Alex Murdaugh This article is more than 4 months oldAlex Murdaugh’s only surviving son says calling father psychopath is ‘fair’
This article is more than 4 months oldBuster Murdaugh, 29, also said he doubts his father murdered his mother Margaret and brother Paul
The only surviving son of convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh acknowledged that calling his father a psychopath is a “fair assessment” but said he still doubts he killed his wife and son, according to a new documentary series.
“I think that I hold a very unique perspective that nobody … ever held,” Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh Jr told Fox Nation about the famous case. “And I know the love that I have witnessed.”
Alex Murdaugh, 55, is serving a life sentence without parole, for shooting dead his wife, Margaret, and their younger son, Paul, at their home in South Carolina in June 2021. Prosecutors said Murdaugh, a since disbarred attorney, feared authorities were about to prove he stole millions from his law firm and clients, and killed his wife and son in a desperate attempt to gain sympathy and delay investigation.
The murders ignited interest across the US, in part because they occurred after Paul was reportedly involved in a deadly boat crash in February 2019. Murdaugh’s murder trial drew saturation media coverage before he was found guilty in March. The complex tale has spurred several documentaries, including The Fall of the House of Murdaugh, the new film from Fox Nation.
In the series, Buster, who was not at home when his brother and mother were murdered, says calling his father a psychopath is justifiable.
“Certainly, I think there are characteristics where you look at the manipulation and the lies and the carrying out of that such, and I think that is a fair assessment,” says Buster, 29, who testified at trial about his father’s drug addiction.
Yet Buster also insists that his father did not receive a fair shake from the jury.
“I do not believe it was fair,” Buster says. “I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given.”
Buster says he did not think his dad “could be affiliated with endangering” Margaret, 52, or Paul , 22. He also says he believes his mother and brother’s true killer remains free.
“I think I set myself up to be safe, but yes – when I go to bed at night, I have a fear that there is somebody [who] is still out there,” Buster says.
Buster also denies having any hand in the killing of a former classmate, Stephen Smith, 19.
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Smith’s body was found on a road near the Murdaugh family estate in summer 2015. Authorities initially attributed his death to a hit-and-run crash. In April, however, police said they were investigating Smith’s death as a homicide, his body exhumed for a private autopsy.
Onscreen, Buster says he did not have “anything to do with [Smith] on a physical level in any regard” around the time of his death. And he says he was at a beach house with his mother and brother when Smith was killed.
No charges have been filed in Smith’s death. Investigators have never said there is any evidence tying Buster to the case.
“It’s a terrible thing to place on somebody with absolutely no fact,” Buster told Fox Nation.
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