As we discussed on this week’s episode of Thinking Like A Lawyer, the past few months in Colleton County, South Carolina, feels ripped from the pages of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Like that book, every tragic revelation led to an even weirder tragic revelation breaded and deep fried in faux gentility. We joined this story with news that Alex Murdaugh, scion of the powerful Murdaugh family that has run the legal community in the area for generations, had been shot in the head while trying to fix a tire on a country road. Murdaugh’s wife and adult son (who was himself in legal trouble over the death of a woman in a boating accident) were murdered a few months earlier, hinting at an ongoing plot against the family. Suspicions were fueled by word that someone may have tampered with Murdaugh’s tire before he left his home that fateful day.
Then, almost as quickly, the family firm announces that Murdaugh is out. Then allegations of stealing money from the partnership. Then his license gets suspended. Intrigued by the whole story, people dug back into the archives Slot Gacor Hari Ini to find the story of a housekeeper who died under shady circumstances whose family hasn’t seen the settlement money Murdaugh supposedly owes and the Murdaugh brother linked by law enforcement sources to an unsolved hit-and-run killing of a gay teen in 2015 that investigators are now reopening.
Now police have concluded that Alex Murdaugh hired a hitman to shoot him in the head. And his own attorney confirms it:
His attorney, Richard Harpootlian, told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Wednesday that his client was trying to get off opioids he was taking to get over the death of his son and wife when he became depressed. Believing his insurance policy had a suicide clause, Murdaugh enlisted a man to kill him during a “fake car breakdown,” according to the attorney.
Remember the southern fried tragedy analogy? Feel free to pencil “opioid addiction” into it. Not sure how someone gets on pain killers for depression. A medical professional would be happy to subscribe something actually useful to a patient who just endured the trauma of his wife and child being murdered. According to his attorney, Murdaugh hoped to provide for his other son with a $10 million life insurance payout, believing that to be his only hope. “Today, he knows that’s not true,” which is good. This is a good point to remind people to reach out for help if you find yourself in this situation and also to exhort folks to proactively reach out to make sure folks are all right — especially after a tragedy — because they may not tell you on their own.
The alleged hitman, 61-year-old Curtis Edward Smith, is in custody and Alex Murdaugh is cooperating with the investigation. Which seems like a bit of a raw deal for Smith, but this is why you don’t go into the contract killing business in the first place, I suppose.
South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh enlisted hitman for $10 million life insurance policy, attorney says [NBC News]
Earlier: South Carolina Lawyer Murder Story Keeps Getting Crazier
Lawyer Shot In The Head Now Suspended From Practice
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.