The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
by Valerie Bauerlein
View on GoodreadsWSJ reporter Valerie Bauerlein's narrative of Alex Murdaugh — fourth-generation South Carolina legal-dynasty heir, prolific embezzler, opioid addict, and convicted murderer of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
Core ideas
- The Murdaugh case isn't a single crime; it's a decades-long extraction of wealth from clients and the rural-South legal-cultural conditions that allowed it (insular bar, family law-enforcement ties, deference to dynasty).
- The opioid addiction is treated as cause and consequence simultaneously — the book reconstructs the financial pressure that produced the murders as Alex's attempt to redirect attention from his unraveling thefts.
- The trial coverage and aftermath are handled with appropriate restraint — Bauerlein doesn't editorialize about a case where the documentary record speaks loudly enough.
Published2024
Pages480
ISBN9780593500583
ReadMar 2025
