SC - Paul Murdaugh & mom Margaret Found Shot To Death - Alex Murdaugh Accused - Islandton #32

[Twistinginthewind]

Seems as though the entire selection of jurors (minus her) didn't have a problem with hearing/temps to the extreme of placing tissues in their ears and covering their head, I find it somewhat perplexing. That may just be me

Jury tampering is for real, and is often the last gasp tactic (or put in place "just in case" ahead of time) by a corrupt defendant and/or their defense team when their winning of (or manipulation of) a trial is assessed as failing "down the line".

No telling, really in this case, but to use an "old saw", "I wouldn't put it past him".

The jurors (and alternates) doing their civic duty and willing to serve on this case are very brave and stalwart, IMO!

However, I don't think the prosecution, judge, and/or public would necessarily know if they were intimidated in subtle or not so subtle ways by "those in power' such as AM and his "lot".

It's very sad to say and may have no basis in reality, but I don't believe John Grisham, who practiced as a trial attorney "in the South" before he wrote his novels, could make something up like "The Runaway Jury" out of "whole cloth".

If only Mr. Grisham was available in "real time" to provide his viewpoint on AM's trial(s), and not just his "doppelganger"!

JMO

 

[Loveallmyhorsesdogsandcats]

Maggie's sister said that Maggie believed, at the time of her death, that Paul was not driving the boat. That's the reason that people turned against the family. There were 5 witnesses, plus accident reconstruction experts, who stated that Paul was driving the boat. Paul was in his underwear, stinking drunk and abusive towards hospital staff. Everyone understood who was driving the boat, yet Maggie took the position of victim. She insisted that Paul was not driving the boat and everyone else was being unreasonable. That's why she was ostracized in her community - refusal to accept fact regarding what Paul did to five families.

Had Maggie accepted that Paul was drunk and made a big mistake, people would have supported her.

Agree, I will add on the way AM and RM went into protection/damage control, tried to persuade the teenagers to say they did not know who was driving, tried to blame Connor

 

[Seattle1]

[MM] She insisted that Paul was not driving the boat and everyone else was being unreasonable. That's why she was ostracized in her community - refusal to accept fact regarding what Paul did to five families.

Had Maggie accepted that Paul was drunk and made a big mistake, people would have supported her.

^^RSBM

IMO, nobody would fault a mother for wanting to believe her son's denial (after being too drunk to remember driving the boat).

However, a mother supporting her son's denial at the expense of throwing another mother's innocent son under the bus is another thing!

IMO, this is why MM felt ostracized in her community. Blaming a surviving passenger of manslaughter when so many witnesses said otherwise was too much for a very forgiving community.

Again, if not for being so quick to throw C Cook under the bus to save her own son, I agree MM would probably have had the majority of the community's support to help MM (PM and AM too) come to terms with the tragedy her son and his friends endured after a night of bad judgment.

I've said before that I found it profoundly sad said that I don't think PM would have been allowed to take responsibility for his actions in the boat crash even if he wanted to. MOO

 

[Luna20]

I’m recalling one of the only things that was reported immediately was that there was no threat to the public.

I’m not sure how they could say that immediately after but I was just thinking about all the guns that were laying around throughout the property & cars that we now know of.

How can there be no threat to the public if unsecured guns are all over a property?? They had so many guns laying around that the potential for a public threat was real. Did AM tell them to not to disclose any info on the amount and location of the weapons?

It sounds like they had their preferred weapons that they individually liked to use most of the time. I doubt they kept an up to date manifest so how would they know if some were missing?

Did someone say there were up to 300 guns?

 

[NottaYutz]

it really does make you wonder, does anyone think it's odd that PauPau and Mags were killed with two different firearms? mOO

Not if a lone murderer wanted LE to believe more than one murderer was at the scene...

 

[Seattle1]

Same and if I didn't have a warm hat to put on, the blanket would definitely be over my head.

Thank you! And if you ask me, nightcaps and bed jackets were never meant forgotten or exclusively for pioneers and wagon trains. Just ask the British girl stepping foot on Alaska's tundra.

 

[Not a Belle]

Is this a “bless their hearts” situation until the verdict comes in?

I ask our Southern posters here. As a lifelong New Yorker, the customs and rituals of Southern culture are a mystery to me.

My granddaughter has a friend, originally from Tennessee, and she calls me “Ma’am.” It’s kind of charming, but it catches me off guard.

All her other friends call me by my first name, as did my daughter’s friends, the generation before that. As I in my turn called my parents’ friends by their first names.

Several of us have family nicknames, but if we were on trial we would NEVER stoop to this clumsy, contrived folksiness. If I were a juror I would be repelled, because it’s such a conspicuously manufactured design to turn the jury into his buddies.

I highly doubt that prior to these tragedies, any Murdaugh would have considered the twelve jurors as their “peers.” They very overtly considered themselves peerless, in whatever is this Lowcountry caste system.

JMO

I have lived in the South all my life, and was taught to use ma’am and sir, and not to call adults by their first names. I called my mother’s friends Ms. First Name, and they begged me to stop when I was an adult. I much prefer that people use just my first name, but it is ingrained in many people that it is disrespectful or presumptuous, even if I’m insisting.

I find the nicknames AM has been using incredibly grating. There are some people I know who use nicknames, but most don’t, and all would change their names if someone called them PauPau. I’m not a nickname person anyway, but that is pure theater IMO.

I definitely don’t speak for anyone but myself, but the version of life AM has experienced and/or wants to appear to have experienced could not be less reflective of what I consider real.

On the what-to-call-the-grownups question, I have to laugh at myself when I struggle to use first names with someone older than I, and I am not terribly far from retirement age myself. LOL.

 

[Luna20]

I don't think any of the four of them had friends. They had transactional "friends," so AM and MM could yuk it up dressed up all fancy at the governor's mansion, or they could be throwing back beers at a pig roast under a giant rented tent in their backyard. PM and BM had a boat to entertain with. And I think MM was realizing that there was no reason for her to be home all day since both kids were in college, and she really didn't have any girlfriends to hang out with outside events or parties. Not one of these four has had anyone come forward to say "I'll really miss getting coffee with MM on Wednesdays for our book club" or anything like that.

Early on there were a few things about MM on FB that appeared to be from a friend. It fizzled out so it didn’t draw further attention.

Before MP testified in court no one in her family has spoken out publicly. There is an older photo of the sisters and their father upthread that was nice to see.

 

[worm]

I see where Nancy Grace has a 2 part show at 8 on Fox business. Coffee brewing.

 

[pizzaman12]

We’re you around to read he as arrested again?

Arrested again? Someone a few posts ago stated additional charges were filed against him (but it appears no knows the charges)

Is this what you're referring to?

 

[Walela]

I’m recalling one of the only things that was reported immediately was that there was no threat to the public.

I’m not sure how they could say that immediately after but I was just thinking about all the guns that were laying around throughout the property & cars that we now know of.

How can there be no threat to the public if unsecured guns are all over a property?? They had so many guns laying around that the potential for a public threat was real. Did AM tell them to not to disclose any info on the amount and location of the weapons?

It sounds like they had their preferred weapons that they individually liked to use most of the time. I doubt they kept an up to date manifest so how would they know if some were missing?

Did someone say there were up to 300 guns?

IMO it was AM that declared these killings were related to the boat wreck implying there was no threat to the public.

There were not 300 guns. Counting the 18 guns in the gun cabinet + the 4 SLED took + the 2 that were missing that's 24. If some were other places, like in a gun safe, the bedroom, caretaker cabin, front porch rocker, etc there's no pictures of them so I can't count them. AM claims he had a handgun at Almeda and he kept one in his car so add 2 more. If there were other handguns they haven't been mentioned. My best guess is 30 guns max.

 

[Boodles]

It drives me bonkers that AM repeats the question he was asked before he answers it. I only noticed him doing it excessively when he was being cross-examined. To me, that is an indication of him stalling, trying to formulate the "correct" answer (or remember which lie he told), and establish control of the situation (in his mind). Between that tactic and him talking in circles full of needless information (IMO to clutter the information field and confuse the jury), I had to walk away several times. The aura of narcissism and gaslighting that exudes from him is nauseating. IMO MOO

So well said! I completely agree and I had to walk away often, too.

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

It drives me bonkers that AM repeats the question he was asked before he answers it. I only noticed him doing it excessively when he was being cross-examined. To me, that is an indication of him stalling, trying to formulate the "correct" answer (or remember which lie he told), and establish control of the situation (in his mind). Between that tactic and him talking in circles full of needless information (IMO to clutter the information field and confuse the jury), I had to walk away several times. The aura of narcissism and gaslighting that exudes from him is nauseating. IMO MOO

A control element it seems. And hoping that it will startle or stumble the examiner. And also in attempt that maybe the question being asked will change. Trying to control the narrative, stall, and to attempt to ‘throw’ off the questioner. MO.

 

[makayla]

Really good article that connects dots.

The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders

In isolated, poor regions of South Carolina, coming from an élite family offered a feeling of impunity. Did this license lead Alex Murdaugh to commit fraud after fraud—and then kill his wife and son?

www.newyorker.com

Amazing article … thank you for posting it!

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

okay so I can't stop thinking about the way Mags sounded on the phone when Gloria suffered her fatal injuries
on the property..I'm not going to say she fell over the dogs on the stairs or whatever because who knows..?

but her affect is just , well she sounds annoyed and put out..even disgusted..she is definitely put out and you can hear it in her voice..there is no urgency even though it's a life and death emergency. This woman has practically lived with them for 20 years..Mags sounds like her day is just ruined...

later in the Netflix thing or was it here, someone said Mags was hysterical over Gloria's fall..yet when she calls 911 you get zero sense of anything... she's an "employee" ...she's just making noises or something...

I cannot right this with what we are told about her...the sweetest ..the best ever..etc..so is she angry on the 911 call because of Alex..has he already got an angle on the insurance settlement he can steal?

it really does make you wonder, does anyone think it's odd that PauPau and Mags were killed with two different firearms? mOO

I find it interesting that the two individuals involved with the housekeeper incident and the 911 call for it (one of which also was supposedly piloting the boat during the crash) were the two slain at the estate. Perhaps there was also fear of a future reckoning over that incident? And maybe it was two separate guns to ensure plenty of rounds, and also to try and perhaps confuse investigators whether one or two shooters. I’m not a hunter or firearms expert, so can’t comment on the nature and selection of those two guns chosen for this crime. MO.

And in that Netflix three part series on now. The defendant was pressing his surviving son whether that housekeeper incident was being further pressed and reexamined, or words to that effect.

 

[otto]

Arrested again? Someone a few posts ago stated additional charges were filed against him (but it appears no knows the charges)

Is this what you're referring to?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629571804208721920

 

[Shadowtrix]

I find it interesting that the two individuals involved with the housekeeper incident and the 911 call for it (one of which also was supposedly piloting the boat during the crash) were the two slain at the estate. Perhaps there was also fear of a future reckoning over that incident? And maybe it was two separate guns to ensure plenty of rounds, and also to try and perhaps confuse investigators whether one or two shooters. I’m not a hunter or firearms expert, so can’t comment on the nature and selection of those two guns chosen for this crime. MO.

I've been thinking a lot about what the reason could be for two guns lately, too. I agree, to make it appear as though there were two shooters and ensuring plenty of rounds makes sense. But also, I see it as a backup plan. Say one gun jams after one victim had been shot. He couldn't just drop the gun and run leaving a witness behind. He had a job to carry out and wanted to make absolutely certain he succeeded. JMO.

 

[makayla]

I see where Nancy Grace has a 2 part show at 8 on Fox business. Coffee brewing.

Thanks, I would have missed it!

 

[justtrish]

I've been saying this for years that the AM's of the world scare me to death! He's the seatmate on your last flight, the big guy on the golf course happy to let you play through, or the jolly neighbor next door.

But those that have been controlled or abused by one of these types, tend to spot them. I think this is why my BS meter goes through the roof when say George Wagner takes the stand or Alex.. I thought it was all hogwash and not believable. It wasn't any specific thing, just the entire way they both testified. They have people who will say the best things about them, they have those who testify and know something was off, but still can find good things to say. IT's not because they are good people, it's because they know how to act like good people to get others on their side. They use people, they find ways to get control over people and use kind acts as leverage to get what they want. They leave a path of carnage behind them.

 

[justtrish]

most notably, he says: these were no accountability issues on his doorstep on June 7 <------really? the CFO Seckinger confronted him earlier that day about the firm's missing fees!

But in his opinion it wasn't serious. Nothing was going to come from that and he wasn't worried about it. He said he knew what she testified to, but he didn't see it that way. She isn't lying of course, she just isn't remembering it like he did.