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A Midlands, South Carolina man stands accused of organizing a murder-for-hire plot against his brother after a civil court case went against him earlier this year.
Anthony McDow, 63, of Elgin, S.C., is currently incarcerated at the Cobb County detention center in northwest Atlanta. He is facing a felony theft charge in Georgia, but a warrant was issued for his arrest late last week in Richland County after prosecutors in the office of S.C. fifth circuit solicitor Byron Gipson successfully lobbied to have his bond revoked on a 2022 charge in South Carolina.
More charges could be coming, too…
According to a motion to revoke McDow’s bond filed last Wednesday (May 21, 2025), he was arrested in April 2022 and charged with first degree assault and battery after he allegedly “pistol whipped his brother and roommate,” Alan McDowell of Kershaw County, S.C. during an argument at the home where the brothers were both residing. This incident was reportedly “witnessed by the victim’s two children, who were ages five and four years old at the time.”
McDow is also alleged to have fired his weapon at McDowell during the argument.
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Magistrate Rita Metts set a $10,000 bond for McDow on the assault charge, conditions of which included him not leaving the state of South Carolina, not possessing firearms and not harassing the victim (i.e. his brother).
How did he do on those three counts?
Not well, according to prosecutors. Per the fifth circuit’s motion (.pdf), McDow failed spectacularly on all fronts – including the aforementioned murder-for-hire allegation.
Last Monday (May 19, 2025), McDow’s wife reached out to his brother with a shocking story – one which prompted an emergency bond revocation hearing late last week. According to her, McDow paid an unnamed, would-be assassin $10,000 to kill his brother last month. In fact, this alleged murder-for-hire was supposed to have taken place following a civil court hearing on April 8, 2025 involving the warring brothers – a hearing which saw McDowell prevail, thus entitling him to financial compensation from his brother.
According to prosecutors, McDow was not about to let that happen – hence the decision to hire the hitman.
“(The assassin) was supposed to blow McDowell’s head off outside the courtroom,” a source familiar with the alleged plot told FITSNews.
Luckily for McDowell, the unnamed assassin “did not perform the killing, pocketing the $10,000 instead,” per prosecutors.
McDow actually filed a police report with Richland County last week accusing the unnamed assassin of stealing the $10,000 from him and “threatening his and his family’s life.” As a result of these threats, he told police he was “moving down to Atlanta” to protect himself and his family.
In addition to leaving the state in violation of the conditions of his bond, McDow also posed for a photo with a firearm in a text message forwarded to his brother.
“I laugh and I joke but I do not play,” McDow wrote in the message, dated May 9, 2025.
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McDow has publicly challenged his brother’s narrative on multiple occasions via social media, including a lengthy post published last fall.
In that post, dated September 13, 2024, McDow claimed he tried to assist his brother by giving him a place to live and helping him find work only to discover McDowell was “dealing drugs” out of his house and bringing “heroin addicted meth head females” to their shared residence.
As for the altercation which led to his 2022 arrest, McDow claimed McDowell “started threatening me and punched me (in) my face even though I had a gun in my hand.”
“I hit him with the pistol and the gun went off,” McDow asserted.
Despite proving that McDow had violated multiple conditions of his bond – and therefore posed “an unreasonable risk of danger to the community, and specifically, the victim in this case” – getting his bond revoked was reportedly no easy task. According to sources familiar with the case, prosecutors had difficulty getting S.C. circuit court judge Heath Taylor to take action due to the fact McDow is represented by powerful S.C. minority leader Todd Rutherford.
Rutherford is one of many powerful lawyer-legislators who wield disproportionate influence over the Palmetto State’s judicial branch – which as FITSNews has repeatedly noted has become an effective annex of the all-powerful legislature.
Eventually, Taylor granted prosecutors’ motion to revoke McDow’s bond – and issued a bench warrant for his arrest last Friday (May 23, 2025). Unfortunately, sources familiar with the situation say Richland County’s clerk of court was not in the office that day, and that “no backup clerk was working (Friday) either.”
So much for an “emergency” order, right?
FITSNews is digging into the details of this case. Stay tuned for additional coverage based on what we are able to uncover.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
I am curious about your concern this was not done fast enough. According to the public index the motion was filed the afternoon of the 21st and granted 48 hours later. That is a pretty quick response, but also I imagine we do not want judges just doing what they are told by the State without any consideration. So this all seems pretty reasonable.
I know you think the State should have unlimited power to jail people without due process, but have you thought through the consequences of that position?