Randolph Murdaugh Jr. (1915-1998)

In Valerie Bauerlein's book, The Devil at His Elbow Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty, she wrote: "It was known that if Buster liked you, he'd help you any way he could. If he didn't like you, he'd hurt you any way he could. Once when a lawyer in Columbia got Buster's son Randolph out of a drunk driving charge, Buster thanked him and said, "Remember, if you ever need anybody killed, send them on down to Hampton County." When he got one of his many paramours (Ruth Vaux) pregnant, he reputedly said, "I would have killed that woman if he (the fixer he sent to shoot her on her front porch) hadn't gotten so drunk." The book also refers to one of his colleagues, Woody Gooding, who said, "Buster bragged about the awesome power of tearing up an indictment. 'I'm talking about murders that went away,' he said. 'DUIs are nothing.'"

After detailing a litany of other unproven crimes, Bauerlein surmised that, "Buster had proved that Murdaughs could fix juries, corrupt sheriffs and judges, cheat on their taxes, steal from clients, play both sides of the law, and define justice however they chose. By his own admission, he had also proved that a Murdaugh could arrange a murder and face no consequences." In 2023, Buster's grandson, Alex Murdaugh, was famously convicted of the murder of his wife and younger son and is currently (2026) in prison for theft and fraud.