Swamp Kings: The Story of the Murdaugh Family of South Carolina & a Century of Backwoods Power
Written by Jason Ryan
Narrated by Joe Hempel
()
About this audiobook
The stranger-than-fiction story of the now-notorious low country clan, in all its Southern Gothic intensity—by an author with unparalleled access to and knowledge of the players, the history, and the place.
The most famous man in South Carolina lives jailed in the state capital. He stands accused of a staggering amount of wrongdoing—ninety-nine crimes and counting. Once a high-flying, smooth-talking, pedigreed Southern lawyer, Alex Murdaugh is now disbarred and disgraced. For more than a decade, prosecutors claim, Alex was secretly a fraud, a thief, a drug dealer and an all-around phony. On the night of June 7, 2021, they claim, he also became a killer.
The many alleged crimes of Alex Murdaugh, revealed piecemeal over the last two years, have appalled the general public. Yet his implosion—the spectacular manner in which he has turned his vaunted family name to mud—has also proved mesmerizing. With every revelation, Murdaugh is further shown to be a man without bottom. Every new disclosure eclipses and redefines what’s already known, making this a gothic crime story for the ages.
Yet even more remarkable is the fact that none of this bad behavior is unprecedented. In Swamp Kings, Jason Ryan reveals it is only the tip of the iceberg, and that when it comes to this family, history has a way of repeating itself. For every alleged, headline-grabbing crime associated with Alex Murdaugh, mirror-image incidents have played out within his family’s past, including parallel instances of fraud, theft, trafficking, calamitous late-night boat crashes, and even murder.
Spanning a century of misdeeds and set amongst the swamps, pines, and poverty, Swamp Kings weaves together the jaw-dropping narratives of generations of Murdaughs, culminating in the trial that transfixed the nation and shining a bright light on the swamp kings of Hampton County—and their numerous victims—at last.
Jason Ryan
Jason Ryan lives in Charleston, South Carolina. His previous nonfiction books are Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs; Hell-Bent: One Man's Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob; and Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Air Derby and the Thrilling First Flights that Opened the Pacific.
Related to Swamp Kings
Related audiobooks
Dead Run: The Murder of a Lawman and the Greatest Manhunt of the Modern American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: the Story of a Town in Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Media Circus: A Look at Private Tragedy in the Public Eye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanished in Vermillion: The Real Story of South Dakota's Most Infamous Cold Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little, Crazy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Murder in Music City: Corruption, Scandal, and the Framing of an Innocent Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fatal Vows: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Private Diary of Lyle Menendez: In His Own Words Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Monster: The True Story of the Jeffrey Dahmer Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lindbergh Kidnapping Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hearts of Darkness: Serial Killers, The Behavioral Science Unit, and My Life as a Woman in the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Someone You Know: An Unforgettable Collection of Canadian True Crime Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Murder in Searcy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lou and JonBenét: A Legendary Lawman's Quest To Solve A Child Beauty Queen's Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders: The True Story of Serial Killer Peter Sutcliffe's Reign of Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing but the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Murder For You
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghosts That Haunt Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Gucci: A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Little Secret: The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stranger Beside Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab--The Body Farm--Where the Dead Do Tell Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Swamp Kings
0 ratings0 reviews