Alex Murdow’s SC saga: Corey Fleming and other key players

Once, the name Murdaugh meant wealth, law and family across multiple generations in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

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Now, people in their hometown in Hampton County are more likely to think mystery and allegations of criminal wrongdoing by a scion of the prominent legal family, Alex Murdaugh.

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First, there was a boating accident in which a young woman died, then the murders of mother and son Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on their Moselle estate. The wife and son of Alex Murdaugh were shot at close range, Paul with a shotgun, Maggie with an assault weapon, and left for dead near a dog pen.

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Alex Murdaugh faces a plethora of charges related to financial crimes and an attempt to fake his death in a roadside shooting. Murdaugh is already serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison for the June 2021 double murders of his wife, Maggie and youngest son, Paul. He was convicted in March.

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Here are the key players in this unfolding story.

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Cory Fleming

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Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming is alleged to have participated in a multi-million dollar theft scheme orchestrated by Murdaugh. He has been indicted on multiple financial crimes.

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A federal court document made public Wednesday said Fleming has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the $4.3 million insurance theft scheme stemming from the death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family’s former housekeeper who died in a 2018 fall at their Colleton County estate.

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The scheme in which Fleming, Murdaugh’s former law school classmate, was charged involved the unlawful diverting of insurance proceeds from Satterfield’s death to Murdaugh and Fleming, and away from the rightful owners.

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Fleming, 53, who was known as Murdaugh’s close work associate and was his classmate at the University of South Carolina School of Law, was the first associate of Murdaugh’s to be charged in connection with alleged financial crimes.

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Fleming, 54, could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison on that charge.

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Fleming is expected to plead guilty at 2 p.m. Thursday in Charleston’s federal court before Judge Richard Gergel.

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Alex Murdaugh

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Alex Murdaugh comes from a long line of lawyers and prosecutors in Hampton County in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Their influence cannot be overstated, beginning with his great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., who started the family law firm in 1910 and later became the local prosecutor without giving up his original law business.

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His son was elected to take his place in 1940. Randolph Murdaugh III, Alex’s father, was the solicitor until 2005 when Duffie Stone, a Murdaugh ally, was elected to the position. Alex, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, both as an undergraduate and law school student, elected to go another way, building a legal business within the family firm on personal injury lawsuits.

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He has been indicted on dozens of financial crimes, stemming from how he handled a personal injury claim by his family’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield to other indictments alleging he used a personal bank account to launder millions in ill-gotten gains as far back as 2015.

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Federal officials on Wednesday again indicted Murdaugh for a host of financial crimes.

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The S.C. Supreme Court suspended his law license. Prior to his conviction, Murdaugh had been held in Richland County jail for more than a year on criminal charges involving his ruse to have someone kill him so his surviving son Buster could collect $10 million from a life insurance policy. A S.C. judge in a civil case appointed receivers to take control of all his finances.

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Maggie Murdaugh

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Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Margaret “Maggie” Kennedy Branstetter Murdaugh was born Sept. 15, 1968. She lived in Columbia, Summerville, Edisto, Hampton, and at the time of her death at the family’s Colleton lodge, Moselle, where she was shot to death June 7, 2021. She was 52.

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She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1991, where she met her husband and was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority. The Murdaughs had two sons, Richard Jr. known as Buster, and Paul, who was also shot to death at Moselle on June 7, 2021. The family spent summers at Edisto Beach. She was a homemaker, who once had a gift shop on Hampton’s main street years ago, and was an avid boater. She and Paul are buried in Hampton Cemetery.

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Buster Murdaugh

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Alex and Maggie Murdaugh’s eldest son graduated from Wofford College in 2018 and was planning to work at the family’s law firm post graduation. He enrolled in the University of South Carolina Law School, but sources say he left after a cheating scandal in 2019.

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In addition to his father, he was named as a defendant in a civil suit stemming from the 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. It’s alleged Buster let his younger brother Paul use his ID to buy alcohol that day. He has since settled with the Beach family.

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He has not spoken publicly about the deaths or his father’s legal problems. He was photographed last September at the family home in Edisto Beach, SC, and was reportedly spotted at The Venetian casino in Las Vegas after that.. The New York Post reported that for a time he was staying with his mother’s sister Marian Proctor in Charleston.

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Recent news reports say he is living in a $180,000 one-bedroom condominium in Hilton Head with his girlfriend. He’s been photographed walking a golden retriever.

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Paul Murdaugh

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The younger of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh’s two sons. He was fatally shot on June 7 alongside his mother. At the time of his death, Paul, 22, was a student at the University of South Carolina and was facing three felony boating under the influence charges tied to the 2019 boat crash in Beaufort County that killed Mallory Beach. A trial had not been set, and he was out on $50,000 bond. The charges were dismissed after his death.

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Six people were on the boat that night and all had been drinking alcohol, police said, describing them as “’grossly intoxicated.”

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Other family members

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John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s brother, was at the crime scene talking with investigators after Paul and Maggie Murdaugh’s homicide. A friend of John Marvin’s has given multiple interviews saying the family is “confident justice will be served.”

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Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV, also Alex’s brother, began working at the family law firm in 1991, according to the firm’s website. He was one of the first people Alex Murdaugh called after being shot in the head on Sept. 4, 2021. Alex has been accused of hiring a long-time associate to kill him so Buster could get $10 million from a life insurance policy.

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Mallory Beach

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She was 19 when a boat driven by Paul Murdaugh rammed into a bridge piling, throwing her into the water. Her body was found a week later about five miles from the crash site. Cause of death was drowning.

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She was from Hampton and attended the University of South Carolina, where she played soccer. She worked at a boutique in Beaufort.

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Stephen Smith

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The 19-year-old from Hampton County was found dead in a road near Hampton in 2015. Authorities disagreed on whether he was killed in a hit-and-run accident or in a homicide. No arrests were made in the case that eventually went cold.

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Two weeks into the Murdaugh double homicide investigation, SLED announced it was reopening Smith’s investigation because of information received in its Murdaugh probe. No official statement has connected the Murdaughs to Smith’s death.

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Curtis Edward Smith

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Smith is accused of helping Alex Murdaugh set up a botched suicide attempt. Smith was arrested in September on charges of helping Murdaugh stage a suicide so Murdaugh’s son, Buster, could collect $10 million on a life insurance company. The alleged plot failed, and Murdaugh — in addition to Smith — now faces criminal charges in that Sept. 4 incident. Smith, a former client of Murdaugh, has said he did not shoot Murdaugh and got the gun away and disposed of it. The State has reported Smith was given $155,970 from Murdaugh in 17 cashier’s checks from October 2020 through May 2021 that were cashed at various banks around Hampton and Beaufort counties.

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Gloria Satterfield and family

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Gloria Harriott Satterfield was a longtime housekeeper for the Murdaugh family and helped raise the boys. She slipped and fell down the front steps of the Moselle house in February 2018 and died. She was 57. Her obituary said she “liked tennis, loved kids and her favorite color was purple. Most of all, she will be remembered for her laughter and her outgoing personality.”

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Murdaugh is accused of taking insurance settlements intended for her sons, Brian “Little B” Harriott of Furman and Michael Anthony “Tony” Satterfield of Beaufort for his own use. Her obit said “she loved as her family, Alec and Maggie Murdaugh and their family.

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Russell Laffitte

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The former chief executive officer of the Palmetto Bank in Hampton has been accused of helping Alex Murdaugh defraud clients. He faces 21 charges including breach of trust with fraudulent intent, computer crime and criminal conspiracy. His bond was set at $1 million and he posted the required 10%. He was required to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts, and was not allowed to leave the state. Laffitte owns 9% of the shares in Palmetto State Bank, an attorney said, but was fired last year by the bank board. He was found guilty on six charges late last year, He attended Newberry College.

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Chris Wilson

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The Bamberg-based attorney — whose friendship with Murdaugh dates back to college when the two attended the University of South Carolina law school together — has cooperated with law enforcement into investigations of Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes. He is mentioned — but not identified by name — as an “attorney with another firm” in two of the 15 state grand jury indictments that allege Murdaugh stole $8.4 million from clients and associates. Wilson has not been charged and his lawyer Bakari Sellers described him as an innocent victim..

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Also on the night Maggie and Paul were murdered, Murdaugh and Wilson talked to each other on their cellphones at the approximate time that authorities have indicated Maggie and Paul were likely shot — between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., according to Jim Griffin, one of Murdaugh’s attorneys.

This story was originally published June 16, 2022, 4:46 p.m.