Murdaugh auction items include ‘alibi couch,’ Maggie’s bike

It was a haul of Murdaugh memorabilia.

Hundreds of curious oglers flocked to a warehouse in Georgia on Thursday for the auction of items belonging to the infamous Murdaugh family – including one man who walked away with the infamous “alibi couch.”

The Thursday afternoon auction overseen by Liberty Auctions in Pembroke included dozens of items from the 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Colleton County, SC, where disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh gunned down his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in June 2021.

Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences earlier this month for the murders. He is also awaiting trial for a slew of financial crimes. 

One of the big ticket items at the auction was the brown leather couch set, dubbed the “alibi couch” because onlookers suspect it is the family room sectional Murdaugh claimed on the stand to have been sleeping on when his loved ones were killed.

Phillip Jennings III paid $36,000 for the couch, CourtTV reported.

“I bought it because I needed it,” Jennings told the outlet Thursday night.

The happy buyer said the couch was “absolutely comfortable,” and anticipated that many guests would want to “take naps” on the famous piece of furniture.

Jennings, who owns Broomsedge Rod & Gun lodge outside of Savannah, said he also picked up several beds as well as “tackle boxes” and “duck decoys” that belonged to Murdaugh.

“The couches certainly were the highlight of the night,” he boasted.

Jennings said it “didn’t feel strange at all” owning items linked to the grisly Murdaugh saga, though he acknowledged that it was “a very sad story.”

In addition to the couches, other Murdaugh items included mounted long horns which sold for $10,000 and lamps adorned with tortoise shells that went for $800.

Eagle-eyed bidders were also quick to notice camouflage hunting gear, shotgun shells, and rifle scopes belonging to the now-convicted killer.

Eric Craig told the Daily Mail he spent over $3,000 on various Murdaugh items, including monogrammed glasses, one of Paul Murdaugh’s wallets, and a bike that belonged to Maggie Murdaugh.

He said he plans to display the bike in a storefront, because “it will serve its purpose best where people can look at it instead of it going to somebody’s backyard.”

Some of the offerings were especially eerie: In addition to a decorative skull, WYFF4 published images of a framed copy of the anonymous poem “The Man in the Glass,” which counsels the reader to be honest in order to maintain their pride.

It is not known if the item was sold.

In the run-up to the event, Liberty Auction’s team assured various outlets that they were handling the high-profile items like any other estate.

“This is just our job. We clean up people’s estates,” Lori Mattingly, one of the owners of the family-run business, told WTOC. 

“We’ve done it for many years. I’m trying to keep things as normal as possible. We’re treating their items as special as anyone else’s items.”

Mattingly also shrugged off  some of the mystique surrounding the wealthy family’s belongings.

“[The Murdaughs’] things are not any better or nicer than any other things that we pick up from other people’s homes,” she told CNN. 

“We go into a lot of very nice expensive homes… And we’ve had much nicer things than theirs, but their things are nice.”

The Moselle property was in Maggie Murdaugh’s name at the time of her death. After initially being listed last year, the estate was sold this month for $3.9 million, FOX Carolina reported.

The new owners, James Ayer and Jeffrey Godley, decided to empty the house after their purchase, the Daily Mail said. 

According to the outlet, proceeds from both the sale of the home and the auction will go to creditors with claims against the family, relatives of Mallory Beach and other passengers from Paul Murdaugh’s fatal 2019 boat crash, Murdaugh’s legal fees, and surviving son Buster Murdaugh, among others.

Meanwhile, Alex Murdaugh has traded his cushy digs for Kirkland Correctional Institution, where he is reportedly being held in maximum security. He is appealing both murder convictions.

Buster, 26, has decamped to his girlfriend’s Hilton Head condo.