Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Reuters
It was just about noon on June 7, 2021, when South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh burst through the doors of his family’s prominent personal injury firm. It was a balmy early summer day and the tall 53-year-old was in Lowcountry business casual garb: khakis, a sea-foam polo, and a blue sport coat.
His midday arrival that Monday did not faze his colleagues because Murdaugh was known in the office as a “frenetic” employee who kept different hours than the other attorneys. Murdaugh had a “good clientele” list, but co-workers felt the key to his success was his “gift of the gab” and not his work ethic or organizational skills.
“I refer to Alex as the Tasmanian Devil,” Murdaugh’s long-time paralegal, Annette Griswold, would later say. “He has always been hard to sit still and get answers from. He was rarely there and when he was, the door was closed.”