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Tangled vines : power, privilege, and the Murdaugh family murders
2023
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Publishers Weekly Review
Bestseller Glatt (The Doomsday Mother) tells the stranger-than-fiction saga of South Carolina's Murdaugh family in this exemplary work of true crime. While many readers will be familiar with the allegations that attorney Alex Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, in 2021--resulting in his 2023 conviction and double life sentence--Glatt deepens the story by placing those murders in the context of the family's history. The Murdaughs "dominated a huge swath of South Carolina's luscious Lowcountry, epitomizing power, justice, and big, big money" by serving as the equivalent of district attorneys at a time when state laws also permitted them to maintain a lucrative civil practice; they were well-known locally as both prosecutors and personal injury lawyers. Leading up to the murders, Maggie was beginning to consider filing for divorce, and Paul had been indicted for homicide after drunkenly crashing a boat and killing one of its passengers. All of this, Glatt explains, motivated Alex to act in desperate defense of the family legacy and their accumulated fortune, supporting this thesis by digging into the scope of both their influence and their wealth. Through his judicious use of police records, interviews with sources including local historians, and Alex's own jailhouse phone calls (including one where he laughs off his crimes, saying "it is what it is"), Glatt has produced the equivalent of a juicy John Grisham novel, featuring a lead more "dark and totally devoid of conscience" than anyone he's ever researched. This real-life Southern noir lingers. (Aug.)
Summary

2024 EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FACT CRIME NOVEL

In Tangled Vines , bestselling true crime author John Glatt reconstructs the rise of the prestigious Murdaugh family and the shocking double murder that led to the downfall of its patriarch, Alex Murdaugh.

Among the lush, tree-lined waterways of South Carolina low country, the Murdaugh name means power. A century-old, multimillion-dollar law practice has catapulted the family into incredible wealth and local celebrity--but it was an unimaginable tragedy that would thrust them into the national spotlight. On June 7th, 2021, prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on the grounds of their thousand-acre hunting lodge. The mystery deepened only months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a local roadside.

But as authorities scrambled for clues and the community reeled from the loss and media attention, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty came to light. The Murdaughs, it turned out, were feared as much as they were loved. And they wouldn't hesitate to wield their influence to protect one of their own; two years before he was killed, a highly intoxicated Paul Murdaugh was at the helm of a boat when it crashed and killed a teenage girl, and his light treatment by police led to speculation that privilege had come into play. As bombshells of financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even plan his own death, to save his family's reputation.

Table of Contents
Prologue3
1Early Days7
2Buster12
3Trials and Tribulations22
4The Cock of the Walk29
5Trouble in Paradise35
6Growing Up A Murdauch41
7Big Red45
8Succession53
9"The House That CSX Built"58
10The Buddy System61
11The Seeds Of Destruction69
12The Next Century75
13Timmy84
14Stephen Smith90
15The Prime Suspect94
16The Cover-Up102
17The High Life109
18Gloria Satterfield117
19"We Have So Much To Be Thankful For!!!"126
20The Boat Crash133
21"Do Y'all Know Alex Murdaugh?"140
22"He's As Drunk As Cooter Brown!"147
23The Search153
24"The Murdaughs Are Out To Pin It On Him"159
25The Arrest165
26The Smoking Gun173
27"My Wife and Child Have Been Shot Badly!"183
28"There is No Danger to the Public"191
29"We're Just Regular People"199
30"You Can't Make This Stuff Up"206
31"This is a Pretty Unbelievable Story"212
32A Tremendous Fall From Grace218
33"The Murdaugh Citadel is Going to Fall!"224
34"Alex Murdaugh Needs to Get Comfortable Getting Uncomfortable"232
35"A Danger to Himself and The Community"241
36"I Was in the Throes of Withdrawal"249
37"He Stole Every Dime I Had"254
38"The Scope Of Murdaugh's Depravity is Without Precedent"265
39Tt All Came Back To Alex Murdaugh"273
40The Trial282
41"What A Tangled Web We Weave"293
Epilogue300
Acknowledgments302
Index305
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