268: High Profile: The Murdaugh Family, Part 4

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey everyone, it's Jen and this is Lindsay. Welcome back
to Corpus Delicti the podcast. The final Alec Myrdall episode.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, indeed, so basically, just to rehash the game plan,
this is the last Alec Mrdall episode. This one is
probably a little bit shorter, we couldn't quite fit it
into the last one. And then we have one more
episode that is just just a one parter in the
high profile series and that is going to transition us

(00:54):
into our next series, which we are reviving. We're bringing
one back and it kind of segues perfectly. So that
is the game plan for now. And then, as we've
alluded to I think we alluded to it, at some
point after that, we have a big case that we
are working on behind the scenes. That's a local case
that we're gonna do somewhat Rocky style where people are

(01:15):
talking to his hand on us over what they have
and all that. We actually had our first interview for it.
Some more details to come on that. Also, I'm gonna
apologize when I did the test run through here, there
was like a little static or hum in the background,
and I cannot get rid of it. I cannot pinpoint
what it is. So just bear with me, sorry about that,
all right.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
This is what we've been waiting on the entire crux
of everything with this case. Attorneys tell their clients do
not get on the stand, do not go up there
and talk. And even Alec has probably told his clients
from time to time, do not get on the stand.

(01:54):
So what does he do? He takes the stand, and
he does on February twenty third, and throughout every interview
with the police, every conversation about Paul up until this point,
is what Alec called him, Paul. He hasn't used any nicknames.
He has just said my son or Paul. Throughout his

(02:16):
entire testimony, he referred to him as Paul Paul. The
first questions the defense starts with are did you take
any gun of any type and kill Paul or Maggie.
The next round of questions confirms that it was him
at the kennels at eight forty four pm the night
they were brutally murdered. Remember, up until that point, he

(02:37):
has denied it profusely that he was not there, He
was visiting his mother and came back. However, the video
that his son took confirmed that he was there. Never
once did he said, if I was only just a
few more minutes, I could have stopped the murders. He
never once said, this was my family. I should have

(02:57):
been there, I should have helped. And any spouse or
parent whose family has been killed would regret not being there.
We've seen this in countless testimonies. We've seen this in
countless interviews with victim's advocacy groups. That you always have
that parent that said I wish I could have done more,
I should have done more, I should have been there,

(03:18):
And throughout all of his interviews, you never hear that well.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And you know if you're not familiar. One of the
reasons why people are so often advised not to take
the stand in their own defense is because you can
very easily implicate yourself. You can slip up no matter
what you say, that they're going to come for you.
If you are the one who is on trial. They
are going to look for any little loophole, any little

(03:44):
you know, pinprick that they can poke at and just
make the whole facade come down. And I think that
we see not so much that in and of itself,
but we do see a lot of his personality that
comes out in this. So one thing that he does
do on the stand is he admits that he lied
to the police and sled that night. And during the

(04:07):
follow up interviews and they're like, well, why did you lie, because,
like Jen said, you know, never once did he say, oh,
I was at the kennels and I left and then
went to my parents' house or anything like that. He
blames his drug addiction and his paranoia. So he does
during this time bring up the gunpowder residue test that

(04:28):
was done and eventually that did come back negative. Now
let's keep in mind, though there's the whole issue of
did he shower did he not? Because he was in
those different clothes as well. So here is his version
of events that he gets. Maggie was getting ready to
go out of town for a doctor's appointment and go

(04:48):
to Edistow. And by the way, when I was editing this,
I realized. I realized it on my own, and I
was like, somebody's gonna call me out on it. I've
been saying it wrong. I've been saying Aedisto and it's
Edisto and I it just clicked with me when I
was editing. So Edisto, sorry about that. Don't come for me.
But anyway, he says that he went to work. He
called Paul Paul again. He's calling him Paul Paul on

(05:10):
the stand. Suddenly. He hadn't called him Paul Paul before,
but now we're using nicknames. After work, he met Paul
back at the property. He claims that Paul and him
got to the property around seven pm that evening. Maggie
arrived after eight pm, so that would be when he
and Paul are out there running around on the truck.
They get on the truck, they're riding around to the

(05:31):
dove fields. They're looking at the sunflowers. They ride around
the property, spending time together, he says. After he gets
back to the house, he takes a shower, changed into
a white T shirt. Paul was already eating. Alec and
Maggie sat down on the couch to eat. After dinner,
Maggie wanted to go to the kennels, but Alec fell
asleep on the couch and took a nap, so Maggie

(05:53):
and Paul rode down to the kennels themselves. So after
Alex's nap he wakes up. He takes the golf cart
down to the kennels to meet Maggie and Paul out there.
Maggie had just let two of the dogs out. They're
running around using the bathroom, doing their thing. Well, Bubba
one of the dogs that you hear Alec actually call
him Bubba on the video, and Grady, the other dog,

(06:14):
are chasing guineas kind of like a chicken while Paul
was in the kennels with Cash, that's the one that
had the hurt tail. And we know all this, We've
heard all this. Bubba caught the chicken. Alex took the
chicken from Bubba, and Alex claims that he knew Paul
was in the kennels with Cash and Maggie was a
little bit further off watching the dogs. So he's trying

(06:36):
to kind of say, well, here's what was happening, because
now we have the video, now we know he was there.
He hasn't mentioned this before, not once. Never did he
mention the chickens and the dogs and all that. But
now all of a sudden he is because this video
has been presented in court.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Now what strikes me is about when he's describing where
Paul was, where Maggie was, and during this whole getting
the chicken or the guinea conversation that he's presenting to
the jury, if you overlay it with the crime scene,
he's describing where their bodies are found. So it's strange

(07:14):
that they're exactly where they are when they were found,
and that's where he's describing where they are. Coincidental, maybe
maybe not well. After Alex takes the chicken away from Bubba,
he claims, he goes back to the house and when
he asked about the water hose, Alex says, hey, I've
never touched it. Remember back in that first episode, we

(07:35):
talked about the guy who comes to help clean the
kennels every single day and he takes pride in it
and he always wraps that hose up, and they found
the hose on the side. The guy who comes says,
I am very particular about how I roll that hose up. Now.
Dave testifies that he examined the picture by the police

(07:56):
after the killings and he said it's all kinked up.
There's pressure on that host. Somebody used it after I did.
So his thinking is that Alec used that hose to
wash himself off and go change clothes and maybe rents
off his hands. So the gunpowder resid he would go away.
So now he said he went back to the house.

(08:16):
He decided to go visit his mom. Alex says that
he goes visits his mom, and Shelley, the caretaker, confirms this. Now,
Alex says that he was there for about an hour
or more. That's what he tells the investigators. Shelley goes,
huh huh, he was here for twenty minutes, that was it.
So that would have been that greatly dramatically reduces that timeline. Now,

(08:42):
the GPS testimony earlier in the trial, it came out
that Alex stopped on the side of the road for
about one minute on his way back to Mozille after
visiting the mom, and the GPS does show that he
did stop. Now, the prosecutions that this was the time
that he was disposing of their murder weapons, the bloody clothes,

(09:05):
and any other evidence that would tie him back to
the murderers.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
So here's my question. Then, if they could see that
he stopped, and we know there's GPS on this because
they used it to you know, track other stuff, did
they go to that spot and find a murder weapon,
bloody clothes, anything like that? I don't think they did. Now,
I do know they found Maggie's phone, but they didn't
find all this other stuff, so I'm wondering why they
didn't that.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
But remember they didn't have this information that night. Alec
was free for weeks true in between, so there and
he used to take different cars everywhere. They're thinking, there's
a high probability that he went back when nobody was
watching him and everyone was thinking there were two gunmen

(09:50):
and went back and got it and really disposed of it.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
So it was enough to get it out of the
line of sight for the immediate nine to one one call,
but then go back later to actually finish it off. Okay,
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
So when Alec got back to the house and saw
Maggie and Paul were not there, he goes back to
the kennel, so they weren't at the house. He goes
down on the kennels. Also when pressed on the time
of events, and he would say, quote, now I have
the benefit of looking back on the records. He used
that phrase a lot, so anytime that he is caught

(10:26):
in a contradiction of his original statements, he would always say, well,
now I have the benefit of looking back at everything
I was wrong.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
So he says that at that point, that's when he
goes back down to the kennels. He's in his suv
and that's when he discovers the bodies. Now, remember all
this is happening on the stand. He has to admit
that he led because they have him on video now,
which he didn't know about. So let's recap that real quick,
just because there's a lot going on there. Prosecution believes
that Alex killed Maggie and Paul before he went to
his mom's house and was ditching evidence. On the way back,

(10:58):
he uses the water hose to clean off gunpowder residue,
whatever else might be there, changed clothes before he left.
This would mean they died closer to nine o'clock PM.
We know that because of the time stamps on the
video and all that the defense claims he left the kennels,
went to the house, then went to his mom's, and
came back to find their bodies, which would mean they
died closer to ten PM. Now, he never passed to

(11:20):
another car or saw anyone, so not really sure.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
You know about that time frame there, And remember the
medical examiner didn't take a body temperature. He just put
his hand under the.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Armpit, right. Also keep in mind Alec Topolice, he never
went to the kennels, and he saw them alive at
the house and that was the last time he saw
them alive and then found them dead when he came back.
So you can see where, you know, it's all not
quite lining up with what he said. So just quick recap.
But now let's go back to his testimony because one

(11:53):
thing that we have to talk about, and oh my gosh,
I remember you and I talking about this so clearly,
is he would start crying, which you know, on the surface,
hey you're talking about your family being murdered. Okay, I'm
with you. But he, uh, he'd just be like sobbing

(12:14):
and literally snotting, okay, literally snotting, and then he would
just be totally calm, totally recollected, and he'd be like,
can I please have some water.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was very it was very sentenced too.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, it was very on and off. It was very
flip that switch on and off. And to me, this
is one woman's opinion, it was overacting because he it
was like anytime he said Maggie or Paul's name, he
would go into dramatic, so he'd be like, well, Maggie,

(12:49):
whoa Maggie, Maggie, Maggie was at the house. It was
just very it was just very theatrical, It really was.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
And I remember texting you during this going what in
the world because he's so calm and collected, and he'd
mentor her name, go into hysterics and then say pa Paul,
pap Paul, and go into more hysterics. But when the
prosecution would ask him a question while he's in hysterics,
it would flip in a harpy. It just flips into

(13:24):
a regular conversation.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yes, okay, And that brings up the next thing. That
was a huge sticking point for me. So one, I
felt like he was very much overreacting when you can't
even like say their name without just oh. And I
mean it sounded like that. He sounded like he was
I don't know anyway enough of that. But the other

(13:47):
thing wise, and this is where I just started to
be like, ooh, he something's just off with him is
they would ask him a question and boy, oh boy,
would he pick it apart. He could not answer a question.
You could be like is your shirt white? And he'd

(14:08):
be like, well, what's the definition of white, because you
know you also have beige and some might say it
was beige, and you know it actually might have a
little tint of gray in it, so no, I can't
tell you that my shirt is white. And it was
like that for every single thing, and I was like,
this dude knows exactly what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Absolutely it to the point where he knew not to
immediately respond. You're moving the impact that they're trying to
get with that question, and you're causing yourself to stop
and think and to answer it well.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
And not only that, he was flustering them, and it
worked because I remember at one point I can't remember
if it was the judge or one of the attorneys,
I can't remember, but somebody was like, please just answer
the question. Somebody said it at one point because it
was flustering. It was one after the other he would
not and that's when I was like, one, Okay, you

(15:06):
can tell he's an attorney and he's looking for the
black and white. But two, what it told me is
he is a master manipulator and he knows exactly how
to beat around the bush with tough situations, tough questioning,
and to me, it just screamed that he was a manipulator.

(15:26):
That's and to me that was one of the biggest things.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Absolutely, the defense plays the full none one one call
and the questions him throughout playing in the call, so
they'd play a portion, pouse it play a portion question Well,
on the nine to one one call, you can hear
Alec tell the nine to one one operator and he
testifies this to court too, that he goes back to
the house to get a gun. This is the gun

(15:51):
that the police saw on the scene. So he sees
his family, checks them, goes to the house, gets a gun,
come back to his family, and calls. At that point
during the call, the defense paused the recording and asked
if he had touched Maggie A. Paul. Remember, his clothes

(16:12):
had zero traces of blood on them, almost like he
changed them right before the police got there. He says
he did touch them. Yet there's no blood on his hands,
there's no blood on the bottom of his shoes. These
two people were shot multiple times and hit the ground.

(16:34):
He did not have blood on the bottom of issues
at all.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
And so what I understanding from what I recall, and
I apologize, this is gruesome. So I'm dragging this out
in case you want to pass forward a second. But
from what I recall, Maggie was in bad shape. She
was shot in the head and there was a lot
of matter scattered about in that area. So if you're

(17:00):
up there touching them, and he says that he even
like rolled Paul over, took his phone out, put Paul's
phone back, and then rolled him back over. I mean,
you're gonna have something, like you said, at least even
on your shoes.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, there was nothing. It was like a completely brand
new set of clothing. Or or he just didn't get
near him. Yeah, there's that option too. He lied about
getting close to them. Now, the defense brought up the
fact that after the nine and one want to Call,
Alec was checking his text messages and he was googling

(17:37):
local restaurants. He said that he was just extremely emotional
and it was not intentional. He was just trying to
call people.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
So after Alec was able to leave Mozille, he got
with Buster. The other son went to Alec's mom's house,
and the next day the group that now includes his
brother John, they go back to Mozelle and there are
actually videos where you can see John Marvin and I

(18:07):
believe it's Buster on the property doing things, and people
were trying to figure out what they were doing. What
were they Were they disposing of something? Were they just
cleaning up? Were they getting supplies for Alec because he
didn't want to stay at the house. What was going on?
Why were they back there? So the defense said, well,
what was going to happen when Maggie died? What were
you supposed to get? Was their instruments trying to establish

(18:29):
a possible motive. Well, Mozelle was completely in Maggie's name
and the beach house was in both of their names. Now,
the reason they asked this again is going back to
the boating accident and that lawsuit against them, because remember
Aleck had been trying to hide assets under Maggie's name,
So the prosecution argued, now that it was in her name,
he gets to keep it as a beneficiary. So they

(18:51):
are also trying to establish financial motive as well. Again,
he's got people he owes out the wazoo. He's got
to pay all these people that he swindled. So the
rest of the testimony shifts and it's about him taking
drugs for years, all the pills he was popping and
all that. And I remember at one point too, they
asked him how much he was taking and he said

(19:13):
some obscene amount of pills and he's like, oh, yeah,
that's that's what I took. And everyone's like, you should
be dead. That's yeah, a horrifying amount. What happened to
all those pills? In other words, what they were getting
at is he had to have been selling them because
he had so many of them, He had access to
so many of them. Where did they all go? And

(19:35):
he's saying he took them, and they're like, you couldn't
have taken them. You would be dead on the ground.
Then they're also asking him about cousin Eddie, asking him
about the motive for shooting him, stealing money from the
law firm. So he's just getting hammered about all these
things that really incriminate him and make him look bad.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Right, guys, when we get back, we're gonna take a
real quick break. We are going on a journey with
the jury to the property of Mozelle. Hi. Guys, welcome back. Now,
the jury's going to visit the crime scene. They're gonna
be busted all the way to Mozelle, and this is

(20:14):
going to be towards the end of the trial. The
judge allowed this to have the jury see the distance
from the kennels to the house to see how the
kennels were set up. Their prosecution argued they needed to
see it to see the distance because you can't see
one from the other. They needed to know the size
of the feeding room. It would just be beneficial for

(20:37):
them to get to scale of it now. While at
the kennels, one of the journalists walked around and counted
steps from where Paul was shot to where Maggie's body
was found. It was twelve normal steps. The journalists indicated
that Maggie would have seen everything. It is theorized that

(20:58):
Paul was shot first and Maggie was running towards her son,
and that's just based on how the bodies were positioned
when the police came and found them.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
So the judge did not give any specific instructions, so
they're able to just kind of roam around and see
for themselves. They were able to go in and out
and just kind of whatever they felt like they needed
to look at, they were able to look at. So
then they come back to the courtroom trial is pretty
much over. The jury had requested video monitors to watch

(21:34):
some of the exhibits. They're going into deliberations now. And
this is another thing I will never forget, because I
think that a lot of people, myself included, were not
entirely sure that he would be found guilty. I think
a lot of people, myself included expected a hung jury

(21:58):
because the main evidence was that video, and otherwise there
wasn't really a ton Like I felt in my gut
this guy's guilty as sin, but there wasn't a ton
of you know, no fingerprints, no video of him actually shooting.

(22:20):
Do you get what I'm saying. Like, it was just
kind of one thing.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
And the defense did a great job. The defense was articulate,
They were precise. They put on a show, and there
were times where I was like, lindsay he's gonna walk.
He is going to walk, because how good they were.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, And I remember even even Bob Mada from Defense
Diaries was like, it's a hung jury all the way.
He was like just because the burden was not was
not met to its fullest. I know it, you know it,
we all feel it, but proving it is another thing.
And so they go into jury deliberations. And I want
to say, was it on like a Thursday or Friday.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
It was towards the end of the week.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
I was like, there's no way they're coming back today.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
And I had Google alerts on my phone and I
was like, Lancy, I'm just going to keep this on
court TV on just in case, but there's no way.
And I remember texting you going, oh my god, they're back.
They are absolutely back from deliberating.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yes, I was in the gym. I will never forget,
and I flung those dumbbells and hauled my tail out
of that gym because you're like, they're done, They're done,
And I was like, you've got to be kidding. It's
been three hours. Three hours, and they that's how it took.
And they came back with the verdict guilty on all counts.

(23:43):
And that verdict was read by Rebecca Hill, who was
the clerk of the court, which comes back into play later.
So he's guilty. March third, twenty twenty three, he is
going for sentencing for the death of his wife. He
receives a life sentence and for his son, another life
sentence to run consecutively. Now he's also charged with two

(24:06):
counts of possession of a weapon during a crime. So
he've got the two deaths and you've got the two
weapons charges. After the verdict was read, Judge Newman, which
this judge I liked him, he denied emotion from the
defense for a mistrial. That's the first thing they're gonna do. Mistrial.
They're gonna throw whatever sticks. And he said, quote, the

(24:27):
evidence of guilt is overwhelming, the circumstantial evidence, direct evidence,
all of the evidence pointed to one conclusion. And that's
the conclusion that you all reached. And he later added
that the jury had come to a proper conclusion as
they saw the law and the facts.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Now, Judge Newman, I will say this, he gave latitude
to both sides. But he was quick. He was a
very no nonsense, yes, very matter of fact. He wasn't
show voting at all. He was just a very buy
the book judge. From what I could tell during the
press conference outside. This is after the verdict has read,

(25:07):
the sentencing is done. Randy, who's Alex's brother, said to
the media, Look, I believe my brother is not saying
the whole truth about what he knew about the killings.
So now we're starting to see the family kind of
turn a little bit. Like his brother was like, there's
no way the stude's innocent. No way.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Didn't he have a sister or something that stopped coming
to the trial or am I mixing that up with
something else? There was a sister or someone who started
out in the trial, and as it went on, she
was like, nope, I'm done. I might be mixing that up,
so don't hold me to that. But I feel like
it was this.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
It was a female relative. Yeah, there was something I
don't I don't I can't remember which one. All right,
So after the trial this is all said and done, right,
you think Alec is gonna sit in jail? Oh no, no, no,
he still has troubles. A lot of troubles does not
end for mister Alec. Mrdall made believe Alec had help
and that there was a second shooter because the two

(26:00):
guns are thinking, is impossible for someone to shoot someone
turn around and pick up a different weapon and shoot
somebody else. So on, and you hear a lot of
this that a father would just not shoot his son.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Well he would if he's causing a lot of legal
trouble and money trouble and all that. I will say
I was one of the people who, not after the trial,
but kind of when the trials started, who wondered if
his brother, John Morvin, the one who was always backing
him up, might have been there as well. That was
a thought process in my head when they were talking
about the two guns and all that. So, I mean,

(26:39):
I get it, there's no evidence of it. I could
see where it could have happened, But how do you
prove that unless somebody else was on that video.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
During the trial, the prosecution showed an animated scenario, you know,
the Blue stick people and the Red stick people. It
showed how one person could used two weapons. Yeah, it
did show that. And I am not a believer of
the second shooter theory. I just don't believe that because

(27:08):
at some point, I mean, we definitely know what in Coucinanti,
because Cosanti would be like, no.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
If there were two people. I don't think I believe
it now, but I did at the time. But if
there were two people, they would have had to have
been there or arrived just after that video was taken,
because it's most likely that they died within minutes of
that video being taken.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
So because the family was talking like there was nobody else.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
There right exactly. So May twenty fourth, twenty twenty three,
Alex has his charges, but the US Attorney's Office District
of South Carolina announced that a federal grand jury they
were still at work. They returned an indictment of twenty
two counts for money laundering, wirefraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy

(27:54):
to commit wire fraud and for a total of twelve
point four million dollars. So he has not seen the
last of his legal troubles. Mind you, these are new charges.
These are not the ones that they were already looking
at before that he was trying to distract from. So
prosecutors chose twenty two of the charges that were the
most representative of the victims. Because there's so much out there,

(28:18):
they had to narrow it down to twenty two to
decide which ones to focus on. So November seventeenth, twenty
twenty three, just almost a year ago, he pleaded guilty
to all twenty two of the state's charges in the indictment.
That was another thing that was interesting is when he
was on the stand, he admits to all the financial crimes.

(28:40):
Every single one of them. And his strategy is, yeah,
I did that, I did all of it. I did
every bit of it. So if I'm sitting here telling
you under oath that I did that, why wouldn't I
also tell you that I committed these murders.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
And that just backfired for him because now he's admitted
it on stand now he can be charged with perjury.
So he's not getting out of jail for the murders
or the weapon charges if that were to be overturned,
he is still sitting pretty.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
On like a bazillion other charges.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, so he had there has to be a comment
from this guy that lands on a unicorn who toots
out of rainbow for him ever to get out of
jail at this point.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Wow, I love that. I love that visual. So November
twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, he pleaded guilty to embezzling
the insurance money. And this is the financial crimes for
Gloria Sadderfield with her sons sentenced to twenty seven years
in prison for the financial crimes.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
And this is different than the twenty two charges. By
the way.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
This is all yeah, this is all separately. It just
keeps coming and then April first, twenty twenty four, he
was sentenced in federal court to forty years for the
financial fraud crimes, to run concurrently with the previous sentences
the murder, the other financial crimes. He has to pay
eight point seven million in restitution, including Gloria Saderfield's family

(30:11):
and just it's just all stockpiling. So there were the
charges from before. There's the boat charges, there's the ones
with his company, then there's the murders, then there's the
weapons charges. Then there's the charges from everything he admitted
to on the stand. Then now they're getting Gloria's Normally.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
This is the time where we would say, you know,
join Patreon, join the Facebook group. But we're not done
with the story. It keeps going, all right. We have
court drama, specifically the clerk of court. Remember how Lindsay
said earlier that Rebecca Hill is the one that read
the sentence. Well, she got an uncle trouble herself. She

(30:48):
of course was the clerk of court during the entire
Murdock trial, and she also appeared in the Netflix documentary
and in it she proudly stated that her daughter was
almost a duror for the trial. How could my daughter
be a juror on a trial that I am proceeding
overseeing as the clerk of court.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
But she wasn't, though, But she wasn't.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
She wasn't. But you know, that was a very proud
moment for her to say. In the documentary, she goes
to Becky, Becky saw this trial as an opportunity to
write a book and get rich. But trouble's going to
catch up to her because she was kind of loosey
goosey with a lot of the stuff that she wrote
sled open up an investigation and connection to her allegedly

(31:36):
tampering with the jury during Alex's murder trial. Okay, this
is the situation about the tampering. She told jurors not
to be quote fooled by the defense testimony. You can't
do that. You cannot tell the jury anything. The only
thing that you can tell the jury is, hey, your
food's here. She told them to watch Alex's by language

(32:00):
he did himself in during his own testimony. You don't
need to help that. Now. The jurors came forward with
accusations after Becky's book about the trial Behind the Doors
of Justice. When that book came out, you cannot get
that book. I tried, I really tried to order it.
You cannot get it. She really, yeah, I tried. Because

(32:25):
of this, as she had to pull the book from Amazon,
she was able to smudge it a little bit. She
was charged with allowing a photo of Alex in a
holding cell to be taken to promote her book, give
herself bonuses, and using county money to buy dozens of
lunches for her staff, for herself, for prosecutors and inventors.

(32:45):
So she was just using the court money.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
So not only that, but she struck a deal with
one of the documentary series creators to use the county
courtroom in exchange for promoting her book, which by the way,
she admits that she plagiarized parts of. Can't do that either.
So when this all comes out, it explodes, and what

(33:11):
does the defense do? And honestly, I get it. They
filed emotion for a mistrial. Again, I get it, because
you can't tell the jury what to think, what to do,
what to look at. That was a bold move there,
but it was denied by the judge. And this is
the quote. It was stated that some fleeting and foolish

(33:32):
comments by a publicity seeking clerk of court has been
attracted by the siren call of celebrity, but it did
not influence the jurors decision. And so then Becky resigned
from her position, not because of this, but because she
wanted to focus on being a wife and a grandmother

(33:53):
and she just she just chose that particular time to
do so. I think it's interesting too that the jury
came forward after seeing her book and they're like, wait
a minute, she wasn't supposed to tell us what she did,
and now she's out here profiting off of this case.
We feel like we need to say something. And I
guess they were able to articulate their position enough to say, look,

(34:16):
it didn't influence us, but you still can't do that.
So let me ask you this, and this is a question,
an open question for everyone to think about. Jen. Do
you think that he was doomed regardless and that's why
he testified or do you feel like testifying hurt him?
Did it hurt? Did it help?

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I think he testified because his ego forced him to.
I think that a lot of and people who were
on Court TV and like Nancy Grace and all that.
I mean, his very enlarged sense of self, very grandeur,

(35:00):
sense of self came through, and he thought he could
beat the system. He thought that he could do it.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
And he knew his lawyer knew enough, because as a lawyer,
he knew enough. That's what I think too.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, he felt that his lawyers didn't do him justice.
And really, if he had not testified, I think it
would have been a home trial because they the defense
did such a great job. But what damned him was
that video.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Well see, and that's what I was going to say.
I'm torn because I thought it was going to be
a hungry anyway, but the jurors came out and said
that it was the video that did it. They were like,
once that video showed, we knew it was over. And
I almost wonder if at that point if his attorneys
knew it as well. Alec knew it when they saw

(35:48):
the video, they were like, we're screwed. So what can
it hurt? It can only maybe help. And Alex said, hey,
you know what, I know what I'm doing. I'm an attorney.
I'm going to get up there and stress them the
hell out by our arguing every little minute point and
refusing to answer the questions that it'll at least put
doubt in somebody's mind.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Absolutely, he thought he could do a better job than
his attorneys and he could use his charisma to flip
the jury. But after that video, there was nothing that
could help him at that point.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
And I don't even think he's all that charismatic. At
least he wasn't on the stand, and I guess that's
not a fair comparison, but I didn't even think he
was all that charismatic. I was like, you're just snotting
all over the stand and whimpering and what are we
doing here?

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Now? The people that he's defended in the courtroom do
say that he did have a larger than life personality
in the courtroom. He was a good lawyer when he
wasn't embezzling, stealing, manipulating.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
In her details.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, the actual act of being a lawyer in the courtroom,
he did a good job. It is just everything behind
the scenes he's sucked at.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Well, to wrap this up, one thing that I was
super super happy to hear is that Steven Smith and
Glorious Adurfield's cases are both reopened and are being relooked,
at which I think, regardless, I don't care if a
murder is involved or not, it needs to be done regardless.

(37:21):
So I'm very happy for that outcome, and I'm anxious
to hear something on that because i know those families
want and need and deserve closure for sure.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, And when they're going through what's left of his assets,
the properties, the savings, everything that was in the family
name right, because everything that was Maggie's went to Buster.
But fifty percent of all of Murdoch's left over cash

(37:54):
goes to the victims of the boat crash that killed
Mallory Good. Some of the other financial crime victims will
receive a portion. So any money made off or any
money that the Murdoch family makes at this point, it's
got to be divvied up and dispersed through the families.

(38:15):
I know the boat crash is going to take most
of it because that was the first event that came
to the court's attention. So everything else I think they
have to get in line.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Well, and that's just it. How do you pay all
these people back because you wronged so many people in
so many varying degrees, They're never going to see that money.
I mean, it's like twenty million dollars because they've already
had to sell the houses and all that to get
what they can, But oh my gosh, are they I mean,
that's that's a horrible thought that all these people have

(38:50):
been wronged by this guy who's now sitting in prison
and will be forever for all this, and they can't
even get what's owed to them, right.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Because I think what the beach house was less than
a million, right, yep, that's what they said. And the
property they were just starting to sell it for a million.
I don't know what it's sold for.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
It's horrible, but I am glad that he is where
he is and is not going anywhere. I mean, even
if he was to get a mistrial because of the juror,
he's still not going anywhere because that was just a
better hotel. Yeah, that would just be the murder trial.
So even if even if something happened with the murder trial,

(39:31):
he's still got that whole scroll rolling out down the
street of all of his other charges.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
So it's like a red carpet, it just keeps going, roll.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
It on out. Yep, He's not going anywhere. So on
that note, we will go ahead and wrap up. Remember
one more left in the high profile series. It is
just a one parter which will take us into our
next series.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Should we say the series we told Patreon or yeah,
I think it's time. Oh there's been enough time in between.
Patreon always gets first tips.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yes, but we told them weeks ago. So we are
actually bringing back True Crime Theater with a twist. Last
time True Crime Theater was just strictly movies. This is
going to be movies or documentaries or TV so anything
viewable with the eyes.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yes. So what we would say is, hey, if you
see our podcast pop up, go watch the documentary, go
watch the movie first, and come and have a chat
with us after.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yes, and we'll tell you the real story behind it
and all of that. So looking forward to switching things
up a little bit, guys.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
We are switching up our Patreon. We are doing a
new format for the month of October. See how it fits,
See how it doesn't fit. We're doing a book club
because we have so many Patreons that are bookworms just
like we are. Lindsay and I have been obsessed with
The four Monkey Killer. It is the first book. We

(40:54):
will be talking about it in our October It is
on Libby, it is on Audible, It is available at
most libraries if you don't want to pay for it.
Trust me, if you read one of them, you're gonna
buy all three. It is so fast paced, the plot
and the twist and the characters. I could barely put
it down. I'm almost done with the second book. I've

(41:15):
got like sixty pages left.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
I just finished the series and it was I'm still
coming down from it. I have a major book hangover.
So yeah, we're gonna do that for October, see how
it goes. We do not have a Patreon date just yet.
Bear with us because I had out of town tomorrow
and then next weekend, so I'm we're gonna squeeze it

(41:37):
in there.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
We have.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
We just haven't set the official date yet, but we'll
announce that asap. But it's usually like right at the
tail end of the month. So yeah, it won't be
on Halloween obviously.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
But don't forget I mentioned this earlier. We do have
a Facebook grape Corpus to Licti Discussion, Corpus to Licti podcast.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
The Corpus Delicti Discussion group.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, there we go. Just answer the question. We won't
let you in unless you answer the questions, so you
can just say I don't want to answer these questions,
but you're making me completely fine. We just like to
keep out the bods. Patreon dollar more gets you a
bunch of stuff on the website. Three dollars some up
get you on the Patreon Discord server, and this is
where we're talking about books, fitness, exercise, all things true crime,

(42:20):
general nonsense, and anything that we just feel like talking about.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Got a few new channels. We've got the Cooking channel.
We have the TV and Movies channel.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Now two channels that I an opportunitiate in.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Well it's a new one. So always something going on
on discord.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Very cool, all right, but until then, you know what
they said to Falicia.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Bye bye,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}268: High Profile: The Murdaugh Family, Part 4