Alex Murdaugh Planned for His Own Grief to Be the Alibi

A new book on the Murdaugh case makes the most disturbing claim anyone has put in print about Alex Murdaugh: that he factored the genuineness of his own grief into the murder plan. That he understood his devastation would be so real, so obviously authentic, that it would function as proof of his innocence. And that he was right — the deputies reached forward to squeeze his shoulder in the patrol car because his pain didn't look performed. It wasn't. That was the point.

James Lasdun's The Family Man is built on years of original reporting — including two in-p...