Alex Murdaugh’s accused shooter says he was ridden by prominent lawyer

WALTERBORO, SC – Don’t call him a hilltop hitman.

Just 24 hours after Curtis “Fast Eddie” Smith, 61, rushed into a Hampton County courtroom with wild eyes and tangled hair – for a hearing on the charges he was the drug dealer longtime Alex Murdaugh and attempted to shoot him in a bizarre assisted suicide plan – he was back home with his rescue dogs, looking like a different person and insisting he was innocent.

“I know what they’re trying to say about me and it’s not true,” Curtis told the Post in an interview on the porch Friday.

“It was the craziest situation I have ever been involved in. I was set up to be the fall guy. And those damn pictures of me in the newspaper! I was watching them this morning. They didn’t let me take a fucking shower!

Smith, who is both a distant cousin of Alex Murdaugh and a former client, is the latest person to be involved in a twisted Southern Gothic murder mystery that has captivated the world. It started on June 7, when the pretty wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, a prominent and powerful lawyer who knows everyone in town, were brutally gunned down in their hunting lodge in Islandton.

The murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh have not been resolved. Alex Murdaugh, who was for a time referred to as a “person of interest” in the murders, made headlines again on September 4 when he told police he was shot in the body. headed by someone he didn’t know on a rural road outside. Hampton and suffered a head injury.

Two days later, he resigned from his law firm, a business his family has run since 1910, amid reports he had embezzled millions. Murdaugh said he was addicted to opioids and was entering rehab.

According to his lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, Murdaugh confessed to them around September 13 that he had hired Smith to kill him – but the expected fatal blow didn’t end up grazing his head. He reportedly hatched the plan to get himself killed so his surviving son, Buster, could get a $ 10 million insurance policy. His attorneys have notified the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which is handling the case.

Murdaugh surrendered Thursday on charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report in the case. He was released on $ 20,000 bail and his lawyer, Dick Harpootlian, said he was on his way to out-of-state drug rehab.

Smith, who worked in the logging industry, was also arrested and charged with assisted suicide, highly aggravated assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. He was released on $ 20,000 bail.

But Smith told the Post he didn’t come to terms with Murdaugh in an assisted suicide attempt.

Smith said he was set up by Alex to make it look like he shot him.

“I got a call from Alex this Saturday afternoon to come to where he was and thought maybe it was to fix something,” Smith said, gesturing to a silver Chevy pickup. which he said was his work truck. “I had no idea what he wanted, I just went there.”

Smith said he then drove to the rural stretch of Old Salkehatchie Road and found Murdaugh in his car. He said Murdaugh got out of his car then brandishing a gun and waving it like he was about to shoot himself.

“I ran and we struggled for a minute together, me trying to get the gun away from him,” Smith said. “Then the gun went over his head and I was scared to die and I ran to my truck and took off. “

Smith said he took Murdaugh’s gun and threw it away. He didn’t say where.

“I ended up with the gun,” Smith said. “It was just plain stupid, just plain stupid.”

When asked if a bullet actually hit or grazed Alex’s head, Smith shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just got out of there.”

There were no visible marks or bandages on Murdaugh’s head during his bail hearing on Wednesday, although his lawyers said he may have suffered a minor skull fracture and minor brain hemorrhage.

Smith does not yet have legal representation and is hoping to find a lawyer “with a bone to choose” against the Murdaughs.

When asked if he shot Alex Murdaugh on the road or killed Maggie and Paul, Smith shook his head and said “no”.

“I never did anything,” he said.

“Yes [a car is] broke down, if things need to be improved the neighbors in this area sometimes need something to be done… if I can’t help you I’m not going to hurt you, ”Smith said. “I never hurt anyone. It is that simple. This is a bad deal. A very bad deal. I guess I was naive to get caught up in this damn thing too.

Harpootlian told reporters outside the courtroom on Friday that his client Alex Murdaugh had suffered from an opioid addiction for 20 years which left him broke and that Smith had been Alex’s drug dealer for more. of a decade.

Smith shook his head “no” when asked by The Post if he was Alex’s drug dealer or if he was a drug user himself. He leaned in, pointing to a Post reporter in his yard and introducing his pets, including cats named Jay Z and Biggie and a pit bull mix named Dixie.

The incident with Smith is one more in a series of “evasions and misinformation in this case that are being used to obscure what really happened to Maggie and Paul,” said local defense attorney Mark Tinsley. at the Post. (Tinsley depicts the parents of a 19-year-old girl who was killed in a boating accident in 2019 while Paul, then 19, was driving.)

A Hampton resident who has known the Murdaughs for over 30 years said she and others in the area did not understand why SLED announced, immediately after the murders, that there was no “danger to the public “.

She and several other locals told the Post they were puzzled as to why two of Alex’s brothers went on “Good Morning America” ​​just two weeks later, asking for help finding the killer and offering a reward – when the cops initially said there was no danger to the public and never mentioned a suspect hunt.

“I bet they really regret saying that,” the woman said. She and others also pointed out that the murderer has still not been found and that many suspects Murdaugh was involved in the murder.

The woman, like a number of locals here interviewed by The Post, said she would only speak on condition of anonymity because she is afraid of the Murdaugh family, who have been a huge influence in this area for years. and still does.

Since the murders, SLED has opened several investigations involving the Murdaugh clan, in addition to the double murder investigation and charges that were already pending in the 2019 boat crash. (Since Paul’s death, the Murdaugh family have also faces civil charges in this case.)

SLED said last week it was opening an investigation into the mysterious death of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper, hours after the woman’s children filed a lawsuit involving a huge insurance payment linked to the death of the woman.

Gloria Satterfield, 57, died in February 2018 after “a trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh house, where she had worked for over 20 years and was treated as “a part of the Murdaugh family,” according to one. trial.

More than three years later, “the exact details of the fall remain unclear,” even for the governess’s sons and heirs, the Hampton County lawsuit said seeking unspecified damages. Murdaugh had secured a $ 500,000 settlement from his insurers in December 2018 for the Satterfield sons, but the two never got the money, according to court documents at the time.

In June, SLED opened an investigation into the death of Stephen Smith, a young gay man who was found dead on a rural road outside of Hampton on July 8, 2015. His skull was partially crushed, there was a hole in his forehead and shoulder. had been dislocated.

Smith’s mother Sandy and former Highway Patrol investigator Todd Proctor, who oversaw the Smith case, previously told the Post they believe Stephen may have been murdered – although the death was originally considered a hit-and-run accident – and that someone from the Murdaugh family may have been involved.

“These are all distractions to feed the media an even bigger circus of distractions,” Tinsley said. “A lot of people wonder why SLED is taking so long with the initial double murder investigation.”

SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby said on Friday the agency was still carrying out an ongoing “thorough” investigation into the Murdaugh murders. Alex Murdaugh could not be reached for comment on this story. Her surviving son, Buster, has been unreachable since the double murders.

Despite his current situation, “Fast Eddie” told The Post he didn’t hold it against Alex Murdaugh.

“I’ve never had a reason not to like him before,” Curtis said. “I understand he’s in fight or flight mode and he wanted me to be the heavyweight in the water so he could fly.”

However, Curtis said Murdaugh shouldn’t bother him any more.

“I wouldn’t advise him to try to trick me,” Smith said. “I strongly advise against it. “