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

Bauerlein presents the central question that the book seeks to answer: “Exactly how such a prosperous and respected citizen had come to lay ruin to the lives of everyone around him” (9). She offers several triggers for Alex’s downfall, such as his pill addiction, his embezzling, his indulgence in his family’s vices, and his family’s history of criminal activity. She suggests that Alex’s family raised him to feel like he was above the law. For generations, the Murdaughs asserted their dominance in the impoverished region of Hampton County. Bauerlein states that Alex’s true downfall began when he accepted Alania Plyler as a client in the mid-2000s.

Chapter 3 recounts the 2005 car accident that killed Alania Plyler’s mother and brother and severely injured Alania and her eight-year-old sister. A lawyer referred Alania to Alex so that she could sue the tire and vehicle companies. Alex had a reputation of achieving huge settlements for cases tried in Hampton County, and he swore to help the young girls live a comfortable life. At 12 years old, Alania trusted Alex, but as she grew up, she uncovered inconsistencies in his promises.

As a contrast, Bauerlein illustrates Alex’s prosperous life. He knew everyone from senators to blue-collar workers, and Hampton citizens viewed him as “a man of the people” (16). Alex had married his university sweetheart, Maggie, and they raised their two sons, Buster and Paul, in Hampton. The family owned two homes, threw large parties, and sponsored sports teams and local events. Alex was at once physically imposing and easygoing. He worked as a trial lawyer and assistant solicitor under his father, Randolph III, and carried around his grandfather’s solicitor’s badge.

When Alex took the Plyler case, his father retired from his position as the 14th Judicial Circuit’s solicitor—a position held by three consecutive generations of Murdaughs. Rather than following in his father’s footsteps, Alex chose to continue working in private practice. Behind his jovial façade, Alex hid an oxycodone addiction, and he started stealing money from clients like the Plylers.

Bauerlein describes a 2009 car accident that left Pamela Pinckney injured and her 19-year-old son, Hakeem, a quadriplegic. Because his firm specialized in vehicular liability lawsuits, Alex offered his services to Pamela. Pamela trusted Alex’s confidence, but she eventually discovered paperwork that relinquished her control of the settlement money.

Bauerlein recounts the Murdaugh firm’s history and their specialty in suing out-of-town corporations. Their success brought in a lot of money for the firm and their clients, which garnered them a reputation for generosity. The family doled out small favors to sway juries and win cases, leading lawsuits to be purposefully filed in Hampton County. Hiding behind this reputation, Alex stole approximately one million dollars each from the Plylers and the Pinckneys by dipping into their settlement accounts and padding his expense reports. His close relationships with bankers made them look the other way.

Bauerlein portrays Alex as a master deceiver, using various anecdotes that showcase his personality. Alex indulged his appetites for sugar, drugs, and women, and these excesses spilled over into his appetite for money. Underneath the curated exterior of familial bliss, the family was wrought with chaos because of Alex’s addiction, Maggie’s paranoia, Paul’s recklessness, and the whole family’s struggles with alcohol addiction. Alex lost money on bad real estate investments, and his income could not keep pace with his lifestyle. Bauerlein recounts the story of the family house burning down and implies that Alex changed details on the insurance appraisal to receive a bigger payout. Bauerlein argues that Alex was so adept at lying that he was unknowable. She ends the chapter with the poem “The Man in the Glass.”

Bauerlein tells the story of Randolph Murdaugh Sr.’s last day alive. Randolph Sr. was the first Murdaugh solicitor, but his failing health forced him to turn over both his law firm and title to his son. Dying of renal failure in 1940, Randolph waited at an isolated railway crossing and drove onto the tracks when the train approached, dying by suicide. The sheriff, a friend, ruled the suicide an accident, which allowed the family to file a huge lawsuit against the railroad.

Bauerlein relates the Murdaugh family’s early history in South Carolina. Randolph Sr.’s father, Josiah, was a Confederate soldier and a descendant of enslavers. After the war, the family moved to Varnville, south of Hampton, with other Confederate families in order to distance themselves from the enslaved people who had just been freed, even building a fence around the county. Randolph Sr. was the youngest of seven siblings, and he went to the all-white University of South Carolina. He returned to Hampton, established his practice, and quickly built a reputation for winning lawsuits against the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway.

Randolph Sr.’s practice weathered historical turmoil, and he became a solicitor in his early 30s, gaining the nickname “Fire and Brimstone” for his passion in the courtroom. His position granted him access to every aspect of criminal investigations and gave him connections with every level of law enforcement. During the Depression, rumors spread of Randolph Sr.’s corruption. Because he was a local celebrity, Randolph Sr.’s three marriages were a source of gossip. Bauerlein shares some unsubstantiated but widely believed stories about Randolph Sr. paying off jurors, cozying up to officials, and even killing a suspect to prevent a trial.

Bauerlein returns to Pamela Pinckney’s story, with the mother now in a wheelchair and her son in a questionable nursing home. While Pamela waited until she could afford at-home care for Hakeem, Alex went on a spending spree with the stolen money. Hakeem eventually passed away when a ventilator became unplugged. Alex backdated Hakeem’s settlement papers, then used both the stolen and legitimate funds to pay back his other thefts. Alex released some money to placate Pamela’s questions, and he never told her how her son died.

Alex received another car accident case for Arthur Badger Jr., whose wife Donna died, leaving behind six children. Bauerlein reiterates the now-standard method for Alex’s scam: Alex had Arthur unknowingly sign away his rights, then lied about the true sum of the settlement and secretly stole millions of dollars. Of the eight million dollars that Arthur was owed, Alex only released $370,000. He used the other money to refill the accounts that he had depleted, but he kept most for himself. While Alex lived in luxury, the Badgers faced eviction.

Similarly, the Plyler sisters struggled to live on Social Security while Alex controlled their accounts. As minors, they didn’t have access to their money until they turned 18, and meanwhile, Alex and his associate at the bank, Russell Laffitte, made it difficult for them to request funds. Bauerlein suggests that getting away with these thefts made Alex bolder and led him to steal from his own friends. In one example, Alex waited until financial difficulty hit his long-time business partner, Barrett Boulware, before swooping in and buying his coveted property, Moselle.

Chapter 7 discusses 19-year-old Stephen Smith’s suspicious death. A truck driver found Stephen’s body on an isolated road in 2015. Due to the pose of the body and the lack of automotive debris, Highway Patrol troopers determined that the death was a murder made to look like a hit-and-run accident. The Murdaughs inserted themselves in the case by offering to privately investigate and by keeping tabs on the Smith family’s movements near the crime scene. Stephen’s family became suspicious, and rumors spread that the Murdaughs had killed Stephen.

As the Smiths held Stephen’s funeral, a pathologist determined that the cause of death was a hit-and-run accident, despite the contradictory evidence. Investigators and the family believed that Stephen was killed because he was known to be gay. Stephen had told an out-of-town boyfriend that a group of men had harassed him earlier that day. Investigators tried to corroborate the stories, but locals and officials avoided their questions. All leads pointed towards the Murdaughs, but investigators couldn’t definitively prove their guilt.

Chapter 8 is set in 1956, during Buster Murdaugh’s federal trial for running a bootlegging operation. Before the trial, Buster and his lawyer visited the prosecution’s star witness, Edith Freeman—who kept a record of illegal transactions with Buster—to persuade her to change her story. The investigation landed Edith’s husband in prison, so she was determined to reveal the truth about Buster. A deputy also testified to seeing Buster hand out bribes. Buster defended himself, and the jury declared everyone except Buster guilty. Buster tampered with the jury and witnesses, but the courts didn’t call a mistrial. Buster returned to Hampton County and immediately charged Edith and the deputy with liquor violations.

Buster inherited his father’s solicitor position at age 25, and Bauerlein describes his personality as a young lawyer, stating that he was dramatic and charming in the courtroom. Bauerlein then offers several anecdotes of Buster’s theatrics that at once endeared him to jurors and threatened the integrity of his prosecuting. Rumors were rampant in Hampton County about Buster’s corruption, but he wasn’t fazed by them.

Although Buster had a wife, Gladys, and a young son, he was a known adulterer. One of his lovers, Ruthven Vaux, gave birth to his son, Roberts. Buster tried to have Ruthven killed while she was pregnant, but his hired assassin passed out drunk on the job. Buster represented Ruthven in her divorce, but she discovered that he stole from her settlement. Ruthven and Buster sued each other, and the trial had to be held out of the county. Buster evaded two other corruption investigations—one by the state bar association and the other by the Internal Revenue Service—though Bauerlein asserts that he was guilty in both cases.

Investigators continued to reach dead ends in Stephen Smith’s case. The pathologist allowed a change in the cause of death listed on her report, but the troopers couldn’t find people willing to substantiate rumors about Buster and Paul’s involvement. Stephen’s mother wrote to the FBI and state senators for help, and a local journalist sought information in the newspaper. At the same time, Alex became chairman of the state’s trial lawyers association. Secretly, his drug addiction and cheating accelerated, resulting in violence against a sex worker. Drugs came in through Moselle’s private aircraft runway, and 16-year-old Paul threw drunken parties for his friends.

In 2018, Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ housekeeper of 20 years, fell down the stairs at Moselle and was airlifted to a hospital in Charleston. Although Gloria appeared to improve after surgery, she soon passed away. Bauerlein discusses Gloria’s employment with the Murdaughs, whom she considered to be family. Gloria kept the family’s two houses clean and helped to raise Paul and Buster. On the morning that she died, Gloria was working at Moselle to clean up after one of Paul’s parties. Gloria disapproved of Paul’s drinking and Alex’s pill addiction, but she didn’t voice her concerns for fear of being fired.

At Gloria’s funeral, Alex told her son, Tony, that the dogs caused Gloria’s fall. Alex offered to sue himself on Tony’s behalf because he had an insurance policy on Moselle. Tony agreed, and the insurance company paid out $500,000 in coverage, triggering access to five million dollars in umbrella coverage. Alex kept the full $500,000 for himself and spent it within a few weeks. Meanwhile, Tony and his brother were under pressure to pay medical bills, and Gloria’s house was repossessed.

Bauerlein shares an anecdote from Randolph III’s youth, explaining that he visited Colleton County jail with his father, Buster, to hear a murderer’s confession. When Randolph grew up, he became a lawyer and a solicitor like his father. Randolph was less ruthless but still used the courtroom as his stage. Bauerlein shares examples of Randolph’s memorable moments in court. The family law firm continued to sue large corporations, which dissuaded businesses from opening in Hampton County.

Randolph lived with his wife, Libby, and his four children in Almeda, and the family also owned Murdaugh Island. He humored his children’s underage drinking and was lenient on drunk driving charges. Randolph briefly abandoned Libby to stay with one of his mistresses. When a fake obituary for Libby appeared in the newspaper, locals theorized that Libby published it to make Randolph feel guilty. Randolph’s mother eventually dragged him back to his family. Bauerlein also shares an anecdote about a boat crash in which Randolph’s son, John Marvin, was involved.

Randolph knew about Alex’s addiction and debts, worried about Paul’s uncontrollable drinking, and had to deal with Libby’s dementia and his own lung cancer. The chapter ends on a cliffhanger as Paul calls his grandfather in the aftermath of another drunken boat crash and Randolph and Alex rush to the hospital.