We Are Convinced That ‘White Lotus’ Ratliff Family Is Based On Murdaugh Family

Show creator Mike White says season three character Timothy Ratliff is based on a real-life, once-affluent patriarch who killed his entire family.

"I had read stories about this aristocratic guy who killed his whole family because he had been blowing through their money and didn’t have the guts to tell them," White told the Hollywood Report about the inspiration for the Ratliff family. "The way Timothy’s family sees him is so crucial to his sense of self, so when that’s at risk, he’d rather burn the whole house than face the music."

In the series, Ratliff (played by Jason Isaacs) takes his family to a dazzling resort in Thailand. As soon as they arrive, he learns the feds and a Wall Street Journal reporter are onto his money-laundering and bribery scheme back home. 

Understanding he will soon face prison time as his crimes are exposed, Ratliff comes to believe that his spoiled wife and two of his three children will not be able to live without the cushy, luxurious lifestyle he provides them.

While becoming addicted to his wife's Lorazepam pills, Ratliff has visions of shooting his family but decides to poison their piña coladas with deadly seeds instead. As his eldest son begins to guzzle the drink, Ratliff panics and tells his family to stop drinking the poisonous cocktails.

Sound familiar? Err, more accurately, does the script remind you of any particular aristocrat in the news? 

While White hasn't confirmed it, close observers of the series believe the Ratliff family is based on the real-life Murdaugh family, as in Alex Murdaugh's family.

Alex Murdaugh stands with his defense team during an evidentiary hearting at the Richland County Courthouse on Tuesday, Jan.16, 2024. Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son in 2023 after a six-week trial. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

In 2023, the 56-year-old heir of the South Carolina legal dynasty was convicted of two life sentences for the murder of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22.

While a firm motive for the shootings was never established, prosecutors alleged that the walls were closing in on Murdaugh's own money-laundering scheme and thus he killed his wife and son as a latch-ditched effort to distract from his financial crimes and garner sympathy.

Sleuths don't buy that motive. 

Specifically, some true crime nuts believe Murdaugh, who also had a pill addiction, killed his wife and son after figuring they couldn't survive without his money and influence – just like Tim Ratliff thought about his wife and children.

We admit, we never noticed the similarities between Timothy Ratliff and Alex Murdaugh while enjoying the season. But since the New York Post first presented the theory, we can no longer unsee them.

Principals in the Murdaugh saga agree.

"Superficially, there might be some similarities," Dick Harpootlian, Alex Murdaugh’s lead attorney, told The Post. "The mother and father [in the show] went to [North Carolina colleges]. Alex and Maggie went to the University of South Carolina."

Ahh, South Carolina and North Carolina (Duke).

Joe McCulloch, another Columbia, SC attorney, who originally represented one of the victims of a fatal boat crash caused by the late Paul Murdaugh, can see similarities as well.

"In retrospect, I can see that the Murdaugh case might inspire a truly fertile mind in the screenplay business to do a variation on the theme," McCullough told The Post.

"The guy’s sweating bullets because of everything he’s done, his family facing ruination, so he plots their murders but then chickens out," McCullough added. "Alex didn’t chicken out, but he and the guy on the series showed the same lack of concern about what impact their misconduct would have on their family."

I mean, how many other aristocrats in the news have killed their entire families as they were about to be exposed for committing fraud? Like ten? Twenty?

For more "White Louts" Sleuthing, we believe we have also uncovered in which country the fourth season will take place. We connected the dots here.