Grateful At Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving and I am legitimately grateful and for so much.

Most of you know I am blessed to have a Publicist. I think of her as my Press Agent, archaic as that might be but it does fit in the calendar of my ‘little bit older’ mind. I can easily see her in a bent brim fedora with the ‘Press’ ticket shoved in its band. Her name is Hannah Larrew. She is a true Whiz Kid. Smart and sharp and hooked up and always thinking, she truly does have a brain that, well, it whirs like a fan in the night. Reminds me too of Lash Larue, the old-timey cowboy western star whose signature move was to take care of the bad guys with an 18 foot bullwhip…now, there’s a picture. She has helped me so much and we work well together and laugh a lot as we do and so I am grateful for her help and friendship.

As many of you have divined, I write a blog every couple of weeks and Hannah neatens it up and posts it up and lots of you read it and I’m surely grateful for that interest as well. (Hannah pretty much decrees that schedule and I am compliant-see, there’s the summons of the bullwhip…)

Recently, we had one of our regular morning meetings down at Mercantile and Mash where we go over whatever needs going over and she suggested that as it was Thanksgiving forthcoming, I might want to consider doing a piece on things I am grateful for.

That was fine by me …And then it just popped into my head…

I am grateful for Big Daddy, Big Red Murdaugh and all his disasters.

It just did.

Now, let me explain.

It would be impossible for me to give y’all some treacle about turkey (which I really do not like) and pumpkin pie (ditto) and friends and family (well, they are good by me but still, pretty B-O-R-I-N-G-the equivalent of my forcing you to watch a slide show of my travels to Turkey many years ago…), and Plymouth Rock (where in the Hell is that anyway…) and stuffy, uptight Pilgrims and indulgent Indians and so forth. Thematically, Thanksgiving lost its mojo years ago.

So let’s take the path less followed.

Simply put, Murdaugh is captivatingly nasty, timely, interesting, salacious and riveting. And if you disagree, then I admire your dismissiveness and probably will never again offer to buy you a drink. I will offer my current analysis in just a bit but first a story that is true; rather a parable that sets the stage for my mind’s eye this early morning. (I’m typing away at 7 a.m., the Tuesday before the Macy’s Day Parade and the food lust of Thursday.)

Many years ago, when I was practicing law of every sort up in North Carolina, I had a law partner who loved to play golf. One gray afternoon, he came out of the Forsyth County Courthouse in Winston-Salem and scanned the skies to see if he could get a quick nine in. As he looked up, he saw a very large man standing at the top of the (then) Wachovia Building. He was standing in the center notch of the big ‘V’, twenty-two stories above the street.

A workman? And then, suddenly, No, the fellow came off into the air. ‘Oh My God, he’s fallen. No, Oh My God, he has jumped!’

Thought process is surely a complex thing.

My partner soon related the following to us back in the office, having eschewed the links for the day.

“I realized what was going to happen. I really did not, should not watch this. I should turn away. This was going to be horrible, awful. But, I also knew that I would never, ever see anything like this again so I intently watched him all the way down. He exploded on impact. It was amazing.”

And so forth, as you can well-imagine.

And so it is with the Murdaugh Saga. You aint ever gonna see anything like this again so better pay attention. This truly is one for the ages. I promise I have never seen anything like it.

So here I go with my thoughts on this train wreck.

Here are the many components and Lord, there are so many. And all on the head of a once, seems like a long time ago-big shot, hot shot, big time and I mean Big Time lawyer legacy boy. 

• Big Red (I cannot make up my mind as to whether I should call him Big Red or Big Daddy…) has recently been charged with multiple counts of Breach of Trust with Fraudulent Intent, Obtaining Property by False Pretenses, Money Laundering (Key words here-Watch this space for further developments on that…) and Forgery By Computer Crimes. All this has happened in a number of counties where he has washed and manipulated millions over more than a few months. This has been going on for years.

And keep in mind, he is being investigated by South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the State Attorney General’s Office, The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI…other than that…

• He is currently being held, without bond, in the Richland County Jail. His big-time lawyers who so far have proved to be as they say in Texas, ‘All Hat and No Cattle’ (and by the way, for a self-proclaimed busted and broke pauper, how’s he paying these shills?)…have filed Motions with the SC Supreme Court to effect his release. The Supremes have let it be known that there will be no expediting here, that he is ‘just in line’ and they’ll get to it when they get to it. Not a promising sign. And also, two well-respected and very competent lawyers have been appointed as Receivers and his assets are frozen and are being hunted down and accounted for. And one of South Carolina’s very best Circuit Court Judge’s has found Murdaugh to be a threat to the community and to himself.

• His formerly prominent law firm has accused him of stealing millions (in excess, so far, of ten million) from them. He set up false bank accounts and diverted money into same. Gee, I have to wonder who over there was paying attention to where settlement monies were going? Heads are going to roll. The State Bar takes a very dim view of Trust Account deficiencies and malfeasance. Disbarments and disgrace inevitably follow. In short time, that firm is going to look like the cheap cardboard suitcase in a summer afternoon’s thunder storm. How would you like to be working there these days. I’ll wager they now have new carpet. It’s called Eggshells.

• Then there is the re-opened investigation into the death of then 19-year old Steven Smith. Originally tabbed as a mysterious just out the country in the middle of nowhere hit and run, there now seems to be serious thinking that he was beaten to death (By who? Hmmmm…Not Big Daddy but maybe someone in the family circle…?). Here’s an interesting little factoid: When the poor fellow’s body was recovered, his tennis shoes were on his feet, laced up tight. Hit and Run victim’s shoes always fly off their feet on impact. You do the physics.

• We also have the failed suicide caper. Insurance fraud big time. Big Daddy is in big trouble. The walls are closing in on him. He wants to die so his surviving son gets the proceeds from a big insurance policy he carries. He employs a former client, one Curtis Edward Smith, to shoot and kill him. Faking a flat tire again out in the country (Hell, everything about this Club FUBAR-if you don’t know what that means you can ask me or go look it up-It’s the twin brother to SNAFU-Both military-happens ‘out in the country’), Smith just happens to drive by and takes a point blank shot at Murdaugh. Accounts vary. Did he hit him. Did he miss? Big Red’s physical appearances in court show nothing. His medical records say he was hit. Clearly not fatal no matter what. Smith’s lawyer says his client never got anything from Murdaugh. Recently uncovered documents show numerous checks written by Murdaugh to Smith over much time in the tens of thousands of dollars. Looks like money laundering to me. I will explain further later.

• Of course, we have the horrible boat crash off Paris Island that drowned the young girl Mallory Beach. Murdaugh’s son Paul (said universally to have been basically an entitled little shit) was charged  with three felony counts. He was, when tested at the receiving hospital, drunker than the legendary Cooter Brown. And Big Daddy and Big Daddy’s now deceased Bigger Daddy went around the Emergency Room trying to work witnesses to see it ‘their way’, i.e. Paul was not driving the boat. Murdaugh is now being investigated on this one for Obstruction of Justice and Witness Tampering.

These people thought they were bullet-proof. Mallory Beach’s body was found five days later. Multiple civil lawsuits are still pending here.

• Can you imagine there could be more? Of course you can. There are two Very Big Flashing Lights that I will now touch on.

The bizarre case of the suspicious death of the Murdaugh’s long-time housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. And of course the grisly murders of Big Daddy’s wife Maggie and his son Paul must be addressed.

Here’s a timeline on Satterfield:

She is supposed to have tripped over a Murdaugh dog or dogs and fell down a flight of stairs at the family home and was mortally injured on February 2, 2018. She expired a few weeks later. Her Death Certificate says that she died of a ‘acute subdural hemorrhage’ and that her death was ‘natural’; no autopsy was done. The coroner was never notified of her death. Hmmmmmm…there are those that wonder did she fall or was she pushed?

As early as Ms. Satterfield’s funeral, Big Daddy began to work her boys to hire a lawyer named Cory Fleming to sue him/Murdaugh so they could get a recovery from Murdaugh’s homeowner’s insurance policy.

They did hire Fleming and suit was filed on September 15, 2018. Murdaugh never disclosed that Fleming was his college roommate. The fix was already in.

Who was hired to defend the claim? Where is the answer to the Complaint? Was any Discovery by way of Written Interrogatories and Depositions done? Nothing like that has come to the surface so far.

Remarkably, the suit was settled and funds disbursed in the multiple millions only eight! months later. A judge signed a rigged up Order Approving Settlement on May 13, 2019.

These monies, somewhere between 3 and 4 million dollars, came from Lloyd’s of London type insurers.

Was any investigation by insurance companies ever done? What’s in those files? Standard Operating Procedure on claims such as this dictates extensive investigation…Who were the adjusters and administrators who oversaw the claim?

Who evaluated the claim at that strike price? I’m sure Ms. Satterfield was a lovely and nice person but in my 45 years as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer, I’ve never seen as eye-popping a number as this assigned to a nice but, let’s just say, pretty modest lady. Can we say ‘Punitive Damages’? Of course we can. And so, what was the rationale to apply such damages?

I smell pay-offs and favors done across the board.

Oh by the way, the Order Approving Settlement was never filed-as is ALWAYS required.

The family never got the original money and was unaware of the settlement. Big Daddy took it all and put it in a fraudulently labeled account. The family has recently and finally gotten compensated by virtue of suits filed by their new lawyers. Murdaugh’s lawyers are now arguing that they need to get that money back. No, I am not making this up.

And lastly, the gruesome murders of Big Daddy’s son Paul and his wife Maggie. There, for the last many months, has been next to nothing reported or presented about these brutal and obviously intentional homicides. Here’s my working theory.

It is often said and roundly parroted that Murdaugh had a big-league opioid addiction and it is treated as though he had this problem for years and years and that all these millions of dollars paid for his addiction. I call BS on this.

I believe that he was but a recreational opioid user until his wife and son were gunned down; then I can see him stepping up his use. Just as lots of people smoke some weed or snort some coke from time to time, that does not mean they are heavily addicted. And recreational opioid use (and you can look it up) does not cost millions and millions of dollars.

Also, heavily addicted opioid users are basically unable to be high functioning, productive people. Big Daddy for a very long time was obviously and effectively juggling all sorts of deals and schemes.

So, what about all those millions?

I think Big Red was helping and working with a group or groups of folks who needed money laundered and he got rewarded for his help. I think he dipped his quill in their company ink and misbehaved, misbehaved to the extent that serious measures in retribution were mandated.

I think that the murder of son Paul was a Send A Message Hit. His wife was not supposed to be there - she was, when revealed, had to be eliminated. She became collateral damage.

I think that the two who perpetrated these murders (and there were two-one used an automatic weapon, one used a shotgun) are long gone, back down south to Mexico or Central America.

I am of the belief that they were in the employ of Drug Lords, Drug Cartels. But who knows? The investigations will continue, Murdaugh will be in jail, in prison probably for the rest of his life and more and more information will come out.

So dear reader, those are my thoughts and theories and musings on this utterly amazing thing, this creature. Yes, in a twisted sort of way, I am grateful for it. It makes my mind work. So stay safe out there, keep thinking and reading and Happy Thanksgiving!!

All my best,

Vernon