T GAMBLE: Murdaugh family saga a Lifetime movie in the making

I am fascinated by the story of the powerful Murdaugh family unraveling in South Carolina. In case you have been banned from Facebook and your cable is out, the Murdaugh family has a long line of lawyers in the small town of Hampton, S.C. The county has 20,000 people and the town 2,600. Lawyer Alex Murdaugh is now in a whole heap of trouble in the town.

Murdaugh’s great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were each the district attorney in his county. He is a partner in a successful law firm in the county and contracted out with the DA’s office to perform work for them on occasion. In 2019 tragedy struck when his son was accused of driving a boat under the influence of alcohol that killed a 19 year old passenger. Murdaugh tried to point the blame on another teenager, and the DA’s office was very slow to bring charges against his son.

Things then got much worse. On June 7, his wife and the accused son, were killed at their home by multiple gunshots. The son was awaiting trial on vehicular homicide charges at the time of his death. Then, on Sept. 4, someone shot Alex Murdaugh in the head, but he survived the attempt on his life. It then came to light that he was accused of embezzling money from several different places, was addicted to opiods, and his housekeeper fell down the stairs at his house in 2018 and died. Murdaugh’s insurance company paid more than $4 million for the housekeeper’s death claim, but her family says they have not received a penny. There are all kinds of other issues with the housekeepers’ estate. His law firm also says he was embezzling money from them and fired him. I’m no crystal ball reader, but I see a Lifetime movie in this family’s future.

So what happened on Sept. 4? Well, Alex has now admitted he paid a friend to kill him so his remaining son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. I guess Alex saw the end of the road for himself and decided to Hail Mary his death. So he hired Curtis “Eddie” Smith as a hitman. All hitman must, of course, have a nickname. You know, “Tommy the Enforcer” or “John the Punisher” Johnson. Smith was just called Eddie. Maybe that should have tipped Alex off as to his ability.

Smith says he did not do it and was just a workplace accident client of Murdaugh’s in the past. Murdaugh says Smith became his drug dealer. I’m not sure what Smith was actually doing, but I’m pretty sure hitmanning was not one of his previous occupations.

The police report said Alex Murdaugh was grazed by a bullet on the side of the head. Now let me get this straight: You have one job and one job only. Kill Alex. The beauty of the job is that Alex paid you to do it. All you have to do is walk on in and shoot him at point-blank range. Yet the would-be hitman managed to more or less miss him almost entirely and then, instead of shooting again, he ran away. Now, please understand, I expect working as a hitman is a pretty doggone stressful job as far as jobs go, but if you are a hitman, this job has to have been in the Top 10 easiest hits of all time.

Alex Murdaugh has now been arrested for insurance fraud and filing a false police report but was released on bond so that he could go to rehab based upon his claimed 20-year drug addiction. That acknowledgement ought to really make 20 years’ worth of clients feel good about their representation in the past. I’m thinking maybe he should have tried this just a tad bit sooner. Of course, who knows what the real story is to all of this. Only time will tell … and Lifetime … or maybe Hitman Eddie.