Because God Said So

The House of Murdaugh | Part 1

Before Alex Murdaugh shot his wife and son at the family's South Carolina hunting estate, he spent decades building a lie so elaborate that almost no one saw it coming. In Part 1 of this two-part series, we go back to the beginning — not just to June 7, 2021, but to 1920, when the Murdaugh family first seized control of the criminal justice system in the South Carolina Lowcountry and didn't let go for 86 years. This episode covers the full family dynasty, the mechanics of Alex's $12 million fraud operation, his opioid addiction, the death of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, Paul Murdaugh's abuse of his girlfriend Morgan Doughty, the 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, and the civil lawsuit that put a ticking clock on everything. We end on the night of June 7, 2021 — when Maggie texted a friend that Alex sounded "fishy," drove to meet him anyway, and never came home. Part 2 drops next week and covers the investigation, the trial, the verdict, and the bombshell Supreme Court ruling from May 2026 that overturned everything. IN THIS EPISODE * The Murdaugh family's 86-year grip on the 14th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina — three generations of circuit solicitors, from 1920 to 2006 * The law firm PMPED and how it made its money ("the house that CSX built") * Who Alex Murdaugh was — his background, his family, his charisma, and what was running underneath all of it * Alex's opioid addiction: 30-60 pills a day, sourced from a drug-dealing distant cousin, costing an estimated $40,000-$60,000 per week at black market prices * The fraud in detail: the fake "Forge" account, the Laffitte bank scheme, 16+ years of stolen client settlements totaling at least $12 million across an estimated 30-50 victims * Gloria Satterfield — the Murdaugh family housekeeper who died after a fall at the Moselle estate in 2018, whose $4.3 million wrongful death settlement Alex stole entirely from her grieving sons * Morgan Doughty's account of Paul's abuse — the hotel incident, the 2017 Christmas truck crash, and how the Murdaugh family cleaned up after their son every single time * The February 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, 19 — the night Paul drove drunk with a BAC of 0.24, refused to let anyone else take the wheel, and walked away from the scene while Mallory's body was somewhere in the dark water * The civil lawsuit, Mark Tinsley's push for full financial disclosure, and the hearing that was scheduled for June 10, 2021 — three days after the murders * June 7, 2021: what Maggie's last text said, what Paul was doing at the kennels at 8:44 p.m., and what the phone data shows about the last minutes of their lives

The Last Shot | Lyle and Erik Menendez

Beverly Hills. August 20, 1989. José and Kitty Menendez are watching a James Bond movie in the den of their $13.5 million mansion. By the end of the night, they'll be shot a combined sixteen times by their own sons. This week on Murders & Minivans, we're going deep on one of the most complicated — and most misunderstood — cases in American true crime history. Lyle and Erik Menendez. The killings. The spending. The trial. The abuse claims. And the letter that sat undiscovered for over thirty years. We talk about who José and Kitty Menendez actually were — not the shorthand versions, but the full picture. A Cuban immigrant who built a genuine American success story and ran his household like a company. A woman who gave up her ambitions, survived her husband's affairs, and may have known something terrible was happening under her own roof. We walk through the night of the murders, the six months of spending that followed, the therapy session confession that unraveled everything, and two trials that reached completely different conclusions about the same set of facts. We get into the abuse claims — what exists, what doesn't, and why a letter written by a teenager to his cousin in 1988 changes the conversation. We talk about Roy Rossello, the Netflix series, and what thirty-five years in prison actually looks like. And we sit with the question this case has always demanded: can both things be true at the same time? Follow us on Instagram: @murdersandminivans

The Poisoner's Poison

Thallium is element 81. A heavy metal banned in the United States since 1972. Colorless, odorless, and tasteless in its soluble form. It mimics potassium so convincingly that your cells invite it in. It starts with nausea, fatigue, stomach pain — things that look like a hundred other conditions. Weeks later, the hair falls out in fistfuls. By then, the nervous system has already taken serious damage. The antidote is called Prussian blue. Doctors almost never think to use it, because they almost never think to test for thallium. That gap between exposure and diagnosis is exactly what makes it a weapon. In the fall of 2017, a woman named Brigida started feeling sick in her home in Dulzura, California. She went to doctor after doctor. She was told it was fibroids. Cancer. Lupus. An autoimmune disorder. One doctor told her she probably just had bad menstrual cramps and needed to relax. Her husband made her food. He went to appointments with her. He watched her lose her hair and told her she just didn't know how to cook. He had purchased thallium online, from an overseas supplier. Three times. This episode covers the full story of what thallium is and what it does to a human body, Brigida's case and the one doctor whose specific expertise saved her life, the 1994 poisoning of Chinese student Zhu Ling and the Usenet SOS that reached 1,500 researchers worldwide, and what happened when a state used the same logic as a kitchen. In this episode: * What thallium actually is, how it works inside a human body, and why it is almost never caught in time * Prussian blue: the antidote that sounds like a paint color, because it is one * Brigida's story: months of wrong diagnoses, progressive nerve damage, and the moment her mother drove her to the hospital because she couldn't breathe * Dr. Jeff Lapoint: the one ER physician in the right place with the right board certification * The search history that ended Race Uto's marriage and his freedom * Three separate poisonings. Three consecutive life sentences. * The detail about the breakfast that Brigida remembered at sentencing * Zhu Ling: the 1994 Beijing case, the Usenet SOS, the 1,500 responses, and the hospital that didn't act * The suspect with political connections whose case was closed in 1998 * Zhu Ling's death in December 2023, at age 50, with no one ever charged * Alexander Litvinenko and what it looks like when a state does this with polonium instead People mentioned: Brigida — survivor, special education teacher, Dulzura, California Race Uto — convicted of three counts of premeditated attempted murder, sentenced to three consecutive life terms Dr. Jeff Lapoint — board-certified toxicologist, emergency physician, Kaiser Permanente San Diego Zhu Ling — thallium poisoning victim, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 1994. Died December 22, 2023 Sun Wei — identified as the only person with documented access to thallium in Zhu Ling's case. Never charged Alexander Litvinenko — former FSB officer, poisoned with polonium-210 in London, November 2006 Marina Litvinenko — Alexander's wife, still seeking justice Sources: * Dateline NBC, "The Prussian Blue Mystery" (July 2019) * NavyTimes, Times of San Diego, East County Californian, San Diego ABC 10News * National Center for Biotechnology Information * American Chemical Society * Wikipedia: thallium poisoning, Zhu Ling poisoning case, poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko * European Court of Human Rights ruling on Litvinenko, 2021 Follow Murders & Minivans: Instagram: @murdersandminivans Leave a rating wherever you listen.

One-Way Ticket to Vietnam

This is the first episode in our new pod studio! Tali's mic was not co-operating until about 8:20 which is right about when the case starts ◡̈ A Harvard law professor. A bitter divorce. A dentist with a Ferrari and a god complex. Two Miami gang members. And a mother-in-law who, the day after her son was convicted of murder, booked a one-way flight to a country with no extradition treaty. This is the murder of Daniel Markel. Dan Markel was 41 years old, a tenured law professor at Florida State, a devoted father to two little boys, and one of the most respected criminal law scholars in the country. He spent his career writing about punishment, retribution, and what justice actually looks like. On July 18, 2014, he was shot twice in the head in his own garage by two Miami gang members who had driven up in a rented Toyota Prius and followed him home from the gym. It took eleven years, five convictions, and four separate trials to get there. His boys were toddlers when he died. They're teenagers now. Their mother changed their last names. This episode covers the full story: the Adelson family, the custody war, the chain of connections that linked a periodontist with a Ferrari to a Latin Kings hitman, and the woman in the middle who held it all together. It also covers what happened to the boys, what Ruth and Phil Markel have been fighting for ever since, and why the prosecutor told reporters to "stay tuned." In this episode: * Who Dan Markel was and why his career in criminal law philosophy makes this story hit differently * The Adelson family: Donna, Harvey, Charlie, and what "enmeshed" actually looks like in practice * The divorce, the custody battle, and the relocation request a judge denied * The motion Dan filed in 2014 to restrict Donna's unsupervised access to his sons * July 18, 2014: what happened, and the 911 dispatch error that has stuck with everyone who covered this case * How investigators built the chain: SunPass records, cell data, a phone call made immediately after the shooting * Katherine Magbanua: the woman who connected the Adelsons to the trigger man * Luis Rivera's confession and the words he remembered: "the lady wants her two kids back" * Four trials, two mistrials, one plea deal, five convictions * Charlie Adelson on the stand in his own defense and why the jury didn't buy it * Donna at Miami International Airport with one-way tickets to Hanoi * Wendi: what we know, what she's said under immunity, and why she hasn't been charged * The Markel Act: Florida legislation passed because of this case * Ruth and Phil Markel, eleven years of trials, and two grandsons who are only now starting to ask about their father People mentioned: Dan Markel — victim, law professor, FSU College of Law Wendi Adelson — Dan's ex-wife, named unindicted co-conspirator, not charged Charlie Adelson — Wendi's brother, convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation, sentenced to life plus 30 years Donna Adelson — Wendi's mother, convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation, sentenced to life in prison Harvey Adelson — Wendi's father, named unindicted co-conspirator, not charged Katherine Magbanua — convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation, sentenced to life plus two consecutive 30-year terms Sigfredo Garcia — convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life without parole Luis Rivera — pled guilty to second-degree murder, sentenced to 19 years Ruth and Phil Markel — Dan's parents, advocates for grandparent visitation rights Georgia Cappleman — lead prosecutor

Because God Said So

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints operated in plain sight for decades — a polygamist cult running across the American Southwest, into rural Texas, and up into the mountains of southeastern British Columbia. What they built wasn't a church. It was a supply chain for the sexual exploitation of children, protected by theology, enforced by economics, and ignored by governments for half a century. This episode covers the full history: the 1953 Short Creek raid that backfired and gave the FLDS fifty years of immunity, Rulon Jeffs and the doctrine of absolute obedience, Warren Jeffs' rise to power and the marriages he arranged for girls as young as twelve and thirteen, the 2008 Texas raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and the Canadian arm of the operation in Bountiful, B.C. — where girls were driven across the US border and handed to Warren Jeffs while investigators spent twenty years trying to figure out if they were even allowed to charge anyone. It also covers the people who got out. And what they did after. In this episode: * What the FLDS actually is and why it has nothing to do with modern Mormonism * The 1953 Short Creek raid and why it gave the FLDS fifty years of political cover * Rulon Jeffs, the "One Man" doctrine, and how the UEP trust trapped members financially * Warren Jeffs: how he consolidated power, performed marriages from a fugitive SUV, and ran his church from a Texas prison cell * The "Lost Boys," the "seed bearer" doctrine, and the Law of Placing * Elissa Wall's testimony and why she chose to be named * The 2008 YFZ Ranch raid... 439 children removed, triggered by a fake call * Bountiful, B.C.: Winston Blackmore, James Oler, and the human trafficking operation four hours south of Calgary * The constitutional fight over Canada's anti-polygamy law — and what happened when it finally moved to trial * Samuel Bateman: a ten-year-old bride and three children found locked in a trailer * The women who got out — and what they built after Sources & further reading: * Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall * Escape by Carolyn Jessop * The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser * Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs * Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs * Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer * FBI affidavits re: Samuel Bateman (filed December 2022) * BC Supreme Court Reference re: Section 293, Criminal Code (2011) * Southern Poverty Law Center: FLDS designation Follow Murders & Minivans: Instagram: @murdersandminivans Wherever you listen, leave a rating please! it genuinely helps more than you know