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The disgraced former South Carolina lawyer convicted of killing his wife and son is blasting a new drama series for its “sensationalized” portrayal of the brutal double murder.
The story of Alex Murdaugh’s rise and fall as a Lowcountry legal tycoon has been reimagined in a new eight-part Hulu limited series titled, “Murdaugh: Death in the Family.” The dramatic retelling chronicles the moments leading up to and immediately after the shotgun killings of Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and teenage son, Paul.
However, amid the series’ release, Murdaugh has denounced the dramatization of his family’s tragic story.
Murdaugh’s defense team said in a statement that he “is deeply disappointed and disturbed by the recent Hulu streaming series about him and the entire Murdaugh family.”
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Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh arrives in court in Beaufort, S.C. Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
The statement goes on to accuse the television series of misleading viewers and misrepresenting Murdaugh’s relationships with both his wife and youngest son.
“The program contains numerous inaccuracies and misleading portrayals that distort the truth of their lives,” the statement said. “The depiction of their personal family dynamics is particularly troubling, as it totally mischaracterizes Alex’s relationships with his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, both of whom Alex loves so dearly.”
The disgraced attorney also claims the show’s producers did not consult his legal team or family members to corroborate their versions of events as the series was being made.
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A still image from Hulu’s original series, “Murdaugh: Death in the Family.” (Daniel Delgado Jr./Disney via Getty Images)
“Equally concerning is the lack of engagement by the producers or actors to understand the individuals portrayed,” the statement added.
“No one from Hulu ever reached out to Alex, his son Buster, anyone in the Murdaugh family, or Alex’s attorneys to hear their perspective or verify the facts. Instead, the program appears to rely heavily on sensationalized accounts from secondary sources with no direct knowledge or relationship with him or his family.”
Hulu did not immediately respond to Digital’s request for comment.
On June 7, 2021, Murdaugh placed a hysterical 911 call to report that Maggie and Paul had been shot to death near the dog kennels on his family’s sprawling Lowcountry hunting estate.
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Alex Murdaugh talks with his defense attorney Jim Griffin during a jury-tampering hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
However, the tale of a grieving husband and father quickly unraveled as Murdaugh’s laundry list of financial crimes – and elaborate cover-up schemes – against his legal clients came to light.
In the months leading up to Murdaugh’s indictment for the killings of his wife and son, prosecutors amassed dozens of charges alleging the disgraced attorney had stolen millions of dollars from clients and victims’ families to maintain his painkiller pill addiction.
“I think it’s oftentimes hard for people to compartmentalize what we think and the person we think we knew,” Mark Tinsley, an attorney who testified in the criminal case against Murdaugh, told Digital. “I think there’s probably a group of people that still find it hard to believe that the facade that they saw wasn’t real.”
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In March 2023, a South Carolina jury found Murdaugh guilty of double-murder, and he was handed two consecutive sentences of life in prison. He is also serving an additional 40 years behind bars for his financial crimes, and remains in custody at a maximum-security prison in South Carolina.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters declined Digital’s request for comment regarding the series.
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However, as the show continues to capture audiences with a dramatization of one of the most notorious true crime cases in modern American history, the man responsible for the killings is asking viewers to consider watching with a skeptical mind.
“We urge viewers to approach this dramatization with the knowledge that it is not an accurate portrayal of Alex, his family, or the tragic events that it sensationalizes,” the statement said.
