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When news broke earlier this month that former Colleton County, South Carolina clerk of court Becky Hill was facing multiple charges in connection with an ongoing investigation into allegations of jury tampering in the trial of Alex Murdaugh two years ago, one of the first people we wanted to hear from was Valerie Bauerlein.
As I noted the last time she graced our studios, Bauerlein penned “the indispensable narrative of this story – a tale which plumbs the depths of generational criminality and the increasingly specious battle to hold it accountable.” Her book, ‘The Devil At His Elbow,’ is a New York Times bestseller scheduled for paperback release early next week (June 3, 2025).
Luckily for us, Bauerlein agreed to sit down with us and assess the impact of Hill’s legal troubles – which curiously do not involve allegations that she tampered with (or worse, rigged) the internationally watched double homicide trial of convicted killer Alex Murdaugh in early 2023.
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Bauerlein agreed Murdaugh’s odds at securing a new trial are vastly improved in the light of Hill’s arrest, but also noted his lead lawyer – Dick Harpootlian – was motivated to be as bullish as possible regarding those odds.
“Dick is very bullish on what he thinks is going to happen, as long as it favors what he wants to happen,” Bauerlein said. “(But) the odds of a new trial on the homicides are so much higher than a year ago, or even in the wake of the evidentiary hearing.”
As for Murdaugh himself, Bauerlein noted “he will be in prison, in state prison, for the rest of his natural life.”
“So we do have a first inning, regardless of how many different iterations of the Alex Murdaugh story we see in the coming years, we do have a first inning, and he will never be free of state custody, in my view,” she said.
While Bauerlein addressed the latest developments in the Murdaugh saga, much of our conversation centered around her incredible work on the story of Scott Spivey – a North Carolina insurance adjuster who was gunned down in the fall of 2023 on a rural road in Horry County, S.C.
“Horry County did a very, in my view, incomplete, uncurious, almost certainly corrupt investigation,” Bauerlein noted.
To view the full interview with Bauerlein, click here.
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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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