Inside the Murdaugh Family’s Legacy Of Crime: The New Netflix Documentary Reveals The Murdaugh Murders

The directors of this film, Jennifer Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst, are both true-crime experts. Their Emmy-nominated Hulu documentary series Fyre Fraud investigated the phoney 2017 music festival, and LulaRich, which will air in 2021, will take viewers inside an alleged $1 billion pyramid scheme. Because Alex Murdaugh’s alleged crime saga occurred in the same South Carolina territory where his family of prosecutors and lawyers has wielded powerful influence for over 100 years, they were uniquely suited to navigate the bizarre headlines as production on a three-part Netflix docuseries about the case began.

During a phone call that forced them to interrupt Court TV’s coverage of Murdaugh’s double murder trial, the directors of Murdaugh Murders spoke with Vanity Fair about the start of production in the fall of 2021. Alex’s 911 call reporting the brutal murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul, for which he is currently on trial, had been several months ago. (Alex denies any responsibility for his wife and child’s deaths.) The murders took place shortly after Alex was fired from the law firm that had been in his family for generations due to allegations of misappropriation of millions of dollars. (Alex’s lawyer claims that a large sum of money was spent on pain medication.) It also happened shortly after a former client allegedly shot Alex in the head. (He denies any involvement in the shooting.) Alex admitted to paying someone to kill him so that his son could collect on the insurance. (Murdaugh entered a drug rehabilitation programme and apologised to his family.)

Furst recalls that things were “at peak insanity” at the time, and that he and Nason had no intention of trying to keep up with the “absurd” and nonstop news cycle. Instead, they interviewed Paul Murdaugh’s friends and based the documentary on a 2019 boating accident that killed Mallory Beach, 19, and injured several others. Paul was on bail for intoxication manslaughter when he died tragically. Alex is also being sued for wrongful death in connection with Beach’s death.

The filmmakers portray the accident and its aftermath as emblematic of the Murdaughs’ sense of entitlement and the justice system’s pervasive corruption. Paul was not arrested following the collision, and his phone was not confiscated as evidence. According to the documentary, Alex spent the hours following the incident coordinating their accounts in order to divert attention away from his son.

The Murdaughs’ “lack of empathy, compassion, and accountability was so obvious that [Beach’s] death was a ‘enough is enough’ moment for that community,” according to Furst. This family has gotten away with murder (both literally and metaphorically) for three generations, so we decided to tell the story from the perspective of these young people who are at a watershed moment in history.

The filmmakers discuss the murders of Maggie and Paul, as well as the deaths of Stephen Smith in 2015 and Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, in 2018, through the eyes of Alex’s older son Buster and his high school friends. Smith and Satterfield’s deaths are currently being investigated. Alex has admitted that he is liable for a $4.3 million wrongful death settlement to Satterfield’s sons. Paul’s ex-girlfriend, Morgan Doughty, testified about his alleged physical and verbal abuse of her throughout their relationship.

The filmmakers also looked through archives, interviewed journalists, and spoke with Beach’s family attorney, Mark Tinsley. Tinsley’s persistent investigation into Alex’s finances revealed a web of corruption that proved more difficult to unravel than anyone had anticipated. Furst and Nason claim that making the docuseries led them to discover “unreported skeletons in Alex’s closet,” so many that they couldn’t possibly include them all in the planned three episodes.

“There is so much more to tell in this story,” says Furst. We have information on other crimes and corruption that extends far beyond the city limits of Hampton, South Carolina. That means the state and federal governments are both involved. The producers are hoping that the popularity of the show will encourage the production of more episodes about the alleged crimes.

We can reach over 200 million people in over 70 languages using Netflix. We’re hoping that this will set off a chain reaction that will reveal the rest of the plot. And the rest of the story is safe with us “Furst claims. It reminds me a lot of the two-part Dune saga. Before filming the first installment of Dune, the director realised the significance of the sequel.

Furst and Nason contacted Alex’s representatives to gauge their interest in appearing in the docuseries. Furst described the Murdaugh family’s situation as a “category five shitstorm” at the time. “I don’t think they could really debate being a part of a documentary” with new indictments being handed down on a weekly basis. The state has charged Alex with 99 additional counts, including two counts of murder, alleging that he stole $8.8 million from his clients. When someone is innocent, I believe they want to talk about it “Furst claims. Someone who is guilty should exercise extreme caution in what they say.

Nason has been watching the trial of Alex, whose grandfather’s portrait was recently hung in the same courtroom, with bated breath. (It was removed specifically for the trial at the request of the judge.) “Considering he is part of a rich, Southern, white family that has been in power for over 100 years, you aren’t surprised that Alex Murdaugh is getting white-glove, fair-justice treatment in our legal system right now,” Nason says, foreshadowing what may happen in future episodes. But I’m not sure if the audience is aware that this family has not always treated people fairly. It’s fascinating to see them come out the other side. You have to wonder what kind of karma brought that on.

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