Augusta co-author to donate proceeds on Murdaugh book

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The publisher and editor of the Augusta Business Daily will donate recent proceeds of the book on the Alex Murdaugh trial that he co-authored with an embattled South Carolina court official.

Neil Gordon co-authored “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders” with Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill.

Gordon decided to unpublish to book following allegations that Hill had plagiarized a portion of the book’s preface.

“When Becky Hill’s husband ‘unpublished’ our book, kindle, and audio book online Dec. 22nd, we were under the impression that sales would cease immediately,” Gordon said. “When sales continued, we examined our publishing agreement, and discovered it takes more time to remove a book from circulation.”

Gordon said the book has sold nearly 900 copies since they requested the book be unpublished.

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The net proceeds of royalties for all copies sold since Dec. 22, 2023, will be donated to Lowcountry scholarships. Gordan said his share of the royalties was $2.50 per unit.

“We want this money that came out of a bad choice to be used for good,” Gordon said.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, more than 2,000 of Hill’s emails were released. Inside those emails was a conversation between Hill and BBC reporter Holly Honderich.

Honderich was working on a story about the Murdaugh trial and sent the article to Hill.

Later, it was discovered that Hill had plagiarized the book’s preface using Honderich’s article.

Hill’s attorneys confirmed that she had submitted Honderich’s article as her work for the book.

“The pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines resulted in Ms. Hill taking material written by BBC reporter Holly Honderich and submitting it to her co-author Neil Gordon as if it were her own words,” attorneys Justin Bamberg and Will Lewis said in a Dec. 26, 2023, statement. “Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment and has personally reached out to Ms. Honderich to express her sincere apologies.”

Gordon said he expects the proceeds from December and January to be available in February or March.