Since 2014, a tight-knit South Carolina community has been living in the wake of a series of violent, deadly crimes — all of which seem to involve one family. The true crime series Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal shows how the prominent Murdaugh family purportedly used and abused their wealth and privilege to the extreme, and which family member is allegedly behind it all.
On March 2, 2023, Murdaugh was found guilty for the murder of his wife and son.
The three-part docuseries from Fyre Fraud Emmy nominees Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason is available to stream now on Netflix.
Check it out below.
The Murdaughs were known for their century-old family law firm in Hampton, South Carolina. Before he resigned in 2021 amidst fund-misappropriation accusations, Alex Murdaugh was a powerful civil litigation lawyer well known across the Palmetto State. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all state prosecutors who, like Alex, maintained a ton of power and leverage with local authorities.
In South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the Murdaugh family dynasty began to crumble after a series of events over the course of six years caused the deaths of five people — Mallory Beach (a friend of Alex’s youngest son), Stephen Smith (a friend of Alex’s oldest son), Gloria Satterfield (Alex’s housekeeper), Paul Murdaugh (Alex’s youngest son), Maggie Murdaugh (Alex’s wife) — and the alleged attempted murder of Alex himself. And a lot of the evidence points to one man’s suspected involvement in either the deaths or the attempts to cover them up. Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal tells the story of the Murdaugh family, their rise to power and sway with law enforcement, and details the suspicious deaths that have destroyed their family legacy.
On March 2, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. On May 13, 2026, however, South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions against Murdaugh, citing “shocking jury interference” by a court clerk who oversaw jurors during the 2023 trial. Murdaugh will remain in prison because he also has pleaded guilty to financial charges. The attorney general said that the state will retry Murdaugh at a future date.
For a comprehensive timeline of events leading up to Alex Murdaugh's trial, click here.
The Murdaugh family and the crimes associated with them took place in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, in and around Hampton and Colleton counties.
The story of what’s now dubbed the “Murdaugh murders” became nationally known as a result of investigative journalist Mandy Matney’s true crime podcast, Murdaugh Murders.
