Mandy Matney on the Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial and the Experience of Reporting On It from the Beginning

The Murdaugh saga (there is no better word I can find for it than that) gripped the nation earlier this year, as patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two life sentences for the brutal murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul. As horrific as that crime alone is, that’s nowhere near where the Murdaugh saga begins or ends. In 2019, a boat driven by Paul crashed and killed friend Mallory Beach; an upcoming hearing about the Murdaugh finances is what I believe killed Paul and Maggie just three days prior. There’s also the 2015 murder of Stephen Smith on a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina, and the 2018 alleged “accidental” death of the Murdaugh housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Three months after Paul and Maggie were murdered in June 2021, Alex was shot in the head in a failed assisted suicide that September. He was eventually arrested for Paul and Maggie’s murders and convicted on March 2, 2023. Alex is also believed to have embezzled up to $20 million, mostly from his clients he was paid to help, all in support of a rampant opioid addiction. Today on the show we have the reporter who covered the Murdaughs from the 2019 boat crash forward, Mandy Matney. In addition to covering the case, she also hosts the extremely popular Murdaugh Murders podcast, and if you know anything about the Murdaugh saga, you’ve likely heard of her or her podcast. Her new book about the Murdaugh trial comes out November 14, and it’s a must read if you’re even 1 percent interested in this wild “truth is stranger than fiction” saga.

Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty by Mandy Matney