The Jeffrey Macdonald Murder Case (Part One)

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Welcome to some very famous people you've never really heard
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of Bite Sized Biographies of the famous, the infamous, and
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the quirky in less than an hour. My name is
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Philip D. Gibbons, and there is more information about me
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this podcast and a bibliography at bite sized biographies dot com.
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There are also photographs of many of the individuals and
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items mentioned in this podcast. At the conclusion of part
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one of this presentation, there will be additional suggestions concerning
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further information about today's subject, the doctor Jeffrey MacDonald murder case.
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If you have enjoyed this presentation, please like us at
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YouTube page at Nobless Obleage. Please note that all of
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Bite Sized Biographies are now available on Spotify, and please
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tell a friend about Bite Sized Biographies. Now, let's get
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started with our story about doctor Jeffrey McDonald. In any
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given year, thousands of Americans will become victims of criminal homicide.
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Over the course of time, A small handful of these
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cases have achieved a remarkable level of public and media attention, speculation,
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and scrutiny. Such incidents involving oj Simpson, the Manson family,
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Joan Beney Ramsay, Natalie Holloway, Loeb and Leopold Lacy Peterson,
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Sam Shephard, David Berkowitz, the Menendez brothers, and the Lindbergh
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kidnapping case are all examples of incidents that have generated
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an obsessive zeal on the part of the American public,
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frequently replenished by perpetual media review. Even as far back
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as the late nineteenth century, the murder of Sarah and
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Andrew Borden, possibly by their daughter Lizzie, achieved a frenzied
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national profile. A prime example of this particular phenomenon involves
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doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, an Army officer and surgeon assigned to
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the Special Forces Green Berets, accused of the February seventeenth,
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nineteen seventy murder of his pregnant wife and two young
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daughters in horrific fashion, The crime prompting investigation, litigation, and
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media amplification that has lasted for over fifty years and
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generated opinions that remained divided to this day. The McDonald
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murder case began at three forty two a m. February seventeenth,
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nineteen seventy, when first a telephone operator and then a
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military policeman received a faint call for help from Fort
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Bragg Military Housing at five forty four Castle Drive. The call,
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which was almost too weak to hear, mentioned that there
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had been a stabbing at that address and that the
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caller needed help. Despite unsuccessful repeated attempts to get more information,
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it was determined that the phone was dropped and help
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was then dispatched to the location, the home of Captain
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Jeffrey MacDonald, his pregnant wife, Colette, and their two small children.
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Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is one of the
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US Army's largest military installations, with its own staff of MPs.
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Within minutes, military police showed up at five point forty
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four Castle and after knocking on the l locked front
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door and getting no response, a Lieutenant and charged asked
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several MPs to try the back door. Both the screen
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door and back door were unlocked, the back door in
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fact wide open. The initial MP entering quickly observed the
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seriously injured individuals inside and immediately yelled that the commanding
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officer should notify Womack, the Army Medical Center on base
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at Fort Bragg. The front door was eventually unlocked and
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the MPs entered the darkened residence, first heading to the
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master bedroom. On the floor near the bed on her
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back was Colette MacDonald, with one eye open, her face
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and head lacerated, and upper body covered in blood, her
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clothes ripped with numerous other injuries clearly visible. On top
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of her, with his arm draped around her neck was
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her husband, Jeffrey McDonald, who was barely conscious enough to
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alert the MPs that his children might be hurt. One
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of the MPs quickly went to both nearby bedrooms, and
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after shining a flashlight on both children and their separate rooms,
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ascertained that they were also seriously injured or probably even dead.
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The eldest child, Kimberly, five, was hit in the face
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with such force that her cheek bone was visibly protruding.
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Her younger sister, Christen, two years old, had bled so
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profusely that not only were her sheets and bedding covered
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in blood, additional bleeding flowed down the side of her
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bed and formed a circular pool on the ground, with
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only one individual clinging to life and the others probably
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beyond help at this point. When the first ambulance arrived,
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the paramedics immediately wheeled a stretcher into the master bedroom
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and Jeffrey mac donald was placed on it, his demean
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arranging from practical unconsciousness two attempts to get up and
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get to his children's rooms. At times he became quite animated,
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describing his attack, grabbing a hold of his daughter Kimberly's
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bedroom door frame as he was wheeled past it in
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an attempt to get off the stretcher and check on
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his daughter's condition. He was restrained, told others would look
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after his wife and children, and force down the residence's
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hallway that led to the front door and the ambulance
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and the driveway on the way to the hospital. McDonald
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claimed that he was about to pass out, but was
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animated enough to again describe his attackers and some description
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of the attack itself, including his wife's pleas for help
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once he reached the emergency room. The only specific wound
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that was treated merely required a large gauze bandage to
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stem some bleeding from a deep cut. This cut, which
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resembled a stab wound, was eventually determined to have caused
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a partial lung collapse, but was otherwise not in any
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way serious. Some other knife wounds that were practically scratch like,
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and a slight bruise on the left side of the
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forehead were also visible. But none of these injuries even
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required stitches, and McDonald's heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature
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were all normal. Steadily, however, McDonald began to deteriorate emotionally
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to the extent that the physician in charge, Merril Bronstein,
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who actually knew McDonald quite well as a colleague, felt
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it necessary to administer a large dose of intravenous nembutahl
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and vistoril. The distraught victim, formally verging on hysteria, quickly relaxed,
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but he did not sleep. Instead, he continually asked about
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the welfare of his wife and children, but also implored
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the doctor to call his relatives in New York to
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let them know that something serious had occurred and that
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they needed to get to Fort Bragg immediately. Despite the
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five point thirty am hour, Bronstein was able to get
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Mildred cassab Collect McDonald's mother and Jeffrey McDonald's mother in
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law on the line and pass on the information that
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they needed to get to Fort Bragg immediately. Eventually, the
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collapse of McDonald's lung required a chest tube, but he
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still remained conscious enough to receive a visit from a
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Green Beret acquaintance named Ron Harrison. Later that afternoon, upon
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the arrival of his in laws, Mildred and Freddie Cassob
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and mother Dorothy, he sat up in his hospital bed
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and tearfully told him that his wife and children were
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all dead murdered. McDonald's father passed away in nineteen sixty six.
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Colete's biological father committed suicide. Fred Cassob was a stepfather,
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but enjoyed a very close relationship with his daughter. Elsewhere
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in the hospital, autopsies were performed on the victims. Collette
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MacDonald was struck at least six times with a blunt instrument,
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once on each temple, once in the forehead, once on
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the top of her skull, once under her chin, and
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once on the side of her head above the right ear.
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The blow's breaking the skin and fracturing her skull. She
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also suffered nine knife wounds to her neck and seven
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wounds to her chest. Another twenty one wounds were delivered
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to her chest with an ice pick. The weapons thrust
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into her body as deeply as possible. Additionally, both of
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her arms exhibited fractures absorbed while Colette attempted to defend herself.
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Both bones and her right forearm were broken. One bone
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in her left arm was broken in several places. Finally,
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a male fetus approximately five months old, was also removed
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from the body. Five year old Kimberly MacDonald received two
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blows from a blunt instrument, shattering her skull and most
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likely sending her into unconsciousness or possibly a coma. She
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was also hit once on the left side of her head,
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a blow which broke her nose and cheekbone and left
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the cheekbone protruding from her face. She was also stabbed
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in the neck numerous times, the wounds overlapping too closely
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to allow for individual analysis, but estimated to be at
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least eight different lacerations. These cuts did not bleed profusely,
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indicating that she was either deceased or near death when
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they occurred. Kristen MacDonald, two years old, was stabbed thirty
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three times, twelve times in the back, four times in
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the chest, once in the neck with a knife, as
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well as fifteen less destructive times with an ice pick
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to the chest. She also had cuts in her hands.
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Won all the way to the bone, indicating that she
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also attempted to ward off her assailant. A forensic investigation
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at five point forty four Castle Drive was also well
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under way. William Ivory, the first Criminal Investigation Division detective
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to arrive on scene at four ten a m was
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shown the bodies in carnage and immediately recognized at all
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hands on deck situation. He was able to observe Jeffrey
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MacDonald being wheeled to an anad ambulance and assumed he
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was unconscious because McDonald had his eyes closed. Ivery then
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went to a next door neighbor's home and used the
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phone there to call as many CID agents as were available.
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He also called the head of the Fort Bragg CID,
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Franz J. Grebner, to inform him of the gravity of
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the situation. Ivery also asked the occupants if they had
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heard sounds of a fight or struggle, and they all
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answered in the negative. The CID investigator then asked the
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mailhead of the household, another army officer, to help him
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identify the victims. Both men went next door and in
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short order Collette and her two children were identified by name.
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Ivory then began to focus on the body of Collet
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MacDonald removing a bath mat and pajama top that were
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placed on an abdominal region. He noticed immediately that the
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pajama top had numerous ice pick holes in it, and
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presumed that these wounds were sustained by Jeffrey MacDonald while
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he was wearing the garment. He began to find and
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collect blue threads that were as long as two and
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a half inches scattered throughout the bedroom, some even underneath
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the body of collect MacDonald. Pieces of a disposable latex
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surgeon's glove were also found in the master bedroom. A
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finger portion of this glove blood stained at the tip,
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possibly as a result of its use in writing the
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word pig on the headboard of the bed. While Ivory
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continued to locate and collect additional evidence from all of
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the bedrooms, including more of the blue threads, he sent
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some CID detectives to the hospital to get as much
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information from McDonald as quickly as possible. Ivory, assuming that
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the soldier might not survive for very long. Franz Grebner
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eventually also entered the premises. His initial reaction was that
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the crime scene did not resemble what he would have
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expected from such a tumultuous event in which a well
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coordinated Special Forces surgeon would have fought to the death
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to protect his family. Told the McDonald claimed that the
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attack was the result of at least four assailants wielding
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clubs and knives. Grebner found that only three items were
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out of place in the living room, a coffee table
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tipped on its side, a pair of eyeglasses on the floor,
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and a plant spilled out of its flower pot. In
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the dining room, there was no disorder of any kind.
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This struck him as odd, as he was immediately quite
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curious to hear specific information from Jeffrey MacDonald himself about
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how the attack actually occurred. At the hospital, Jeffrey MacDonald
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was already being interviewed by both the CID and FBI,
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describing the preamble to the intrusion as a typical weeknight
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in which he wound up sleeping on the living room couch.
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He was awakened by the sounds of his wife and
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older daughter yelling for help, but he was confronted by
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four individuals, two white and one black, male and a female.
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When he tried to sit up, the blackmail hit him
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in the head with what McDonald thought was a baseball
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bat the army captain, Still able to stand and grapple
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with the intruders, he then felt what he thought was
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a punch, but what was actually an ice pick thrust
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into his upper Torso still, he was able to flail
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past his attackers and attempt to traverse the hallway to
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help the rest of his family. Suddenly, he lost consciousness
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and fell in the middle of the corridor. After an
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undetermined amount of time, McDonald came to the house, now
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completely quiet and darkened. McDonald shivering, his torn pajama top
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wrapped around his wrists. He quickly went from room to
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room and tried mouth to mouth resuscitation, unsuccessful in his
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attempts to revive any of the three victims. At some point,
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he removed a small knife from his wife's chest and
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covered her with his pajama top, supposedly to keep her warm.
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He then checked the rear door area for any sign
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of the true routers, and seeing no one, he then
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checked his own injuries before making phone calls, first from
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the master bedroom and then from the kitchen. Overwhelmed, he
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waited for help while draping himself over his wife's body
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in the master bedroom, where the MPs found him minutes later. Officially,
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the Fort Bragg CID was tight lipped about any potential
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arrests or leads in the case, although initially he was
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never informed of the prevailing attitude. MacDonald, based on fundamentals,
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was considered the major suspect based on the relatively minor
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injuries he suffered compared to the rest of his family.
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The complete lack of any physical evidence of any outside
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intrusion seemingly impossible with the supposed rapid advent of as
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many as six people trooping through the apartment on a
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rainy night, not leaving a single trace of a wet
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footprint or mud, was also eye opening and deflected suspicion
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toward the only living witness. The month of March dragged
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on the investigation continued, Franz Grebner not only under a
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lot of pressure to produce a suspect in the killings,
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but also handicapped by several mistakes made during the initial investigation.
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At five forty four Castle Drive, trash collectors were allowed
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to empty the trash shortly after the murders before any
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investigative scrutiny. The toilet was repeatedly flushed, allowing for the
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potential loss of any remainder of the surgical gloves that
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were worn by someone during the attack. MacDonald's pajama bottoms
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00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.559
were thrown out by the hospital orderlies who first treated
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MacDonald in the emergency room. A bloody footprint on the
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floor of Christen's room was destroyed by a technician who
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attempted to remove it in its entirety with a saw. Instead,
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00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:55.279
it crumbled into irrelevance. Fiber removed from underneath Christen's fingernail
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and placed in a vial was lost in the CID
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lab and never recovered. Still, much evidence was processed from
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the crime scene, and a statistical oddity, the fact that
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each of the McDonald's blood types were different four types
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00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.640
in all, allowed investigators to determine exactly where each of
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00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:20.240
the McDonald's had been during the crime, and a preliminary
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00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:24.799
examination of these blood deposits indicated that McDonald's account of
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00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:30.119
his behavior during the intrusion certainly contained some discrepancies from
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the collected physical evidence. By early April, McDonald's mother and
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the Cassobs had returned to New York and Franz Grebner
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cautious and deliberate in his investigation, now felt it appropriate
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on April sixth to summon McDonald for an official interview.
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At nine point thirty in the morning, McDonald appeared at
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Grebner's office. The two CID investigators familiar with the case,
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William Ivory and Robert Shaw, also present, perhaps apps. MacDonald
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00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:04.039
felt that this might be a cursory examination of his
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activity during February sixteenth and seventeenth, nineteen seventy, as he
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00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:12.720
was dressed in uniform for what he assumed would be
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00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.440
his quick return to his work location at some point
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later in the day. That this was to be an
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00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:24.839
adversarial interrogation became obvious immediately when Grebner started the interview
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00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:29.200
by advising MacDonald of his constitutional rights concerning right to
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00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:33.480
counsel and ability to even refuse to answer questions. The
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Army Captain waived his rights and question and commenced as
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a tape recorder and microphone was activated to capture audio
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of the preceding Grebner began by merely asking McDonald to
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00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:49.319
review what had happened on the night in question. McDonald
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00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:51.440
got right to the point within an account that he
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had repeated to investigators. Previously, he mentioned that he finished
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00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.920
reading at about two a m. Went to the master
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00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.480
bedroom intending to turn in, and found his youngest daughter,
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00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:05.440
Christie in the bed and his side of the bed wet.
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He took her back to her room, gave her a bottle,
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00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:11.000
and with his wife sleeping and his side of the
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00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.519
bed wet, decided to sleep on the couch. He next
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00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:17.440
awoke to the sounds of screaming, screams that he thought
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00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:21.039
were from his wife and older daughter, Kim. He sat
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00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.319
up and was confronted by four people, a female, a
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00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:28.039
black male, and two white males. He noticed a light
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00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.759
shining on the female's face, Whether from a flashlight or candle,
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00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.079
he wasn't sure, and the black man moved toward him.
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00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.599
The female then said kill the pigs. Acid is groovy,
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00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:42.759
right before the black male hit McDonald in the head.
295
00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:47.440
The woman continued to say acid is groovy, Kill the pigs.
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As McDonald tried to sit up, he got hit with
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00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:53.519
what he thought was a baseball bat again, but managed
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00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:55.920
to grab a hold of it. Then the two other
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00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:59.240
males started hitting him while he heard screams in the background.
300
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:01.599
One of them hit him in the chest with what
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00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:03.599
he thought was a hard punch, but when he saw
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00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.960
a knife blade, he realized he had been stabbed. He
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00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:10.880
forced his way into the hallway, but remembered the sensation
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00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.359
of gradually falling to the ground and seeing the knees
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00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.319
and boots of the female as he landed on the floor.
306
00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:21.240
The next thing he remembered was regaining consciousness in the hallway,
307
00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:24.960
freezing cold with chattering teeth, He got to his feet
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00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:28.359
and proceeded to the back bedroom, Although dazed. He saw
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00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:31.680
his wife on the floor, obviously severely injured with a
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00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:35.039
knife in her chest, and he gave her artificial respiration,
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00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:39.079
which he immediately recognized as futile as the air was
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00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:44.839
discernibly exiting wounds in her upper torso. MacDonald, now highly emotional, sobbed.
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Then he then went to check on his children, but
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00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:50.720
quickly understood that he needed to call for help. It
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00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.559
was then that he made the first call from the
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00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.640
master bedroom, but finding the operator uncooperative, he then went
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00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.519
back to check his family for any pulse. He then
318
00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:01.640
explained that he felt that he was about to lose
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00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:04.880
consciousness as he was freezing, and he felt he probably
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00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.960
was going into shock. He wound up on all fours,
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00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:11.000
and after checking his own condition in the bathroom mirror,
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00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:13.839
he went into the kitchen and picked up that phone,
323
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.759
as he had never been disconnected. The operator transferred him
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to an MP, who asked how he could help McDonald
325
00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:24.039
explaining that there had been a stabbing that he needed
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00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:28.000
an ambulance right away. The MP responded by saying that
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00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:31.200
they would be there quickly, and McDonald then explained that
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00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:33.640
the next thing he remembered was an MP giving him
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00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:37.000
mouth to mouth resuscitation while he was in the bedroom
330
00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:41.279
next to his wife. McDonald paused and then remained silent.
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All three men looked solemnly at McDonald without a word,
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00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:48.079
and then, after many seconds, Grebner asked him to repeat
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00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:50.599
how many men were present in the first encounter in
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00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:54.119
the living room. McDonald responded again that he thought it
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00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:58.559
was three. The other investigators then chimed in with additional questions,
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00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.920
mostly asking McDonald to reiterate specific details of what he
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00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:07.240
already had generally covered. Occasionally, a more leading question was
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00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.920
thrown in, For example, investigator Shaw asking point blank about
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00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:16.559
McDonald's perfunctory wounds on his chest. You didn't do it yourself?
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00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:20.480
Did you. McDonald's reply was a meandering account of his
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00:22:20.599 --> 00:22:24.759
discussion with the emergency room doctors, convincing them that he
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00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.279
had collapsed alung. He was then asked to give specifics
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00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:30.720
about how he spent the night with his family before
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00:22:30.759 --> 00:22:34.759
the attacks, before Shaw began showing him photos of weapons
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00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:38.839
that were used in the attacks, both distinctive, one a
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00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.599
bent pairing knife, the other emblazoned with the words old Hickory.
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00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:47.000
McDonald denied ever seeing them or that they were even
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00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.960
in his house. The investigators then showed McDonald a picture
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00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:54.000
of a long piece of wood about three feet long,
350
00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:57.319
and asked, knowing that McDonald had built or repaired some
351
00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:01.720
shelving and created bedslats from lump, if he recognized this
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00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:05.839
particular piece of wood. MacDonald claimed he didn't recognize it,
353
00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:08.160
and then, when shown a picture of an ice pick,
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00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:10.799
he claimed that there never was an ice pick in
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00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:15.720
his home. Shaw asked some questions clarifying exactly what McDonald
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00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:19.279
saw when he regained consciousness in the hallway, and McDonald
357
00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:24.039
gave another meandering, nonspecific response. When Shaw then challenged McDonald
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00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:27.200
by pointing to both of his associates and himself and
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00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:30.440
bluntly stating that in all of their experience, if what
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00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:33.880
happened at five point forty four Castle Drive happened the
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00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:36.519
way McDonald said it did, the house would be a
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00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:39.720
wreck and the presence of other individuals would be obvious.
363
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:44.480
McDonald shrugged this comment off without agreeing or disagreeing. Shaw
364
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:47.960
then asked for more specifics on the intruders, adding if
365
00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:51.480
they were crazed hippies, they would have acted frenetically enough
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to leave an obvious impact. He added that not a
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00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.240
thing was missing from the home, not even anything from
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00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:01.000
the large cash of drugs McDonald kept at his residents,
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00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:05.759
including fifty vials of thorazine, a powerful antipsychotic, as well
370
00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:09.240
as other drugs he claimed to be innocently distributing, including
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00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:14.319
diet pills, blood pressure meds, etc. Shaw then completely switched
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00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:17.480
gears and began to recount the presence of various fibers
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00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:21.480
from McDonald's pajama top in various places around the house,
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00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.720
including underneath collect McDonald's body, and the presence of a
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00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:29.079
blood stained pocket torn off of the pajama top in
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00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:33.200
the master bedroom. Impossible if McDonald's only struggle was in
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00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:36.759
the living room or even the corridor. Shaan Grebner then
378
00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:40.559
reviewed various different aspects of the blood forensics and asked
379
00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:43.839
McDonald to explain what didn't make sense based on his
380
00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:48.039
account of what happened. McDonald either deflected or merely stated
381
00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:52.039
that he didn't know or couldn't explain such findings. After
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00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:56.160
two hours of what was obviously now an interrogation, Shaw
383
00:24:56.279 --> 00:24:59.319
suggested a break, but before he did, he casually asked
384
00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:02.160
McDonald if he would be willing to take a lie
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00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:06.720
detector test. Just as casually, McDonald said that he would.
386
00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:10.000
The break was intended for only a short period of time,
387
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:13.720
but Jeffrey McDonald left the CID building for ninety minutes.
388
00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:18.200
Perhaps this irk Grebner enough for him to confront McDonald directly.
389
00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.079
When they resumed. He immediately told McDonald that his story
390
00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:25.440
didn't ring true, and he bombarded him with examples from
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00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:28.640
the investigation that indicated that much of the scene in
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00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:32.640
the apartment was staged, and questioned how McDonald could have
393
00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:35.920
been so modestly injured in comparison to the rest of
394
00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:39.200
his family. When McDonald continued to state that he had
395
00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:43.599
no explanation, all three interrogators began to ramp up the pressure,
396
00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.640
making it clear that they suspected him of killing his family.
397
00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:53.319
McDonald quickly switched to an emotional repetition of his disbelief
398
00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:56.079
that they could even think of him doing such a thing.
399
00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:01.039
After minutes of such righteous protestation, Rebner reached into his
400
00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:04.720
desk and extracted a photograph of a woman's Army Corps
401
00:26:04.839 --> 00:26:08.799
or whack, whom McDonald had met and socialized with while
402
00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:13.079
at Fort sam Houston on a Green Beret parachute training stint.
403
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:17.880
This female told investigators that McDonald and another Green Beret
404
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:21.000
double dated with her and a friend, and she spent
405
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:24.440
much of the weekend with McDonald, even sleeping with him,
406
00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:27.920
although despite an attempt on his part to have intercourse,
407
00:26:28.079 --> 00:26:31.920
this didn't occur. McDonald casually told her that he always
408
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:34.359
dated other women, and his wife knew all about it.
409
00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:37.559
He even called Collette MacDonald while the whack was in
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00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:42.000
his motel room. At this point, McDonald, obviously taken aback
411
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:45.839
by the CID's knowledge and possibly wondering what else they knew,
412
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:49.680
began to backtrack on his agreement to take a polygraph
413
00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:53.119
after he was assured that it was only an investigative tool.
414
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.519
And couldn't be used as evidence. He then again agreed
415
00:26:56.559 --> 00:26:59.920
to a polygraph, Grebner leaving the room to arrange for
416
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:05.559
an impartial polygraph examiner from Washington d C. Having gotten
417
00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:09.200
McDonald to a point that was critical, Grebner then broke
418
00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:12.920
off the interrogation and told McDonald he was free to leave,
419
00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:16.359
but the test would occur within forty eight hours. It
420
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:20.599
was three point thirty pm. Ten minutes later. McDonald, without
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00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:24.640
giving any specifics as to why, called Grebner's office and
422
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:26.799
explained that he would not be willing to take a
423
00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:30.759
polygraph after all. Grebner called it a day and then
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00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.240
headed to the Officers Club, where he and his wife
425
00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:36.559
typically met for a drink after work. By the time
426
00:27:36.599 --> 00:27:40.960
he got there, another officer congratulated him. Grebner was confused.
427
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:44.119
The individual added that he had just heard a broadcast
428
00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:48.559
of the Provost Marshals essentially the chief law enforcement official
429
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:52.079
on the base, statement to the media indicating that they
430
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:55.920
now considered Jeffrey MacDonald a suspect in the murder of
431
00:27:55.960 --> 00:27:59.960
his wife and children. Although the CID was under incredible
432
00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:03.599
pressure to produce something tangible, this timing could not have
433
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:06.799
been worse Grebner now knew that not only was a
434
00:28:06.839 --> 00:28:09.839
polygraph out of the question, but that McDonald would most
435
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.720
likely hire an attorney and never voluntarily speak to investigators again.
436
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:19.720
McDonald was also now officially relieved of his army responsibilities
437
00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:24.799
and confined to quarters under certain conditions, another development only
438
00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:27.839
ensuring that he would refuse to cooperate with any further
439
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:31.240
investigation if there was any doubt as to public and
440
00:28:31.319 --> 00:28:34.480
media interest in the case that was dispelled by the
441
00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:39.400
profile of this development. McDonald's status as a suspect announced
442
00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:43.640
by a no less prominent journalist than Walter Cronkite on
443
00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:48.920
the CBS Evening News. Once assigned to the Bachelor Officer quarters,
444
00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:52.240
when McDonald arrived there on the evening of April sixth,
445
00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:56.400
his residence was surrounded by MPs. Although technically not being
446
00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:59.000
held prisoner, he was not free to come and go
447
00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:02.039
as he pleased, he was able to begin the process
448
00:29:02.039 --> 00:29:06.160
of obtaining an attorney through family contacts. Bernard Siegel of
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00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:10.680
Philadelphia was chosen to represent him. This seemed an odd choice,
450
00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:15.960
Seagull typically defending individuals involved in civil rights and drug cases,
451
00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:19.359
and having previous experience working in the Deep South. On
452
00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:25.359
voter registration drives in conjunction with the ACLU. His counterculture
453
00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:30.720
appearance with long brillowhair tufts separated by partial baldness, also
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00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:34.759
seemed out of place in a town like nineteen seventy Fayetteville,
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00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:38.480
North Carolina. But Siegel had a great reputation as a
456
00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:42.839
capable and successful defense attorney, and his initial interactions on
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00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:46.680
a personal basis with McDonald were very positive. But he
458
00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:51.359
needed to ascertain as specifically as possible via psychiatric examination,
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00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.119
if McDonald did kill his family. To this end, he
460
00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:59.839
had the Army captain examined by a psychiatrist and also
461
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:05.680
had McDonald complete various psychological profiling exams like the Minnesota
462
00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:10.599
multi Phasic Personality Index. Siegel, believing that the Army would
463
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.240
not have focused on McDonald without some evidence or reasonable suspicion,
464
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:20.200
was initially considering the possibility of an insanity defense, but
465
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.119
when the results of the psychiatric profiling indicating that McDonald
466
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:27.240
was not capable of such a crime, he presumed that
467
00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:29.839
the Army had gotten it wrong or was looking for
468
00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:34.279
a scapegoat to relieve public pressure. On May first, the
469
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.279
Army formally charged McDonald with three counts of murder. This
470
00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:40.720
might have been the result of McDonald's father in law,
471
00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:45.039
Fredi Cassab, holding a press conference excoriating the Army for
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00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:49.279
confining his son in law without charge. Because this process
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00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:53.000
was still a military and not a civilian investigation, the
474
00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:55.599
first part of the process would involve what was known
475
00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:59.880
as an Article thirty two hearing, conducted by an assigned officer,
476
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:04.680
in this case, an individual named Warren Rock. Much like
477
00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:09.160
a preliminary hearing in a civilian criminal case, was designed
478
00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:13.160
to examine whether enough factual basis was present to merit
479
00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:17.480
the next step, an actual court martial. Like a preliminary hearing,
480
00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:21.160
an Article thirty two rarely resulted in charges being dropped,
481
00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:25.359
But Bernie Siegel believed that should an actual court martial ensue,
482
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:28.880
in which MacDonald would be judged by high ranking members
483
00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:31.880
of the same military that had brought the charges, it
484
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:35.079
would be quite unlikely that these individuals would render a
485
00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:38.759
not guilty verdict. He believed the Article thirty two would
486
00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:42.200
be the best opportunity to get the case thrown out.
487
00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:47.519
On July sixth, the Article thirty two began. From the beginning,
488
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:50.960
SEAgel focused not on what the CID had unearthed in
489
00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:55.640
its investigation, but the manner in which the investigation was conducted.
490
00:31:56.440 --> 00:32:00.519
Numerous egregious errors were revealed by Siegel during the cross
491
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:05.640
examination of various CID personnel, including failure to secure the
492
00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:10.359
crime scene, contamination of the crime scene by numerous individuals
493
00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:14.759
who roamed freely throughout the apartment, failure to order roadblocks
494
00:32:14.799 --> 00:32:18.880
to detain any suspicious individuals attempting to leave the Fort
495
00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:23.759
Bragg complex, and failure to document whether some items may
496
00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:27.799
have been tracked into the home by MPs and investigators
497
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:30.559
over a dozen in all, who wandered throughout the five
498
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:35.400
point forty four Castle Drive address in a completely disorganized manner.
499
00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:39.759
So devastating and embarrassing were the revelations of this early
500
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:43.079
testimony that the Army barred the public for the rest
501
00:32:43.079 --> 00:32:46.599
of the article thirty two. Freddie Cassab held a press
502
00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:51.200
conference in Washington decrying this development, a move that was
503
00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:55.599
criticized in print by high profile columnist and investigative reporter
504
00:32:56.160 --> 00:33:00.599
Jack Anderson. Initially, even Dorothy MacDonald was also so barred
505
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:03.359
from the preceding but when she publicly vowed to sit
506
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:06.720
outside of the closed hearing room every day and a
507
00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:09.920
photo of her was picked up by the wire Services.
508
00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:14.880
She was subsequently allowed into the restricted area for the army.
509
00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:18.400
It only got worse. Not only were there issues at
510
00:33:18.440 --> 00:33:22.079
the crime scene, the on site crime lab also exhibited
511
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:26.160
signs of utter incompetence. The blue fiber removed from under
512
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:30.119
Kristen McDonald's fingernail, and skin removed from a fingernail of
513
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:34.160
collect McDonald was missing. A flower pot supposedly placed in
514
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:38.680
an upright position, indicating to Grebner a stage crime scene,
515
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:42.799
was actually placed upright by an ambulance driver, the driver
516
00:33:42.839 --> 00:33:46.279
who also was able to steal Jeffrey McDonald's wallet from
517
00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:50.400
a desk drawer within a supposedly secure crime scene. The
518
00:33:50.480 --> 00:33:54.599
children's fingerprints were never obtained, making the identification of any
519
00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:59.599
external fingerprints in the residence impossible. Hair samples were also
520
00:33:59.720 --> 00:34:03.519
not taken from the victims. Any samples obtained coming from
521
00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:07.559
clothing and not from the body itself. A hair identified
522
00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:10.760
as coming from McDonald was eventually determined to have come
523
00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:14.719
from the family pony. On and on it went, discarded.
524
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:19.960
Pajama bottoms repeated toilet use, removing any possibility of salvaging
525
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:25.880
any flushed evidence. A destroyed footprint and improperly photographed blurred fingerprints.
526
00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:30.480
Army officials had no comment following each day's proceedings, while
527
00:34:30.519 --> 00:34:34.719
Bernie Siegel enumerated each in every mistake with press briefings
528
00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:40.320
that duly reported the completely botched investigation. Then Siegel was
529
00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:43.239
able to present his own witnesses. The first an MP
530
00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.599
named Kenneth Micah, who testified that on the way to
531
00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:51.360
Castle Drive, just after McDonald's call for help, he observed
532
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:55.119
no more than a half mile from the crime scene
533
00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:58.199
a woman standing by the side of the road in
534
00:34:58.280 --> 00:35:02.599
a raincoat and floppy head. Micah added that her presence
535
00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:05.920
was so jarring and suspicious that he would have normally
536
00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:08.840
stopped to speak with her, except that he was responding
537
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:12.519
to an emergency. Not only did this sad credibility to
538
00:35:12.599 --> 00:35:17.199
McDonald's account, Micah also testified that when he told investigators
539
00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:20.119
about this sighting, he was told not to mention it.
540
00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:25.000
He eventually approached the defense uncomfortable with the situation, and
541
00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:30.480
related this information. Having obliterated the competence of the investigators
542
00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:34.039
and even questioned the ethics of the prosecution, Siegel then
543
00:35:34.079 --> 00:35:37.199
moved on to a parade of witnesses concerning the character
544
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:44.760
and professionalism of Jeffrey MacDonald. Doctors, classmates, military peers, neighbors,
545
00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:50.159
military commanders, and even Freddie Cassab testified glowingly creating a
546
00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:53.119
picture of a fine and remarkable young man and wonderful
547
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:57.199
husband based on a tippy received. Siegel then introduced the
548
00:35:57.239 --> 00:36:01.239
testimony of one William Posey. Posey claimed to be living
549
00:36:01.239 --> 00:36:04.960
in Fayetteville near a woman named Helena Stokely, who had
550
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.679
acted suspiciously following the murders, wearing black clothing during the
551
00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:13.840
days of the McDonald Fayetteville funerals, proclaiming that the police
552
00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:17.199
suspected her in the case and indicating to Posey that
553
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:21.519
she and her boyfriend had been involved. After February seventeenth,
554
00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:25.760
she also no longer wore her typical boots, floppy hat,
555
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:30.599
and blonde wig. This startling revelation, reported on the front
556
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:35.280
page in Fayetteville, prompted William Ivory to successfully track down Stokely,
557
00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:39.440
the daughter of a retired Fort Bragg high ranking officer,
558
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:43.079
a drug dealer and user known to police, and on
559
00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:47.800
occasion a police informant to Ivory, she was unresponsive, telling
560
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:50.360
him that all she remembered from that night because of
561
00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:53.480
her drug use, was taking a ride in a friend's car.
562
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.519
After his testimony, Siegel ripped him to shreds, successfully depicting
563
00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:04.320
his interaction an investigation of Stokely as perfunctory. Jeffrey MacDonald
564
00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:08.360
then testified for three days, clarifying and tweaking his story
565
00:37:08.679 --> 00:37:12.559
with additional facts or corrections from previous interviews, and he
566
00:37:12.639 --> 00:37:16.519
concluded the entire proceeding by tearfully stating that he loved
567
00:37:16.519 --> 00:37:19.280
his wife more than anything in the world and the
568
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:23.000
time period leading up to February sixteenth was the happiest
569
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:27.119
of their married lives. Colonel Rock then composed the report
570
00:37:27.159 --> 00:37:31.880
with recommendations that were not made public. These recommendations included
571
00:37:31.880 --> 00:37:35.119
the opinion that Jeffrey MacDonald was telling the truth and
572
00:37:35.199 --> 00:37:39.039
the allegations against him were untrue and charges should be dismissed.
573
00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:42.920
He also recommended that the whereabouts and alibi of Helena
574
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:47.320
Stokely during the night of the murders should be thoroughly investigated.
575
00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:51.039
The Army responded in a matter of weeks, announcing that
576
00:37:51.079 --> 00:37:55.519
all charges against Jeffrey MacDonald would be dropped due to
577
00:37:55.559 --> 00:38:00.840
insufficient evidence. Jeffrey MacDonald then publicly vowed to track down
578
00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:04.559
the killers himself, adding that he couldn't understand why the
579
00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:08.639
armies pursuit of the actual parties responsible was so feeble,
580
00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:12.039
and he hoped the actual killers eventually got the death penalty.
581
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:15.559
By now, the McDonald case had achieved an even higher
582
00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:20.320
national profile, with the Army during the Vietnam era already unpopular,
583
00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:25.760
especially in media circles. McDonald's perceived vindication again made the
584
00:38:25.800 --> 00:38:30.679
major networks. Alerd Lowenstein, an activist congressman and a supporter
585
00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:35.119
of McDonald's, arranged for an interview with CBS National correspondent
586
00:38:35.239 --> 00:38:39.679
Bob Sheefer, an interview introduced subsequently on the CBS Evening
587
00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:43.800
News by Walter Cronkite, who described McDonald as a man
588
00:38:44.119 --> 00:38:48.000
fighting to regain his honor. In the interview, McDonald spoke
589
00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:51.800
generally about the incompetence of the Army and their unwillingness
590
00:38:51.800 --> 00:38:54.480
to follow up on the investigation as to who had
591
00:38:54.519 --> 00:38:59.159
actually killed the McDonald family. He reiterated these talking points
592
00:38:59.159 --> 00:39:02.679
when he appeared on the Dick Cavit Show on December fifteenth,
593
00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:06.280
nineteen seventy, but in a manner that struck many as
594
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:10.320
completely inappropriate. Not only did McDonald repeat the claim that
595
00:39:10.360 --> 00:39:14.360
he had suffered twenty three separate wounds, but also described
596
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:17.440
some of them as potentially fatal. He claimed that his
597
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:21.079
interrogators had a light shining in his eyes during his interview,
598
00:39:21.199 --> 00:39:24.880
a complete fabrication. But worst of all, he cracked several
599
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:27.920
jokes and smiled throughout an appearance in which he barely
600
00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:33.119
mentioned his dead family, practically preening during any laughter or applause.
601
00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:36.599
This event was somewhat of a last straw for Mildred
602
00:39:36.639 --> 00:39:39.679
and Freddy Cassab. They spent much of what was left
603
00:39:39.679 --> 00:39:44.000
of nineteen seventy trying to jumpstart an investigation into finding
604
00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:48.239
the actual murderers, including getting Look magazine interested in an
605
00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:52.360
in depth investigation of the crime. Not only did McDonald
606
00:39:52.440 --> 00:39:55.639
nip that in the bud, with Bernie Siegel claiming that
607
00:39:55.719 --> 00:39:59.679
he was solely responsible for any negotiations with all media,
608
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:03.880
McDonald resisted even discussing the details of the crime with
609
00:40:03.920 --> 00:40:08.280
the Cassobs and began to avoid any personal interaction. When
610
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:10.840
Freddie asked for a copy of the article thirty two,
611
00:40:10.920 --> 00:40:15.880
hearing McDonald put him off for months. Most strangely, in November,
612
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:20.159
McDonald perhaps thinking that he could temper Freddy Cassob's dogged
613
00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:24.760
persistence in pursuing the case. He stated specifically to his
614
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:27.960
father in law that he and some Green Beret buddies
615
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:32.119
had actually murdered one of the suspected killers, describing it
616
00:40:32.440 --> 00:40:37.079
as now six feet under. Shaken by this, the Cassobs
617
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:41.079
resolved to pursue an investigation independent of their son in law.
618
00:40:41.639 --> 00:40:46.519
Freddie actually visited every member of Congress, hand delivering an
619
00:40:46.559 --> 00:40:51.519
eleven page letter. Unbeknownst to him, the wheels of federal
620
00:40:51.559 --> 00:40:54.960
bureaucracy were already starting to move forward on their own.
621
00:40:56.159 --> 00:40:58.519
The top brass of the Army had been embarrassed by
622
00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:03.119
the depiction of their investigation, including lab work as amateurish
623
00:41:03.119 --> 00:41:07.840
and sloppy, and it had ordered an investigation on its own. Eventually,
624
00:41:08.280 --> 00:41:12.400
this investigation would indicate that, while the inquiry was problematic,
625
00:41:12.639 --> 00:41:16.159
many of the issues were created by an extraordinary crime
626
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:21.280
scene that would have taxed most law enforcement entities. This
627
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:25.679
investigation also generated an unspoken opinion among many of those
628
00:41:25.679 --> 00:41:30.480
involved that, despite the botched CID investigation. In Bernie Siegel's
629
00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:35.199
legal skewering at the Article thirty two hearing, Jeffrey MacDonald
630
00:41:35.239 --> 00:41:38.920
was strongly suspected of killing his wife and family. A
631
00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:43.239
high ranking CID official was dispatched to Fayetteville and given
632
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:46.920
a staff of eight investigators and all of the resources
633
00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:50.519
he needed, and his assignment would not be considered completed
634
00:41:50.840 --> 00:41:55.000
until he developed specific evidence that identified who exactly had
635
00:41:55.079 --> 00:41:59.760
killed Collet Kim and Kristen McDonald. The two individuals leading
636
00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:05.039
this investigation, Peter Kerns and Jack Pruitt, personally visited the
637
00:42:05.079 --> 00:42:09.440
Cassob home on February eleventh, nineteen seventy one, to inform
638
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:14.480
them of this development. Freddie Cassob actually called Jeffrey MacDonald
639
00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:18.360
during this visit to inform him that CID agents were
640
00:42:18.400 --> 00:42:22.280
presently at his Patchog house and they still considered McDonald
641
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:26.000
a suspect in the investigation. McDonald was living on the
642
00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:29.000
Upper East Side of New York, but immediately drove out
643
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:32.679
to Cassob's Long Island home to confront the two agents.
644
00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:35.880
When he got there, they refused to talk to him
645
00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:38.679
because they said he was still a suspect, but Bernie
646
00:42:38.679 --> 00:42:42.440
Siegel set up a formal interrogation in his Philadelphia office
647
00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:47.559
on February nineteenth After this and another lengthy interview in March,
648
00:42:47.639 --> 00:42:52.599
in which McDonald couldn't positively identify a photo of Helena Stokely,
649
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:56.079
and also another refusal to take a lie detector test,
650
00:42:56.239 --> 00:43:01.280
Siegel terminated any further cooperation. Two agents then decided to
651
00:43:01.320 --> 00:43:04.599
find out all they could about Helena Stokely. Herself a
652
00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:09.199
quiet individual, she was best known for fabricating stories, frequently
653
00:43:09.239 --> 00:43:13.199
involving imaginary boyfriends, and she was so desperate for attention
654
00:43:13.360 --> 00:43:16.480
that she became a police informant and began to turn
655
00:43:16.519 --> 00:43:20.519
in acquaintances for drug dealing. Her own drug use escalated
656
00:43:20.559 --> 00:43:22.679
to the point of her parents kicking her out of
657
00:43:22.719 --> 00:43:26.599
their home. By early nineteen seventy, she was bed hopping
658
00:43:26.639 --> 00:43:32.360
in various Fayetteville residences, now a regular user of LSD, mescaline, heroine,
659
00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:36.199
and marijuana. One of her police contacts immediately thought of
660
00:43:36.239 --> 00:43:39.800
her when he heard McDonald's description of his assailants. It
661
00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.159
took him twenty four hours to track her and two
662
00:43:42.199 --> 00:43:45.719
male friends down at her current apartment, and after she
663
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:50.480
made some general but possibly incriminating statements, he notified Fort
664
00:43:50.519 --> 00:43:55.480
Bragg's CID that he had detained several possible suspects, but
665
00:43:55.559 --> 00:43:58.559
no one responded, and as this was a military matter,
666
00:43:58.920 --> 00:44:01.920
he was forced to cut off three loose. He never
667
00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:05.199
saw the two mails again, but Stokely was questioned by
668
00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:10.559
police several times, her accounts completely nonspecific and contradictory, but
669
00:44:10.679 --> 00:44:15.000
tantalizing enough to make the local papers. By April, she
670
00:44:15.079 --> 00:44:18.400
was admitted to a Chapel Hill Medical Center to detox,
671
00:44:18.519 --> 00:44:23.440
obtain methodon and receive long term psychotherapy. Released in May,
672
00:44:23.559 --> 00:44:26.840
she was back in the hospital in June with intravenous
673
00:44:26.920 --> 00:44:31.199
drug related symptoms. After her peripheral involvement in the article
674
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.159
thirty two hearing, she decided to move to Nashville. Upon
675
00:44:35.199 --> 00:44:38.760
her December return to Fayetteville, she was reinterviewed by the
676
00:44:38.800 --> 00:44:43.199
CID and subsequently reinterviewed or spoke with police or investigators
677
00:44:43.599 --> 00:44:48.480
numerous times, contradicting herself repeatedly. When she refused to provide
678
00:44:48.519 --> 00:44:52.920
fingerprints or a hair sample, they were obtained surreptitiously. They
679
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:56.199
did not match any hair or fingerprints obtained at five
680
00:44:56.199 --> 00:45:01.199
point forty four Castle Drive. A polygraph examination return results
681
00:45:01.239 --> 00:45:04.440
that the operator determined to be worthless based on her
682
00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:08.920
frequently drug altered state during the time in question. Anyone
683
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:13.440
she implicated was polygraphed and investigated. They had solid alibis
684
00:45:13.480 --> 00:45:18.000
and passed Lie detector tests, indicating no involvement in the murders.
685
00:45:18.519 --> 00:45:22.519
Investigators came to the conclusion that Helena Stokely was a
686
00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:26.360
dead end. Instead, they refocused on who they felt was
687
00:45:26.360 --> 00:45:31.800
the more likely suspect, Jeffrey McDonald. On paper, McDonald appeared
688
00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:35.360
to be a successful and accomplished individual with an outstanding
689
00:45:35.440 --> 00:45:38.960
level of achievement from a young age. The middle child
690
00:45:39.159 --> 00:45:42.320
with a male and female sibling, his family came from
691
00:45:42.400 --> 00:45:46.519
modest means, his father providing a middle class environment, his
692
00:45:46.599 --> 00:45:50.519
mother a housewife. He maintained a high profile at Patchog
693
00:45:50.599 --> 00:45:55.159
Medford High School as president of the student council, football player,
694
00:45:55.639 --> 00:45:58.599
king of the Senior prom and voted most likely to
695
00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:02.159
succeed and most pops Popular. He was accepted into a
696
00:46:02.199 --> 00:46:07.000
three year undergraduate program at Princeton to prepare for medical school.
697
00:46:07.480 --> 00:46:09.719
He dated a woman he met in the eighth grade,
698
00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:15.000
Collette Stevenson, while at Princeton, Collett a student at Skidmore College.
699
00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:18.360
Jeffrey and Collette dated other people while in high school
700
00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:23.119
and college, but on September fourteenth, nineteen sixty three, Jeffrey
701
00:46:23.159 --> 00:46:26.599
and Collett were married, and Collett moved to Princeton, New Jersey,
702
00:46:27.079 --> 00:46:30.760
dropping out of school. Their first child, Kimberly, was born
703
00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:35.119
in April eighteenth, nineteen sixty four. After completing his studies
704
00:46:35.159 --> 00:46:39.679
at Princeton, McDonald was accepted to Northwestern University Medical School
705
00:46:40.119 --> 00:46:43.559
and moved his family to Chicago in mid nineteen sixty five.
706
00:46:44.199 --> 00:46:47.920
While he attended medical school, Collett managed the household and
707
00:46:48.039 --> 00:46:52.000
raised Kimberly. The couple second child was born on May eighth,
708
00:46:52.199 --> 00:46:56.679
nineteen sixty seven. McDonald completed his medical school degree at
709
00:46:56.679 --> 00:47:00.000
Northwestern and then was accepted as an intern at Columbs
710
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:05.199
be a Presbyterian in the thoracic surgery department. Following his
711
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:09.400
intern year, McDonald joined the US Army was eventually assigned
712
00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:13.000
to Fort Bragg in August of nineteen sixty nine, his
713
00:47:13.119 --> 00:47:16.920
wife and children joining him there. This assignment was preceded
714
00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:20.920
by a six week military physicians training program at Fort
715
00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:25.039
sam Houston and San Antonio, and while there, McDonald volunteered
716
00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:28.239
to become part of the Army's Special Forces unit, the
717
00:47:28.280 --> 00:47:32.559
Green Berets, an ultimate assignment as a Special Forces medical
718
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:37.559
doctor at Fort Bragg. This required additional paratrooper training at
719
00:47:37.559 --> 00:47:41.840
Fort Benning, Georgia. While at Fort sam Houston, McDonald was
720
00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:43.960
informed by his wife that she was pregnant with the
721
00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:47.920
couple's third child. MacDonald described the months leading up to
722
00:47:47.960 --> 00:47:52.320
the murders on February seventeenth as the happiest of his marriage.
723
00:47:52.480 --> 00:47:57.039
His wife also corresponded with friends, indicating that financially things
724
00:47:57.079 --> 00:47:59.719
were better and their lives were pleasant and much more
725
00:47:59.719 --> 00:48:03.440
state But it didn't take long for investigators to find
726
00:48:03.480 --> 00:48:07.000
aspects of McDonald's childhood and marriage that were out of
727
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:11.119
the ordinary or even utterly dysfunctional. As a sophomore in
728
00:48:11.199 --> 00:48:14.639
high school, a highly unusual development occurred in which Jeffrey
729
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:19.599
McDonald suddenly on his own, relocated to Baytown, Texas, to
730
00:48:19.639 --> 00:48:22.719
live with the family of Jack Andrews, an acquaintance of
731
00:48:22.760 --> 00:48:26.480
a mutual friend of the McDonald family, but Andrews a
732
00:48:26.559 --> 00:48:31.760
veritable stranger to the McDonald's themselves. Although initially explained as
733
00:48:31.800 --> 00:48:35.400
a brief visit, Jeffrey McDonald would eventually enroll in a
734
00:48:35.440 --> 00:48:39.920
Texas high school and remain in the Andrews household until March.
735
00:48:40.719 --> 00:48:44.920
Andrews died before McDonald's subsequent notoriety, but his son did
736
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.920
not remember this interlude, fondly describing McDonald as always wanting
737
00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:53.880
to be the center of attention and eventually alienating most
738
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:58.719
individuals he came in contact with. McDonald also spoke infrequently
739
00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:02.280
about his own family, and eventually got into physical conflict
740
00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:06.199
with the Andrews Boy himself, prompting his return to Long Island.
741
00:49:06.840 --> 00:49:09.760
The rumor even then was that Jeffrey had physically attacked
742
00:49:09.760 --> 00:49:13.199
his older brother Jay to an extent that was physically alarming,
743
00:49:13.719 --> 00:49:16.760
and the McDonald's parents felt it best to defuse this
744
00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:20.719
sibling rivalry with a trip to Texas. Years later, j
745
00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:24.400
MacDonald acknowledged that his brother had subjected him to at
746
00:49:24.480 --> 00:49:27.480
least two violent outbursts where he might have been seriously
747
00:49:27.559 --> 00:49:31.079
hurt if his mother did not intercede. Jay was also
748
00:49:31.199 --> 00:49:34.639
prominent in his high school as a superior football player,
749
00:49:34.840 --> 00:49:38.440
but washed out of college, got involved with heavy drug use,
750
00:49:38.800 --> 00:49:44.199
and ultimately began having violent psychotic breakdowns that required institutionalization.
751
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:50.239
Jay's account also contradicted McDonald's subsequent frequent and adamant denials
752
00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:54.159
that he had ever assaulted anyone. The McDonald marriage also
753
00:49:54.239 --> 00:49:57.840
resulted from collect MacDonald becoming pregnant while the couple was
754
00:49:57.880 --> 00:50:01.159
still dating, and despite the blessing of the families involved
755
00:50:01.679 --> 00:50:06.239
and Jeffrey McDonald's insistence that they would have eventually married anyway,
756
00:50:06.519 --> 00:50:09.840
the marriage occurred under some duress, and for all of
757
00:50:09.880 --> 00:50:12.480
the talk of the newfound level of happiness within the
758
00:50:12.519 --> 00:50:18.000
McDonald household, there was also Jeffrey McDonald's compulsive womanizing. CID
759
00:50:18.159 --> 00:50:22.320
investigators located several women that McDonald dated while at Fort
760
00:50:22.440 --> 00:50:25.719
sam Houston, and he was only there for six weeks,
761
00:50:25.960 --> 00:50:29.239
openly admitting that he was married with some of these women,
762
00:50:29.400 --> 00:50:34.039
acknowledging that he frequently engaged in such extramarital behavior and
763
00:50:34.039 --> 00:50:36.800
that his wife knew all about it. Under the guise
764
00:50:36.840 --> 00:50:40.880
of driving lessons, McDonald was also routinely interacting with a
765
00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:44.920
nineteen year old neighbor, with such alleged lessons occurring so
766
00:50:45.079 --> 00:50:49.039
frequently that this girl's mother became suspicious that something more
767
00:50:49.079 --> 00:50:52.679
intimate was involved. MacDonald also claimed to one of his
768
00:50:52.760 --> 00:50:55.960
Green Beret friends that he was counseling a colleague's wife
769
00:50:56.320 --> 00:50:59.840
over her marital problems. McDonald even hit on a sixteen
770
00:51:00.039 --> 00:51:03.440
year old nextdoor neighbor babysitter, telling her that if he
771
00:51:03.480 --> 00:51:06.519
had known such sixteen year olds when he was that age,
772
00:51:06.679 --> 00:51:09.880
he would have never left high school. She was not amused.
773
00:51:10.800 --> 00:51:13.360
McDonald would subsequently claim that at the time of the
774
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:16.880
murders they had never been happier. But actually McDonald was
775
00:51:16.920 --> 00:51:21.119
frequently exhausted from working two moonlighting medical jobs, and he
776
00:51:21.199 --> 00:51:24.320
was actively seeking a third. He was disappointed that his
777
00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:28.320
initial Green Beret unit was disbanded some of his colleagues
778
00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:31.480
sent to Southeast Asia while he was assigned to permanent
779
00:51:31.920 --> 00:51:36.559
state side duties at Fort Bragg. McDonald had also told
780
00:51:36.599 --> 00:51:39.280
his wife that he would be accompanying the base boxing
781
00:51:39.320 --> 00:51:43.880
team to a competition in Russia. McDonald had recently started
782
00:51:43.920 --> 00:51:47.480
working out with a boxing squad, and his physical conditioning
783
00:51:47.559 --> 00:51:51.639
was excellent, the captain routinely running long distances and able
784
00:51:51.719 --> 00:51:55.079
to complete the five minute boxing heavy bag routine, a
785
00:51:55.119 --> 00:51:59.519
difficult exercise. His ability was impressive enough to prompt the
786
00:51:59.559 --> 00:52:04.440
boxing squad's coach to officially designate McDonald as the team's physician,
787
00:52:05.199 --> 00:52:08.360
but in speaking with the team's coach, investigators found out
788
00:52:08.440 --> 00:52:11.239
that there was no actual trip to Russia being planned.
789
00:52:11.840 --> 00:52:15.480
This was a highly suspicious concoction in that it not
790
00:52:15.559 --> 00:52:18.559
only meant that it would allow McDonald to disappear with
791
00:52:18.679 --> 00:52:22.400
no ability to be contacted. The alleged trip was supposedly
792
00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:25.280
going to occur when Collet MacDonald would be giving birth
793
00:52:25.320 --> 00:52:29.199
to their third child, a development she found deeply upsetting.
794
00:52:29.719 --> 00:52:33.679
The boxing team did have potential competitions planned in some
795
00:52:33.760 --> 00:52:40.320
Middle Atlantic states, a geographic location that eventually became highly significant,
796
00:52:40.559 --> 00:52:45.760
but devising such a completely false destination like Russia indicated
797
00:52:45.800 --> 00:52:48.320
the degree to which McDonald seemed to want to be
798
00:52:48.440 --> 00:52:52.280
anywhere but home in his household. Collette was also taking
799
00:52:52.360 --> 00:52:56.159
a psychology class at the North Carolina State Extension at
800
00:52:56.199 --> 00:53:01.000
Fort Bragg. Interestingly, McDonald and initially told the CID and
801
00:53:01.079 --> 00:53:04.199
his own psychiatrist that his wife is taking a course
802
00:53:04.239 --> 00:53:08.880
in literature, but this course dealt with fundamental psychological definitions
803
00:53:09.320 --> 00:53:15.760
and behaviors regarding such issues as narcissism, obsessive compulsion, and meglomania.
804
00:53:16.320 --> 00:53:19.559
Her classmates also verified that Kleett had asked questions in
805
00:53:19.599 --> 00:53:22.400
her final class on the night of the murder about
806
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:25.880
her child's bedwetting issues, and it is very possible that
807
00:53:25.960 --> 00:53:30.199
whatever information she received she attempted to share with her husband.
808
00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:32.960
A discussion that might have been the catalyst for a
809
00:53:33.039 --> 00:53:37.599
violent outcome. Investigators also determined that subsequent to the murders,
810
00:53:37.960 --> 00:53:41.840
MacDonald had entered into an ongoing sexual relationship with a
811
00:53:41.880 --> 00:53:46.480
young female Fort Bragg's secretary. MacDonald had somehow convinced his
812
00:53:46.599 --> 00:53:50.639
MP guards, who were stationed outside his bachelor's office quarters,
813
00:53:50.679 --> 00:53:53.440
to allow this individual to spend time with him behind
814
00:53:53.480 --> 00:53:57.480
closed doors on a routine basis, a violation of rules
815
00:53:57.519 --> 00:54:02.000
regarding his confinement. While not rising to the level of illegality,
816
00:54:02.239 --> 00:54:06.320
Investigators were puzzled by the behavior of an individual whose
817
00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:10.480
wife and children had recently been slaughtered. The reinvestigation also
818
00:54:10.599 --> 00:54:16.320
uncovered previously uncollected physical evidence. CID investigator Ivory discovered that
819
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:20.159
a slat underneath Kimberly's bed came from the same piece
820
00:54:20.199 --> 00:54:23.719
of wood as the long wooden club used during the murders.
821
00:54:24.280 --> 00:54:28.920
Observations concerning the knives recovered from the scene, ice pick
822
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:32.440
holes in McDonald's pajama top, and the bloodstains on the
823
00:54:32.440 --> 00:54:35.679
pajama top all cast doubt on McDonald's version of what
824
00:54:35.880 --> 00:54:40.760
happened during the night of February seventeenth. By now, investigators
825
00:54:40.760 --> 00:54:45.079
were also receiving feedback from a former staunch supporter of McDonald,
826
00:54:45.360 --> 00:54:49.119
namely his father in law, Freddie Cassob. After finally getting
827
00:54:49.119 --> 00:54:52.079
his own copy of the article thirty two transcript and
828
00:54:52.159 --> 00:54:57.599
reading it, Cassob cited numerous falsehoods, impossibilities, and issues that
829
00:54:57.639 --> 00:55:01.679
also cast doubt on McDonald's story. He also had information
830
00:55:01.760 --> 00:55:04.599
that indicated that McDonald had never really broken off his
831
00:55:04.719 --> 00:55:09.719
relationship with Carol Larson, his high school girlfriend referred to
832
00:55:09.760 --> 00:55:13.480
in Fatal Vision as Penny Wells. He asked to meet
833
00:55:13.480 --> 00:55:17.800
with investigators to discuss the possibility that McDonald or someone
834
00:55:17.840 --> 00:55:21.559
had actually killed a white male in November of nineteen seventy.
835
00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:25.800
Through the examination of police and hospital records, Casob and
836
00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:30.239
investigators determined that this could not possibly be true. He
837
00:55:30.280 --> 00:55:33.320
also asked the two chief investigators if he could get
838
00:55:33.360 --> 00:55:37.800
access to the scene itself. In March, a little more
839
00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:41.239
than a year after the murders, Casob entered five four
840
00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:44.840
to four Castle Drive and attempted to duplicate some of
841
00:55:44.880 --> 00:55:48.000
the actions that McDonald claimed either he or the intruders
842
00:55:48.039 --> 00:55:52.199
implemented during the murders. For example, McDonald claimed that he
843
00:55:52.280 --> 00:55:54.960
was first hit with the thirty two inch club by
844
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:57.880
a black man who raised it completely over his head
845
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:01.440
while McDonald sat up on the cap ouch using a
846
00:56:01.480 --> 00:56:05.360
thirty two inch long piece of wood. Gasob determined that
847
00:56:05.400 --> 00:56:09.199
with the low living room ceiling, that was impossible. Several
848
00:56:09.199 --> 00:56:14.039
other activities that McDonald described comporting to certain time frames,
849
00:56:14.440 --> 00:56:17.159
like the time it took to examine his wife and
850
00:56:17.280 --> 00:56:21.280
children after he regained consciousness, could not be duplicated as
851
00:56:21.360 --> 00:56:25.639
McDonald claimed. That night, he checked the amount of illumination
852
00:56:25.760 --> 00:56:28.320
in the various rooms and found that they were so
853
00:56:28.559 --> 00:56:31.199
dark that McDonald could not have possibly seen some of
854
00:56:31.280 --> 00:56:35.159
the things that he described concerning the conditions and wounds
855
00:56:35.159 --> 00:56:38.559
of his children without having turned on a light switch.
856
00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:42.519
But the light switch in Kristen's room was completely unstained,
857
00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:45.480
leaving the room too dark for McDonald to see any
858
00:56:45.519 --> 00:56:48.960
of the things he described. McDonald claimed that while giving
859
00:56:48.960 --> 00:56:52.679
his daughter Kristen mouth to mouth resuscitation, he could see
860
00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:55.920
blood bubbling from her chest, and the darkness such an
861
00:56:55.960 --> 00:57:01.719
observation would have been impossible. Gasob discovered several similar discrepancies,
862
00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:04.840
and when he finally was through with this process and
863
00:57:04.920 --> 00:57:07.599
stood in front of five four to four Castle Drive,
864
00:57:08.039 --> 00:57:10.760
he was now completely convinced that Jeffrey MacDonald was a
865
00:57:10.840 --> 00:57:14.159
liar who had murdered Collet MacDonald and her two children,
866
00:57:14.519 --> 00:57:18.159
and he said so to the investigators also present. Prue
867
00:57:18.159 --> 00:57:20.280
had then explained to him that despite all of their
868
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:23.719
collective belief in the guilt of Jeffrey MacDonald, their only
869
00:57:23.800 --> 00:57:26.880
shot was now getting the DOJ to prosecute the case.
870
00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:30.639
A case which the Army had already refused to prosecute,
871
00:57:31.079 --> 00:57:34.199
was already embarrassing to the military and, by connection, the
872
00:57:34.239 --> 00:57:37.639
federal government, and was already well known to have contained
873
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:42.280
numerous embarrassing investigative mistakes. At the very least, prue It
874
00:57:42.400 --> 00:57:47.639
cautioned Freddy, any successful prosecution of Jeffrey MacDonald would require
875
00:57:47.679 --> 00:57:50.360
a great deal of patience and was likely to be
876
00:57:50.400 --> 00:57:55.239
a difficult slog. Casab responded with his typical single mindedness,
877
00:57:55.320 --> 00:57:58.880
explaining that he, at age fifty two, had plenty of time,
878
00:57:59.280 --> 00:58:02.599
underlining that if necessary, he would spend the rest of
879
00:58:02.639 --> 00:58:06.159
his life ensuring that Jeffrey McDonald wound up in a
880
00:58:06.199 --> 00:58:20.360
prison cell. Thank you for listening to part one of
881
00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:25.519
this podcast about doctor Jeffrey McDonald. Information for this podcast
882
00:58:25.679 --> 00:58:29.760
came from the books Fatal Vision by Joe McGuinness and
883
00:58:29.880 --> 00:58:34.679
Wilderness of Era by Errol Morris. There are also additional photographs,
884
00:58:34.840 --> 00:58:40.119
bibliographical and musical information at bite sized biographies dot com.
885
00:58:40.599 --> 00:58:43.119
Thank you for listening, and please tell a friend about
886
00:58:43.480 --> 00:58:45.360
Bite Sized Biographies