Alex Murdaugh – a patriarch sunk in criminal folly

Alex Murdaugh, the villain of a true-crime twisted family tale worthy of a gothic melodrama has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son. Documentaries on Netflix and HBO scrutinized the powerful South Carolina dynasty that ran the state’s legal system for nearly a century with the present patriarch brought low, having squandered millions of clients and law partners’ money as he fed a pill addiction. He faces 30 years to life in prison.

  Even before the deaths of his wife and son, there were other criminal scandals in recent years with Murdaugh’s youngest son allegedly crashing a boat while drunk, killing a teenage girl. The death triggered lawsuits and investigations that threatened to unravel senior’s web of lies and so he shot his wife and one son to cover up his misdeeds. There were other deaths allegedly tied to the family: their housekeeper died suddenly as did an openly gay young man, reportedly in a relationship with another son.

 Alex Murdaugh was born 27 May 1968 (net sources) and has a stellium in Gemini with a New Moon conjunct Venus and Mars as well as Mercury. His Mercury is square Uranus Pluto in Virgo, but more pointedly he has a tricky karmic Yod of Uranus Pluto sextile Neptune inconjunct Saturn. That brings with it heavy Saturnine lessons about not transgressing moral codes.  When the murders took place on June 7 2021, there was a brutal/ruthless tr Pluto opposition tr Mars in Cancer. At that point his Solar Arc Saturn was moving to conjunct his Mars; with his Solar Arc Neptune square his North Node  – which is quite a collision of fated influences, covering the deed and subsequent trial.

  Margaret Murdaugh, 15 September 1968, (obituary) was a Sun, Pluto, Jupiter in Virgo so attracted to a powerful, wealthy, pushy husband. She also had that difficult Saturnine Yod with Saturn opposition Mercury in Libra. When she was shot her Solar Arc Mars was conjunct her Mercury with her Solar Arc Neptune square.

  Paul Murdaugh, 14 April 1999, who died alongside her, was a Sun Jupiter in Aries with a hard-edged, unfairly-treated Mars in Scorpio opposition Saturn square Neptune (Uranus) – all of which suggest a less-than-ideal father – cruel, bad-tempered, evasive.  His relationship chart with his father echoes that, with an unpleasant composite Grand Trine of Saturn, Neptune, Mars. Paul’s Sun fell close to his father’s focal point Saturn for a cold and critical interface.

    I would say it is a very American story which isn’t to say there are not instances of abuses of power by the influential and wealthy elsewhere in the world. But even the unravelling of it has been turned into a streaming extravaganza with accusations hurled around even before the jury returned a verdict.  

ADD ON: There are problems over pinning down his accurate birth date. So not worth pursuing until someone digs out proper records.

14 thoughts on “Alex Murdaugh – a patriarch sunk in criminal folly

  1. I wonder why he killed the you younger son but not the older son, Buster.

    Anyone have any thoughts on this, especially astrologically speaking?

    Thanks!

    • Be great to see Buster’s chart. –
      he seems to have high composure. There’s a great clip from a jail visit call between he and dad where he basically tells senior to stop doing fishy looking things inside jail.

      As to Why Paul, I’ve heard these ideas (though nothing really makes sense !) :

      Reliable access to PawPaw, who loved the kennel routine, whereas Buster lived w his girlfriend an hour or so away.

      A.M. was enraged abt the liability lawsuit from the fatal boat wreck, which Paul was allegedly steering.

      An argument bubbled up and A.M.’s drug addicted brain flared his antisocial disorder, he picked up the rifles on impulse and shot his son before killing his wife.

      • I find it hard to believe he was on opioids, sounds more like fueled by cocaine but you knows?

        Buster committed plagiarism in law school and was kicked out. They paid an attorney $60k to get him re-admitted but it hasn’t happened.

        Here is another gem Buster will receive $500k from his deceased mother’s estate after all the property is sold.

        Alex will never get out of jail, even if he wins an appeal for the murder. He will be like Bernie Madoff when he is convicted on the financial crimes

    • Paul was the son who was accused of killing someone, so part of Alex’s claims is that he was targeted as revenge for the death. The other possible reason (suggested by prosecutors) is that he had found out about his father’s abuse of drugs and confronted his father, saying they needed to talk

    • The younger son Paul was in a boating accident (driving while intoxicated) that killed a friend and injured several others. He was underage and used his brothers ID.

      The family was being sued and all the dad’s Alex (financial) embezzling from his clients over many years was going to come out. He thought killing his son would gain him sympathy and gain him time. In the end everything was still revealed. The man is a psychopath.

      • AM sounds like the ‘disappointed’ type of family annihilator (there are 4 types) which means that he may have seen his son Paul as increasingly beyond his control, tarnishing the family image, damaging the family’s finances, etc. He may have murdered his wife because he held her responsible for his wayward son’s upbringing and in his view, she had failed and needed to be punished for that.

        Interestingly, the rate of familicides has grown substantially during the last 20 years. From 1980 until 1999 there were relatively few cases, since 2000 there has been a marked and alarming increase.

  2. The jury convicted him in 45 minutes but held the verdict for 3 hours. Claims he was addicted to opioids over 1000mg. It was never proven. Sounds like cocaine to me. He will never see the light of day again with the financial crimes to come.

    Such a horrible death for his wife and son. Yes, it does sound very American right here in the good ‘ole USA’.

  3. I was searching for this post this morning! I was ‘sure’ I had already seen it here and wondered whether I had spelled the name wrong! Thanks Marjorie. It is indeed a disturbing case which raises many questions about privilege, wealth and entitlement, not to mention media intrusion.

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