin. See the illustrations and learn the harrowing story of survival that inspired the infamous “Moby Dick" In November 1820, a vengeful sperm whale barreled into the Nantucket whaleship "Essex," sending it to the bottom of the South Pacific. For the next 90 days, the crew of the "Es...

Herb Baumeister Picked Up Men From Gay Bars, Then Buried Them In His Yard

Herb Baumeister Picked Up Men From Gay Bars, Then Buried Them In His Yard Herb Baumeister seemed like an amazing family man, but as soon as his wife would leave town, he would cruise local gay bars, looking for his next victim. A man who wanted to remain anonymous approached the police to tell them of a disturbing encounter he had at one of the local bars with another man who called himself Brian Smart. Smart had taken the man back to his home one night and initiated a sexual encounter. Smart asked the man to choke him while he masturbated. The man agreed, but when Smart began to choke him, he did so until the man began to pass out. The anonymous man shook off smart and escaped that night, but the experience made him suspicious that this Brian Smart could be behind the local murders. And after he happened to run into Smart a few months later, he made a point of taking down his license number. After police ran the man’s plates, they found out that his name wasn’t Brian Smart at all...

Vwegba Blogging World

Search This Blog

Search on Wikipedia

SO Sad! Transgender Woman Pleads For Life Before Mob Beat Her To Death. click image to read story

Featured Post

10 Reasons Why Men Should Quit Watching Po*n