The Tale of The Ginger Murderer and Paw Paw Murdaugh, the deceased drunk. Part IV

If the investigation of Stephen Smith reveals the killer(s) and their motive, Buster may have gotten a girlfriend for nothing, y'all!

Thanks for the new thread!

Don't forget Maggie. "Maggie the cat is dead! I'm dead!!"

Okay, so legal proceedings can drag on and on and on... which case(s) move to the top of the proverbial list and which go nowhere?

Alex is facing another 99 cases, right?

The local, family-run bank is mixed up with Alex's shenanigans, so does that hit the courts?

The Beach family - will they get their financial settlement? Any judgment that Paul was indeed responsible for the crash/death?

Stephen Smith - will Buster and his no-homo friends be joining Daddy Murdaugh in the all-male showers of prison? "That Buster, he's a cutie! Bend that bitch ova fo me!" Will Daddy be forced to watch his son get violated?

And what of the Alex's remaining siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews? Life go on for them as if nothing happened?

How far up the deeply corrupt SC political ladder could this go? Corrupt judges, corrupt law enforcement, corrupt lawyers and banks. Corrupt senators, perhaps?

Not finished yet. The housekeepers untimely death is being investigated.

R5, you shut your whore mouth!

The Beach family has already gotten a partial settlement from the proceeds from Maggie's estate (including the sale of Moselle).

The former bank president has been found guilty and his request for a new trial was denied.

Alex's family is publically supporting him (with the notable exceptions of Randy and Maggie's sister), but you have to believe that they are hounded by doubts.

Supposedly, SLED found new evidence linked to Stephen Smith while they were investigating the double murder at Moselle. That is why they reopened the case. I would love to know what it is they found.

It's not just the housekeeper who died mysteriously. Hakeem's life support was cut off just before Alex sent out a "May Day" email to the bank to get them to forge Hakeem's paperwork to show him as still being alive.

R7- Mizz Lindsey , you mind your manners! I am not one your little rent boys, sir!

The Governor of SC looks/talks like he was pulled right out of an 1850s plantation. I’m guessing the corruption goes all the way to the state house.

SLED seems like a clearinghouse for good ol boy corruption.

AM must know quite a bit of dirt on some of these people. I wonder if any of them are worried about Alex running his mouth.

I can understand civil suits for damages, but why continue with legal cases against Alex when he already has two consecutive life sentences? Don't they just not press criminal charges when the perpetrator's dead? Seems like it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.

What if somehow he miraculously gets off on the murder conviction by some technicality? At least he'll have been convicted on the other charges.

It's to ensure he never sees the light of day as a free man again. And it's hardly a waste of taxpayer dollars. Those other crimes had victims too who deserve justice.

Stephen Smith’s mother crowdsourced the money to have him exhumed and an independent autopsy done.

Stephen Smith's mother seems very nice but she has been crowdsourcing so much, I do raise a gentle eyebrow.

R15 Investigators aren't cheap.

If I was Buster I would be so freaking paranoid. Wouldn’t want to anger daddy.

R17 Pa is in prison.

R18- Buster has probably been partying since the verdict was read.

I wonder if Buster stood by Alex during his murder trial so that Alex wouldn't sequel on him in the Stephen Smith case.

And maybe Buster hated his mother and brother too.

I can see Buster not liking Paul, but by most accounts, he was a mama's boy and Maggie doted on him.

Did Alex try to get Buster to come to Moselle that evening?

Buster, just seems weird to me. In one of the prison phone calls to Alex, Buster catches him up in a lie. He doesn't call Alex out on it, but he knows he's lying. Alex was talking about how the other inmates wanted his orange gym shoes, but in an earlier conversation he says he's in solitary, and has no contact with anyone. The other phone calls are odd too, because they're both speaking in code, about money, and Buster going hunting. There's probably a lot more despicable things to these people.

R24- Yes, it was obvious they were talking in code. I mean seriously, telling your son to go the place where his mother and brother were brutally murdered? Alex must have wanted/needed something very badly. Destroy evidence, retrieve a hidden money stash, etc.

We need some fresh movement in one of the cases to keep this thing going.

R26: I believe Alex will will be on the front pages again very soon. He will create some drama someway. He won't be ignored, Dan!

R18, Pa might be in prison but he probably has feelers throughout the community.

That's what I thought R25. Why in the world would you go hunting ( of all things) where your mother and brother were murdered. Maybe he wanted Buster to find and get rid of the weapons? Then a few days after the murders they all took a vacation and Buster and his uncle went to Vegas. Its really strange behavior and I wonder how much deeper and darker this goes.

What happened to Cousin Eddie? Is he going testify in the financial fraud cases? It's my belief that Alex was planning on killing Eddie that day . He was setting him up to make it look as if Eddie tried to kill him and was the killer of Paul and Maggie.

I've wondered about Cousin Eddie too. I was surprised that he didn't testify in AM trial. I believe He's going to testify in the trial for AM financial crimes. I think AM intended to kill or at least frame Cousin Eddie for Maggie and Paul. Alex, probably used Cousin Eddie, a lot, to carry out some of the financial crimes, especially because drugs were involved.

But what motive would Eddie have to kill Paul and Maggie?

^^ He knew Cousin Eddie knew a lot of his secrets and Cousin Eddie was already a small time criminal. I believe in his irrational, drug fueled mind, he would say he was being blackmailed by CE. Cousin Eddie, wanted money, Alex didn't pay up, so CE killed them. Its a weak theory, but Alex was addled and grabbing for anything.

Buster seemed oddly without emotions.

I think both Paul and Buster were the children of emotionally unavailable parents.

Sometimes, kids who grow up in that environment learn to shut down.

R33- Alex probably believed that no one would gaf about Eddie's demise and would have no problem believing it was self-defense. After all, Eddie was Eddie but Alex was a Murdaugh.

^^ exactly.

According to SLED, Smith was an escort and they are looking into a suspect who is not a Murdaugh

Link, r37?

[quote]Buster, just seems weird to me.

That's an understatement. He's extremely odd to me. Criminal kind of odd.

R39- A bit sinister?

If AM was planning on killing Eddie, why didn’t he? What stopped him?

Re speaking in code: aren’t there law enforcement experts out there trained to break codes? Surely their code wasn’t too complex.

Yes, r40. That nails it perfectly. That's the word I should've used.

R41- I believe Alex did try but Eddie fought with him and got the gun. Wasn't there a camera at the church Alex parked in front of?

Buster does seems emotional less. Even in the prison phone calls to Alex in prison, he talks like nothing happened at all. He and Paul have/ had, a piercing cold stare, just like Alex. Yes, piercing.

[quote]According to SLED, Smith was an escort

I remember hearing a law enforcement interview with an "older man" on Hilton Head.

He said that he had hooked up with Stephen. The first words out of his mouth, unsolicited, were: "No money changed hands."

And that was a red flag to trot out a "Sure, Jan."

Yes, I recall that, too, r45. Smith had told a friend or friends that he had started to see a wealthy older man who owned a boat, but kept mum about his identity and gave no details. My impression was the friends thought they were in a dating relationship. But then, one doesn't go around talking about escorting IRL.

Cousin Eddie, sort of made a veiled threat to AM in an interview. He said, he didn't expect AM to have a gun. When Alex called him, he thought he was needed to fix something, and when he got there Alex had a gun and they wrestled with it, and it went off. He denied, denied, denied knowing anything about anything, but he also said the Murdaughs , had better not go there. He said; I'd advise them not to go there. I remember reading something about a Church camera catching part of what happened between them, but I'm not sure if that's true. My question is CE, had a 20'000 bond to get out of jail, and claims he's broke and couldn't afford a Lawyer. So how'd he get out of jail? So much shadiness and still unanswered questions.

I believe that Curtis Smith is still in jail.

I also think the knows a lot of shady, criminal shit about Alex but couldn't reveal it without implicating himself.

Stephen Smith also told his best friend that he was seeing a "prominent" local man.

That is what made me think it was one of Buster's uncles.

In Eric Allen's podcast there is an interview with the police and Jessica Smith about Stephen advertising for money online

I wonder if the older man Stephen was seeing was one of Murdaugh's good ol' boy cronies

On the Court TV aftershow last week they were talking about Alex's money, and whether he is truly "broke." It turns out that he has trust fund $$ left to him by his father, which apparently cannot be touched under SC law. They didn't know how much, but it's evidently generational wealth spawned by his father, grandfather and great grandfather through the years - even if it's split among the three brothers and the one sister.

There's a long line of victims trying to get whatever they can for their clients, among them the Beach family and all the injury clients like that poor deaf paralegic. One might think the sale of the Moselle property for $3.9 million might go toward these victims, however, that property was in Maggie's name, and again, according to SC law, half of the proceeds will go to - guess who? Buster - with the other half going to the victims. It's INSANE.

"Buster seemed oddly without emotions."

You might think the same of me if you met me in person, and that's because I grew up with a parent who had narcissistic -+*tendencies. If I showed feelings or expressed needs as a child there was hell to pay, because a person on the narcissism spectrum family life is 100% about their own needs. The family is there to deal with the narcissist's feelings, and not vice versa!

And since Alex Murdaugh seems to be a case of full-blown toxic NPD, Buster probably grew up with similar tendencies, although unlike me, he grew up as a scion of a corrupt dynasty. But he may share the child-of-a-narcissist's tendency to go all gray-rock when feeling under attack (such as being under media scrutiny), because that's what you do when a narcissist has control of your life. You don't fight back, you don't cry, you just let them get on with the rage, because doing anything else will make the rage worse.

On NBC “Today” they touch on Stephen Smith’s alleged roadside “accident” and his relationships.

In an exclusive interview Buster blasts the vicious rumors - he forcefully disavows any involvement with Stephen Smith’s death.

He is silent as to involvement with Stephen himself.

I don't think Buster and Stephen were involved with other sexually. Stephen had told people he was going deep sea fishing with someone who had a boat and was high up and everyone would be surprised He indicated he was involved with this person. That's not Buster. And I don't think he was referring to the motor boat that was in the accident. He was talking about a luxury boat or yacht. That doesn't mean Buster and his pals didn't beat the shit out of Stephen on a dark and lonely road in the middle of the night even if they didn't mean to actually kill him. I think Buster is definitely capable of that.

Now you can own items from the Murdaughs. Somebody needs to go to this auction

If anybody gets money I hope the housekeeper's family does. They are pathetic and Alex really fucked them over taking that money.

Forgive me for asking this now, but I thought I heard/read that Buster was supposed to be miles away when his mother and brother were married. How did he get "far away" if the kennel video was shot less than 10 minutes before they were killed?

Assuming you mean when they were murdered, not married, Buster was never alleged to have been there that night, and the kennel video certainly doesn't indicate he was.

woo doggie check out those geniune tortoise shell lamps up for auction

Money does not buy taste evidently.

R59, thank you for the correction and answer. I did mean murdered. So the video was shot by the dead son, Paul?

What absolute shit taste.

Yes, r62. That was huge in the trial because Paul shot the video, Alex had claimed he was never down there, yet his voice was heard on it.

Minutes later Paul and Maggie were dead and only after the video was revealed did Alex then admit to being down there.

The stuff they're auctioning off looks hideous

R65- You have to ask yourself if these people were really rich. That looks like unwanted crap you would find in a Goodwill store.

man, there are times when the NY Post can still seem to be the NY Post of my youth. What a great headline on the article:

Murdaugh family items, hideous furniture to be auctioned off Thursday

It doesn’t cost THAT much to live a “rednecks with money” lifestyle in South Carolina.

That’s why I want to know where Alex hid all the money.

I remember laughing when I read Miss Maggie had charged up her Belk account.

Belk is certainly not a fancy department store. It is very southern, though.

R67_ 😂.

I love someone else’s used hideous furniture. It’s “upcycled”.

Who is Stephen Smith? Family of Buster Murdaugh's killed classmate speak out

"Now you can own items from the Murdaughs. Somebody needs to go to this auction"

Somebody who's in the region DOES need to go! If you live in the Carolinas and have the free time, get up and take one for the team!!!

If I didn't live 3000 miles away, and have a full-time job, I'd go myself. But sorry, can't help you guys this time.

OMG, those turtle shell lamps. So sad, should be illegal.

Wonder how Alex is spending his days.

"I use antlers in all of my decorating."

Steven Smith's death is now being investigated as a homicide.

Rut roh, Buster.

This whole mess certainly makes South Carolina look like a bunch of dumb rednecks who can’t do anything right. (I can say that— I went to high school there. It’s just as miserable as you’d think.)

Steven looks like that Jolie-Pitt kid.

Did Steven do drag? That's what I always assume when I see a man with severely plucked eyebrows.

Watch out, Elsie de Wolfe. The Murdaughs are bringing STYLE with their antlers and turtle lamps!

This is a very good Reddit thread for anyone interested in Steven Smith's death.

Buster snapped when Stephen told him he couldn’t see him anymore because he smelled funny down there.

Authorities confirm Stephen Smith probe is a homicide l GMA

You have to wonder what SLED found then they searched Moselle that made them reopen the Smith case. Photos?

You can’t write this shit. No one would believe it!

It only took 8 years, two additional homicides and a sum of eighty grand crowd sourced on GoFundMe for the death of Stephen Smith to be investigated... Do you think if law enforcement had investigated Smiths death properly almost a decade ago, lives could have been saved?

Stephen Smith died in a tragic accident. Move along, folks, nothing to see here!

Nothing, R84. From the article at R81:

"There has been a lot of discussion as to what prompted SLED to open that homicide probe. Today, the public will get to view the file that led them to do so … the original 2015 S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP) “Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team” (MAIT) report into Smith’s death.

Contrary to popular perception, SLED’s investigation into Stephen Smith’s death was not based on any evidence or information obtained at Moselle – but rather the agency obtaining a copy of the MAIT report.

“Anyone who reads that file knows it was not a hit-and-run,” one law enforcement source told me this week. “But even if it was a hit-and-run, it’s still a vehicular homicide.”

[quote]I don't think Buster and Stephen were involved with other sexually. Stephen had told people he was going deep sea fishing with someone who had a boat and was high up and everyone would be surprised He indicated he was involved with this person. That's not Buster.

Stephen told friends he was going on a fishing vacation with the guy he was seeing's family. The guy was going to come out to his family on the trip. [NOTE: Showing up with Stephen may have been a *bit* of a clue, Buster.]

The Murdaughs like to go on fishing vacations. Paw Paw's ex-girlfriend said she went on one with them to Guatemala.

If Buster had come out to his family while on an isolated boat, with his father and femmey boyfriend on board... the femmey boy would have ended the trip as shark food.

In an interview with Vinnie Politan on Court TV last week, Stephen's mother said that he told her he was going to KEY WEST to go "deep sea fishing with someone VERY IMPORTANT, but he didn't tell her who. You do the math.

And surprised that no one has mentioned that this kid had MAJOR CSL!

"And surprised that no one has mentioned that this kid had MAJOR CSL!"

I KNOW!!!

[quote]with the guy he was seeing's family.

Oh, dear.

Also, what is CSL? Cancerous Systemic Liver?

CSL = cock-sucking lips

If he went on a fishing trip, and something happened, why didn't they dump his body in the ocean? Also, why did one of BM's uncles, call Stevens mother to report his death?. Nothing makes sense.

[quote]The Murdaughs like to go on fishing vacations.

Ummm, kinky!!!

Oh, you said FISHING!

[quote]Nothing makes sense.

Including your punctuation.

My 93 year old mom said Buster is a good looking guy, that's when I realized she isn't kidding when she says she can't see very well.

NY Post (I know, I know) in an item today says that a rape kit was ordered at the time of the accident, but it doesn't state what the results were or if it was ever done.

In the mom's Vinnie Politan interview, she says that both Randy and Alex Murdaugh were on the scene immediately.

Randy was on the scene not Alex

This is getting juicy again.

Someone needs to investigate SLED. Why didn’t they catch this the first time?

Where is the damn FBI?

Not finished yet, their housekeeper's death is also suspicious!

SLED did not investigate the first time. IIRC correctly it was the highway patrol but not SLED.

WTF was Unca Randy there??

For those late to the party:

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is a state-level law enforcement agency that is responsible for investigating and enforcing laws in the state of South Carolina. SLED was created in 1947 and is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina.

And it should be SCLED. SLED is just stupid.

I hope they swabbed his mouth and his ass.

The auction was a complete success crowded with many, many versions of S. Carolina weirdness, excess, total Redneckism and depravity. There were dozens of turtle shell lamps and decorations, and even Daily Mail readers had withering comments about the cheap, crass, way out of Mayberry clowns.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

That auction is in unreal. Why in the world would people want that shit. Just look at the photo and how those people are swarming to have something belonging to this weird ass family. Good God.

If I had a bar or something like that I think it would be a great ghoulish item to put on display. There are people who collect the possessions of murderers anyway.

The people in that warehouse, pawing over and through the Murdaugh's belongings are just plain ugly. Good God it's a sea of overweight, poorly groomed, cheaply dressed, haggard-looking citizens.

What kind of lives do these people lead that they end up so sad and miserable looking?

R113, like we've got room to talk!

The Murdaugh "alibi couch" went for $36,000 - Vinnie Politan interviewed the guy who bought it on Court TV last night. It went to a very decent looking guy from Georgia who had a hunting lodge of his own. He explained that he got two couches, a recliner and a large rug for that price.

Did they auction pieces of Junior's brains?

A lot of the stuff, most of it really, is what you would expect to find in a junkyard. No wonder Maggie hated the hunting lodge, even though it was in her name.

I wonder how far some of those people traveled for the occasion. Phone and internet bids weren't allowed. In person bidding only.

Ugh. Bad juju. I guess these bitches have never seen those movies about demons following old furniture items.

My question is, before the dynasty came crashing down, was Alex the #1 son? I know he has multiple brothers, but haven't seen it clarified who was the LEAD Murdaugh

I’m guessing Alex was a fuckup like Paul.

I wonder if Maggie was also the family fuckup in her family of origin. How else to explain ending up with Alex?

Even her friends and family give sort of blah descriptions of her. “She was a mom, she liked doing things with her kids, etc” It’s as if they are trying not to say too much. Or else she really did just sit on her ass her whole life. It’s not like her kids were young.

The beach house - Edisto Island, SC. - See link.

No wonder Maggie liked it.

What is Randy’s excuse for being on the scene so quickly? Does he have one?

The Edisto house is so staged. It looks like every VRBO from Charleston to Hilton Head.

"My question is, before the dynasty came crashing down, was Alex the #1 son?"

I'd guess Randy was actually the #1 son, but Alex thought he was.

As for Maggie ending up with Alex, that's totally understandable. She was from that region and if her goal was to "marry well" and be a spoiled wife and full-time mother, then she couldn't be too picky about personality! No, for a blonde Southern gal to meet her life goals, she needs to look at family money and connections, make damn sure that the man she married would be able to support her in the lifestyle she damn well expected. So what if that meant marrying an asshole, she knows how to manage a man...

R110 we don’t care what the daily mail says. We are capable of comign to our own conclusions.

What is it with people who read that crap? They are always nut jobs and shut ins. It’s the official paper of pathetic people.

36,000 for a living room set of furniture? Was it made of gold?

People like that have too much money are perpetually being ripped off on something or another.

The beach house looks middle brow and cluttered.

Yes, well Alex went and killed Gloria who would normally have kept it cleaner.

Who is "we" r125 and why are you arrogant enough to presume to speak for others? Did they send you here to express their displeasure?

What "conclusions" do you believe I want you to come to by posting a DM article that contains pictures of the Murdaugh’s belongings?

R110

Are they selling any of.....uh.....Buster's.....uh.....drawers?

Asking for a friend.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

^I guess the carpet drove the price up, but stilll...

The housekeeper was killed to collect insurance. Millions of dollars.

[quote] she knows how to manage a man...

Well, knew anyway.

Paul’s ex girlfriend got engaged, she seems to have a taste for ugly rednecks

Jesus, that photo of the six friends just screams "why stereotypes exist" - just some good ole boys and their chicks. One of whom will be pregnant within a year.

"Paul’s ex girlfriend got engaged, she seems to have a taste for ugly rednecks"

She lives in rural South Carolina. Who else is she going to meet?

I'd bet that he's from a family with money like Paul. I can't blame her. I'm honestly pretty envious of people who can be in a relationship with pretty fugly people since I never can get past that.

R138 is correct. Real country boys don’t wear $400 Barbour jackets like he has on in that pic. Morgan got a taste of the good life and isn’t going to marry for love and live in a trailer on the edge of a soybean field.

The auction was bubba central for death cultists. The family was killing obsessed. Horrible people, not surprised they came to a bad end.

I wonder how many of the vast collection of twin beds were masterbated in by the boys.

R115. He overpaid. I hope the furniture haunts his hunting lodge. Creepy.

Maggie's bicycle went for $950. A friend of hers bought it so it wouldn't go to some redneck prole. The turtle shell lamps went for $650 each.

God only knows what the guns and the BULLETS went for!

Bubba the dog who helped seal Alex's fate, went to the housekeeper Blanca Simpson.

[quote]I wonder how many of the vast collection of twin beds were masterbated in by the boys.

😐

Those fucking lamps were nightmarish.

I can't imagine what sort of ghoul would want any of that trash.

I took great offense to thosr ugly serving pieces.

Who paid $600 for those hella ugly turtle lamps?

Why didn’t Buster take Bubba? That’s so sad.

Maybe the money is in the tortoise lamps.

R148 Because he's a sociopath like the rest. Also, I'm sure the dog was much more familiar with the housekeeper than Buster.

I would be willing to pay 25% of the asking price. Other than that I wouldn't buy anything. Say if a pair of skis were 60 and I got them for 15 dollars. That would be worth it.

[quote] I remember laughing when I read Miss Maggie had charged up her Belk account. Belk is certainly not a fancy department store. It is very southern, though.

I am not 100% certain about this, but I am fairly certain that Belk is owned by an old Charleston family, the Hanahans.

Moselle sold:

NY Post reporting today that Buster received $530K from the sale of the Moselle property.

Buster receiving $530K from the sale of the Moselle property, with $2.68 mil going to victims. It sold for $3.9 mil

Sorry for the double post - hopefully he is squirreling some $ away for legal fees -

R152, it’s owned by a private equity fund but was owned by the Belk family of Charlotte before that.

Some woman purchased a camera at the auction and found it still full of photos. Ridiculous that no one at the auction house checked for that!

This is all working out quite well for Buster.

Maybe Buster is the REAL killer after all.

Buster killed Stephen no shot, then he had killer peepaw cover it up by buying off the coroner and cops to say “hit and run”. He was on the scene in 2.2 seconds. Flashing his fake as get out of jail fee badge (that didn’t work this time hahahaha) That whole family was southern white privileged scum. They killed and it was another day at the office. They hunted and didn’t care about animal suffering so why would they think twice about humans? The son drunkenly rammed the boat because he wanted that girls attention and she died. Dad kills him cause he’s costing him too much in legal fees and the mom was alleged to be filing for divorce over all the money Alex was stealing and hiding so he killed her. Buster the Howdy Doody Dough Boy motherfucker is gay and a self hating one so he didn’t want his down low to make it public (stories circulated said Smith was sick of being a hidden boyfriend and wanted to go public, BustaNut MurderDaugh said NOPE! So Stephen Smith threatened to release the evidence and next thing ya know a promising life is ended and another Murdering Murdaugh is living life freely) Fucking fugly red fatsos

[quote] Howdy Doody Dough Boy motherfucker

You have a way with words, R161.

R161 good recap

The woman who bought the bag of memory cards says she didn’t know what they were, but she loaded them onto her computer as soon as she got home. Right. I’m sure she’s hoping for a payout, but they seem to just be family vacation photos. It is crazy that the auction house allowed them to be sold in the first place.

Mark Tinsley said he believes the reason Alex killed Maggie is because she knew too much and he knew Tinsley would subpoena her to testify in the Mallory Beach trial. Tinsley said that Maggie had years worth of Facebook videos and photos of Alex and Maggie drinking with underage people including their sons and their son's friends.. Tinsley grabbed the videos and then informed Alex' lawyer Tiller that he had the videos. Tinsley said Alex was furious about the videos and told Maggie to delete them but it was too late, Tinsley already had them.

Tinsley also said that Alex really didn't have in depth knowledge about law, Ronnie Crosby had to go over all of Alex' documentation and revise the legal aspects and a paralegal would correct all of the numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes. Alex couldn't spell. All of his dis and dats under testimony were genuine.

More evidence that Buster isn't very bright - he could have made a better profit if he'd sold this himself. I wonder how much his 500k will last since he doesn't seem to have talent nor his daddy's shark-like rapaciousness. Unless he has a trust fund as well.

Lots of new info on the Steven Smith case , including autopsy report and crime scene photos. Once you see those photos and the amount of blood and head trauma it becomes clear why some mistakenly thought he was shot. He was working for an escort company and also working from Craig's List. We all know the dangers of that, especially in the homophobic south. ( I also believe he was doing or involved with drugs, but that is only speculation on my part. ) Both his mother and sister were aware of this.

It is very possible, imo, that Steven ran out of gas and phoned someone to help him or someone stopped to him and Steven fell or was purposely thrown from the back of a pick up truck. His shoes are on his feet, loosely tied. He has abrasions on his arms. Idk what happened to him but someone killed him either accidentally, hit and run, or deliberately and left him to die on that road.

Their home decor makes me think of that episode of The Nanny when cousin Roseanne Barr the decorator redoes Mr. Sheffield's kitchen in an "Antlers & Oysters" theme to subconsciously make him hornier for Fran.

It makes me think of that old Hee-Haw tv show.

It’s a strange old life isn’t it? One day, you’re alive, a living Murdaugh, busy crashing boats, swindling people, killing one or two of the little people and the next you have your face shot off or end up jailed for shooting a face off and hoards of the little people are poking around your belongings and buying your used shoes in an auction.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Those turtleshell lamps are the most aggressively hideous home furnishings I have ever seen.

Well, Alex has something the law can never take away from him. He's FAMOUS.

Seriously, R161, why do you think Buster killed Stephen Smith? Were they seen together, or known to be friends or "friends"? If so, had they been known to have a disagreement? Or was this just someone the age of the Murdaugh sons, who was murdered in Murdaugh territory?

I'm trying to remember the gossip about him from the early stages of this saga, and am drawing a blank on a real connection to the Murdaugh family.

R174, Stephen Smith had tutored Buster in a class they were in while in high school. When Smith was found dead in the road, many people interviewed by law enforcement said that everyone was talking about how the Murdaughs had something to do with it. Paul’s girlfriend, by her account, even asked the whole assembled family over dinner why people were saying Buster had something to do with it and was basically told to drop it.

What a perfect cover - he is my tutor. Perfect for a gay boy in the homophobic atmosphere of the deep south.

When exactly did Alex start stealing cash?. Is it possible he used the missing cash to pay off others who conspired with (or even just had knowledge of) one of his spawn in the murder of Stephen Smith?

R177- Idk when started stealing but they all may have been blackmailing each other. Paul and/or Maggie - The housekeepers death. Buster - Stephen's death. Who else ? This family was surrounded by unexplained deaths.

Was Stephen’s phone looked at for evidence of a relationship with Buster?

I would hope the remaining proceeds from the sale go to the Satterfields. Moselle was in Maggie's name and the insurance payout he stole was from their household insurance. The other money he stole was related to PMPED, his law firm.

SLED has his phone but they haven't released any information about what they found. They also performed a rape kit on him , the results of which have been sitting who knows where for all of these years.

I wonder what happened to all of the stolen money? Alex couldn't have spent it all on drugs, and while they lived well, it didn't look particularly lavish.

R182, I bought me some turtle lamps

R182- Who knows how much money Alex has hidden away somewhere. Maybe none, maybe a great deal .

R156, he won't need money for legal fees. He has a family full of lawyers.

Gambling. The money went for gambling. Even in jailhouse calls with Buster, Alex talks about gambling in jail.

I imagine he buried iminey on his property.

^^^money^^^^

But where did Buster bury his iminey ?

I read on one of the Murdaugh threads that Maggie wanted the life her sister has. Her sister married very well and they are much richer than the Murdaughs. Alex always felt pressured to compete with his brother-in-law and provide Maggie with the same lifestyle. If true, and I believe it, that may explain why he was stealing money from his clients. Alex knew she would leave him over the loss of money and the prestige of the Murdaugh name. Paul's court case was going to cost him a massive amount of money in legal fees not to mention whatever he would have had to pay the victims of the boating accident. Maggie wanted to sell Moselle and use that money to pay for the court case. Alex did not want to leave Moselle. He hated the beach house in Edisto.

Well, in any case they were hardly jetsetters. They went from one tacky house to another, and appear to spend their free time huntin' and fishin'.

They travelled quite a bit, all had new vehicles, boats. Expensive fishing trips. College for both sons, two homes, household staff. The maintenance of Moselle alone must have been expensive. Farm equipment, hunting grounds, guns for every family member, hunting dogs and kennels. If the rumors are true Alex paid for sex workers, and of course copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.

White trash with money.

Moselle is so creepy.

When I was little our house was on a big piece of Iand in the country. Beautiful but I found the isolation creepy.

[quote]guns for every family member

In every room, apparently.

[quote]Expensive fishing trips.

Those fisting trips sound fun!

Someone said he mentioned gambling even in a jailhouse call? Gambling addiction can eat up an enormous amount of money.

He told Buster he won three soups. Not even kidding.

Did AM sound upbeat on the calls?

I have a feeling that much will be revealed in the civil embezzlement cases. They’ll delve more deeply in exactly what AM was spending all that money on as part of discovery.

Don't be fooled by the trash that I sell.

I'm still Buster from Moselle.

My sister sent me an interesting text today. It was a screenshot of an applicant at her husband's company.

The applicant was Richard Murdaugh Jr, aka Buster.

So I guess he's looking for a job.

Where? R202

The purchase of the digital camera with the pics recorded on it is a find!

The trash that bought the camera was on Court TV. She's looking for big bucks.

R202 does your sister work at Popeye's?

[QUOTE]The applicant was Richard Murdaugh Jr, aka Buster.

If the applicant was truly a Junior from the murderous clan, wouldn't his name be Alexander? There are many Murdaugh males spawning all over Lo country, or whatever those folks call the area. So sure it's the real Buster, Buster?

I know, I know. I get tripped up on gigantic details sometimes when I overthink things...

Well, he's living in Hilton Head so there can't be that many the same age.

Alex's name is Richard Alexander Murdaugh so Buster must have just left the middle name out.

^I bet I know why.

Why?

R125, most of the people who read it are idiots, but you can not deny that the Daily Mail has the BEST photos. That's why R110 posted an article from the Mail. Now STFU

Omg, he got uglier!

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSAV) — Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh is being moved to a new facility, the South Carolina Department of Corrections says.

According to officials, Murdaugh’s reception and evaluation process is complete. He has now been moved to the statewide protective custody unit of South Carolina’s maximum security prison.

The specialized unit that Murdaugh will be housed in includes inmates who have validated protective concerns.

He will be in a single 8×10 cell that contains a bed, toilet and sink.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Stephen Smith's body exhumed:

R213 He looks more like what he is. He may morph into a smooth Prison Muscle Daddy who still smells funny "down there".

Is AM gonna get swole in prison?

Ok bear with me. Doesn’t Stephen look like he could be Pa Murdaugh’s love child, a little bit? And if he and Buster had an affair, then Buster found out Stephen was his brother, it could be enough for the double whammy homosex/ incest panic murder? Or Pa found out his sons were getting it on, so ran his bastard son down in the street. Thoughts? 🤣

Stephen was too good looking. Those Murdaugh genes are awfully strong.

I say no.

Fascinating interview with Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley about the trial and his testimony and what he knows about Elleck Murdaugh. As I have pointed out on these threads several times, there was no independent evidence of Paw's supposed "drug addiction," and Tinsley agrees that he felt it was just self-serving bullshit launched by a total psychopath. This is a very insightful conversation:

^The talk about the real motive starts at 19:22.

^Punchline: Maggie's social media had beaucoup photos of Paul drinking (underage) and she had "liked" them. By proving the family approved of Paul's illegal drinking, the liability of the parents in the Beach case could be conclusively established. By getting rid of Maggie, Alec could keep those posts from being authenticated in the court case and admitted into evidence. He would save his own ass by getting rid of her. Alex was asked the questions under oath, and Alex denied them. Therefore Tinsley was put in the position of having to add Maggie as a defendant in the case, at the end of 2021 (months before Alex killed her). It makes sense legally, but only if there was also a good deal of animosity between Alex and Maggie.

The full video is actually 1 Hr and 42 minutes long. I'm sure it's worth watching.

I watched an interview with the detectives who investigated the case, and they were not convinced that Alec had been planning the murders long before they happen. They tended to the view that he snapped after a culmination of all the events.

His marriage was bad. He knew Paul was a bad seed. The boat crash case was going to cost millions which he allegedly didn’t have. He had just been confronted by his firm about the missing cash.

He needed something big to happen to allow him to somehow save himself, or at least his “family name”. I think he really placed great importance on being part of this big dynasty, and thought Paul had to be eliminated to save it. His only hope of getting things on track was to get rid of Paul to allow himself time to conceal his financial crimes. And when he couldn’t find a way out after the murder, his thoughts were to kill himself in a way which would allow his son and heir, Buster, to carry on with $10million to keep up the family name.

The thing I can’t understand is what happened to the millions he stole. Was someone blackmailing him?

Tinsley says he adamantly does not believe Alex was blowing most of it on drugs. He says Alex was too deep into a network of serious lies, for too long, to have been discombobulated to the point that he couldn't think (connive) clearly, and I agree 100 percent. Alex did not have the demeanor of a dope-head. Tinsley suggests that the large amounts of money Paw funneled to 'Cousin Eddie' were just a means to conceal money, launder it.

I also wonder what happened to the millions he stole. WTF? Where did they go? The man was scrambling for cash when the crisis hit!

But I also wonder if he had any financial motive to get rid of Paul, because I'm having a hard time believing that Paul's death would make the Paul-related legal problems just vanish. The other Murdaughs were being sued along with Paul, the Beaches considered them liable for enabling Paul's underage drinking, and I know it's possible to sue the estate of a deceased person. Can you not sue the estate of a deceased minor?

Clearly Paw hadn't ironed out ALL the wrinkles by the time he started wielding the shotgun(s).

Drug fucking problem. He was on the stand boasting of his tolerance to consume large quantities of pain killers.

Now! After more money is involved, the investigation into Stephen Smith's death is being resumed.

Don't ever, ever allow anyone to tell you money doesn't mean anything.

[quote] Tinsley suggests that the large amounts of money Paw funneled to 'Cousin Eddie' were just a means to conceal money, launder it.

R225, Who was he ultimately funneling it to, via Eddie? I’d love to know when he started stealing. Did something happen around that time that made him need huge amounts of cash that he could spend without Maggie wondering about where it was going? I think the answer to that question is at the heart of this case.

I can’t imagine that he spent millions on drugs. If so, he’s the fattest, healthiest-looking drug addict ever. And yet, if the drugs story is false, then who is he covering for? His life as a free man is over, but he still has secrets.

[quote]Fascinating interview with Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley

Fascinating interview with hot and sexy Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley

FIFY.

[quote]But I also wonder if he had any financial motive to get rid of Paul,

Maybe there wasn't a financial motive, but a self-protecting motive. Paul knew he killed Maggie and he was collateral damage. Or he knew he couldn't kill Maggie without Paul knowing and he had to go too.

R229 = pill poppers are often fat. The red states are filled with fat people addicted to prescription drugs

I do think gambling is a better way to throw away millions than drugs, and yes, millions and millions of stolen money are totally unaccounted for. I mean you can throw away a small fortune on enough drugs for one person, but I don't know that a person can take 10-20 million dollars worth of drugs and still be robust! Ditto for expensive girlfriends, unless he was buying them beachfront real estate, they just don't cost enough to account for all the missing money.

Maybe he just hid the money, but somehow it seems out of character. He was such a big-fish-in-a-small-pond, very much the sort of person who would feel obligated to make a display of wealth and status. Selling property and crying poor seems out of character.

The big bitch went up on stage to testify he's figured out how to be a successful drug addict.

R233, I agree. I’ve long been a proponent of the theory that a lot of the money he stole was going for gambling debts. Cousin Edie might have been taking sports bets, or running an illegal, high-stakes poker game, thus the payments. The reason why no one has, yet, dug too deeply into where the money went is because a lot of wealthy men in that area were the recipients of the money Alex lost gambling.

Read Alex is getting lots of letters from ladies.

They are not ladies, they are grifters and bottom feeders.

Is Hot Daddy Beach rich yet??

Why would he say he was spending money on drugs if he was actually gambling? What’s the difference?

Addiction is a better cover story than gambling, R239, because he can blame some of his bad behavior on an impaired thinking process, perhaps mitigating his sentence or at least drawing some public sympathy, and use a long stay in rehab to avoid arrest or the press. And because the sort of Good Christian Southerners he wants to dominate and fleece would more easily forgive him for addiction to drugs than throwing his money away gambling.

Personally, I think he made some kind of bad deal with bad people, the sort of people who don't accept any excuse and who use more effective methods of collection than his lawsuits. I also think his law partners are a bunch of thieving crooks, but I think that Murdaugh was too much of a crook even for them, and they threw him under the bus because he was a greedy and incompetent theif, and threatening to upset the whole crooked apple cart.

There is an ABC "victory lap" video on Youtube with 5 of the prosecutors, including the main one Creighton, and the Atty Gnl of SC, that I watched yesterday. It's about 25 minutes long and it's mostly a lot of back-slapping bluster, but Creighton does say that they are keenly intent on trying Alex for ALL of the embezzlement charges (as separate cases, like to be tried in each county where a defendant resides). He indicated that they are certainly going to try to find all of Paw's dough and claw it back. He was responding to those who have said that it's a waste of taxpayer money to fund trials for all these cases when Paw is certainly never going to get out of prison (barring a bizarre appeal result, which ain't gonna happen here). He's got a point that those defrauded folks are entitled to justice, and it will allow them to try to discover the money and uncover more about what might have really gone on in the case. Paw will likely be pumping for a plea deal before too very deep into that process, esp. once his murder appeals have started to stink a little.

Gambling is an addiction too but you may be onto something about rehab - admitting to his pill addiction meant that he could go to rehab. Plus he'd have had physical withdrawal symptoms which can be nasty.

[quote]He's got a point that those defrauded folks are entitled to justice, and it will allow them to try to discover the money and uncover more about what might have really gone on in the case.

Said almost the same thing at r13.

Did the attorney Chris Wilson get his $192,000 back?

^I highly doubt it. Paw's legal CFO described in agonizing detail how the firm had reimbursed Paw's victims for all the settlements he had cheated them out of and, assuming she was telling the truth, I'm sure that money was paid over to those people. Wilson would have a cause of action against Paw for the return of those funds (if he had any way of proving the money had been paid "for" Alex - recall he had asked Alex for an IOU to document that on the same day that Alex did his little roadside "suicide" performance). From that point on, Alex was in the slammer, without a pot to piss in, and, happily for everyone, it's gonna stay that way.

[quote]Alex was in the slammer, without a pot to piss in, and, happily for everyone, it's gonna stay that way.

Well, maybe not happily for [italic]everyone[/italic].

The police investigators weigh in on Alex's ineptitude as a criminal. It's interesting.

Combination of many things. Look at their expenses. Private planes to sport games, vacations, two college educations, etc. Expensive toys, two housekeepers, cooks, kennel helper. They had a very large estate to maintain in addition to a beach house and a river house and were living above their means. He was wealthy but not in his brother-in-law's league

R247 Thanks. IIRC Daniel Greene was the cop on the scene who recorded the bodycam footage. He was cool and collected, and one of the few really trying to preserve the integrity of the crime scene.

Well of course he was inept, R247, Murdaugh was counting on his connections in the Old Boys' Network to protect him from consequences! His crime was sloppy, because he never expected it to be investigated for real.

And he would have gotten away with it, the Old Boys' Network WOULD have protected him, if the national media hadn't shone a light into Murdaugh country. With that light shining into all the dark corners, nobody dared do business as usual.

Can anyone preserve the integrity of Buster's butthole?

I aim to try

Part I of that Investigator's video, up above, is also great, the team leader talking about how he could tell that Alex was covering something up pretty soon after he got to the scene, very canny discussion of how emotion affects people and how it is different when they're faking it. Murdaugh WAS upset, but he wasn't upset in the right way.

He says that the fact that Alex did not have a single speck of blood on him was an intensely suspicious fact. Alex did not run up, when he discovered them, and have contact with any part of their bodies, in spite of saying to the police that he had checked to see if either one of them was still alive...It's odd, because he DID remove Paul's phone from Paul's pocket, yet he did not have any blood on himself afterwards.

^They all agreed that that night, at the scene of the murders, Alex betrayed absolutely no signs or symptoms of being a drug addict. His whole line about that was bullshit; it COULD have been backed up by his rehab doctors from Savannah, but that evidence was never introduced (and Alex alone had the sole control over the availability of that info, subject to the doctor/patient privilege). It was ALL lies.

Buster is paying his light bill by doing porn:

r256, I can't stop laughing! Love it

That's a riot!

R250 Alex would have gotten away with it had his son not had a boating accident where a girl was killed. That broke the thing wide open.

[quote]Alex would have gotten away with it had his son not had a boating accident where a girl was killed. That broke the thing wide open.

That meddling kid!

I thought the murders were AFTER the boating accident?

Yes but the Murdaughs had already made the news because of the boating accident.

They were, it's awfully hard to kill someone after death.

Everyone rags on Mandy for her endless self-promotion, but I find Eric Bland even worse.

He signs all his Tweets "EB." Who does that? Like there is any confusion about who wrote them.

And he is always doing things like thanking all the people who want him to be the Attorney General. I imagine they are the same invisible people who are constantly approaching Donald Trump and flattering him.

But Eric has made a mint of the Murdaugh cases.

As has Mandy. She is always showing pics of the property she bought with the ad revenue off the podcast. It has a nice size pool.

I just wonder how much interest has dropped off after the convictions. I know they are trying to make the Stephen Smith case Alex the Sequel, but I don't think there is as much interest.

They were smart to start a new podcast that isn't just related to the Murdaugh murders. I just wonder if they will be able to keep it interesting.

Next they need to solve the Linda Bradberry murder from the 1982 (Aiken, SC— just a stones throw from Murdaugh country.)

Her husband “Porky “ Bradberry—a local jewelry shop owner— likely has something to do with it.

Eric Bland loves to talk. He doesn't seem to know when he is overdoing it. There's no interview or special he'll say no to. This is the best time of his life.

R266 Bland never says no to an interview because last year he signed an "exclusive" with some low-end show for very little money. It meant that he couldn't appear on the HBO show or any prestigious network shows. It drove him crazy.

It also made me think that I wouldn't want him negotiating contracts for me.

The answers are in the Kenneth Hardison (Shamu) drug connection. It's not gambling- Alex is part of a massive smuggling ring with G. Hayes, Kenneth Hardison and Devon Pope. Google the Pope/Webb arrests/ seizures. Dunn has long been known as the perfect midpoint between Miami & NY.

Alex was heavily involved with Shamu (Hardison)/Hayes. He's a personal injury atty who funnelled a TON of railroad injury clients to the Murdaughs. He also has a son (Jess) that died of a OD a few years back and a grandbaby that is from that relationship. Before all that- the mother- Sophia, threw away the first baby that she and Shamu's son had. THREW HIM IN THE TRASH. She was tried, found innocent (and was pregnant again while on the stand). Connect the dots. It's all drug trafficking.

R268 Drug trafficking would suggest that he's making money though? People are wondering why he needed so much money and where it was going. I think it was going on gambling, pills, women and a generally expensive lifestyle for his family.

🤔 The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

And fall. And fall. And fall again . . . . .

If I burned through X amount of million dollars I'd hope I'd have a little more to show for it than a white trash lifestyle and some shitty tortoise lamps.

R269- Expensive lifestyle? Hardly. They lived a very comfortable middle class existence.

R272 Absolutely not. How many middle class people do you know who have a full time maid?

R273, as well as deep-sea fishing trips to foreign countries which include girlfriends and friends.

Aside from the ugliness of his crimes, the interesting thing about the Murdaughs for me is that they were not Old Money with a portfolio of family properties: country houses, city houses, beach houses, and sometimes holiday houses outside the region.

Beach houses paired with country properties are not uncommon in the Low Country, and not just among the really rich. Lots of Middle Class people have them, paid for with their own money -- or inheritance, the frequent route for landing one. 'Land poor' is the preferred lifestyle, though I don't know many people in the Low Country who managed this by mortgaging everything rather heavily. Flashy cars, Range Rovers, flashy boats, are uncommon; big chunky Rolexes, furs, and jewels are things you inherit or you don't. Splashing out a lot of money of obviously expensive luxury personal items is bad form, even for lowlifes like the Murdaughs who might have been a powerful 'legal dynasty' in Colleton County, but were not the stuff of long established famous Low Country families or fortunes.

The Murdaugh boat -- that one -- was a '17-foot, Sea Hunt 'center-console boat'' that sell between $9000 and mid-$20,000s depending on model year, condition, and added features. The Murdaughs' looks basic, not tricked out with extras of note. It's not the boat that many people just barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck have, but neither is it a huge luxury. They had a very expensive piece of property in the hunting lodge, yet a property somehow acquired without putting forth any money. The hunting lodge land was not unreasonably estimated at $4M in worth, but had a mortgage of $2.1M+ and sold for $2.6M. The Edisto beach house sold for $955K, but had a mortgage of >$200K.

Their luxury goods -- the boat, the cars, the turtle lamps, Maggie's old faux beaver coat or whatever fur it was looks like a hand-me-down to me (but then furs are decidedly not my specialty.) The boys were dressed in the regulation Low Country preppy stuff: Ben Silver or more likely Vinyard Vines; they wore the occasional logo outside flashy famous designer brands -- but T-shirts and sweatshirts, cheap shit. The vacations, too, don't seem that extravagant to me -- unless they had a lot more of them than I'm aware. They scuba-dived, they fished, they rented boats (not Geffen mega-yachts to dock off Monaco), they rented houses, they golfed I think. They spent money but in placdes where money goes reasonably far. They also vacationed with Maggie's evidently richer family.

Not to say that none of these things never amounted to any money -- and the payouts to get wayward children into law school, too, but it's a crazy fucking personal economy when you steal many millions from your own law firm, acquire a $3-4M rural property with no money changing hands, but everything is mortgaged rather heavily and there are signs all around that money is in short supply. It's the now age-old question, but with a good income, relatively low cost of living for the things we can guess reasonably, and millions of stolen money, where the fuck did it all go?

Vacations? Cars? Yachts? Property? Opulent lifestyle? Luxury tastes? None of these things ring true, or true to any appreciable extent. Wayfair furniture. Turtle lamps. Farm equipment. A $20K boat tops. Bribes for colleges. Golf togs. Buster's bow tie collection. There should have been money in spades to go around but it seems instead it was a fucking house of cards. The interesting story for me at this point comes down to forensic accounting, if we ever get a decent picture of quite what happened and what sums were involved. f

Has buster been sodomized.

So R268, where did Alex's cut of the drug money go? Because at the time of the murders he wasn't rolling in cash, he was acting like a man desperate for cash - selling off his country place and so on.

Of course it's possible he was involved in the drug trade, it's not like he'd be above dealing drugs! It's also possible he was feigning poor because his wife was seeing a divorce lawyer, but really, everything about him at that point looks like a man who was strapped for cash, even though he didn't appear to be living beyond his means. He made very good money, his family had a very comfortable lifestyle, it looked like the figures added up tolerably well. Maybe he was involved in the drug trade and something went wrong, so he had to pay up or die, we'll never know.

That poster is a conspiracy theorist who doesn't have evidence to back their half-baked fantasies up with.

which poster R278? Seriously, which one?

R279 Poster 268, obviously.

[quote] Expensive lifestyle? Hardly. They lived a very comfortable middle class existence.

They owned a beach house and a 1,700-acre hunting lodge.

And they flew on vacations in private planes.

No, they weren't Harlan Crow, but they were certainly not middle-class.

I think they were upper middle class trying to have an upper class lifestyle. The American upper class is "estimated to be about 1-2% of the population" and "its primary source of income consists of assets, investments, and capital gains rather than wages and salaries". Alex was working as a lawyer but not spending like one, hence all the insurance fraud to fund his lifestyle.

R282- From what I have read he was an ambulance chaser and had to steal his clients money in order to make up for that fact. He could only get poor, vulnerable, and desperate people to hire him.

Gambling explains it all. They weren’t spending money that lavishly, you can’t spend that much money on drugs or you’d overdose, but you can lose $100,000 in an evening easily gambling.

R284- Do you think he has hidden the money? On those jailhouse tapes it sure did sound like Buster and Pa were speaking in code at times. Moselle is huge and his brothers and Buster could have hidden money for him.

R285 Code with regard to money how? I think the only code I've heard was to do with getting rid of guns. Alex didn't have enough money which is the point - it's why he committed his crimes.

Many people suspect that he hid money away before his arrest. I have no idea but with him nothing would surprise me.

Nah, someone obviously spending beyond his means and resorting to desperate means like setting up a shooting of himself probably genuinely didn't have hidden money.

I agree with the posters above. No one who has money squirreled away acts like Alex Murdaugh. He was robbing Peter to pay Paul, as they say amongst the old folks.

I’d bet money that he was gambling.

R289- But didn't he inherit from his father?

R290, again at a $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 a night it doesn’t matter how much your daddy leaves you… it’s gone.

Y’all don’t know these country boys like I do. I know these men, I know how they operate, and I say that it will come out in the civil cases that he was gambling it all away.

Somebody could write a book explaining dear old dad. Buster? Bubba or whatever he's called. Ching ching ??

Though I guess he'd be incriminating himself for something or other. But surely there's a lot of people who know about Ellick the latest clown psychopath of South Carolina.

SHAMU! Totally a drug/ gambling ring.

They'll have to clone Alex to serve out all of the different prison terms he's facing.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — A federal grand jury has returned a 22-count indictment against Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh, 54, of Hampton, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud; bank fraud; wire fraud; and money laundering.

Is there no independent media in south Carolina capable of hounding everyone involved in the Murdaugh scheme? Even the public radio station reporters? Read that indictment... he lied and defrauded for years. No one in the family law firm knew? Suspected? Lafitte Bank... why aren't depositors pulling their funds in protest, causing a run on the bank? The lawyers in the area... why aren't they being hounded by reporters who shout questions?

Man, talk about a corrupt state.

Well I nevuh, suh!

I want to know when or if his law partners are going down as well!

You KNOW Murdaught wasn't up to all that shit alone.

It's South Carolina. He'll probably be pardoned by the Governor in no time.

Even before he’s convicted.

Come on people, let's keep up! Alex was back in court this week... another conviction and time to listen to the people he defrauded and stole from... THEN he gave a rambling 50 minute explanation, request for forgiveness, recounting and apology to family (NOTE: not one Murdaugh - not even Buster - showed up for Alex's faux-mea culpa).

Buster has been distancing himself from "Big Red" (the family's old nickname for him) since the trial began. During one of his phone calls, Alex reminds him that it is his (Alex's) birthday, And Buster says, "Did they give you a honey bun with a candle in it?"

Buster never returned to law school (after being tossed out for plagiarism, which the University of South Carolina takes a dim view of) despite Alex's efforts to get him reinstated. He pals around with his uncle John Marvin, who owns the heavy equipment rental business. The two of them were photographed gambling in Vegas shortly after the verdict. Meanwhile older brother Randy continues to practice law at the storied old law firm, which has now been renamed The Parker Law Group. Alex scammed him out of something like $250K, a "loan" which was never repaid.

Before the trial, Buster used to "work" at the law firm (separating paper clips from rubber bands or something like that) but it is not clear what he does now. If anything...

The witness impact statements were quite moving, especially those poor Satterfield boys. The younger one is clearly mentally challenged. Their attorney, Eric Bland, was able to get them a good chunk of the millions they were owed.

Paw was sentenced to 40 years.

I love how the judge scoffed at his "I'm a poor confused opioid addict" defense.