ATLANTA — The Murdaugh murders case captivated the country. Once a prominent attorney, 55-year-old Alex Murdaugh will now spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul on June 7, 2021, in Colleton County, South Carolina.
An ex-dormmate who reached out to 11Alive’s Cody Alcorn, and asked to remain anonymous for security concerns, said this dormitory style building housed about 30 inmates at the time of his release this year.
The inmates are put into this unit for several reasons, including being former law enforcement, the notoriety of the inmate or case, their crimes involved children and inmates who helped prosecutors convict co-defendants.
“This guy, man, you would not believe the way they treat this guy," Murdaugh's ex-dormmate said in an interview with 11Alive.
It was during the first week that the inmates got a preview of how life behind bars for Murdaugh was going to go inside the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
“We have tablets in SCDC. It takes about 60 days to get a tablet -- to get your first tablet -- and they’re always used, “he explained. He said most are not in good shape, recounting his tablet had a “cigarette burn" in it.
He said on the first Monday of rec, which is the time when inmates can leave their cells, a SCDC employee walked over to Murdaugh and handed him a brand new tablet. He explained it was still in the box with the clear film on the cover.
“Nobody else ever got that,” he said.
Murdaugh’s tablet was recently taken away, according to the SCDC. On Aug. 30, the SCDC said in a news release he was convicted of two internal disciplinary charges – abuse of privileges and unauthorized use of an inmate’s PIN number.
The charges involved providing information to be delivered to the news media for an interview and using a fellow inmate’s PIN number to make a telephone call. These charges violate SCDC’s inmate interview policy and their policy against inmates sharing PIN numbers. They are not a violation of law, but a violation of SCDC policy.
When it comes to Murdaugh using the prison phone, his ex-dormmate said SCDC employees once again would give him special treatment.
He recalled right after Murdaugh got to the unit, he sent an email that was leaked and exposed his exact location which was published by a news outlet. Until that report was released, the statewide protective custody unit’s location wasn’t disclosed to the public for security reasons. When you look up an inmate who is in protective custody, it lists their location as "undisclosed" compared to inmates in general population, where it will list what facility they’re being housed inside.
“Because he (Murdaugh) did that, they (SCDC) took all our tablets down because they had to revamp the email system," he said.
He said during the 21-day period the tablets were down, they couldn’t communicate with anyone other than by three phones on a wall in a common area.
“What they were doing was letting him out after we got locked down to use those wall phones,” he said.
He said inmates were only allowed to use those wall phones during rec and again pointed out there were close to 30 guys in the unit and only three phones.
“So, by the time you got around to using one of those phones, it was time to lockdown again,” he explained.
Murdaugh’s ex-dormmate said no one would complain outside of one another because Murdaugh would use his money as leverage when it came to the canteen items. And the other reason is because you don’t want to be labeled a snitch while you’re locked up, he explained.
He said inmates are allowed to spend up to $150 a week on canteen items.
“Murdaugh would get his $150 every week. And there’s a lot of guys in there that are indigent, and they work hard, clean cells or do laundry to just get a bag of coffee,” he explained.
He said Murdaugh would buy things on canteen that everybody likes, including things like sodas, coffee, food and then would just hand them out -- which he said is how he kept everyone under him like a hierarchy.
“The guy (Murdaugh) gets up in the morning and plays chess for a couple hours with an inmate, then he has a guy who does his laundry. I mean everyone caters to him,” he said.
He said Murdaugh used his law background to help other inmates, but not for free.
“He does legal work for the guy who makes the wine in the dorm,” he explained.
The ex-dormmate said contraband, including drugs, are often brought into the facility by drones if not by SCDC’s own employees.
In July, a state grand jury handed up indictments against five SCDC officers for corruption and conspiring to smuggle drugs and cell phones into McCormick Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison.
“He (Murdaugh) is the money behind some of the contraband that comes in," his ex-dormmate explained to Cody Alcorn.
One of the most expensive contraband to get smuggled in is a cell phone. The going price on the outside is upwards of $2,000. He said by the time he was getting ready to be released, SCDC started cracking down on cell checks and contraband being brought into the facility.
He said many of the inmates including Murdaugh participate in drug use which is a big problem inside SCDC.
11Alive reached out to the South Carolina Department of Corrections on Friday ahead of the Labor Day weekend, but we have not yet received a response back at the time of this article being published.
As his own attorneys confirmed, Murdaugh allegedly had a long history of addiction to opioids, which they said led to him spending millions which was used as a reasoning behind his alleged financial fraud charges. His attorneys specifically mentioned Murdaugh suffers from an oxycodone addiction.
As far as the killing of Murdaugh’s wife and son, the ex-dormmate said Murdaugh never spoke about it. He never spoke about the trial. He said you never saw any of those tears the country witnessed during the trial.
He described Murdaugh’s demeanor like he was “running for fraternity president.”
“It was kind of like the guy on ‘Animal House’ you know, ‘Damn glad to meet you,'" he explained of Murdaugh, adding “He was just always overly happy. Nothing phased him."
The ex-dormmate said Murdaugh would get letters from women all over the country. He said they would also send pictures and he would show his dormmates the letters. His ex-dormmate recalled it by saying, “He thought it was hilarious.”
He said while Murdaugh might seemingly not be phased, he said the conditions inside the unit are "deplorable." He made it clear it’s not luxury, but he just couldn’t believe Murdaugh’s demeanor for someone who lost his wife and son who’s accused of doing it himself.
On March 2, 2023, a Colleton County jury found Murdaugh guilty on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Murdaugh is also facing a slew of financial fraud charges.
He’s serving his sentence in protective custody inside a maximum-security prison in South Carolina.
The ex-dormmate said he reached out after seeing the news this past week of Murdaugh being punished for violating two of SCDC’s policies, which he said was ironic from what he’s alleged Murdaugh has been allowed to do over the last several months.