The attorney for the family of Gloria Satterfield — the dead South Carolina housekeeper whose heirs successfully sued her boss, accused murderer Alex Murdo — said Friday that Murdo is in so much trouble that he might be better off dead himself.
“I would never recommend that someone kill themselves, but in Alex’s case, he’s already ruined so many people’s lives and there’s more to come,” Eric Bland, a Columbia, SC attorney representing the Satterfield family, told The Post .
“This man has left behind so many victims, family members whose lives he either destroyed and family members he may have killed, that it is difficult to overestimate the damage. All this could drag on for another seven years. Alex is potentially a man who will go down in history, making the name ‘Murdo’ synonymous with Madoff, Manson and Ted Bundy.”
Murdo, 54 – a fourth-generation lawyer from a powerful legal family – was charged Thursday with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in the brutal execution-style killings of Maggie Murdo, 52, and Paul Murdo, 22.
His wife and son were shot near a dog kennel on the family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, with at least two separate weapons — a rifle and a shotgun — on June 7, 2021.
Alex Murdo is scheduled to be arraigned next week on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony.AP
The disgraced lawyer was linked to the murders by blood splatters on his clothes along with video footage that placed him at the scene of the murder, according to reports
The elder Murdo called 911 and frantically told a dispatcher that he had returned home to find the bullet-riddled bodies of his wife and son.
He has been jailed, held on $7 million bail, since October in Richland County on exponentially increasing financial fraud charges, beginning with allegations that he stole insurance money from Satterfield’s two sons. He has since been hit with at least 85 charges involving $8.4 million in fraudulent insurance settlements, including money allegedly stolen from a young paralyzed man, and already faces a possible 500 years in prison.
Bland said that short of suicide, the only honorable option for Murdough now would be to confess to everything he knows about both the Maggie and Paul murders and the numerous financial charges against him.
“The only currency it has is information,” Bland said. “There’s no way he could have done this all by himself. He may decide, “I’m going to broker the information I have to get all this out and finally do some good.” But he’s such a narcissist — will he think what this will do to his son, his brothers and his cousins?’
Bland told The Post that Curtis “Cousin Eddie” Smith, a Walterboro, S.C., man arrested in September 2021 for allegedly shooting Murdough on rural Hampton Roads in a botched and convoluted insurance/suicide-for-hire scam and who was arrested a second time last month on drug and money laundering charges, gave police the names of the people Alex Murdo sold drugs to.
Maggie and Alex had sons together, Buster (far left) and Paul (second from right), the latter killed with his mother. Facebook
Bland said Smith procured drugs for Murdo, some or all of which he sold to others. As the orders got bigger, Bland said, Smith asked Murdow why, and Murdow named people close to him.
“Normally you would come up with names if it was people close to you that you love,” Bland said. “But Alex just told Eddie the names.”
Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian, who is based in Columbia, SC, asked prosecutors for a speedy trial after the murder charges were filed last week.
Paul and Maggie Murdo were found dead by the kennels at their hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina. Dana Kennedy
He and Murdo’s other attorney, Jim Griffin, issued a statement last week that read in part:
“Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he had nothing to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul. He loved them more than anything in the world. It was very clear from day one that law enforcement and the Attorney General prematurely concluded that Alex was responsible for killing his wife and son. But we know Alex had no motive to kill them.
When reached Friday by The Post, Harpootlian declined further comment.
“I will speak in the courtroom,” he said.
Murdo reportedly found the bodies of his wife and son on June 7, 2021. Above, Buster Murdo mourns at their funeral.AP
But some insiders say Harputlian may get his client off the hook because of forensic inconsistencies and the puzzling fact that two different weapons — a rifle and a shotgun — were used in the murders of Maggie and Paul.
“Harpootlian is doing cartwheels right now,” a source close to the investigation told The Post Friday. “This process will be short and sweet. Dick H. is their man. He’s going to dazzle this jury. All it takes is one person to disagree with a conviction and they will find them. Everyone down there still loves and owes the Murdaughs. There is no way they can condemn him. This ordeal could be in the rearview mirror very quickly.
Gloria Satterfield was the Murdo family’s housekeeper. Her family successfully sued Alex for stealing $4.3 million in insurance money from her death. Family photo
Bland said: “I was in court today with Dick and I told him that this is not winning for him representing this pariah. But he sees it another way. He will not plead not guilty. He knows he will never get 12 people to say they are innocent. What he is telling jurors is that “not guilty” does not mean “innocent.” This means that the state has not met its burden of proof.
Residents of rural Hampton and Colleton counties, over which four generations of Murdows ruled from both his law firm and the local prosecutor’s office, felt more resentment than relief after news of the murder charge broke last week.
“Everybody is freaking out about it in the outside world,” the Hampton resident, whose family has lived in the area for generations and knew the Murdows well, told The Post Friday. “They’re saying the Murdochs had some sort of genetic defect and they’re tarring us all with the same brush.” Just hold on. People need to slow down. We are a community of 20,000 people. We are not Alec. We are the same as we have always been.”
The man added that despite the media onslaught, the city and the surrounding area have persevered since the killings.
“We’ll still have the Friday night football games in the fall and our dove hunts and our barbecues and our big family gatherings. This is us. Nothing will change that.”
Sandy Smith, the mother of a young gay South Carolina man — whose mysterious 2015 death was rediscovered by SLED a day after The Post published a story about it in mid-June 2021 — said Friday she was “incredibly relieved ‘ when he heard on Thursday that Alex Murdo had been formally charged with murder. She hopes this will pave the way to solving Steven’s murder.
“It was a good day in South Carolina and a good week for Steven,” Smith said. She said a headstone for her son will be unveiled Sunday at Gooding Cemetery in Hampton County, and many people are expected to attend the event.
For generations, the Murdo family wielded great power in their town, both through their law firm and the local prosecutor’s office. Facebook
The money for the headstone was raised after stories of Stephen’s murder and the hashtag #StandingforStephen went viral on social media. No Murdoes have been officially linked to the death of Stephen, whose dead body was found dumped on a country road, but the family’s involvement has been rumored for years.
“We felt like it was Steven’s week,” Smith said. “We are optimistic about the future.”
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