Alex Murdaugh: Prison Gambling Boss? – FITSNews

Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh is “running” the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) facility where he is being housed while serving a pair of life sentences for the murder of his wife and son three years ago, according to the attorney of one of his alleged co-conspirators.

According to the attorney, Murdaugh is allegedly running a gambling ring behind bars – while also leveraging his sizable commissary account, legal expertise and political connections to win friends and influence fellow inmates.

Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole on March 3, 2023 by S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman. This sentence was handed down after a Colleton County jury found him guilty of savagely murdering his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, on June 7, 2021 at Moselle – the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property straddling the Salkehatchie River in the picturesque Palmetto Lowcountry.

However, those verdicts – and Murdaugh’s life sentences – are currently in jeopardy as a result of jury tampering committed by former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill.

Our media outlet has previously discussed Murdaugh’s status as “king of the cell block,” but the latest reports would indicate the 56-year-old convict is continuing to amass considerable power behind the scenes at SCDC.

One of the attorneys closest to this story appeared on the Surviving the Survivor podcast on Wednesday of this week (August 21, 2024) to share her take on the status of the most notorious ward of the Palmetto State.

“I was actually in prison yesterday… he’s running that place,” Columbia, S.C. attorney Aimee Zmroczek told the podcast panel. “Let me tell you, he is running that place.”

“Just like he did when he was in Alvin S. Glenn,” Zmroczek added.

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That’s a reference to the scandal-plagued Alvin S. Glenn detention center in Columbia, S.C. – which was Murdaugh’s temporary home prior to his 2023 murder trial in Colleton County. Murdaugh was booked at the notorious “Glenn” on October 19, 2021 following his indictment on charges tied to a September 2021 shooting incident on a Hampton County roadside.

He stayed at the Glenn until his double homicide trial in Walterboro, S.C. began on January 23, 2023.

The other individual indicted in connection with the roadside shooting was Zmroczek’s client, Curtis “Eddie” Smith. Our audience will recall Smith remains one of the nagging “loose ends” associated with this ongoing criminal drama.

Smith has been accused of cashing more than 400 checks totaling at least $2.4 million at the behest of Murdaugh – funds which prosecutors in the office of attorney general Alan Wilson claim supported “a myriad (of) unlawful activities” between 2013 and 2021. Smith has also been hit with drug trafficking charges tied to Murdaugh – charges were contained in an indictment issued in June of 2022.

In October 2022, Murdaugh’s attorneys accused Smith of being the real killer of Murdaugh’s wife and son based on a failed polygraph examination. Zmroczek flatly refuted that allegation – and challenged investigators to test his DNA with evidence found at the crime scene.

Smith was subpoenaed to testify at Murdaugh’s murder trial but was never called to the stand. Had he testified, he was widely expected to assert that Murdaugh confessed to the murders of his wife and son during the roadside shooting incident.

Smith has yet to be prosecuted for any of the charges filed against him in connection with the Murdaugh saga – and was released from prison by Newman in April 2023 (a month after Murdaugh’s trial ended). During a bond reinstatement hearing, prosecutors claimed Smith “fully cooperated” with them during Murdaugh’s trial.

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RELATED | SUPREME COURT TAKES ALEX MURDAUGH’S CASE

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According to Zmroczek, Murdaugh is “living it up” inside SCDC, including the operation of his gambling ring.

“He has a side gambling system,” Zmroczek told the podcasters.

Zmroczek provided the podcasters details which purported to reveal Murdaugh’s location within SCDC, however in keeping with our longstanding policy regarding inmates in the agency’s “protective custody unit,” we are not publishing such information.

“He is living it up in there,” Zmroczek said, indicating Murdaugh’s gambling ring was based on “cards and betting.”

“He adapts so very well,” Zmroczek added, referring to the purported ease with which Murdaugh has acclimated himself to life behind bars.

Murdaugh has long been suspected to have been affiliated with organized gambling. In fact, gambling debt has been one of the popular theories for what may have happened to the millions of dollars Murdaugh has confessed to stealing from former clients, friends, law partners and family members.

That money remains missing, incidentally…

Several of the known criminal associates of Murdaugh’s check-cashing scheme have been linked to gambling activity – with one of these associates allegedly tasked with “overseeing security at Murdaugh’s gambling den” at Moselle. Multiple judges and politicians formerly under the sway of the Murdaugh empire also allegedly participated in gambling activities with the convicted killer, sources familiar with the situation have confirmed.

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Murdaugh has never been criminally charged in connection with any gambling operations, nor have sources with direct knowledge of the myriad investigations into his criminal conduct indicated gambling was a focus of these inquiries.

Sources familiar with the status of Murdaugh’s incarceration declined to discuss the gambling allegations, but they confirmed the disgraced, disbarred attorney was amassing considerable influence behind bars.

“He’s a famous guy,” one source said. “He’s got a lot of money. He can buy them Doritos or ‘beef sticks’ or whatever it is they want. He can spread it around because he has it.”

As for Zmroczek’s comments regarding Murdaugh’s location within SCDC, our sources refuted those claims. They also questioned whether his reach within the system was as expansive as Zmroczek suggested.

“He’s in a unit that’s not in the general population,” one source told us. “He doesn’t interact with other people on the prison yard, he interacts with people in his unit.”

In keeping with its policy regarding high-profile inmates, SCDC had little to say about Murdaugh’s status within the system.

“Inmate Murdaugh remains in protective custody,” SCDC spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.

The erstwhile untouchable scion of one of South Carolina’s most prominent legal and political dynasties, Murdaugh’s fall from grace – and the attendant criminal mystery accompanying it – captivated America as his story made its way through the same court system he once expertly manipulated.

Three generations of Murdaughs – including Alex’s late father, Randolph Murdaugh III – held the post of S.C. fourteenth circuit solicitor between 1920-2006. Murdaugh himself was a badge-carrying assistant solicitor – and an attorney at his family’s powerful law firm – at the time of his spectacular unraveling in 2021.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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