Alex Murdaugh: Researchers Have a Name for This Type of Killer

The trial proved guilt. It never explained how. James Lasdun's The Family Man does what no other Murdaugh book has attempted — it uses decades of criminal psychology research to build a framework for understanding how Alex crossed the line from liar and thief to the killer of his own wife and son.

The book places Alex alongside documented family annihilators. Jean-Claude Romand faked a medical career for eighteen years and killed his entire family when exposure loomed. Researchers classify this type as "anomic" — men whose identities are so fused with their family's outward success that when the success collapses, the people become expendable. Every documented case shares the same detail: neighbors and friends who described the killer as a devoted family man.

The book also explores whether the murders were planned or spontaneous — and argues the research says both can be true in the same person. Planning and impulsivity appear on the same psychopathy checklist.

And it confronts the most uncomfortable observation anyone has made about Alex's behavior that night: that his grief over finding the bodies may have been as real as the deception surrounding it. That both existed at the same time.

Part 3 of three. The psychology is documented. The pattern is real. And it was there the whole time.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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