The boat crash chatter … flooded our comments section as soon as our article was published. Everyone on that, freaking boat knows what happened and so does everyone who was friends with them on snapchat. Paul's gonna get away with this again … Hearing Paul Murdaugh was drunk and scaring everyone … Murdaugh. Murdaugh. Murdaugh. The name was everywhere, and the rumors connected were chilling: Paul Murdaugh had beaten a kid with a baseball bat; his daddy had everyone in law enforcement in his pocket; no one in this town ever wanted to cross the Murdaughs-it went on and on. The breadth and depth of the comments-the sordid run-ins people had had. the grievances they carried-it was like a volcano of anger and pain erupting after decades of dormancy. I could barely keep up with all the bitterness exploding from the screen. Who were these people, and why had I barely heard of them before? I had been living in and reporting on the Lowcountry for nearly three years at the time, and I couldn't believe I hadn't crossed paths with anyone mentioned. As I started digging, however, I quickly understood that the Murdaughs were silent power players, and they had been for generations.