THE MYTH OF THE GOOD FAMILY
Town & Country US|December 2022 - January 2023
The scion of a powerful South Carolina legal dynasty is charged with murdering his wife and son. It seems unbelievable, ghastly, and-as the news trucks roll in and Hollywood producers begin making offers utterly familiar. Is the ideal of the "good family" broken, or have we always just propped it up to watch it fall, again?
MARK SEAL
THE MYTH OF THE GOOD FAMILY

The bodies begin dropping in the summer of 2015. Stephen Smith, 19, found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County, South Carolina, on July 8. Smith is gay, and his mother believes her son was killed in a hate crime, a newspaper will report, "by several local Hampton County youths from prestigious families."

In 2018 Gloria Satterfield, a longserving housekeeper for a prominent local family, is found dead while at work from "a trip-and-fall accident." Nothing suspicious, it is called, until the proceeds from her insurance policy go not to her two surviving sons but allegedly to her lawyer.

A year later, in February 2019, a 19-year-old rich kid, drunk at the wheel of his family's boat, plows into a bridge at 2 a.m. At his side is the beautiful 19-year-old Mallory Beach. She is thrown from the boat and instantly killed.

A name rises from the flotsam of these mysterious yet somehow connected deaths, a name that shocks the South Carolina community where the deaths occur when it is printed in headlines around the globe, bringing the eyes of justice and the media-to this corner of what is called the Lowcountry.

It is a name that is instantly recognized by the police when, at 10:26 p.m. on June 7, 2021, Sergeant Daniel Greene drives through the stone gates of a 1,700-acre family hunting estate at 4147 Moselle Road, in Colleton County, South Carolina, to find a 52-year-old woman and her 22-year-old son "lying on the ground," shot dead with a rifle. It is a name oft-heard by the media-never in this context, but on the other side of the law.

This story is from the December 2022 - January 2023 edition of Town & Country US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December 2022 - January 2023 edition of Town & Country US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TOWN & COUNTRY USView All
As If We Never Said GOOD BYE
Town & Country US

As If We Never Said GOOD BYE

A designer restores a historic home by an the glory it enjoyed during its classic Hollywood heyday.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2024
SIR Mix-a-Lot
Town & Country US

SIR Mix-a-Lot

Look, Muffy, our old clothes are back! A generation consumed with nostalgia rediscovers and reshuffles trad style their way. The new official preppy dress code is here, and one pony is riding high.

time-read
5 mins  |
March 2024
Les Robes Dangereuses
Town & Country US

Les Robes Dangereuses

In Revolution-era Paris, three radically chic media stars swept away centuries of strictures about what women should wear and how they should live. A new book unveils the other French Revolution.

time-read
10+ mins  |
March 2024
A Nose DIVIDED
Town & Country US

A Nose DIVIDED

Legends are never made by playing it safe.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2024
Friends of JUDY
Town & Country US

Friends of JUDY

For her fans of 30 years, Judy Geib is a jeweler's jeweler. For young designers, she's something rarer: a role model.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2024
Anatomy of a Classic
Town & Country US

Anatomy of a Classic

A 63-year-old icon just got a face-lift. Can you tell?

time-read
1 min  |
March 2024
This Old Thing? T&C Reviews: Barn Jackets
Town & Country US

This Old Thing? T&C Reviews: Barn Jackets

The rags-to-riches tale of how a humble workingman's staple got its high fashion glow-up.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2024
Nellie Oleson, MODERN MUSE
Town & Country US

Nellie Oleson, MODERN MUSE

The kids are in couture and the grown-ups are in oversize bows. When did things get so Freaky Friday?

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2024
Loromania!
Town & Country US

Loromania!

A standard-bearer of quiet luxury finds itself unexpectedly tap dancing in the spotlight, embraced by American hypebeasts, Gstaad Guy, and Kendall Roy. Back in Milan, it's business as usual. There are 100 years to toast.

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2024
Steal the Show
Town & Country US

Steal the Show

How Broadway fell in love with celebrity producers.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2024