John Marvin Murdaugh reflects on brother Alex’s downfall. ‘I’m embarrassed for what he’s done.’

John Marvin Murdaugh said he has accepted that his older brother Alex Murdaugh, once a prominent Hampton lawyer, was living a lie — that he stole millions of dollars from his law firm and clients for years.

For John Marvin Murdaugh, a 51-year-old businessman who steered clear of his family’s longtime profession by selling tractors instead of representing clients, the question is not whether Alex Murdaugh stole, but why.

“Sometimes I have to wonder, why would he do this? He was making so much money,” he said of his brother, who is in jail on more than 70 charges alleging he stole more than $8 million from clients and associates and helped fake his own botched shooting in September.

The steep downfall of Alex Murdaugh, the scion of a prominent legal family, came quick and began soon after his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found shot to death on the family’s expansive Colleton County property last June.

Murdaugh is the only publicly known person of interest in the murders, which remain unsolved.

In an exclusive interview earlier this month, the first since his brother’s arrest, John Marvin Murdaugh sat down with reporters from The Island Packet at Murdaugh Rental Center, his company that sells and rents farm equipment just north of Bluffton and Hilton Head Island.

“I want the truth to get out there. I think anybody that knows me knows that’s not who I am,” he said of the controversy surrounding his older brother.

For roughly two hours, Marvin Murdaugh offered previously unreported details about himself and his prominent family.

“I’ve got a good distance from the heart of it,” he said. “The hardest part, the part that bothers me the most, is the thought that one day somebody may approach my kids and tease them or do something.”

His primary reason for granting the interview was to discuss his handling of his late sister-in-law Maggie Murdaugh’s estate. He denied “rumors” that his role in serving as the personal representative of the estate and his plans to sell the family’s Moselle hunting property were part of a scheme to help his older brother.

He provided reporters with a document that he said shows where more than $700,000 worth of Alex Murdaugh’s assets were deposited.

He spoke of learning about his brother’s financial crimes and the need for Alex to “fess up.” He said he’s upset about what his brother’s victims are going through.

He also revealed new information about driving his brother to a Georgia detox facility for his alleged opioid addiction, explained a controversial photo of himself walking with solicitor’s office investigators after the double homicide and tried to delve into questions about what it means to come from a prominent family.

He said he is “grasping at straws” to find good in the mess his brother left.

The one thing he wouldn’t talk about, however, was what happened on the night of June 7, 2021 — when his nephew, Paul, and sister-in-law, Maggie, were killed.

“I can’t,” he said, with tears in his eyes.

He said he does not believe his brother killed his wife and son, but acknowledged that police may know more than he does.

Here’s what we learned from John Marvin Murdaugh, who so much views himself as the “black sheep” of the Murdaugh family that he plastered the words on his fishing boat.

The ‘black sheep’

Despite growing up around a well-known family of lawyers who built a powerhouse law firm and served as elected prosecutors near coastal South Carolina, John Marvin Murdaugh has a personal aversion to lawsuits.

“I’m not a person that thinks about suing,” he said. “Lawsuits should be the very end of all means of trying to work out an issue. That ought not be the first place you go.”

He clarified that he was speaking about himself and was not criticizing the people who are suing his brother Alex.

Although he initially wanted to become a lawyer and studied criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, he realized in his early 20’s that his love of tractors, the outdoors and “big boy toys” outweighed his family’s love for the courtroom, he said.

When he decided to go into business instead of becoming a lawyer, he said he told his father and grandfather — Randolph Murdaugh III and Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., who both served successive tenures as 14th Circuit Solicitor, South Carolina’s name for top elected prosecutor.

“My dad said, ‘Son, I don’t give a damn if you go to law school. But whatever you do, I want you to be successful,’” John Marvin Murdaugh recalled.

In December 1994, Marvin Murdaugh made his first sale at Murdaugh Rental Center, an authorized Kubota dealer with offices in Hampton and near Bluffton, he said.

That decision to own a business instead of attending law school earned him the nickname “black sheep” — a tongue-in-cheek name he’s added to his various fishing boats over the years.

Dynasty and power

While speaking with reporters, John Marvin Murdaugh tried to paint his family as regular people and dismissed the words “dynasty and power.”

Three generations of Murdaughs have been elected state prosecutors, putting thousands of people in prison and sending more than a dozen to death row in South Carolina’s five-county 14th Judicial Circuit. And the family’s law firm, founded in 1910, has won millions of dollars in civil lawsuits, largely related to personal injury cases involving fatal crashes.

The family’s clout — now questioned on an international stage in the wake of the double homicide and Alex Murdaugh’s financial schemes — has led to numerous claims of corruption and power that some say has stoked fear in the small town of Hampton.

But John Marvin Murdaugh referred to the family’s influence as a “misconception.”

“You can tell I’m not some royalty or dynasty,” he said. “I want people to realize that we’re not privileged. We’re truly just like any other citizen.”

He said his family “held a position that gave them power, but I’ve always heard that they were most proud of helping people.”

Many, however, have questioned whether that power has influenced justice in rural South Carolina. Much has been reported in recent years on a series of irregularities in the police’s handling of a 2019 boat crash that killed a young woman and implicated Alex Murdaugh’s son Paul as the drunk driver.

Others point to the suspicious case of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose unsolved 2015 death is now being investigated by the State Law Enforcement Division in the wake of the deaths of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.

John Marvin Murdaugh told reporters that, after the June killings, he was surprised when people interviewed on TV said they were scared of his family.

“Nobody has asked any of my friends for opinions of the family,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that knows our family that’s fearful. If they are, they have no reason to be.”

He said he urged people not to paint him and his family with the same brush as Alex Murdaugh.

The Murdaugh family is “pretty doggone close,” he said, but he and his oldest brother Randy Murdaugh IV — who both share a love for the outdoors — have more in common than he and Alex.

The two brothers were interviewed on ABC News program “Good Morning America” shortly after the June killings. Both stood staunchly behind their brother Alex at the time — but the interview came before Alex’s downfall.

The segment noted that some people in the community say the family used its connections to protect Paul the night of the fatal boat crash.

Reporter Eva Pilgrim asked, “Do you feel that anyone in your family interfered in any way?”

Both brothers shook their heads “no.”

Randy Murdaugh remains a lawyer at the family’s law firm.

“No one has done anything wrong except for Alex,” John Marvin Murdaugh said in the interview with The Island Packet.

Amid the numerous charges against Alex Murdaugh alleging that he defrauded clients and his law firm out of millions of dollars, John Marvin Murdaugh said his family has been “talking a little more freely about money.”

At family gatherings “no one talks about money,” he said. “I had no idea how much money Alex was making. We’ve opened up about that. I just knew that Alex was doing extremely well in his legal practice. We’ve opened up in that manner to talk about things. We knew nothing about what was going on with Alex.”

If the family had known that Alex Murdaugh was “doing something that he shouldn’t have been doing, whether it’s drugs or taking money or anything improper, or if they had suspected I was, I think any of us would step up to the plate and sit down and talk,” he said.

The family would have made Murdaugh stop and report it, he said.

Who killed Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son?

When asked about the night that Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were murdered, John Marvin Murdaugh became emotional and said he was not ready to talk about it.

John Marvin said he and his nephew, Paul, were “very close” and hung out together outdoors, he said. Some people referred to Paul, who worked at Murdaugh Rental Center for two summers, as “little John Marvin,” he said.

He said he felt that his nephew would have one day owned his own logging business.

Photographs taken of John Marvin Murdaugh walking with investigators from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office the day after the killings raised questions about why John Marvin was there, and why Solicitor Duffie Stone had not yet recused himself from the case, given his longtime association with the Murdaughs.

John Marvin Murdaugh said he and the investigators were trying to “ping” Maggie Murdaugh’s cell phone, which was not immediately located the night of the killings.

Last October, a spokesperson for the Murdaugh family sharply rebuked a report by People Magazine that said Maggie Murdaugh had met with a divorce attorney in Charleston six weeks before her homicide.

Asked about this, John Marvin Murdaugh said he has dug into Maggie Murdaugh’s paperwork to look for clues such as checks to an attorney, canceled checks or doctor’s appointments that “might, you know, shed some light on anything that could have been going on and I never found anything out of normal.”

He said the two “were so caring” toward each other.

Asked whether he’s been interviewed by law enforcement, John Marvin Murdaugh said he’s had “multiple interviews and conversations” with SLED in the wake of the murders.

His older brother Randy, he said, is constantly giving police “tips and things that were heard on the street” to help with the investigation.

Does John Marvin Murdaugh think Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son?

“No, I do not believe he did,” he said, but added, “Is it possible that he could have? Well, I guess anything’s possible, but I don’t believe it.”

He said he’s “certain that he did not. That is my belief and I truly believe that to my core. But I also understand that, you know, maybe I don’t know things. Maybe SLED knows a lot more than I do.”

“All I can tell you is what I believe and I don’t believe he had anything to do with it,” he said.

After the murders, Alex Murdaugh moved in and “spent a fair amount of time” with John Marvin Murdaugh’s family, he said.

“He never went to that property without me or someone going with him,” he said. “There would be times where he would be totally broken down crying. He was devastated by it. He would pick at and only eat a bite of food.”

The Labor Day weekend shooting

John Marvin Murdaugh recalled what he was doing during the chaotic Labor Day weekend when Alex Murdaugh allegedly asked Curtis Smith, a former client, to shoot him in the head so his son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance payout.

He said he was boarding a flight home after a fishing trip in Utah when he got a phone call from a family friend asking if Alex Murdaugh was OK. That person told him to call his brother Randy, he said.

In a rushed call as the flight attendant told him to turn his phone off, he said Randy told him that Alex had been shot, but he thought he was going to be OK.

“And that’s how I had to ride until I got back to South Carolina,” he said.

When he landed, he said Randy told him that Alex had been on drugs and the family’s law firm had found an instance where he had “misappropriated” money. Randy, he said, had confronted Alex prior to the Sept. 4 shooting for taking money from the firm, he said.

“My belief is, when confronted, he didn’t try to deny anything,” he said. “He said ‘Yes I’ve been doing this.’”

After the shooting, Alex Murdaugh spent a day or two in the hospital, he said.

When he got out, “it was one thousand percent clear that something was wrong,” he said.

John Marvin said he and Randy drove Alex Murdaugh to a detox facility in Marietta, Georgia, for an alleged opioid addiction that Alex had hidden for roughly two decades.

During the car ride, John Marvin said “all kinds of crazy thoughts” about what happened during the shooting ran through his mind.

“In Randy and I’s conversations, you know, we were very concerned that it was not a random shooting, that it was a suicide attempt,” he said. “I had real real doubts that he was telling the truth. And Randy, in particular, had doubts because he saw him talking to SLED and what he said and he just knew how inconsistent he was.”

At one point during the car ride, Alex was facing backwards with his head in the seat of the car and was flailing his legs around, he said.

“You could tell his body was bothering him,” he said. “There was no opportunity for real conversation.”

When John Marvin Murdaugh first heard about his brother’s alleged drug addiction, he said he “found it very hard to believe.”

He said he thinks that Alex Murdaugh first started taking opioids recreationally after a knee surgery “in the neighborhood of about 20 years ago.” But it was unbeknownst to him and others that knew him well, he said.

Looking back, he said the only indication that something was wrong with his brother was when he would randomly fall asleep at family holiday parties or gatherings.

“We would be sitting there and he’d fall asleep,” he said. “That is a classic sign of an opioid addiction.”

‘I’m embarrassed for what he’s done’

John Marvin Murdaugh said that he hopes his brother will one day admit to the crimes he has committed.

“He needs to accept it,” he said of Alex. “I believe when the time is right, he’s going to fess up. And if he’s been charged with things he didn’t do, he needs to say that.”

He said that might happen in court when all of his charges are laid out by a judge.

“I know he did some things,” he said. “I’m embarrassed for what he’s done. I feel so bad.”

Marvin Murdaugh said he also feels bad for his brother’s victims — “folks that probably needed the money.”

“I’ve been told that most of them have been repaid,” he said. “If I were in those shoes, what would I do? I would hope that I could look at it and forgive you. I feel for them.”

He said his brother is “probably relieved that he’s not living a lie.”

After the interview, he sent the following statement to a reporter:

“As difficult as this has been for my wife, Lizzy, my children, and me, I want to tell you that we are also so upset about what the victims and their families are going through, everyone who has suffered because of this. I want to help and that’s where my efforts are. How do I pick up the pieces? What can I do to help everyone move forward and put their lives back together, even though nothing will ever be the same? The grief and loss all the way around is very tough to accept. I pray for the victims every day.”

Selling Moselle

John Marvin Murdaugh’s role in the family’s finances has been under scrutiny in recent months after he was appointed to serve as the personal representative of Maggie Murdaugh’s estate, putting him in charge of selling the family’s expansive property known as “Moselle.”

While speaking with a reporter, he said he wanted to dispel rumors that he’s “doing something improper to help Alex.”

“My understanding is there are some people out there, and I think it was some of the attorneys associated with the case, that, you know, were trying to say that I was scheming with Alex or trying to do something and I’m certainly not,” he said.

Marvin Murdaugh said he encourages people to bid on Moselle, the 1,700-acre property under Maggie’s name that is now listed for $3.9 million. He said his goal is “to receive the highest and best offer.”

“I’m going to do exactly as instructed by the court,” he said, referring to his role as personal representative. “Everything that I’m doing, I’m doing it only with court approval.”

He referred to his relationship with Maggie’s family as “very close.”

“I talked to (Maggie’s family) and essentially what I told (them) is I’m going to discharge my duties as the PR in a lawful manner that makes them proud, Maggie proud and Buster proud,” he said. “I want them to know that it’s being handled the best that it can. Everything’s transparent.”

$724,000 in assets

Last November, the judge overseeing the lawsuit filed against Murdaugh by the mother of Mallory Beach, who was killed in a 2019 boat crash, froze Alex’s and his son’s assets and appointed attorneys to oversee his finances.

The order came after three attorneys sought to prevent Murdaugh or his son, Buster, from disposing of assets.

To illustrate how the family’s money was being spent, one of the attorneys included in his motion a photo of Buster and John Marvin Murdaugh sitting at a casino table at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas in October 2021.

In response to concerns that he and his family have tried to hide money, John Marvin Murdaugh provided reporters with a document that he said details where $724,792 worth of assets were sold before Murdaugh’s finances were frozen.

“It shows everything that was sold, where it was sold, who it was sold to, when and where the money went,” he said. “And the receivers didn’t have to go out and find this. I presented it to them in the very early stages.”

Some of the assets were sold to help Alex Murdaugh pay for medical treatments, while others appear to have been used to pay off a claim against Randolph Murdaugh III’s estate (his father) or to pay a debt he owed to Randy Murdaugh, the document shows.

The document did not include dates when the sales occurred, but John Marvin Murdaugh provided reporters with two bills of sale with dates that corresponded to sales listed on the document.

He said there were rumors circulating that the receivers, Peter McCoy and John T. Lay, had caught the family disposing of assets — a characterization that Marvin Murdaugh refuted.

“I thought (the receivers) should have announced and made it abundantly clear to the court and to anybody else involved that, ‘Hey, we’ve talked to these guys, they’re very open, they’re transparent, they’re cooperative. They’re doing exactly what they should be doing, not just to help us, but they’re doing what they should be doing. They’re doing the right thing,’” he said.

“Sometimes silence is as bad as telling a lie.”

Among the 15 sales detailed in the document were:

▪ John Deere Highboy Sprayer sold to a man for $15,000. The money, the document said, was sent to Sunrise Rehab facility in Orlando. John Marvin Murdaugh said this covered half of Alex Murdaugh’s rehab bill. Randy Murdaugh paid the other half, he said.

▪ New Holland Silag Chopper sold for $2,000. The money was applied to Alex Murdaugh’s Cobra Health Insurance bill, the document said.

▪ Alex’s Murdaughs share of Green Swamp Hunting Club was sold for $250,000. This money was paid toward a loan on Murdaugh’s house in Edisto Beach, the document showed.

▪ The proceeds from nine of the 15 sales — totaling $406,792.02 — were sent to Palmetto State Bank and appear to have been applied to a $617,246.51 creditor’s claim filed in September against Randolph Murdaugh III’s estate. The claim, one of two filed against the estate, is for an unsecured commercial line of credit that Murdaugh III took out with Alex Murdaugh in 2017.

In a status report filed in Hampton County court in January, receivers McCoy and Lay described how they were combing through Murdaugh’s “complicated” finances.

Those investigations included “interviews with interested or related persons in order to better understand the location, nature and extent of assets,” the document said.

“We have generally found these individuals and entities to understand the circumstances and to be cooperative.”

Attorney Mark Tinsley, reached by phone, said it appears that Alex Murdaugh has made “illegal preferences” by deciding to pay off certain creditors before others.

Tinsley, who is suing Alex Murdaugh related to the fatal boat crash in 2019 that implicated Murdaugh’s son Paul, said that, if the payments are deemed illegal, the receivers will “claw them back”

‘Grasping at straws’

When asked how his family is coping with the controversies surrounding his brother, John Marvin got choked up while talking about Buster Murdaugh.

“Buster, he is in such a tough spot, losing his mom, his brother, his dad, all of it,” he said. “I have made a point, …I’m going to provide Buster with a place to call home and a loving family and I’m going to give him the resources and support to move forward in life. He certainly doesn’t deserve this. Buster has done nothing wrong.”

Buster, he said, “has moments that are overwhelming.”

Last month, John Marvin Murdaugh said he took his family, Buster and Buster’s girlfriend, to a Morgan Wallen concert in Greenville for his daughter’s birthday.

“There was a time where (Buster) got real quiet,” he said. “He always knows he can talk to me, but you can just tell.”

As for his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who died from cancer three days after Paul and Maggie were killed: “If the cancer hadn’t killed him, this would’ve. It would’ve devastated him,” John Marvin Murdaugh said of Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes.

He said that while his mother is still alive, “she’s got Alzheimer’s so bad” and is not aware of her son’s wrongdoing.

For now, John Marvin Murdaugh said he’s using his brother as a teaching moment for his kids. For example, one time he caught one of his kids taking candy from the other, he said. He said he sat them down and warned them “this is where it starts.”

“You don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you,” he said he told them. “Look where Uncle Alex is. You don’t want to end up like that.”

With all of the controversy and deaths surrounding his family, John Marvin Murdaugh described himself as an optimist who is “grasping at straws” to find some good in the situation.

“You’ve got to,” he said. “I’ve told my wife, I’m not going to let it change my outlook on life. I want to live my life the right way. I want to continue that. I can’t let one thing or one person ruin my outlook.”

This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Kacen Bayless

The Island Packet

(843) 560-9167

A reporter for The Island Packet covering projects and investigations, Kacen Bayless is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in investigative reporting. In the past, he’s worked for St. Louis Magazine, the Columbia Missourian, KBIA and the Columbia Business Times. His work has garnered Missouri and South Carolina Press Association awards for investigative, enterprise, in-depth, health, growth and government reporting. He was awarded South Carolina’s top honor for assertive journalism in 2020.