The portrait of Buster Murdaugh Jr.

In a series of pre-trial hearings since the July double murder indictment of Alex Murdaugh, a sign of the power the disgraced former attorney’s family once wielded in this corner of South Carolina hung conspicuously in the back of the courtroom.

As Murdaugh, restrained in shackles, was escorted into the courtroom and to the defendant’s table by State Law Enforcement Division agents, an oil portrait of his grandfather – legendary longtime 14th Circuit Solicitor Buster Murdaugh Jr. – looked on from the back of the Colleton County Courthouse.