Swamp Kings

The stranger-than-fiction story of the now-notorious Lowcountry clan, in all its Southern Gothic intensity—by an author with unparalleled access to and knowledge of the players, the history, and the place. The most famous man in South Carolina lives in prison. He stands convicted of a staggering amount of wrongdoing—more than 100 crimes and counting. Once a high-flying, smooth-talking, pedigreed Southern lawyer, Alex Murdaugh is now disbarred and disgraced. For more than a decade, prosecutors asserted that Alex was secretly a fraud, a thief, a drug trafficker, and an all-around phony. On the night of June 7, 2021, they claimed, he also became a killer, shooting dead his wife and son in a desperate bid to escape accountability. The many crimes of Alex Murdaugh, exposed piecemeal over the last two years, have appalled the general public. Yet his implosion—the spectacular manner in which he has turned his vaunted family name to mud—has also proved mesmerizing. With every revelation, Alex Murdaugh has been shown to be a man without bottom, though he insists he never harmed his family. Remarkably, all of his misdeeds have precedent. In Swamp Kings, Jason Ryan reveals Alex’s evil actions are only the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to the Murdaugh family of Hampton County, history has a way of repeating itself. For every alleged, headline-grabbing crime associated with Alex Murdaugh, mirror-image incidents have played out within his family’s past, including parallel instances of fraud, theft, illicit trafficking of babies and booze, calamitous boat crashes, and even alleged murder. There were some crimes committed by Alex’s kin that even he would not dare mimic. Covering a century of depravity in an impoverished and isolated stretch of the Deep South, Swamp Kings weaves together the jaw-dropping narratives of generations of Murdaughs before culminating in the telling of a murder trial for the ages. Page after page the family’s legacy is laid bare as a spotlight is finally trained on the Murdaugh men who have long lorded over the South Carolina Lowcountry.

For centuries, the sunny Kalamar Forest and the dismal swamps to its west lived in peace. But as Pirosha, King of Kalamar, approaches his nineteenth year, trouble consumes his realm. Vanishings and rebellions are reported. Word of ravenous wolves reaches his ear. And rumors begin to spread that he is not sovereign, that the true king of both the forest and the swamp is about to reveal himself. Volume 3 of Enchanted Forest.

Anyone who has lived near New Haven, Connecticut, in the past 40-plus years has surely heard of Toad’s Place. With a capacity of 750, Toad’s has served as the perfect spot for musicians who prefer smaller venues. U2 played one of their first US concerts there, on their Boy tour. In 1978, Bruce Springsteen was in New Haven and arrived at Toad’s unannounced, and got up and played. The surprises kept coming and the club was attracting big names, as well as up-and-comers. In 1989, the Rolling Stones played a surprise show on a Saturday night, giving 700 fans the night of their dreams. Nothing could have been better—the Rolling Stones in downtown New Haven was unimaginable! That is only a taste of the stories that are uncovered in this book. Randall Beach and Toad’s owner Brian Phelps recall the legendary shows and behind-the-scenes stories.

About the Book Names examines an alternate explanation for the sudden disappearance of the Long Warrior and concomitant sudden appearance of King Thomas Paine who nobody knew anything about before 1786. It also explores the unusual education of Billy Bowlegs II and his sister. Dr. William Simmons saw them at Horatio Dexter’s place and mentioned them being cared for at his home. Edward Wanton, the clerk at the Picolata Indian Store kept meticulous records and names of the Alachua Chiefs with the amount of debt they owed Panton, Leslie and Company. Sitarky, the second in command under Billy Bowlegs II may have been the son-in-law of Oconee King Thomas Paine. This different perspective on where Oconee King Thomas Paine may have come from stresses the value of being open to new information and paradigms. Many hold the perspective that history is finished with nothing more to be added. The author seeks to inspire people to be willing to entertain new ideas with fresh looks at old data. About the Author H. Stephen Hale, PhD was the first anthropologist to do archaeology among the Kuna in the Comarca de San Blas in Panama. While there he helped transcribe Kammu (flute) music, pictographic books, and study midden (refuse mound) formation. Hale studied Nahuatl in Mexico while mapping Totonac temple sites. He also translated for Kuna Natives of Panama studying Tenrikyo in Japan. Hale presently serves on a prescribed fire burn team for the Florida Park Service and a specialist for the removal of invasive, non-native plants from park properties. He is a trained First Aid Responder. Hale continues to support many of his Kuna friends in Panama and maintains friendships with people he met in Tenrikyo, Japan.