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America, it would appear, is not done with the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ crime and corruption saga. On the heels of successful documentaries from Netflix, HBO Max and Investigation Discovery, Fox Nation is preparing to roll out its own treatment of this Southern Gothic tragedy.
Fox Nation launched in November 2018 as an internet-based streaming service. It relied heavily on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for content prior to his departure from the network earlier this year.
The Fox offering – a three-part documentary series entitled The Fall of the House of Murdaugh – will premiere on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, according to a news release from the network. It will be hosted by Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum.
“The three-part limited series features exclusive access to the family, friends and defense team of Alex Murdaugh,” the release noted, boasting of an “exclusive interview” with Buster Murdaugh, the surviving son of South Carolina’s most widely known convicted killer, Alex Murdaugh.
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Murdaugh reportedly received six figures for his participation in the documentary series – which some critics insist lifted its name from a book title announced over a year ago by reporter Michael DeWitt of the Hampton County Guardian. DeWitt’s title – which he also gave as a quote in a television interview – was used by ABC 20/20 producers as the title of their Murdaugh production last January.
In fact to clear up any confusion, DeWitt tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that “neither this book, the author, or Evening Post Books are affiliated with or participated in the upcoming Fox Nation documentary.”
Credit for the name of the documentary was quite the discussion item in the Palmetto State … with one seasoned South Carolina journalist insisting none of the Murdaugh chroniclers were plowing new titular ground.
“They all stole it from Edgar Allan Poe,” the journalist told me, referring to the American author’s macabre 1839 Gothic fiction story, The Fall of the House of Usher.
In fact, it was Buster Murdaugh’s interview for this documentary which appears to have been the focus of Alex Murdaugh’s lone S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) jailhouse call – which was exclusively released by this news outlet yesterday (July 10, 2023).
(Click to View)
“The Fall of the House of Murdaugh features a comprehensive look inside the case that many have tried to tackle since the day the difficult story unfolded,” Fox Nation president Jason Klarman said in a statement “Through a firsthand account from Buster Murdaugh and access to key players, including friends and family, this series puts forward several missing elements that have not been brought to light.”
In addition to Buster Murdaugh, Fox Nation interviewed Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin – Alex Murdaugh’s lead attorneys.
It also boasts of “intimate prison revelations from Alex himself.”
“These unique assets will take viewers behind the veil of the Murdaugh’s legal strategy as it happened in real time,” the release noted.
Joining Harpootlian and Griffin in front of Fox Nation’s cameras were S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson and Creighton Waters – the state’s lead prosecutor in Murdaugh’s double homicide trial in Walterboro, S.C. earlier this year. Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill will also be featured in the documentary series.
Hill will be releasing her own book on the saga, Behind The Doors Of Justice, on August 1, 2023.
Four months ago, Murdaugh was found guilty of the savage slayings of 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 on the border of Colleton and Hampton counties. S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to consecutive life sentences on those charges.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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2 comments
Very disappointing that Fox has seemingly grabbed the title of the documentary from Michael Dewitt. Tacky & tasteless-but that’s Fox these days. I hope that they can be stopped legally.
How can Alex be paid anything, let alone six figures, for crimes he was found guilty?