The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty

Richard Alexander Murdaugh, known as “Alex,” is the central figure in the narrative. He is the husband of Maggie and the father of Paul and Buster. In 2023, Alex was found guilty of killing Maggie and Paul at his Moselle home in Colleton County on June 7, 2021. Alex worked at his family’s law firm, primarily on personal injury lawsuits, and did not become a solicitor like his father before him. He had a reputation for winning above-average settlements due to the power of his family’s name in Hampton County, where he tried most of his cases. Alex’s financial troubles, which resulted from his oxycodone addiction and bad real estate deals, led him to steal from his vulnerable clients with the help of his connections at the bank. Bauerlein shows that this unscrupulous practice became an addiction of its own, given that Alex stole millions of dollars even as he was being investigated.

Alex’s defining character trait is his deceptiveness. He lied to everyone in his life—from family and friends to his defense lawyers—in order to cover up his actions, and he played on their sympathies to deflect attention from his illegal behavior. Bauerlein shows that Alex’s exterior personality was malleable to whatever situation he was in, and as a result, no one truly knew who Alex was. As the author states, “He was fundamentally unknowable, a walking mirage, always performing one role or another” (28). He used his Southern charm to befriend people, gaining the nicknamed Big Red, but he also intimidated people as it suited him. He had “a knack for reading people” (15) and could twist any situation to his desired outcome. He could put people at ease, draw sympathy, victimize himself, or assert his control as necessary.

Bauerlein paints Alex as selfish and self-serving. He indulged his many vices, like his taste for oxycodone and his affairs, without fear of rebuke. The first real threat to Alex’s invincibility occurred during the boat crash case; this event became the catalyst that soon unraveled his other criminal actions. Bauerlein depicts Alex as someone who was willing to do anything that was necessary to get himself out of trouble, from stealing to pay back debts to killing his wife and child. Alex was ultimately indicted for nearly 100 financial crimes on top of his murder charges, and he is currently serving a sentence of life in prison.

Mark Tinsley is a personal injury lawyer based in Allendale; Bauerlein uses him as a foil to Alex. Tinsley was the Beaches’ lawyer and pursued Alex for a wrongful death lawsuit in Mallory’s death. Tinsley collected evidence proving that Alex used his law enforcement connections to cover up Paul’s involvement in the boat crash. Bauerlein shows that Tinsley became obsessed with revealing the truth; the lawyer even worked on the case in the midst of receiving treatment for his stage-four cancer. Tinsley focused on trying to expose Alex’s financial records, which he suspected would contain details of illegal activity. Tinsley later felt guilty about the intensity of his tactics, which he believed may have pushed Alex to kill Maggie and Paul.

Tinsley is an avid wild-game hunter, and Bauerlein compares his skills at this pastime to his character as a lawyer. Tinsley is patient, both as a hunter and as a lawyer, and he is willing to see a hunt or case through until the end. She succinctly describes him as a “bulldog who would not let go” (153). As a foil to Alex, Tinsley is morally upright and motivated by a desire to help people challenge those who abuse power. Colleagues described Tinsley as living by “a code so rigid it might as well have been cut into stone by Hammurabi” (159). Bauerlein emphasizes that although Tinsley and Alex have the same profession, Tinsley used his talents for good, while Alex acted for his own personal gain. Tinsley disliked the dishonest tactics that Alex used in the courtroom to sway a jury, which he saw up close during several cases that the two law firms worked on together. Tinsley also faced stressors in his personal life—like his divorce and his cancer diagnosis—but unlike Alex, he did not turn that stress into violence against others.

In the text, Alex’s predecessors play an important role in elucidating his entitled and corrupt behavior. Randolph Sr., Alex’s great-grandfather, started the family’s law firm in the early 20th century and quickly became the 14th Judicial Circuit’s solicitor. Buster, Alex’s grandfather, followed this same career path, becoming head lawyer and solicitor at age 25 after his father’s suicide-by-train. Randolph III, Alex’s father, also “inherited” these top positions. Bauerlein asserts that each man blatantly committed crimes and escaped wrongdoings by virtue of their name and associated power. Buster took this corruption to the extreme by starting a bootlegging ring, hiring assassins, and embezzling money—and getting away with it all. Bauerlein uses the historical sketches of these three men to show that the traditions of Alex’s lineage emboldened his own nefarious behavior.

Bauerlein highlights other character traits in these men that also manifested in Alex. All three were adulterers who cheated on their wives. Randolph Sr. remarried twice—suspiciously quickly after each wife’s death—and Buster and Randolph III both had several mistresses. Bauerlein asserts that Alex mirrored this behavior by cheating on Maggie; however, the Murdaugh tradition (“Murdaughs don’t divorce” (177)) prevented Maggie and the women before her from leaving their husbands. Randolph Sr., Buster, and Randolph III all used the courtroom as a stage, and Bauerlein asserts that they were “determined to be unforgettable” (70), using boisterous speeches, reenactments, and appeals to sway the juries. Again, this trait bled into Alex’s own life, and those closest to him saw that his exaggerated personality during trials—and in his personal life—swayed many outcomes in his favor.

Randolph III is the only other Murdaugh man to appear throughout the narrative as an active player, primarily helping to get Alex and Paul out of trouble. At the end of his life, Randolph reflected on the chaos wrought by Alex’s actions, saying, “What has become of this family?” (223). Although the family didn’t have a spotless history, they still maintained their upright reputation, but Alex’s actions undid all that work.

Maggie Murdaugh was Alex’s wife; he shot and killed her in 2021. Maggie became a homemaker when she had her children, Paul and Buster, and she “devoted her life to her family” (17). Bauerlein describes Maggie as “smiling and generous” (17), though she was somewhat reserved. This reservation stemmed from her paranoia that people only wanted to be friends with her because of her Murdaugh name. Bauerlein shows that Maggie was just as indulgent in the family’s drinking and destructive behavior as Alex was, and she bought expensive items for herself and her sons. In the weeks leading up to her murder, Maggie became increasingly isolated because of the community-wide backlash after Paul’s boat crash. People in Hampton called her “Maggie Murder” because the family was connected to so many mysterious deaths. Her paranoia also grew concerning Alex’s lies about their finances and his drug addiction. Maggie was living at the family’s Edisto Island beach home, separate from Alex, and Bauerlein describes Maggie’s life as spiraling out of her control. Maggie was close friends with Blanca, her housekeeper, in whom she confided her worries before her death.

Paul Murdaugh was Alex and Maggie’s youngest son, whom Alex shot and killed in 2021. Paul had a severe underage drinking problem, and he started “showing signs of becoming a belligerent drunk” (88) as early as 13 years old. However, his parents didn’t restrict his drinking and even let him throw his own parties at Moselle. As a result, Paul had high blood pressure and swollen feet. Paul’s friends nicknamed his drunken alter-ego “Timmy”; this persona emerged whenever Paul drank too much and became violent and aggressive. Paul dated Morgan Doughty, and he was occasionally abusive towards her when he got drunk. Paul was charged with Mallory Beach’s death after drunkenly crashing his boat into a bridge. His recklessness continued after he was charged, since he faced no material punishments during his release on bond.

When he was sober, Paul was kind and reliable, and both of the Murdaughs’ housekeepers had a soft spot for his boyish antics. Throughout his life, Paul coasted on his family’s name and the access it offered him, often calling his grandfather to get him out of trouble. Before the murders, Paul had raised his grades high enough to go to college, and he was working out of town to escape the Hampton gossip about the boat crash. Alex claimed that Paul was receiving threats and had been assaulted in the months before his murder.

David Owen is an agent from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). He acted as the lead investigator on Maggie and Paul’s murder case. Bauerlein depicts Owen as an honorable and thorough investigator, despite the many setbacks presented by the case. Owen gained control of the investigation late and had to deal with poor decisions that had already been made, such as the decision not to cordon off the house as part of the crime scene. Despite Alex’s odd behavior on the night of the murders, Owen did not immediately suspect Alex of murder; because Owen had children of his own, the “notion of a father gunning down his son was unimaginable to him” (233). Alex’s defense lawyers attacked Owen’s character and investigation on the stand, but Bauerlein shows that Owen remained dignified and resolute about his decisions. Agent Owen cried when the guilty verdict was read, since he was deeply invested in finding justice for Maggie and Paul.

The trial lawyers appear only in Parts 6 and 7, but they play critical roles in moving the action of the narrative forward. The prosecution team was comprised of Creighton Waters—the lead—and John Meadors. Waters is a career prosecutor, and he was motivated to “tak[e] down powerful people who had gone to rot” (287), such as Alex. During the trial, Waters was “tenacious and thorough” (287), and he could swiftly turn the blunders of both Alex and the defense into positive lines of questioning for the state. Meadors was an experienced homicide trial lawyer, and he “could have passed for a preacher” (393) due to his persuasive abilities. Meadors wept after hearing the verdict, which indicates the extent of his emotional involvement in the case.

The defense team consisted of Richard “Dick” Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, both of whom also represented Paul in the boat crash case. The pair dealt primarily with white-collar crime and were considered to be “two of the most powerful defense lawyers in the state” (159). Harpootlian was a state senator who gravitated towards high-profile cases, such as the one wherein he convicted a serial killer. Harpootlian’s tactic was to endear himself to the jury, using his humor and charming personality to draw sympathy for his clients. Jim Griffin became a close friend of Alex’s during Paul’s trial, enough for Alex to seek out Griffin’s advice about going to rehab. Griffin was inexperienced with trying murder cases and had to take on the closing arguments by himself. Bauerlein shows that this defense team regularly opened lines of questioning in their cross-examinations that ultimately damaged Alex’s claim of innocence.

Bauerlein includes the perspectives of a select few of Alex’s financial victims in the book. These include Alania Plyler, the 12-year-old girl who lost her mother and brother in a car crash; Pamela Pinckney, the mother whose deaf son Hakeem became quadriplegic after their crash; Arthur Badger Jr., a father of six whose wife died in a crash; and Tony Satterfield, one of two sons left behind after Gloria Satterfield’s tragic death at Moselle. Alex acted as a lawyer for each of these people. He manipulated them with friendliness, and each victim trusted his confidence and care in their moments of misfortune. These figures provide context for Alex’s deceptive and inhumane traits, and Bauerlein sporadically returns to their perspectives to show the various ways in which their quality of life deteriorated while Alex stole and spent their money.

Bauerlein also includes the perspectives of the boat crash victims, who became Alex’s victims through his attempted cover-up of the crime. Bauerlein includes the Cooks—Beverly and Marty, the parents of Anthony—and the Beaches—Renee and Phillip, the parents of Mallory (the girl who died in the crash). They are also minor figures, but they represent the grief that Alex and his family caused, as well as the determination to achieve justice. Anthony was Mallory’s boyfriend and childhood friend, so her death devastated the Cooks. Bauerlein shows the nightmares and lack of sleep that plagued Anthony and Beverly, even during the trial. The Beaches sought material punishments against Paul for the crash, both because of Alex’s discourteous stalling tactics in the wrongful death lawsuit and because of the Murdaughs’ special treatment by law enforcement. The families both saw Alex’s conviction as a kind of delayed justice for Mallory.

Blanca is the Murdaughs’ housekeeper; she took on this role after Gloria Satterfield’s death. Blanca previously worked for Alex’s law firm as a Spanish translator and was therefore a long-time friend of the family, particularly with Maggie. Blanca was Maggie’s confidant, and the feelings of worry that Maggie revealed to Blanca eventually became crucial evidence of Alex’s motives for the murders. Blanca had a soft spot for Paul, but she tried to rein in some of his worst habits. Blanca’s inclusion in the narrative maintains Maggie’s presence and voice after her violent death. Blanca testifies against Alex on behalf of her friend, and she is one of Alex’s few close connections who dares to speak out against him. For this act, Blanca was ostracized by the Murdaughs, but she tried her best to move on with her life and her family. Blanca sang at Maggie’s funeral, and she adopted Maggie’s favorite dog, Bubba, from the family.