‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal’ A Documentary On The Murders That’s Gripped A Nation

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. (Center) Paul Murdaugh in Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023

If you are a true crime fan and if you have been watching the news lately, I’m sure you’ve seen the trial of Alex Murdaugh. Once a prominent fixture of his community, Alex Murdaugh is on trial for the murder of his son and wife. However, the sins of this man and his family run deeper than anyone could have ever predicted. In Netflix’s three-part special Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal we hear first-hand accounts of how far this family was willing to go in order to hide their evil deeds.

Why The Netflix Documentary is Worth a Watch

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal hit Netflix on February 22nd of this year. There are other documentaries on other streaming services that go into the Murdaugh family and you can certainly get all the information you want from YouTube, but I found this particular documentary to be incredibly captivating. As someone who has been almost hyper-focused on the current trial, I found the Netflix documentary to be a worthwhile companion story for those just thinking it’s Alex Murdaugh who has committed horrible acts of violence.

The first episode focuses on Paul Murdaugh – the son of Alex Murdaugh and one of his father’s victims. Now, this is a review on the documentary and I am certainly not a judge or lawyer, but the documentary does a pretty good job in making you absolutely despise Paul Murdaugh. There’s first-hand accounts by friends of Paul’s and those who were there the night Paul recklessly drove a boat to avoid being pulled over police due to his extreme intoxication. This led to the death of one of his friends’ girlfriends and really showed how far the Murdaughs were willing to go in order to cover up their family’s sins.

The Rabbit Hole

The rabbit hole gets deeper in the documentary. It’s not just the party-going son who is guilty of abusing his family’s wealth. It’s the grandfather, brother, father, mother, and everyone else in between. No one is safe around the Murdaughs and from the way it’s presented in the documentary, everyone in their town knew this. There’s police footage of the friend whose girlfriend died on the boat accident telling police that “that [Paul] is Alex Murdaugh’s son” and “good luck with that”. It’s almost chilling – families were mourning the death of a child and all Alex and his father (Randolph III) could think about was covering up the fact that Paul was drunk. It’s very evident from the documentary that all this family cares about is their reputation. It’s unclear if the Murdaughs had a decent reputation to begin with, but it certainly has all gone down the drain with Alex.

No One is Safe

At first, I almost thought the documentary was just on Paul Murdaugh and the boating incident, as the story essentially takes up the first episode and the majority of the second. However, a lot more is packed in the second half of the second episode and the third and final episode. We see that even their long-time housekeep/nanny Gloria wasn’t even safe from them. And the “golden child” Buster has skeletons in his closet. If I were the Murdaughs, I would be shaking at all the national attention that was on me. It’s crumbling down on Alex and this Netflix special is just another example that family secrets don’t stay hidden forever. The empire of the Murdaughs is no more.

While there are a lot of documentaries, I do suggest checking the Netflix one out. It provides a lot of backstories and first-hand testimony from those who were most affected by the Murdaughs. And let me know what you think of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.