The lawsuit over a 2019 fatal boat crash that led to the killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, spawned a frenzy of true-crime books and documentaries and revealed a hidden vein of corruption in South Carolina’s legal community is finally over.
The end came quietly — in stark contrast to the waves of sensational revelations that the Mallory Beach wrongful death boat crash lawsuit spawned for five years. The lawsuit was filed March 29, 2019, four weeks after the crash.
Last week, out of public view, state Judge Daniel Hall signed an order ending the 11-page lawsuit, in which Mallory Beach’s mother, Renee, had sued eight defendants including now-disgraced convicted killer and thief Alex Murdaugh for their alleged roles in Mallory’s death. The order officially acknowledged that Alex Murdaugh has been released as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Hall’s order was made public Monday, Oct. 14, when it was posted on the Hampton County state court public index.
“I find (the agreement between Murdaugh’s lawyer and the Beach family lawyers), which outlines what was done and clears up the record, is sufficient to resolve this case,” Hall wrote.
Mallory Beach, 19, drowned and suffered a head injury after being thrown from the boat, allegedly driven by a drunken Paul Murdaugh, also 19, when it struck a cluster of pilings at a bridge in Archer’s Creek near Beaufort in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2019. Paul Murdaugh’s blood alcohol content was .24, according to medical records.
Four other passengers on the boat — Miley Altman, Morgan Doughty, Anthony Cook and Connor Cook — claimed injuries and, like Mallory Beach’s mother, sued various defendants including Paul’s father, Alex Murdaugh, and parties alleged to have given or sold alcohol to the boat occupants, all of whom were underage. All of those lawsuits have been resolved.
Alex Murdaugh owned the boat and had given Paul permission to drive it, despite knowing his son drove it while drinking, lawsuits alleged.
The Beach lawsuit had alleged that hours before the fatal crash, Paul Murdaugh, although underage, “bought three different kinds of alcohol from Parker’s 55, a gas station owned and operated by Gregory M. Parker, Inc. in Jasper County.” A Parker’s clerk should have more thoroughly checked Paul’s identification, which turned out not to be his. Paul had taken his older brother, Buster’s, identification that night, the lawsuit said.
Last summer, the plaintiffs and remaining defendants in the case (some had settled earlier) reached a global settlement of boat crash claims, the main part of which was a payment by Parker’s corporation to the Beach family for $15 million for Mallory’s death. Parker paid much less for injuries suffered by other boat passengers. In the settlement, Parker’s admitted no fault.
At that time, Beach family lawyers Mark Tinsley and Tabor Vaux — knowing that they still had a $500,000 legal claim against Progressive Insurance — agreed to wait to receive $500,000 of their legal fees due them in the global settlement in order for that settlement to move forward. Progressive had insured the Murdaugh family boat.
Meanwhile, in a separate legal proceeding, court-appointed receivers were overseeing the collection and distribution of Alex Murdaugh’s assets to creditors. Once all the approximately $1.7 million of Murdaugh’s assets were finally distributed to creditors including several boat passengers last winter, Progressive agreed to disburse the $500,000 to Tinsley and Vaux if they dismissed all legal claims against Murdaugh.
“Progressive could not pay the money until they could get a full release on behalf of Alex Murdaugh. That’s standard insurance policy ... a liability insurance company can only pay its money if it gets a release on behalf of its insured,” said Dawes Cook, Murdaugh’s lawyer. (Dawes Cook is not related to the two Cooks on the boat the night of the crash.)
Progressive has now paid the $500,000 to the two Beach lawyers, Tinsley and Vaux.
Tinsley said to reach this point, lawyers engaged in a lot of time-consuming negotiations. He and Vaux had advanced $500,000 to get the settlement approved last summer, and that’s why they are now getting reimbursed for their advance from Progressive’s payment, Tinsley said.
“This was just tying up loose ends,” said Tinsley. “Ultimately, all the clients got made whole. It just took this long to get the funds.”
A saga filled with brutal swerves
In June 2021, two years after the boat crash, Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son Paul were shot to death at Moselle, the 1,700-acre Murdaugh remote estate. At first, because two guns had been used — Maggie was shot with an assault rifle and Paul with a shotgun — investigators and many in the public believed that two assailants were involved.
Paul Murdaugh had been indicted in April 2019, seven weeks after the crash, on charges of Boating Under the Influence causing a death and two charges of BUI causing injury.
In the summer of 2022, Alex Murdaugh was indicted for the murders of Paul and Maggie.
In March 2023, a Colleton County jury convicted Murdaugh of Maggie’s and Paul’s murders after a six-week trial aired nationwide on Court TV. State Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences. Murdaugh, 56, is now serving his time at a McCormick state prison, a high security facility. He is appealing his conviction. The two guns used in the murders were never found.
At the murder trial, prosecutors had shown the jury evidence that Murdaugh had used his position of trust at his former law firm to steal at least $10 million from the firm, his clients, friends and even his brother Randy over 15 years. Murdaugh’s old law firm alone claimed it had cost them “more than $7 million directly out of pocket to correct” his illegal acts, according to a legal filing the firm made.
Murdaugh pleaded guilty to massive fraud in both state and federal courts. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison in state court, and 40 years in prison in federal court.
During Murdaugh’s murder trial, prosecutors introduced evidence they said showed that Murdaugh was motivated to kill his wife and son because he feared his hidden life of thefts was about to be disclosed at an upcoming hearing in Tinsley’s boat crash lawsuit. At the time, Murdaugh was deep in debt and borrowing heavily from a local bank, but he had kept his financial situation hidden from everyone.
The hearing on Murdaugh’s finances was postponed and eventually never held because of Paul and Maggie’s killings. Tinsley had planned to ask a judge to force Murdaugh to reveal his personal financial details in order to see how much in damages Murdaugh might be able to pay out.
Tinsley testified during Murdaugh’s murder trial that he was forcing Murdaugh to reveal his financial condition because he believed Murdaugh was worth millions and could afford to pay substantial damages for allowing his drunken son to pilot the boat that killed Mallory Beach.
Prosecutors argued to the jury that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to generate sympathy and shut down inquiries into his assets.
Also caught up in Murdaugh’s ever-expanding scandals were Beaufort attorney Corey Fleming, Murdaugh’s law school classmate, and Russell Laffitte, president of Palmetto State Bank and Murdaugh’s childhood friend. Murdaugh enlisted both of them in his plots to steal money. Both are now serving time in prison.
One bottom line, said Tinsley, is that besides being in prison for the rest of his life, Murdaugh has seen all his assets liquidated.
“Alex doesn’t have anything,” Tinsley said.
But Murdaugh will likely live on as one of South Carolina’s biggest crime legends, a depraved man capable of anything.
Already, more than seven books have been written on the case, including one — “The Devil at His Elbow” — which made The New York Times bestselling nonfiction list. The saga has been the subject of numerous documentaries and television and cable specials.
Although the boat crash lawsuits are over, legal appeals by Murdaugh and his accomplices are still pending. A movie is supposedly in the works, so publicity over Murdaugh matters shows no sign of ending.
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