The lawyer for the family of Gloria Satterfield, the dead housewife in South Carolina, whose heirs successfully sued her boss, accused killer Alex Murdaugh, said Friday that Murdaugh has so many problems he could be better dead himself.
“I would never advocate for anyone to commit suicide, but in Alex’s case it has already ruined the lives of so many people and there is so much more to come,” said Eric Bland, the Columbia, SC lawyer representing the Satterfield family. and The Post.
“This guy has left so many victims in his path, relatives whose lives he has destroyed and relatives he may have killed, that it’s hard to overestimate the damage. All of this could take another seven years. Alex is potentially a guy who will go down in history. making the name ‘Murdaugh’ synonymous with Madoff, Manson and Ted Bundy “.
Murdaugh, 54, a fourth-generation lawyer from a powerful legal family, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of weapons in the brutal shooting death of 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh. and Paul Murdaugh, 22.
His wife and son were shot dead near a kennel on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting farm in Islandton, SC, with at least two separate weapons, a rifle and a shotgun, on June 7, 2021. .
Alex Murdaugh will be tried next week on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime.AP
The dishonored lawyer was reportedly linked to the murders by splashes of blood on his clothes along with a video that put him at the scene of the murder.
Elder Murdaugh called 911 and frantically told a dispatcher that he had returned home to find the bullet bodies of his wife and son.
He has been in jail, on $ 7 million bail, since October in Richland County on exponentially growing charges of financial fraud, starting with allegations that he stole money from insurance to Satterfield’s two children. He has since received at least 85 charges involving $ 8.4 million for fraudulent insurance deals, including money allegedly stolen from a paraplegic youth, and is already facing a possible 500 years in prison.
Bland said that without suicide, the only honorable option for Murdaugh now would be to clarify everything he knows about both the murders of Maggie and Paul, as well as the sheer amount of financial charges against him.
“The only currency it has is information,” Bland said. “There’s no way I’m going to do it on my own. He could decide, ‘I’m going to mediate the information I have to expose all this and finally do it right.’ , your siblings and cousins?
Bland told The Post that Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith, the man from Walterboro, SC, was arrested in September 2021 for allegedly shooting Murdaugh on a rural Hampton Road highway in an insurance fraud / scam. Defective and convoluted rental suicide and who was arrested one for the second time last month on drug charges and money laundering, has given police the names of the people to whom Alex Murdaugh sold drugs.
Maggie and Alex shared children Buster (far left) and Paul (second from right), the latter died along with his mother. Facebook
Bland said Smith allegedly purchased drugs for Murdaugh, some or all of which he sold to others. When orders increased, Bland said, Smith asked Murdaugh why and Murdaugh named names of people close to him.
“Normally, you would inventory names if they were people close to you whom you loved,” Bland said. “But Alex just told Eddie’s names.”
Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, based in Columbia, SC, asked prosecutors for a speedy trial after the murder charges were filed last week.
Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were found dead by the kennels of their hunting lodge in Islandton, SC. Dana Kennedy
He and Murdaugh’s other attorney, Jim Griffin, issued a statement last week that said in part:
“Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he had nothing to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul. He loved them more than anything in the world. From day one it became very clear that the forces of the “Order and the Attorney General concluded prematurely that Alex was responsible for the murder of his wife and son. But we know that Alex had no reason to murder them.”
When he arrived Friday for The Post, Harpootlian declined further comment.
“I will speak in the courtroom,” he said.
Murdaugh allegedly found the bodies of his wife and son on June 7, 2021. Above, Buster Murdaugh mourns his funeral.AP
But some experts say Harpootlian could remove his client due to forensic discrepancies and the puzzling fact that two different weapons, a shotgun and a rifle, were used in the murders of Maggie and Paul.
“Harpootlian is doing cart wheels right now,” a source close to the investigation told The Post Friday. “This trial will be short and sweet. Dick H. is her husband. He will dazzle this jury. All he needs is for a person not to end up with a guilty verdict and find them. Everyone down there still loves the Murdaughs and the ten. In no way will he be convicted. This test could be in the rearview mirror very quickly. “
Gloria Satterfield was the housewife of the Murdaugh family. His family successfully sued Alex for stealing $ 4.3 million in insurance money from his death. Family photo
Bland said, “I went to court today with Dick and told him I wasn’t a winner for him, representing this outcast. But he sees it differently. He’s not going to a verdict of not guilty. He knows that he will never get 12 people to say not guilty. What he tells jurors is that “not guilty” does not mean “innocent.” It means the state has not fulfilled its burden of proof. “
Residents of rural Hampton and Colleton counties, over which four generations of Murdaughs ruled from both their law firm and local prosecutor’s office, feel more resentful than relieved after last week’s arrival. news of the murder charge.
“Everyone has gone crazy with this in the outside world,” a Hampton resident whose family has lived in the area for generations and knew the Murdaughs well told The Post Friday. “They’re saying the Murdaughs had some kind of genetic defect and they’re getting us all dirty with the same brush. Just hold on. People have to slow down. We’re a community of 20,000 people. We’re not the Alec. We’re the same as we have always been “.
The man added that despite the media attack, the city and its environs have endured since the killings.
“We will still have the Friday night football matches in the fall and our pigeon hunts, our barbecues and our big family reunions. This is who we are. Nothing will change that. “
Sandy Smith, the mother of a young gay man from South Carolina – the mysterious death of 2015 was reopened by SLED the day after The Post published a story in mid-June 2021 – said Friday that she was “incredibly relieved “when he heard Thursday that Alex Murdaugh has been formally charged with murder. She hopes that the way will be opened for the murder of Stephen to be solved.
“It was a good day in South Carolina and a good week for Stephen,” Smith said. He said a tombstone for his son will be unveiled on Sunday at Gooding Cemetery in Hampton County and many are expected to attend the event.
For generations, the Murdaugh family had great power in their city both through their law firm and the local prosecutor’s office. Facebook
The money for the tombstone was raised after stories about Stephen’s murder and the hashtag #StandingforStephen went viral on social media. No Murdaugh has been formally linked to the death of Stephen, whose body was found dumped on a country road, but for years there have been whispers of family involvement.
“We thought this was Stephen’s week,” Smith said. “We are optimistic about the future.”