Katherine Sidnell
Alex Murdaugh made a bombshell confession, before hatching a botched suicide-by-hire plot.
The shocking incident was featured in Netflix’s Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, a docu-series on the disgraced South Carolina attorney.
As the second season airs, the show continues to follow the many twists and turns of Murdaugh’s murder trial.
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Earlier this year, the 55-year-old was convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul.
Prosecutors claimed that Murdaugh did this to pull focus away from his multiple financial crimes – with the former attorney also being indicted on charges of money laundering.
In the Netflix series, his cousin Curtis ‘Eddie’ Smith also alleged that the Southern man had tried to hire as a hitman in 2021, so Murdaugh could stage his own death.
He claimed that Murdaugh did this to ensure his surviving son, Buster, could gain $10 million (£8.1m) in life insurance.
According to Smith, the attorney was also aware that the authorities were closing in on him and made the shocking confession as he hatched his plan.
When asked why he wanted his cousin to shoot him, Murdaugh reportedly replied: “Cause they’re gonna to be able to prove that I was responsible for Maggie and Paul.”
In Sept 2021, the 55-year-old called the police and claimed he’d been shot by someone in a pick-up truck.
He only sustained superficial injuries and Smith denies that he shot his cousin during the incident.
Recalling the moment, he said that he fired away from Murdaugh in a desperate bid to ‘put some sense into him’.
“….I pulled up there, and I rolled the window down, He's coming up to my window with a gun,” he explained.
“I figured I put some sense into him. And I fired it in the air. All 6-foot-5 or -6 of him hit the asphalt, like that…”
Following the shooting, Smith was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, battery, insurance fraud and assisted suicide.
In a 2021 interview with Today, he said: "I didn't shoot him…I'm innocent. If I'd have shot him, he'd be dead. He's alive."
Meanwhile, Murdaugh is serving two life sentences for his part in the death of his wife and son.
The former attorney is also facing 22 charges connected to wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
If convicted, he could be hit with a sentence of 30 years and fines worth millions of dollars.
The case is still ongoing.