Filmmakers Jenner Furst and Jennifer Willoughby Nason are effectively acquainted with true-crime tales. Their Emmy-nominated Hulu docuseries Fyre Fraud dug into the fraudulent 2017 music competition, and 2021’s LulaRich took viewers inside an alleged billion-dollar pyramid scheme. So after they started engaged on a three-part Netflix docuseries about Alex Murdaugh’s astonishing alleged crime saga—which unfurled in the identical South Carolina territory the place his household of prosecutors and attorneys have held highly effective affect for over 100 years—they have been uniquely suited to navigate weird headlines.
In a cellphone name with Vainness Honest—which took them briefly away from Courtroom TV’s protection of Murdaugh’s double homicide trial—the filmmakers recalled how they started making Murdaugh Murders within the fall of 2021. It had been a number of months since Alex phoned 911 to report that his spouse Maggie and son Paul had been brutally murdered—the murders for which Alex is presently standing trial. (Alex has maintained his innocence within the killing of his spouse and son.) The killings occurred shortly after Alex was pushed out of his household legislation agency after they claimed he misused tens of millions of {dollars}. (Alex’s lawyer says a big portion of the cash was used to pay for painkillers.) It was additionally shortly after Alex was allegedly shot within the head by a former shopper. (The person has denied capturing him.) Alex admitted to asking the person to kill him so his son might gather an insurance coverage coverage. (Murdaugh apologized to his household and pals, and entered a drug program.)
“Issues have been at peak madness,” remembers Furst, explaining that he and Nason had no intention of making an attempt to chase the “absurd” and relentless information cycle. As an alternative, they sat down with pals of Paul Murdaugh and centered the docuseries on a 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Seaside and injured a number of others. Paul was charged with drunkenly crashing the vessel; on the time of his loss of life, he was out on bail. Alex faces a wrongful-death lawsuit for Seaside’s loss of life as effectively.
The documentarians body the crash and its aftermath as examples of the Murdaugh household’s entitlement and endemic perversion of justice. Paul was not handcuffed or taken to jail after the accident; his mobile phone was not taken away for use as proof. Within the docuseries, survivors of the crash allege that Alex spent the hours following the accident making an attempt to line up their tales and level blame away from his son.
“When [Beach] died, the conduct of the Murdaughs was so egregious, and the dearth of empathy, compassion, and accountability was so obvious, that it was an ‘sufficient is sufficient’ second for that neighborhood,” says Furst. “We selected [to tell the story] by means of the lens of those younger individuals who discover themselves at a turning level in historical past—not only for their era, however for 3 generations prior through which this household has been in a position to get away with homicide, actually and figuratively.”
The filmmakers use the angle of those Gen-Z Murdaugh pals and their households to the touch on Maggie and Paul’s murders, in addition to the 2015 loss of life of Stephen Smith, a former classmate of Alex’s older son Buster, and the 2018 loss of life of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. (Smith and Satterfield’s deaths are presently being investigated. Alex has admitted that he owes Satterfield’s sons $4.3 million in a wrongful-death settlement.) Particularly fascinating testimony comes from Paul’s ex-girlfriend Morgan Doughty, who claims she was bodily and verbally abused by Paul throughout their courtship.
The filmmakers additionally scoured archives, spoke to reporters, and interviewed Mark Tinsley, the lawyer representing Seaside’s household. Tinsley’s dogged pursuit of Alex’s funds started unraveling an internet of corruption far bigger than anybody might have imagined. In keeping with Furst and Nason, whereas making the docuseries, they uncovered beforehand unreported skeletons in Alex’s closet—so many who they have been unable to suit all of them into their three-episode framework.
“There’s a lot extra to inform on this story,” says Furst. “There are further crimes which have occurred that we have now the news on—corruption that goes far wider than Hampton, South Carolina. That goes to the state and to the federal stage.” The filmmakers hope they’ll get sufficient views to warrant extra episodes detailing these alleged crimes.
“With Netflix, we get [access] to 200+ million individuals and 70+ totally different languages. We’re hoping that that creates a tidal wave to unlock the remainder of the story. And we’re sitting on the remainder of the story,” says Furst. “It’s nearly just like the Dune half one and half two saga. The filmmaker made Dune realizing that the primary half was depending on the second. ”
