Murder and mystery in the south: how the Murdaugh trial gripped America

Everyone knew they were crooked,' one local said of Alex Murdaugh's powerful family, now known nationally for a series of deaths in their orbit

There was a hush in the courtroom when Judge Clifton Newman confronted Alex Murdaugh with the ghosts of his dead wife and son, whom the South Carolina lawyer had just been convicted of brutally murdering in a trial that has gripped America.

Murdaugh, the quietly spoken judge suggested, would be visited by their presence as he tried to sleep. Murdaugh, who continues to protest his innocence, nonetheless accepted the judge's words.