Buster Murdaugh, the son who Alex Murdaugh didn’t kill, appears to be giving his dad the cold shoulder.
Newly released audio from a jailhouse phone conversation between the convicted murderer and his son paints an awkward and frosty relationship between the two.
On March 2, Alex was convicted in the slayings of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, on June 7, 2021, at Moselle, the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property in South Carolina.
And while Buster supported his dad throughout the trial, it now appears he wants less to do with Alex now that he is behind bars.
The audio, obtained by FitsNews, lasts less than a minute and Buster has little to say to Alex.
“Hey, buddy,” Alex is heard saying from the maximum-security McCormick Correctional Institution, where he is serving two life sentences.
“Hey I don’t have a whole of time I just boarded a ferry to go back to Hilton Head Island from Daufuskie (Island),” Buster replies.
“Yeah I know, I — I been trying to call — I was supposed to call you while you were with Jim, um, about this meeting,” says the 55-year-old Alex, likely referring to his lawyer, Jim Griffin. “But anyway. How about text him and let him know I’m trying to call him?”
“Mmmm-k,” replies Buster in the May 16 call.
“Did he talk to you about that – about the thing (line crackles) that I told him?” asks Alex.
“No, I can’t really understand you either,” Buster replies.
“All right, all right … um, I’m going to leave word with Jim, and he’ll be in touch with you,” Alex says, ending the call with “Love you.”
After a pause, Buster replies with “All right, love you, too.”
According to the outlet, it was the first time Alex had directly called Buster from prison.
During his dad’s trial, Buster attended the courthouse every day and testified for the defence.
He told jurors that Alex was “destroyed, heartbroken” after finding the dead bodies of his wife and son.
Alex is currently appealing his double murder convictions. He has also pleaded not guilty to a slew of federal and state charges of fraud and money laundering related to schemes where the now-disgraced lawyer allegedly attempted to steal money and property from his personal injury clients.
Prosecutors have argued that he defrauded his legal clients and the government out of more than US$9 million through his various schemes over several years.
One such scheme allegedly saw Alex steal $4 million in wrongful-death settlements from insurers meant for the family of his longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
In May, he admitted to lying about the specific circumstances of Satterfield’s trip-and-fall death at his family’s hunting lodge in 2018.
— With a file from Global News’ Sarah Do Couto
Comments