Buster Murdaugh biography: 13 things about Hampton, South Carolina man

Richard “Buster” Alexander Murdaugh Jr. is an American man raised in Hampton, Hampton County, South Carolina, United States. After graduating from Wade Hampton High School in Wade Hampton, Greenville County, South Carolina, he went to the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina but did not graduate there.

Murdaugh is one of the two sons of Richard “Alex” Alexander Murdaugh and Margaret “Maggie” Kennedy Branstetter Murdaugh. The family owns beach house on Edisto Island in Charleston County, South Carolina and hunting lodge in Islandton, Colleton County, South Carolina.

Alex is Randolph Murdaugh III and Elizabeth Alexander Murdaugh‘s son. Maggie is Terry Lee Branstetter and Kennedy Hubbard Branstetter‘s daughter.

Buster was 3 years older than his brother Paul Terry Murdaugh. Here are 13 more things about Buster:

1. On July 8, 2015, his openly gay friend Stephen N. Smith was found dead on Sandy Run Road in Hampton County, 15 miles from his family’s hunting lodge in Islandton. In August 2015, authorities received a tip about him and Smith possible being in a relationship. When authorities reopened the case in June 2021, they were never able to formally tie him to the case.
2. On February 23, 2019, Paul used his identification card to buy alcohol. On February 24, 2019, Paul was allegedly intoxicated while driving their parents’ boat with Mallory Beach, Anthony Cook, Connor Cook and Miley Altman on board. The boat crashed into a bridge that led to the death of Beach, whose body was found on March 3, 2019.
3. In April 2019, he was kicked out of the University of South Carolina School of Law for plagiarism.
4. On June 7, 2021, he was in his girlfriend Brooklynn White‘s house in Rock Hill, York County, South Carolina when his father called him and told him his mother and Paul were fatally shot in their family hunting lodge in Islandton.
5. On June 11, 2021, White accompanied him at the joint funerals of Paul and their mother in Hampton.
6. In July 2021, White bought a condominium on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina for $180,000. She moved there with him and their two dogs, a golden retriever and a black Labrador.
7. On October 24, 2021, he had a phone conversation with his father, who was incarcerated at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia. He described to his father an article written about him after he went to a casino.
8. In a phone call on November 30, 2021, his incarcerated father repeatedly pushed him to contact William Hubbard, the new University of South Carolina School of Law dean, so that he could be readmitted before the first day of class in January 2022.
9. In a phone call on December 1, 2021, his incarcerated father told him about how his father and other inmates bet on National Football League games.
10. On January 23, 2023, the double murder trial against his father started at Colleton County Courthouse. He attended the trial everyday often with White.
11. On February 20, 2023, he was caught on camera biting on his middle finger while Mark Tinsley, the attorney for Beach’s family, was giving evidence in court. He allegedly kicked over a water bottle in anger when security asked him to move out of the front row behind his father.
12. On February 21, 2023, he took the stand in the murder trial against his father. He testified that he was aware of his father’s drug addiction although Paul and their mother knew more about it.
13. He was 27 years old when FOX Nation released on August 31, 2023 “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh”, a three-part docuseries featuring Martha MacCallum‘s interview with him.

(This is a developing story. More details will be added.)