Author Jason Ryan spent two years unearthing truths about the now infamous family
Alex Murdaugh brutally murdered his wife and son at their home on June 7, 2021. The evidence against him was so overwhelming that, after a five-week trial, the jury deliberated only three hours to find him guilty. Hailed as “the crime of the century” in South Carolina, this saga has been the subject of numerous articles, books, television series, documentaries, and podcasts. The trial was broadcast live on Court TV and watched by millions of viewers nationwide. So, what’s left to be said?
Charleston-based nonfiction author and freelance journalist Jason Ryan (pictured above) takes a broad view in Swamp Kings (Pegasus Crime, April 2024), subtitled “the story of the Murdaugh family of South Carolina and a century of backwoods power.” After spending two years unearthing truth and tales in the Lowcountry, Ryan contends that terrain and ancestry are complicit in Alex’s ruin.
Hampton, the home of Alex’s family law firm, occupies a small area of high ground surrounded by the swamps of the Salkehatchie and Coosawhatchie rivers. The relative isolation was conducive to the Murdaughs developing a dominating presence, controlling the town and county for more than 50 years. “In this Southern backwoods, surrounded by swamps and pines and poverty, the Murdaughs lived like kings, the law being almost entirely within their control,” Ryan writes.
Alex’s grandfather Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., who laid the foundation for the success of the law firm that bore his name, is the dominant character. Three generations of Murdaughs served continuously as solicitors for 86 years. Buster parlayed this position to his advantage in civil matters. Though he earned a reputation as one of the state’s top lawyers, he could be punitive, vindictive, and coercive. “To cross Buster was to guarantee misery,” Ryan states. Buster survived many scandals, including income tax evasion, bootlegging, stealing from clients, and association with an adoption ring.
Benefitting from laws that allowed defendants to be sued in Hampton even if the accident occurred elsewhere, as well as a home-based knowledge of the jury pool, the Murdaugh firm prospered. The CSX railroad was a prime target, sued by the firm almost 50 times in 10 years, with verdicts and settlements exceeding $18 million. According to Ryan, the conventional wisdom among the state’s legal community was: “You don’t want to try a case in Hampton County.”
The third and fourth generations of Murdaughs enjoyed a life of prestige and privilege. Though Alex never served as solicitor, he reaped the benefits of the firm’s reputation, negotiating lucrative settlements. He “mirrored the tactics of his grandfather, suggesting his criminal instincts were inherited and/or learned at Buster’s knee,” Ryan concludes.
After an extensive study of Murdaugh family history, Ryan turns to the murders and the trial in the last quarter of the book. There is harrowing detail from the depositions of the survivors about the fatal February 2019 boating accident involving Alex’s son Paul, the incident which set Alex’s downfall in motion.
Ryan’s prose is punctuated with historical facts and cultural anecdotes. Thus, details of Buster’s trial prowess are suspended for an account of Sherman’s march to the sea during the Civil War. This approach can be difficult to follow, particularly given the repetition of Murdaugh family names. (There are five Randolphs, three Busters, two Johns, and two Richard Alexanders.) Helpfully, Ryan explains this at the outset. Readers will want to bookmark this page.
Swamp Kings provides compelling insight into how Alex Murdaugh gained privilege and power, how he wielded that force to conceal years of deception, and the desperate attempts he took to keep it all from spiraling out of control. Ultimately, however, that a man would resort to the heinous murder of his wife and son remains unfathomable.
More Murdaugh Books:
- The Fall of the House of Murdaugh by Michael DeWitt (Evening Post Books, December 2023)
- The Devil at His Elbow by Valerie Bauerlein (Ballentine Books, August 2024)
