Muraugh Musings and More
The Murdaugh Madness is the gift that just keeps on giving…
I was asked what did I think Alex Murdaugh did with all the money he stole, took, embezzled, light-fingered and absconded with?
So far, the ‘stated’ (as by the ‘authorities’) is something just under ten million dollars and I am certain that once the audits and investigations are completed-and that’s going to be a long while longer - I expect that number to at least double.
Remember that this thief was a very smart crook for a very long time and that he juggled many, many accounts and kept up with them in comprehensive fashion. Not a debilitated, pitiful, broken down addict. No, he was cold blooded and precise.
Chances are that had his stooped, hot-headed, amoral, wise-ass son not drunkenly boat crashed and threw that poor girl overboard and drowned her, which started the fall of all these dominoes, he’s still be at it.
That’s a lot of moolah that needed to be put on the move. There is no indication that his lifestyle was profligate or flashy. There is no indication that he was a spend thrift. But obviously, he wanted to be a player and became one in a big way and that’s where the money went.
I think he got himself in cahoots with some group that trafficked in drugs, dope, coke, pain killers. I think he bought in for a piece of their action and was a bag man for them. They invested his money for him and shared some of theirs with him as part of his assignations with them. He helped them move their money around. I think he sliced a little off the top of their money, dipping his quill in the company ink. I think the company looked none too kindly on this and had his son taken out as punishment. I believe this was a ‘Message Hit’. (His wife was, I think, collateral damage…just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time…she had to go.)
In the meantime, we are told by a couple of excellent sources-FITSnews/Will Folks/Mandy Matney and John Monk of The State that there is so much more to come. We have the unsolved double murder, the now revived hit and run that smells like murder, many lawyers and judges and business people and bankers in the barrel of the bullseye, the stench of payoffs and hide the ball and good-old-boy networking and ‘fixing’ things to go along with what is already underway and what we have learned so far.
Plus, it sure seems to me that Murdaugh’s ‘All Star’ legal team are clumsy, ham-handed and remarkably ego driven. And that surely adds plenty more spice to the stew.
Now, for the time being, I must lay this topic down and like the rest of us, just wait for ‘what’s next’. I have been encouraged by many to write this story, to memorialize it, to turn it into a book.
Not a chance! This is the hydra-headed monster nowhere close to being fully developed. To undertake this task would be akin to becoming Sisyphus and his eternal rolling rock.
But I tell you all, there is so much more coming.
***I am intrigued by all the many roadside crosses I see today. There seem to be a whole lot more than there used to be. And so many of them are bedecked and flowered with all sorts of decorations. Think about the motivation to do that-what drives these folks who set them up and put them together? Of course, they are for loved ones or close friends who have been killed in car crashes. Many of them are in innocuous spots alongside the roadway, places that make one wonder. Many of them are along flat straight roads. How could someone have a fatal wreck ‘there’?
Of course, drinking and drugs and cell phones and inattentiveness and excessive speed and God knows what else-swatting at a fly, arguing with a fellow rider, changing the radio station- can set anyone up to take a big dirt nap in the blink of an eye.
And, aren’t these poor, dead souls in graveyards somewhere? Maybe not. Maybe these displays are their graveyards. And too, after a while, these things fade and fall apart and fall down. Why don’t their creators come back to them, maintain them? Do they pay attention to them later as they drive by them? Is this tribute for them or reminders to us?
In Montana, wherever there has been a vehicular fatality, the American Legion stakes in a simple white cross at the site. They are meant to permanent. This has been going on for over 50 years. None are decorated. Their purpose is to remind drivers to be careful. I’ve been out to Montana a lot over the past three years. It’s a big state with long, withering roads and twisting bends. Montana’s speed limits are much higher than ours around here. Law enforcement is not very visible; it’s just too much area to cover. I’ve seen, at dangerous, switch back curves, four, five, sometimes six crosses. It is sobering.
Whenever I pass these crosses, whether here, there or anywhere, I wonder. I expect I always will.
***With the Super Bowl close upon us, I think about many things. I love the game of football. This is the zenith of the season. It is also a time of disappointment for me because this is it, the final act for many months (but it appears a new professional league is being birthed so maybe that will help my need for a gridiron fix and sustain my ardor and sate me in the meantime…)
And I think about gambling. Billions of dollars, legally and illegally, are wagered all around the world on this one game. Here in the United States, the American Gambling Association estimates that last year’s game between Tampa Bay and Kansas City generated more than 4.3 billion dollars in action. The handle will be even bigger this year.
I think, over the past few years, we have reached the tipping point on wagering on sports. For so long, gambling was a bad thing, an evil thing and in most places an illegal thing. Now, it seems all that has changed.
If you are so inclined, you can get a bet down on just about anything. There are enormous, efficiently run off shore book making services. (I peek at two from time to time; one is in Macao, the other in Malaysia. I’ll also admit that when I grow up, I want to be a rail bird. Oh I wish we had para-mutual horse racing in South Carolina. Here in Charleston out near The Citadel, we used to be top shelf with a nationally praised track and facilities. How great would it be to re-establish that piece of our history! And I am happy to admit that I was, for 32 years, a Handicapping Scout for The Gold Sheet out of Los Angeles. I was recruited by its (now departed-wonderful guy! Mort Olshan) founder and The Gold Sheet is still in business, going strong. For my last twenty years, I was the Senior Scout for the Atlantic Coast Conference. It helped me pay attention!)
I’ve always loved this recitation from the late, great Blackie Sherrod, sports writer par excellence of the now defunct Dallas Times-Herald.
If you bid 5 no trump, that’s entertainment.
If you buy cotton futures, that’s just business.
If you buy 100 shares of IBM, that’s an investment.
But, if you bet on the Cowboys to beat the Redskins by more than 6 points, well, By God, that’s GAMBLING and that’s illegal!
Indeed, the times, they are a’changing! And that’s a good thing I think.
Still, there is so much inconsistency out there and I suppose there always will be. North Carolina allows Fish Table Games. South Carolina bans video poker machines. Montana has Shake-A-Day. And just about everybody has lottery games and tickets. And now national sports books are rapidly opening-Fan Duel, Caesars (featuring the Royalty of New Orleans, The Mannings) and more and more are coming.
Is it a game of skill or a game of chance? That’s the legal criteria. South Carolina seems to say Games of Chance are verboten.
Who cares?!?
Let’s get some action!!
***Lastly, for this two week period, I have figured out my earlier mentioned hesitancy to sit down and write as I worked on completing the third volume in my Adventures of Eddie Terrell Trilogy. Whatever it was, it was weighing on me. I would have to mentally yank myself back to my writing table. Once I did that, I was productive with no interruptions or blocks.
You may recall I noted that while I’ve never suffered from writer’s block, I went through a number of weeks where I just did not want to sit down and work on it. What was that about?
It is partly the Zeigarnick Effect, the tendency to better remember unfinished tasks than those completed, with the former phenomenon being bothersome.
Named for a Russian psychologist, part of it feeds into one’s subconsciously not wanting to finish the job for to do so means it is completed and thus it is over.
I realized that now I have been working on my Eddie Terrell books for more than three years and I think with the last one almost completed-I will have the manuscript in the hands of my editors in two weeks-Well, I was having a hard time letting go.
Once I realized what was feeding that angst, I relaxed, relented and reloaded and am rolling toward to finish line. SLIM AND NONE will be coming to you all very soon!
P.S. I have just received the screenplay for FRIDAY CALLS. We will have to through it and make sure it’s tight and right and then will hand it off to a producer and see what happens next. Exciting times. I have a good and dear friend who is a remarkably talented and accomplished horsewoman. Sometimes I ask her what she’s up to? She’ll reply, “Just horsing around!”
Well, it occurs to me that more and more these days, I’m just wording around!
Y’all stay safe, keep reading and thinking and we’ll get there!
I send my very best,
Vernon