In Tangled Vines, bestselling true crime author John Glatt
reconstructs the rise of the prestigious Murdaugh family and the
shocking double murder that led to the downfall of its patriarch, Alex
Murdaugh.
Among the lush, tree-lined waterways of South Carolina low country, the
Murdaugh name means power. A century-old, multimillion-dollar law
practice has catapulted the family into incredible wealth and local
celebrity--but it was an unimaginable tragedy that would thrust them
into the national spotlight. On June 7th, 2021, prominent attorney Alex
Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on
the grounds of their thousand-acre hunting lodge. The mystery deepened
only months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a
local roadside.
But as authorities scrambled for clues and the community reeled from the
loss and media attention, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty
came to light. The Murdaughs, it turned out, were feared as much as they
were loved. And they wouldn't hesitate to wield their influence to
protect one of their own; two years before he was killed, a highly
intoxicated Paul Murdaugh was at the helm of a boat when it crashed and
killed a teenage girl, and his light treatment by police led to
speculation that privilege had come into play. As bombshells of
financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to
the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man
on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even plan his own death, to
save his family's reputation.
