True Crime

Why the avid attention to the Alex Murdaugh case—which appears to get more press than either the subpoenas of the January 6 special prosecutor or the findings of the special grand jury called by district attorney Fani Willis in Fulton County? TRUE CRIME is the rubric under which the case would be classified and it’s almost refreshing to have a tale that delivers nothing other than pure evil. Even so this is not Leopold and Loeb. Its motives are not ulterior. CNN preempted regular programming to televise the defendants tear-filled testimony filled with details of life in the Murdaugh kennel--when a dog grabbed a chicken by the neck. The crime as described is horrific but on a scale of one to ten doesn't compete with genocide at the Topps supermarket in Buffalo. Murdaugh was a well-to-do gentleman farmer and personal injury lawyer who was accused of embezzeling his own law firm. He's not a particularly appealing individual but one doesn’t find oneself rooting for or against him. Murder is naturally unjust but the case is so much a product of its milieu that it illuminates literally nothing then the shadowy life of a once powerful southern aristocrat on the verge of losing everything.

read "Crime and Punishment at 150" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Sympathy For the Devil" by The Rolling Stones