Who are the Murdaughs and why are they so ‘prominent?’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - - We’ve been hearing a lot about the Murdaugh family.

The Murdaughs are a wealthy, prominent South Carolina family. They’ve been in the news a lot since the summer.

Two of the Murdaughs were found shot and killed at their home in June.

Since then, there’s been a sort of unraveling.

Still, nobody has been charged with their deaths.

But, the Murdaugh name began coming up in other investigations. One of the Murdaughs was charged in a suicide-for-hire plot.

And soon after, other charges began coming up.

There have been new developments almost every week.

And every time we talk about the Murdaughs, we refer to them as a “prominent South Carolina family”.

What makes them so prominent? Who are the Murdaughs?

Good question.

We asked Adam Mintzer, a reporter from our sister station, WIS in Columbia.

Here’s how he explains their history:

“It’s interesting. So, we keep hearing the term “prominent” South Carolina family. What I think is, if you had done just like, asked a random person on the street before all this, who are the Murdaughs? I don’t think they would have known.”

“So, the Murdaugh firm starts in about 1910. So, that’s when the kind of patriarch of the Murdoch family starts this firm that is now known as PMPD. So then 10 years after starting that firm, the first one of the first Murdaugh’s that’s mentioned in this lineage was elected solicitor serving as so essentially the top prosecutor in that region.”

“And then they kind of really took over, that’s when they started to become prominent. They were a frequent target of lawsuits that they brought was a Richmond, Virginia-based railroad company called CSX.”

“But that company had operations in South Carolina.”

“So, they were able to bring lawsuits against that company in their region, because they had operations in South Carolina. And really, they just kept suing CSX over and over again.”

“A local paper once called it PMPD, this railroad company’s worst nightmare. So PMPD was able to bring a suit against this and other companies in any part of the state where their lawyers were well known, and they knew the jury. Right? Now all of a sudden, the jury is probably going to believe the person they know more than the person they don’t. So, keep that going for a few decades, more than 100 years, and you kind of have a pretty prominent family.”

So, what led to this whole unraveling?

Turns out, there are a lot of key players in their circle...

Adam Mintzer explains that and walks us through their history in this week’s episode of WBTV’s Good Question Podcast.

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