The prominent Murdaugh family of Hampton, S.C. has been in local then national news for a while now. But it’s for all the wrong reasons: mysterious unsolved violent deaths, fraudulent financial and legal dealings involving millions of dollars and allegations of criminal and civil cover-ups. If you haven’t heard about all this, here are a couple places that can help you catch up if interested: FitsNews investigative journalist Mandy Matney’s “Murdaugh Murders” podcasts or just Google “Murdaugh South Carolina” and the floodgates of coverage will pour in.
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The Murdaughs buried here began, by virtue of one of their sons, the family’s legal dynasty in the southern part of South Carolina.
Pictured below, Josiah Putnam Murdaugh (1830-1912) and his wife Ann Marvin Davis Murdaugh (1847-1919) had several children. One of them was Randolph who, in 1920, would become the first of three generations of Randolph Murdaughs (RM Senior, RM junior and RM the third) to be solicitors (district attorneys) of South Carolina's 14th Judicial District that encompasses five rural counties. That 86-year reign of status and power is now being scrutinized in light of the deaths, scandals and controversies that embroil today’s Murdaughs.
Randolph Murdaugh Sr. died a violent death in 1940 when his car was struck by a train late at night at a railroad crossing in Hampton County where he lived and had begun the law firm that is today snarled in controversy. Ironically, the firm's website has on its homepage an image of two men, backs turned to the camera, walking on railroad tracks.
