In the first minute of a highly-anticipated Fox Carolina interview with journalist Cody Alcorn, attorney Jim Griffin admitted something FITSNews has been exclusively reporting since June 9 (less than 48 hours after a double homicide rocked the South Carolina Lowcountry): That Alex Murdaugh was — and still is — a person of interest in the ongoing investigation into the murders of his wife and youngest son.
The Fox Carolina interview was the first time Griffin — one of Alex Murdaugh’s “bulldog” attorneys — admitted to reporters that his high-profile client is a person of interest in the double homicide and that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has not eliminated Alex from its investigation.
While FITSNews sources have consistently reaffirmed this key fact, it is important to remember that Griffin has been dishonest with the media on multiple occasions since his client was allegedly shot In the head in a botched suicide-for-hire attempt on a Hampton County road Labor Day weekend.
Griffin misled reporters about what hospital Alex Murdaugh was flown to on September 4 (then apologized for that on Twitter six weeks later). He also told reporters a story that didn’t add up — he claimed Alex was on his way to Charleston (on a road that wasn’t on the way to Charleston) when he got a flat tire (in a car that had run-flat tires) and was shot in the head by a man on September 4, 2021.
In the interview (posted below), Griffin told Alcorn that Alex met with him on the morning of the alleged shooting to tell him of his opioid addiction.
(Click to view)
(Via: Fox Carolina)
So why would Griffin tell so many reporters the story that Alex — his client with an admitted opioid addiction — claimed to have happened on September 4? Didn’t he think his client’s story needed to be vetted before sharing it with every national news organization in the country?
Speaking of lying, Griffin admitted to another bombshell in the Fox Carolina interview.
But first, a recap.
During the late-night hours of October 5, Griffin pulled a strange move. He tweeted me — a journalist —wagering a bottle of Daufuskie Island Rum (Griffin allegedly has a vacation house on Daufuskie Island) about his client’s medical records that would show if Alex was actually shot.
To be clear, I have never said that Alex was not shot — in fact this news outlet has consistently reported that law enforcement described him as having received a “superficial” head wound.
But the recent actions by Murdaugh’s attorneys – including overly dramatizing his purported injuries – call for every single fact from their camp to be questioned.
This is especially true considering Alex Murdaugh showed up to his bond hearing two weeks after the alleged shooting without a single visible scratch on his head.
Murdaugh’s appearance was starkly different from the the alleged injuries Griffin described to reporters. He said Alex sustained an “entry and and exit wound” from the bullet that fractured his skull, causing hemorrhaging in his brain and leaving him temporarily blind.
All of this would be easily proven by hospital records. Right?
In response to Griffin’s odd bet, I asked him to show proof of these supposed medical records.
Griffin responded and said “got em” — meaning that he had the medical records. He then continued to bet on alcohol.
As most of the Internet predicted, Griffin’s tweet did not age well.
In Alcorn’s interview — which was filmed after Griffin’s strange late-night tweets — the attorney admitted that he still does not have Alex Murdaugh’s medical records.
Are you following?
In a public forum, Griffin taunted a journalist and bet a bottle of rum on medical records that he did not have and then admitted to another journalist of not having those records just days later.
In part two of Alcorn’s interview (posted below), Griffin said he only had records from the helicopter ambulance that he said “clearly..um…clearly document massive head bleed.”
(Click to view)
(Via: Fox Carolina)
Okay, Jim….
Griffin claimed the helicopter documents showed that Murdaugh bled excessively on September 4. Those documents do not provide a description of the wound, however.
Griffin said he has had trouble getting his client’s medical records from Memorial Health Hospital in Savannah, Georgia. He claimed that HIPAA was holding them up and said something about a signature that “did not match.”
Hmm….
Griffin claimed his client has completed his first stage of rehab and is now in a “long-term facility” outside of South Carolina.
On September 17, Murdaugh was released on bond in connection with one of six active criminal probes related to the Murdaugh family. He was ordered to go back to rehab. If Murdaugh leaves the rehab facility without the court’s permission, a bench order will supposedly be issued for his arrest.
But is he really in rehab? Why doesn’t his lawyer show us those medical records? Can we trust that court officials will check on Murdaugh’s whereabouts? Who is responsible for making sure that Murdaugh is in fact in a rehab facility?
If we’ve learned anything in the last four months of the Murdaugh Murders Saga, we cannot trust anything coming from the mouths of Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorneys. We need records. We need photographs. We need receipts.
Note: This is a news analysis by journalist Mandy Matney, who has been covering the Murdaugh family since 2019.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Mandy Matney is the news director at FITSNews. She’s an investigative journalist from Kansas who has worked for newspapers in Missouri, Illinois, and South Carolina before making the switch to FITS. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island where she enjoys beach life. Mandy also hosts the Murdaugh Murders podcast. Want to contact Mandy? Send your tips to mandy@fitsnews.com.
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