The Murdaugh Murders - to believe Alex didn't shoot his wife and son?

[XelaM]

The trial is currently ongoing in the US and has been the subject of a Netflix documentary The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.

It's almost unbelievable this case is real and not some movie script for a tragic thriller. It involves the very powerful Murdaugh family- a dynasty of many generations of prosecutors/lawyers who had almost unlimited power and money. They appeared to be above the law. The father was Alex (the heir to the dynasty) and he was married to Maggie with whom he had two sons- Buster and Paul. The younger son Paul appeared to be as appalling a human being as his father (at least according to the documentary).

Five people are dead who were connected to this family:

*Mallory Beach - a young teenage girl who was on a boat that the younger Murdaugh son (Paul) crashed at night being drunk out of his mind. His father Alex tried to initially claim that someone else was driving the boat but then did absolutely everything to make this case "go away" even after Paul had been charged. Paul never faced any consequences for Mallory's death. Her family were pursuing a civil suit.

*Stephen - the elder son's (Buster's) friend who was found dead in the middle of a road in very odd and suspicious circumstances. No one ever faced any consequences for his death.

*Gloria - the Murdaugh housekeeper who allegedly fell down the stairs at their property. Alex collected a $4.3 million insurance payout for her death (on a policy he had taken out a month earlier) and never paid it to her family.

*And now the younger son Paul and his mother (Alex's wife) Maggie were found shot dead on their property with two different firearms.

Alex has been charged with the murders of his son and wife (in addition to having been found to have embezzled huge funds from his law firm and his clients).

But I just don't understand how someone who was so concerned with protecting the family dynasty and whitewashing his son of any responsibility for Mallory's death- why would he shoot the same son two years later? The motive that the prosecution put forward was that he tried to gain sympathy when he was being prosecuted for embezzlement and trying to delay Mallory's family's civil suit. I just don't understand that this is a strong enough motivation for shooting his son?

Netflix documentaries aren't known for giving all the facts

But Alex lied about being at his parents visiting them at time of their deaths, was placed near them and his voice is recorded on his sons mobile just before their time of death and he has shotgun residue on his clothes in a pattern that indicates he was near when they were shot. Now whether that was from this incident or another of firing weapon he lied about his whereabouts at the time they were killed. You don't lie if you don't have anything to cover up.

So from info on Netflix doc, it appears right that he was arrested and charged with their murders. I don't know about Gloria and Stephen as to why he was charged for their murders.

There may have been others with motive to kill at least Paul. The fact it was Gloria and Paul and she was looking at divorcing him and he turns out to have been embezzling funds from his firm... and was embarrassed professionally by his sons actions in relation to death of Mallory which seems straight forward, all of that makes a strong case as to motive. And to blame others.

However it is going to court and I am sure they will disclose full facts at court and a jury will deliberate on those facts. Was suss that police said eastleigh on there was no danger to others in community- tells me they never believed Alex's version very early on.

We'll have to wait to see what US justice system makes of all the facts once they re put forward in prosecution case

Minou 123 has got it

'Early on' not Esstleigh doh!

Yeah he admitted that. He paid someone to shoot him. That gain looks like
Motive, for death insurance and to keep his name clear
The act of a desperate man

Anyway all these facts will be out to a jury in US justice system - so if there's other explanations and facts , hopefully it'll all be heard and deliberated on carefully

Thanks for the spoiler. For fuck sake!

Paul was a liability.

How many times could he save him? He was probably going to prison for 25+ years for killing Mallory and lots of lies and cover ups would have come out in the trial.

Are you serious? It's in the news and happened in 2021

Yes I'm serious. I don't recall it from the news in 2021, haven't seen any recent and just started watching today.

I don't think it's our fault that you haven't read or watched the news for twenty one months.

Or FOUR YEARS if you want to count from the boat crash.

Or seven years since the hit and run.

That's your responsibility though! You can't expect people to not discuss current affairs because you haven't watched a documentary on it.

The way he just lies and lies and lies is so confronting. He just seems to think he can say and do whatever he wants.

He's lived his whole life in this strange sort of bubble, doing exactly west he wants. Putting blue lights in his veh-hickles, getting fake IDs for his son, stealing three million dollars from the family of the woman who had run his home for two decades.

On the stand he was as slippery as an eel. 'I know that for a fact'.

It's the title, not the discussion.

It's absolutely being covered 'recently' it's on the main page of the BBC right now.

Oh wait... serious that you've spoilt it for me. Not seriously mad! 🤣

It's news. People are allowed to have an opinion on a current news story. Well, one that happened over a year ago.

It's not a 'spoiler' because it's not a soap. Keep yourself more up to date so you can have opinions on things that happened in 2021 too.

The man is a sociopath.

@savoycabbage yes but the title isn't a spoiler is it

I don't know what you mean really.

I don't think you can have spoilers in news stories and using the word spoiler about murders is awful.

The screenshot you've used doesn't give any information. Simply a title that you'd click if you wanted to know more. I was the news daily and this hasn't been on at all. The title of this thread is a spoiler.

Sorry I wasn't up on the news of American teenagers in a small town in 2021.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll all get over my comment.

Watch*

You are assuming he protected his son for his sons benefit. If he cared for his son he would have actually wanted to help him not let him get away with whatever he wanted. Also he had massive anger issues, that stemmed from somewhere. Realistically Alex was protecting his own family legacy.

Are you aware these are actual murders, not just a bit of telly for your entertainment?

@Withnailandeye Well said.

@Withnailandeye well, no... because I haven't watched it. I'm only aware of the poor girl that was missing in the boat and that OP doesn't believe that Alex shot his wife and son. But you are aware and are on a thread discussing it for your entertainment.

Sociopaths/Psychopaths/Narcissists are known for sounding credible, it’s how they manipulate everyone around them.

IMO Alex is clearly guilty, everything about him points to him having some sort of antisocial personality disorder, and his own father was close with Paul & he made sure that Paul never faced consequences too, the narcissism probably stemmed from him & it’s just a cycle that has been repeated throughout the generations. Throw in money & power then these types of families are very dangerous, as we see here.

Does anyone know if Buster was more of a good person? and did the documentary on Netflix say that Buster & Steven Smith “were fooling around”, was Buster gay?