Before the Fall: The Murdaugh Solicitor files - A scandalous case of a pedophile preacher
Convicted murderer and confessed fraudster Richard “Alex” Murdaugh brought about the fall of a century-old legal and political dynasty and forever changed his family’s legacy. Now, millions around the world will forever associate the Murdaugh name with corruption, betrayal, fraud and even bloodshed. But the Randolph Murdaugh trilogy – three generations of attorneys all sharing the same name – left behind a complicated legacy. For 85-plus years in South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit, the Murdaughs were the prosecutors, the pursuers of justice, and in their heyday these solicitors helped convict and punish some of the most wicked criminals in the Palmetto State. This is the first of a historical series focusing on these fascinating criminal cases.
WALTERBORO, SC, 1927 – The small-town Southern preacher fasted and prayed, and then released himself to temptation. But the sins of the flesh have a way of coming back to indict you.
The baby in question ― a damning, tell-tale piece of evidence ― crawled around the wooden planks of the courtroom as the young girl pointed at her accuser, the pastor and founder of her church. The crowd gasped, the jury astounded. The newspapers of the day described the trial as “one of the most interesting and sensational ever held in Colleton County,”
The prosecutor was 14th Circuit Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh Sr. (Feb. 28, 1887 – July 19, 1940), a tough historical figure who practiced law in a tough time: in the midst of the “Great War” and Great Depression. Murdaugh Sr., who founded his family law firm and sparked the Murdaugh legal and political dynasty, became known as a fierce and fearless prosecutor, pursuing criminal charges against dangerous violent criminals and powerful white-collar crooks alike.
Murdaugh Sr. made headlines statewide for going toe-to-toe with and prosecuting crooked Depression-era bankers, corrupt government officials, shady sheriffs and other rogue lawmen, and once even a former South Carolina governor.
But one of his most sensational and scandalous criminal cases involved an allegedly hot-blooded, Holiness preacher charged with the statutory rape and impregnation of a teenage girl in his country church congregation in 1927.
A Colleton County church is born. Rev. Lloyd M. Bishop emerges.
The man who would become known as Rev. Lloyd M. Bishop had a crisis of faith. He could not get along with other members of his denomination, described as Pentecostal Holiness, so he and a co-worker decided to start their own branch. The two met one eventful day, presumably at a nearby creek, baptized each other, and founded a new church in rural Colleton County to teach and preach what they considered the true Holiness doctrine.
One by one, curious folks, tired of the same-old religion, flocked to this new church. They likely convened at member’s homes, or under shady brush arbors, as was the custom of the day. Soon the new preacher took a young woman from the congregation under his wing and appointed her his assistant, and this arrangement quickly turned into a cozy marriage.
But as the church continued to grow and attract new followers, it was clear this growing congregation needed a brick-and-mortar place to worship. One of the devoted followers, who lived near the village of Cottageville, was a carpenter and volunteered to erect a chapel for the Rev. Bishop near the carpenter’s home.
But the carpenter had a comely teenage daughter.
Temptation turns to indignation, indictment
During the construction of the church, the carpenter and the preacher spent much time together, and “There sprang up great intimacy between the two families, and much visiting resulted,” the newspapers of the time later reported.
According to later court testimony, Bishop “won the confidence” of the girl, who was between the ages of 13 and 14. He appointed her as one of his special assistants, as he had once done with the young woman he later married, and even "licensed" the teenager to preach. Much time was spent together in late-night prayer sessions, after Sunday dinner on the grounds and down by the baptism creek.
According to the indictments and the prosecution’s claims at trial, an “illicit relationship” developed between the preacher and the young teen. The girl later testified that Bishop told her he “fasted and prayed” before embarking on the affair, and “God had sanctioned the union.”
But the 14th Judicial Circuit did not, and neither did Solicitor Murdaugh.
And hidden sins soon find a way into the light, and to this underaged girl a child was born ― but her family did not believe this was an immaculate conception.
Criminal trial brings packed house, courtroom drama
Not long after the child’s birth, which set the village gossips talking and outraged and embarrassed the young mother’s family, the Reverend was indicted on charges of statutory criminal sexual assault. The stage was set for a scandalous courtroom drama that made the headlines of history around the Palmetto State.
The trial date was set for June 15, 1927, before Judge J. Henry Johnston in Walterboro, and it would prove to be one of Solicitor Murdaugh’s most scandalous cases ever. Murdaugh and Herber R. Padgett, once political rivals, represented the state, while Ivy A. Smoak, a probate judge, was the appointed counsel for the accused preacher.
In an age before television and true crime podcasts, newspapers reported that the public held intense interest in this case, following it from start to finish. “The entire courthouse was occupied… ,” noted a reporter for The Watchman and Southron, adding “standing room was at a premium.”
Bishop’s defense attorney quickly came out of the gate with a couple of surprise plot twists — claims that the girl was, in fact, of legal age when the sins of the flesh occurred, followed by allegations that another man, not the preacher, was the guilty party!
The defense claimed the girl — described as the “prosecutrix” in one newspaper — was older than 16, the legal age of consent, when she became pregnant. Bishop's attorney also suggested that a male relative of the girl was the real father — thus it was more convenient to fix the blame on the preacher rather than the victim’s family member.
But this strategy proved ineffective. For lo and behold, the young lady brought the ultimate piece of evidence with her to the courthouse — her bouncing baby boy! According to the Watchman and Southern newspaper of Sumter, the boy, described as “the innocent cause of the legal battle,” played on the courtroom floor while testimony raged for two days. Even as Rev. Bishop’s public defender maintained his client’s innocence, the jury was eyeballing the baby, searching hard for any physical resemblance between the accused and the evidentiary infant.
To compound matters for the allegedly hot-blooded Holiness preacher, his wife and previous assistant sat by his side during the trial and engaged in frequent, heated conferences in her husband’s ear as more and more details of the unlawful tryst came to light, the papers mentioned.
Court began on a Monday, and after a two-day trial, closing arguments were heard and the case was presented to the jury.
What would become of this accused apostle?
Just as a Colleton County jury decided Alex Murdaugh’s fate during his 2023 double murder trial, a jury of peers was set to judge the wayward pastor.
The Colleton jury found the Rev. Bishop guilty of statutory criminal assault.
The pastor’s public defender immediately made a motion for a new trial as his convicted client was sent straight away to the Colleton County jail in Walterboro to await sentencing.
On Thursday of that week, Judge Johnston denied the motion for a new trial and sentenced Bishop to a term in the state penitentiary of 2.5 to 5 years.
The young victim and her child slipped quietly away from the public eye, but that did not appear to be the end of Bishop’s career as a religious leader. According to area newspaper archives, he resumed preaching at the helm of his church after serving less than three years of that prison sentence.
An April 1930 edition of The (Walterboro) Press and Standard advertised that Rev. Bishop was holding 8 p.m. services in the Holiness church every night from Wednesday to Sunday, and as a bonus he even offered “prison lectures” on “sin and crime.”
Want to hear more on this story? Check out Episode 5 of The Wicked South Podcast, by Michael DeWitt Jr., Seton Tucker and Matt Harris. To listen click here: Randolph Murdaugh Sr & The Case of The Pedophile Preacher.
Follow Michael DeWitt's reporting as The Hampton County Guardian/Greenville News and the USA Today Network continue to follow cases related to the Murdaugh crime saga. Follow DeWitt on Facebook and on Twitter at @mmdewittjr for the latest updates.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: The Murdaugh Solicitor Files: The 1927 Case of the Pedophile Preacher
