Criminology - Jeffrey MacDonald Part 1

Episode Date: June 15, 2019

We are discussing Jeffrey MacDonald and the MacDonald family murder case on this episode of Criminology. This is the first part of what will likely be 2 episodes on this infamous case. Jeffrey MacDonald was a doctor in the army stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina with his wife and two young daughters. In the early morning hours of Feb 17, 1970, Jeffrey was wounded and his wife and two daughters were killed. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this murder case that gripped the nation. MacDonald has always alleged that some hippies broke in and murdered his family. But the suspicion quickly fell onto him and he was ultimately convicted of the murders. However, the road to his conviction took a number of years since the murders occurred while he was in the service. After he got out, it was tough at first for prosecutors to try him in civilian court. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'd like to welcome everyone to episode 65 of criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how are you? I'm tired. CrimeCon wipe me out. I'm still sore. How about you? Yeah, CrimeCon is, uh, it's fun, but it's rough, right? Obviously, there's a lot of flying involved. And, and then for me, what I always forget is how tiring it is. And, and, you know, all you're doing is really meeting people and talking, but for some reason, that seems to be very tiring. Like, I have to take a nap every day. Yeah, I think by that third day, I'm feeling it and I'm ready to go home and just like you just jump into bed and stay in there for a day. Yeah. So my, I'll just say right up front, my throat is a little

jacked up. I don't know if that's from the amount of talking that we did because we obviously we talk to a lot of people. This CrimeCon was bigger than the other two have been. It seems to get bigger every year, right? Definitely. And we had some really great listeners and fans that came out and talked to us. It was really awesome. Well, so not only does the entire thing get bigger, but our audience gets bigger.

So the amount of people that want to come and talk to us, you know, grows, which is great. That's what we want. but it's a lot of talking and it really did now it was either that or it's the 18,000 flights for some reason that I had to take to get from New Orleans back to Ohio. I mean, you know, I get it. I don't live in a big city, but I don't know why I have to fly, you know, to 14 different airports just to get back to date in Ohio. But that's a whole other subject.

Yeah, I was lucky we hit a nonstop flight to and from and it was pretty easy, pretty uneventful. Now, in Dayton, Ohio, you can not get a nonstop flight to basically anywhere anymore, I don't think. But it was great, right? CrimeCon was a lot of fun. We met some amazing listeners. We met a lot of great podcasters that, you know, we've met before, but something that we hadn't. There were new podcasters there, people with newer shows that we got to meet. What else? More if we got to meet a lot of interesting people that were there as guests. I, so we've funny, story I was on the elevator. I was going back up to my room and in walk Michael Peterson's attorney from the staircase, Rudolph. I can't remember his first. David Rudolph. David Rudolph. So he's

standing there and I'm standing there. We're the only two in the elevator and I look at him and I, he looks so familiar. And of course it's crime con. So eventually I figure it out. And I had just watched this, rewatch the staircase maybe two or three months ago. So we started talking and And that was kind of interesting. But to see people like Christopher Darden and Henry Lee and things like that, kind of cool. Yeah, there's definitely lots of cool things and cool people to meet and watch and just to mingle with. That's the best part of CrimeCon. And for me, the food, right?

New Orleans, I ate way too much, but I had some amazing stuff. I had these char broiled oysters. I don't even really like oysters, but these are cooked, right? over an open flame and they just sit there and they drizzle like some kind of garlic butter back and forth on them. So I had a dozen of those, maybe one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. Yeah, I had this as well after you told me about them and they were really good. I did try one of your shrimp poboys that you suggested. That wasn't good. That's one thing that I wasn't happy with. Well, that's because you tried it at the hotel. Now, for a authentic shrimp

poboy, you got to get out into town, man. And you got to seek out like, the diviest place you can find. That's the key to New Orleans food for, you know, a lot, a lot of times. Well, I was happy. I did get my hurricanes. I like to drink some hurricanes with them there. And I did do that. And I'm satisfied now.

So we're, we're done, right? For another year, they already announced that next year's going to be in Orlando. And I did see something that said, I think they're going to do a cruise later, separate from the regular crime con. So it's becoming a behemoth. Lots of fun stuff coming up. So more, if we had some new Patreon supporters, let's give some shoutouts. We had Melissa Lynn Poth, Mary Bells, Theodore Roland Foth the third.

Skyler Young jumped out at our highest level, Charlie Paxford, Brett Irvin, Lauren Rosenbaum, Jerry Jensen, and Katie Krause. So a lot of new support. It's amazing. We love it. really goes a long way towards, you know, helping us out, we can never be thankful enough, right? Yeah, it's, it's awesome every week to hear those names. And some of those names are big supporters on social media, too, and that goes a long way

as well. So we appreciate that. And if you'd like to help support the show on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. All right. With all that out of the way, we are ready to jump into this episode. And right off the bat, I'll say, this is going to be a two. partner. It's a big case, and it's one that you and I have been wanting to do for some time.

We're talking about the McDonald family murders. It was in the early morning hours of February 17th, 1970, 25-year-old Colette McDonald, who was pregnant with her third child and her two daughters, five-year-old Kimberly and two-year-old Kristen, were brutally murdered in their home. on the Army military base, Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. Colette's husband, Jeffrey McDonald, was injured in the attack, but was ultimately convicted of their murders in 1979. And like I said, this was a big case. It was very highly publicized across the U.S. and even outside the U.S.

It became one of the most well-known murder cases in U.S. history. It inspired books, it inspired movies, television movies. Over the nearly five decades since the gruesome slings, Jeffrey McDonald has maintained his innocence and has tried and failed numerous times to win his freedom. Fort Bragg, North Carolina, sits about 12 miles northwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Established on September 4th, 1918, it was one of three camps in the state set up to trained soldiers during World War I. It was also the only one to continue operating after the war. In the 1920s and 1930s, soldiers at Fort Bragg tested artillery weapons for efficiency and effectiveness.

During this time, a new highway was constructed to connect Fort Bragg with the civilian world. A post-hospital was built during this time. Fort Bragg subsequently became the headquarters of District A of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the training ground for the National Reservation. officer training corps, officers reserve corps, and citizen military training. During World War II, Brigadier General William C. Lee was promoted to Major General in August 1942 and given command of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. In late 1942, both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions removed the Fort Bragg. By the end of World War II, the 11th, 13th, and 17th divisions all had a presence at Fort Bragg, and the base became known as the home of the airborne.

In the 1950s, Fort Bragg became the home of the Army Psychological Warfare Center, now called the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and the headquarters for special forces soldiers. Today, Fort Bragg is known as the home of the airborne and special operations. It has approximately 57,000 military personnel. 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family members. It's one of the largest military complexes in the world. In early 1970, Fort Bragg became notorious. For one thing, the brutal murders of a pregnant mother and her two daughters.

Jeffrey McDonald was born in Jamaica on October 12, 1943, to Robert and Dorothy McDonald. He had two siblings, Jay and Judy. McDonald attended Pat Chagoo High School, where he was voted most popular and most likely to succeed. He was also a star athlete. While in high school, Jeffrey began dating Colette Stevenson, who he had known since seventh grade. Their relationship was on and off through their high school years. But after McDonald won a scholarship to Princeton University, he resumed his relationship with Colette, and the pair was inseparable.

Colette Catherine Stevenson was born in Manhattan, New York. on May 10, 1944, to Edward and Mildred Stevenson. In 1954, Edward took his own life. And two years later, Mildred met Alfred Freddy Kasab on New Year's Eve, and the two eventually married. Friday immediately bonded with Collette, and he very much thought of this young girl as his own. Clay graduated from high school and attended two years at Skidmore College.

Jeffrey and Collette married on September 14th, 1963 in New York City. Colette was pregnant with the couple's first child and on April 18th, 1964, Kimberly Catherine McDonald was born at Princeton Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey. After attending three years at Princeton, Jeffrey moved his family to Chicago in 1964 where he was accepted to Northwestern University Medical School. On March 5, 1966, Jeffrey's father, Robert McDonald, died at the age of 48 from pulmonary fibrosis. Robert was known as Mack to his friends and his dream was to become an electrical engineer. Mack tried many times to pass the test but failed and became a draftsman instead.

A little over a year after Mack's death, Kristen Jean McDonald was born in Chicago, May 8, 1967. In 1968, Jeffrey McDonald graduated from medical school and a year later completed medical residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. On July 1st, 1969, he joined the Army. And his first assignment was to report to Fort Sam Houston Army Medical School in San Antonio, Texas for a six-week orientation. Afterwards, McDonald took a short leave before reporting to Fort Benning, Georgia, for three weeks of jump school, which is basic paratrooper training. On October 29, 1969, Jeffrey McDonald arrived at Fort Bragg with the rank of captain

and was assigned to the Green Berets as group surgeon to the third special forces. Three months later, the group was disbanded, and he was reassigned to the six Special Forces group as a preventative medical officer. Not too long after McDonald arrived at Fort Bragg, Freddie Kasab, Colette's stepfather, drove her and the children to the base to join McDonald at 544 Castle Drive, a red brick four-family building, specifically used by military personnel. Military life for the McDonald family really started here, and life for the family was going. good for a while. The family seemed happy. They made friends and Clette attended night school. But in early hours of February 17, 1970, the McDonald family dream was shattered. At 3.42 a.m., chief operator of Carolina telephone company, Carol Landon, received the call for help, and shortly after notified dispatchers at Fort Bragg. On the call, Jeffrey McDonald reported

that, quote, some people had been stabbed at his residence. and that he needed military police, medics, and ambulances. Jeffrey McDonnell later told Larry King in 2003 the events had transpired before he made the emergency call. Up till now, everything was totally normal. There was nothing unusual at all in our life that we were aware of. The next thing I knew, I was awakened on the couch, and I was awakened by a combination of hearing my wife screaming for, help and asking for me and my older daughter five-year-old five-year-old yelling screaming for help daddy daddy

and my wife was saying jeff jeff why are they doing this help jeff and i started to push up there was a little light on in the kitchen which is a small apartment and there was some light in the living room from this light in the kitchen and they were to my immediate view three people it turned out there were four, but I saw three people, a black male, two white males, the black male had on an army jacket with E6 sergeant stripes. And in the ensuing struggle, there were two episodes of time, very, very brief in which I saw what I took to be a white female in a broad, floppy hat with stringy blonde hair. And I heard her say, acid is groovy, kill the pigs. I heard her say that more than once, and also the term acid and rain.

It was raining outside of the time. But as I awakened on the couch, I didn't know what was going on. I heard my wife, I heard my daughter, and I saw these people, and I either said, and I to this day don't know if I said it or thought I was going to say it, you know, what the hell you're doing here?

Who are you? What's going on? And the black male to my left raised something, and he swung a club at me, and I threw my hand up, and he hit me in the head with a club, I took to be a baseball bat. He drove me back to the couch that I was sleeping on, and now my head was ringing,

and I, it was having a hard time getting up, and the comforter was still over my legs, but I pushed back up, and I'm trying to, and I was getting struck in the chest and about the head, and I threw my hand up again and took another blow to the side of the head, and during this time I suddenly developed a real severe chest pain, I remember real distinctly thinking to myself,

this guy throws a hell of a punch. And I presume that was the stab wound that collapsed my lung. Is your wife still screaming, or is that stopped? I don't know. I don't know when it stopped. I heard her, and the voice rings in my ears to this day, so I don't know when it stopped. So you're now cut and hit, and you're lying on the couch?

I didn't know I was being cut. I was all of a sudden in this struggle, I'm trying to push these people away and get up at the same time. I finally got my left leg on the floor. And that gave me a little leverage, and I started to move forward. And I finally grabbed the black male's arm as he swung it, and he kept jerking his arm away to pull the weapon away. And my hand kept sliding down on the weapon, which is how I know it was a baseball bat, because it was smooth. Who called the then they left? Well, the next thing I knew, I was tumbling towards the floor.

and I saw the bare knee of what I took to be this white female, and I saw the top of boots. At the time, they were called go-go boots. They were light in color, and they were glistening, like they were wet. When I came to, the house was silent, and my first memory, as strange as it sounds, is the smell of Johnson's floor wax.

My face was on the floor, and to this day, if I walk in a room that's recently waxed, I get a very weird feeling because... Did you call the MPs or the police? When I went down into the master bedroom and found my wife brutally murdered. I tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. It didn't work.

And eventually, I made my way to book two other bedrooms and found my children in the same state. I called the MPs. So in that audio, you get a sense of the crime scene and what it looked like, according to Jeffrey McDonald. One thing not mentioned in that audio is that when Jeffrey found his wife, she had a small knife embedded in her chest. The knife was a Geneva forged knife.

And that's important, as it's going to come back up later in the episode, when McDonald found his wife on the floor. He claims that he pulled that Geneva forged knife out of her chest and tossed it over near the dresser. When the MPEs and medics arrived at 4.10 a.m., McDonald told them that he and his family were attacked by a group of hippies. The scene they walked into was similar to the murder scene of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate a few months earlier in August 1969. Like Sharon Tate, Clette was pregnant and just as it was in

the Tate home, the word pig was scrawled in blood on the interior of the McDonald home. Jeffrey was lying semi-conscious on the floor. He had been stabbed in the stomach, chest, and the left arm. He told police about the group of hippies who had, attacked him and his family, and Army spokesman later said, quote, it appeared that the captain had fallen asleep on a sofa while reading and that he was surprised by intruders. Four Army investigators from Fort Gordon, Georgia, arrived at the McDonald home. One of them was a man named William Ivory. When he entered the living room, he noticed that the room was, in his opinion, quote,

in good order, except for the coffee table that was turned over on its side and was resting on a stack of magazines. Just south of the coffee table lay a pair of reading glasses on the floor. Alongside the table was a plant that had spilled over. Ivory then walked into the dining room, which was an extension of the living room. There were no signs of a struggle. West of the dining room was the kitchen. On part of the dining room floor near the kitchen were traces of smeared blood. In the kitchen, the ceiling light was on. Just inside the kitchen door on the wall was the telephone.

It was off the hook, and the receiver rested on the floor. Traces of blood were found on the kitchen floor, refrigerator door handle, top of the stove, the kitchen sink, a pair of oven mitts, and on the northwest and south walls. Several drops of blood were on the floor beneath the sink and directly in front of the sink cabinet. East of the living room and dining room was a hallway leading to the bedrooms. Some clothes in the doll's head were found on the hallway floor near the steps to the living room.

Traces of blood and a blood trail leading from the master bedroom to the south bedroom were on the hallway floor, as well as a bloody footprint in the middle of the floor near the north side bedroom. In the hallway bathroom, there were traces of blood in the bathtub and on the cloth toilet seat cover. the toilet tank and a step ladder. A blood smear was on the wall just left of the mirror. There was a crumpled up pink tissue in the sink. Blood was also found on the hall closet door and this closet contained medical supplies. Some prescription drugs, syringes and disposable scalpel blades.

Ivory walked into the master bedroom. He found Colette McDonald dead. laying on her back, legs apart. One of her eyes was open and her left arm extended over her head. Her pajamas were covered in blood and her upper body showed signs of a very severe beating. Colette had severe blunt trauma injuries to her face, head and arms. She had been stabbed multiple times on her chest and neck. A blue blood-soaked and torn pajama top was draped across her chest and a white Hilton bath mat laid across her abdomen. A pocket from the blue pajama top was laying on top of a bluish-green throw rug located at Colette's feet.

The white chag carpet beneath Colette's body was soaked in blood and there was a very large blood stain near the bedroom door. Near Colette's body were two small fragments of a surgeon's glove and numerous blue threads. These threads were also found on the bed along with some wood splinters. The bed sheet on the bed was soaked in blood, and there was some blood spatter on the ceiling. On the south side of the bed sheet was a large stain, later determined to be yearn. The word pig was scrawled on the west side of the headboard. North of Clette's body was a paring knife. A pile of bundled bedding was on the floor next to the door.

A suitcase laid near the right corner of the footboard of the bed. The footboard itself bore traces of blood. The right side of the closet door was open, and inside was a pair of blood-spattered white shoes. The next bedroom I ever entered was Kimberly's, the south bedroom. Inside the room, five-year-old Kimberly was found dead in her bed. She was laying on her left side with the blankets pulled up to her shoulders and tucked under her. Several blue pajama threads were on top of the bedding, and an extremely long pajama fiber was located. on her pillow. Kimberly's face and head had several blunt force trauma injuries. There were several

gaping stab wounds to her neck. Blood covered the pillow and mattress. Blood spatter was on the ceiling and portions of the wall. Ivory then walked into Kristen's bedroom, located on the north side of the home and across the hallway from Kimberly's. Like her sister, two-year-old Kristen was found in her bed and laying on her left side. Her left arm was outstretched and a nearly empty baby bottle was next to her mouth. Kristen had several stab wounds to her chest, back and hands. Her blankets covered her lower body and her pillow was soaked in blood. There was blood spatter on the wall next to her bed and a large amount of blood ran in a downhill direction on the right side of the right side of the bed. Two bloody bare footprints were found on the floor exiting her room. Ivory and his team

spent more than eight hours searching the home but found no evidence of the three men and one woman who Jeffrey McDonald said had attacked him and his family. An army spokesman said, quote, it appears that whoever did this may have been familiar with the interior of the house. But that's all he said in a statement. There was really no explanation to what that meant. Now, there was no sign of forced entry, but one of the two back doors was found to be unlocked. Investigators found an ice pick and an old hickory knife under some shrubs outside. the home near the back door leading to the utility room. They also found a piece of wood just outside the utility room door. It was determined that Colette and the children had been

stabbed with a knife and an ice pick. Jeffrey McDonald was transferred to Cape Fear Hospital for treatment. At the same time, the bodies of his wife, Colette and daughters Kimberly and Kristen, were transferred to the morgue at Cape Fear. McDonald had several small puncture-type wounds to the upper left chest and a superficial stab wound to the left abdomen, in the form of an upside-down V. A neat and clean stab wound, one centimeter in length, was located between two ribs on the right side of his chest.

That resulted in a collapsed lung. McDonald also had a superficial laceration on his left index finger. Autopsies on Collette and the Children were performed later that morning by Major George Gamble, the medical corner. Colette sustained severe blunt trauma injuries to her head and arms. She was hit at least six times with a blunt object, resulting in lacerations to her right and left temple, forehead, and the top of her head.

She had a small fracture in the midline portion of her skull and received two blows under her chin that caused extensive bruising to the right and left chin area. Colette had defensive-tight wounds to her arms and her right wrist was fractured. She had a bruise and abrasion on her upper arm. Her left arm was broken in two places, and there were abrasions on her right hand.

She sustained nine deep knife wounds to the front of her neck and seven deep knife wounds to her chest. Additionally, there were 21 puncture wounds to her chest area. Also in her chest area was a pattern bruise, which indicated she had been struck at arm's length with the end of a blunt object. Kimberly had eight to 10 deep knife wounds on the right side of her neck and she had been struck at least three times on the head with a blunt object. The first blow caused blood to spatter on the doorframe.

Her right cheek, right ear and right mastoid area had overlapping black and blue marks and irregular abrasions. Her left cheek bone was fractured and a portion of. of it was jutting through her skin. She had multiple skull fractures. Little Kristen had 12 gaping knife wounds to her upper back, four wounds to her chest, and one wound to her neck. Two of her wounds to the back caused massive internal bleeding. She had 15 shallow puncture wounds in her chest and multiple cuts on her hands. The next day, on February 18th, 19th, Army investigators told the press that they had been unable to establish a motive for the murders, but they believed the killings were ritualistic and probably the work of local drug users.

Colonel Robert Crawanick, the provost marshal at Fort Bragg, said investigators had open minds about the brutal murders and were investigating both on and off the base. They were also checking every patient Jeffrey had treated. in recent months and ordered neighbors to the McDonald's not to talk to reporters. 300 people had been brought in for interrogation, and authorities estimated that 1,500 young men and women generally characterize as hippies live near Fort Bragg. Many of them were arrested the previous year on charges of drug violations. Investigators also questioned 50 Fort Bragg soldiers, including some who were treated by Jeffrey McDonald. On February 19th, Green Beret,

team commander, Lieutenant Ronald Harrison from Columbus, Ohio, told reporters at a press conference that a few days before the murders, McDonald had discussed with him the Tate Lobionca murders that were featured in the current issue of Esquire Magazine. Isn't that wild? Was a question that Harrison said, Jeffrey asked him. Harrison also claimed that he was McDonald's best friend in the army and described him as a very kind and considerate man who sympathized with drug addicts. It was at this point where some of these things started to make Jeffrey McDonald look bad to some. You know, first of all, his wife and children were savagely attacked, viciously murdered, but most of his injuries were superficial. Then you have a

friend of McDonald's saying that just a few days before the murders, Jeffrey McDonald mentioned the Manson murders from a magazine article that he had read, murders that, like we talked about more, were strikingly similar in many ways to the murders of Colette and the girls. On February 21st, 1970, funeral services were held for Collette, her unborn son, Kimberly, and Kristen at the JFK Center Chapel in Fort Bragg. Jeffrey McDonald attended the services and was accompanied by three military policemen dressed as civilians. The next day, Friday and Mildred Kasab accompanied the remains of Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen back to New York. Burrell took place on February 23rd in Washington

Memorial Park in Mount Sinai, New York. The McDonald's unborn son was buried with Colette. Jeffrey McDonald was released from the hospital on February 20th. It was also released to assume his duty status the next day. That spring, polygraph expert John Reed administered a polygraph test to Jeffrey McDonald. The results came back as inconclusive. Then several weeks later, he was given another polygraph by polygraph expert Cleve Baxter. And this time, he failed.

On April 6th, 1970, the criminal investigation, division or CID sent agents Franz Grebner, William Ivory, and Bob Shaw to question Jeffrey MacDonald about the events of February 17th, 1970. Throughout this very long interview, Jeffrey repeated himself several times. It was said that he gave an inordinate amount of unnecessary information. It was also said that he oftentimes came across as rude, unemotional, and that often he just did not make any sense. So you know, this trio of trained agents is watching. They're listening to Jeffrey McDonald and their spidey senses are tingling. After the interrogation, McDonald returned to his office

and a short time later, he was summoned to Colonel Kemp. Kane's office. Kane informed him that the public information officer at Fort Bragg was going to issue a statement saying that Jeffrey was the primary suspect in his family's murders. Jeffrey would be restricted to his quarters. He could not go anywhere on base without being accompanied by another officer. On May 1st, 1970, Jeffrey McDonnell was officially charged with the murders of his pregnant wife and two small daughters. But a few days later on May 9th, police arrested Kenneth Barnett, Annette Cullity, Gary Burnett, and Joseph Lee in Suffolk County, New York. The group became known as the New York Four. Suffolk County police contacted CID because the New York Four

matched the physical descriptions of the four people McDonald claimed attacked his family. CID agent Benny Hawkins traveled to Suffolk County to talk with the police officers there. He learned that the New York four ran at a house in Fire Island with Jeffrey McDonald's brother Jay in the summer of 1969. McDonald visited Jay there and was seen talking to people matching the four individuals' descriptions at the shortstop bar in Long Island. Kenneth Barnett and Gary Burnett were both white males. Joseph Lee was African American and he was seen wearing an Army field jacket. Annette Colody was a white female and she was known to wear a floppy hat and hip boots. However, Hawkins obtained the group's fingerprints, and none of their prints

matched any prints found at 544 Castle Drive, the scene of the McDonald family murders. An Article 32 hearing convened on July 6, 1970, and ran through September of that year. And Article 32 hearing is similar to a preliminary hearing in the civilian world. The hearing was overseen by investigating officers. Colonel Warren Rock and was aimed at determining whether Captain Jeffrey McDonald would be court-martialed on the murder charges. Captain Clifford Summers was the government attorney. McDonald was represented by Bernard Siegel and Dennis Iceman, civil defense attorneys from Philadelphia. The defense presented evidence that the CID had not properly managed the crime scene and had lost several.

items of critical evidence, including four torn tips of surgical gloves found in the master bedroom and a single layer of skin found under one of Collette's fingernails. Segal also claimed to have located the woman in the blonde wig. Helena Stokely, she was a well-known drug user in town who socialized regularly with other heavy drug users, including her boyfriend Greg Mitchell. Several people testified at the hearing. One was Lieutenant Joseph Polk. He testified that he had not seen any footprints outside of the McDonald home. All he saw was grass and wet spots on the carpet in the living room,

only after he and other military policemen had walked through the house. It had been raining, so it was wet outside that morning. Dillard B. Browning, a forensic chemist with the Army's CID at Fort Gordon, testified on July 13th that hair found on a hairbrush in the McDonald home did not belong to any member of the McDonald family. The brush was found within inches of Colette's body. Browning also said wax samples found in the home did not match any of the six candles

that were taken from the apartment by investigators. He said additional candles in the home still needed to be tested. Dr. Major Severet Jacobson testified on July 17th. He was the doctor who treated McDonald at the hospital. He said that Jeffrey could not have stabbed himself without running the risk of death. McDonald's defense attorney asked Jacobson on the stand, quote, would a person, and I'll add another detail which might make, make it more palatable to the

prosecution, would a doctor who inflicted a pneumothorax of this nature on himself know what the final medical consequences of that would be at the time he inflicted it, or could he know? And Jacobson answered, no. Not with this type of pneumothorax. He couldn't. So essentially, he's saying, right, that McDonald could not have known if he had stabbed himself that this stab wound would not have killed him. Now, during the hearing, Freddie and Mildred Kasab complained that the army had refused to give them a transcript of pretrial testimony in the case and they came out and said, we have a right to know what is being said and charged at these hearings. And I think this is interesting, Morph, right? Members of the family, the press and the public were all barred from attending the pretrial hearings by order of General Edward Flanagan.

So, you know, you have Collette's family members who have no idea what is going on, what's being said and they don't like it. Yeah, I think for Colette's family to not be able to hear those details and know what's going on with the case, I think that would have been a very frustrating feeling. Freddie Kasab was quoted as saying, I charged General Flanagan with a breach of the so-called Code of Military Justice in ordering the hearings closed. This is illegal even by Army standards, we will not allow the Army to sweep their dirty laundry under the proverbial rug at the expense of our daughter and granddaughter's lives. In the beginning, the Casabes believed in their son-in-law's innocence, stating the Army made no effort to find the real killers

and that the case had been botched from the beginning. They went on to further say that Jeffrey had been charged to prevent, quote, absolute panic among women living at Fort Bragg, where rapes and attacks occurred for more than a year prior to Clet's murder. On July 20th, 1970, military policemen took Jeffrey McDonald into protective custody. A doctor forcibly took hair samples from his head and body for prosecutors to use as evidence against him. His attorneys tried to stop this from happening by filing litigation in federal district court in Clinton, North Carolina, but the judge didn't have to any jurisdiction. And during their protests, McDonald's defense attorney, Isman, was thrown to the

ground by an MP and his other attorney Siegel was pushed. Iceman's glasses were broken and he didn't move. Segal later went into shock at the post hospital. And then later both attorneys were sent to a civilian hospital in Fayetteville and later released. But this is a heck of a scene. I mean, you have to think about this. I think more if these guys are operating as though they were defending a civilian. And they weren't, right? They were in this military world operating under the military code of justice. Jeffrey McDonald demanded to see his lawyers when the MPs said that they were going to be taking hair samples but was refused.

The hearing continued into August. On August 13th, William Edward Posey, an air conditioning tech from Fayetteville, took the stand. He lived near three females who shared an apartment. He recalled seeing one of them wearing a blonde wig on several occasions, as well as a floppy hat. So we do want to read to you the court transcripts of this questioning of William Posey. So what you have is Jeffrey McDonald's, defense attorney Siegel asking the questions. And William Posey replied. Now, did you have any conversations with this young woman? Well, about a week or two after a friend of hers, who was a friend of mine, Paul Bowman, he was getting out of the army. And I owed him some money for a telephone bill. And so he was, you know, over there with them. And so he was by the fence and I saw him. My wife and I were in the house and I went to talk to him and my wife was standing on the porch. I started talking to him and then we got on the subject about she said that the police had questioned her several times about it. And so he said that she needed an alibi. And then she walked up,

you know, in the meantime with the three of us standing there. And they were both on the other side of the fence. And so I said, well, I could be your alibi because I saw your girlfriend's painting in their apartment. And I saw you when you got out of the car that morning. Did she herself ever say anything about an alibi on the morning of February 17th? Well, you know, you know she said that she had been questioned several times, that she was stoned out that night and that she didn't remember what she had done. What did she indicate as to her? ability to establish where she was on that morning. She said that she didn't know where she was that morning. Did she ever use the word alibi or the word alibi come up in her presence?

Paul, you know, brought up the word alibi. He said that she needed an alibi. And what, if anything, did you say or do in response to his statement that he thought she needed an alibi. Well, I made the remark. I said, well, I can be her alibi because I saw her that morning. I saw her two girlfriends painting the apartment. Then I saw her when she come up and join them, you know. And then when I said that, she kind of backed off and they had to go. They left. They left. They just dropped the subject then. Posey told the court, he thought the woman's name was Helen, but sometimes she went by the name Mary. The woman was later identified as Helena Stokely.

Siegel asked Posey if the woman had any connections to Fort Bragg, and Posey replied that her father had been a colonel in the army. Posey later said that he noticed Helena stopped wearing the wig and hat around the time of the murders. On the same day Posey testified, Alfred Kasab took the stand. He answered many questions about. Colette's relationship with Jeffrey from high school all the way up until the murder. He told the court he never witnessed Jeffrey raised his voice in anger at Colette.

Everything seemed fine between the husband and wife before the murders. At one point, Siegel asked Kasab, if Jeffrey was free to leave Fort Bragg that day, would Alfred accept him into his home? Alfred replied, yes, sir. A few minutes later, he added, If I had another daughter, I'd still want the same son-in-law. I don't know more if that is very powerful to me. But I think you see that a lot in trials, right?

The natural inclination is for a family to, you know, stick by the side of another family member. You see that a lot. Now, as details come out and things start looking maybe not so rosy for that individual, then that's where you see, especially when it comes to in-laws, they may take. changed their stance. And I think in this case coming up, we're going to see some of that. Two days later, Jeffrey McDonald testified. He denied killing his pregnant wife and two daughters, and he recalled the events leading up to and after the murders on February 17, 1970. He said on that night, Colette returned home from night classes sometime between 930 and 9.45 p.m. The couple watched

TV in the living room for a little bit before Colette went to bed around midnight. McDonald stayed up watching TV. It was around 1 a.m. He washed the dinner dishes and then read a book on the couch. Kristen woke up crying. So he went and gave her a bottle. At some point after that, Kristen left her bedroom, went into her mother's room to lay in bed with her. When Jeffrey came to bed, Colette was asleep on her side of the bed and Kristen was laying

next to her. When he pulled the covers back, his side of the bed was wet. He assumed Kristen had wet the bed. So he went to sleep on the couch. And it wasn't very long after this that he said he awoke to the screams of his wife and daughter. So again, we have some transcript from this hearing. And I think it's important. We want to read it to you verbatim and very much like the first set. You have McDonald's attorney Siegel asking the questions and Jeffrey replying with the answers. So Segal asked, what did you hear and what did you see at that point? I heard screams first before I really saw anything.

Describe what you heard. I heard Clint scream first. and then say, help, help, Jeff. Why are they doing this to me? And she repeated it. She repeated it the second time, at least once. You know, like, help, help, help, help. Why are they doing this to me?

Did you hear something else before you were able to begin to identify anything visually? Yes. Tell us now what else. What else you heard? I heard Kimmy. She was also screaming. And she was. screaming, daddy, daddy over and over.

Did you hear any other voice? Did you hear Christy's voice at that time? No, I'm not sure. I just heard screaming. I don't know if I heard Christy. I don't think so. But you are sure it was Kimmy that was saying, Daddy, Daddy. And McDonald answered yes.

The hearing finally wrapped up in September of 1970. On October 13th, Colonel Warren Rock issued a 2000-word report recommending all charges against Jeffrey McDonald be dismissed. The decision was supported by Fort Bragg's commanding general John Tolson. And 10 days later, Major General Edward Flanagan Jr. issued his own report stating, I have considered the attached charges against Captain Jeffrey R. McDonald and the report of investigation made in accordance with paragraph 34 manual for courts marshal united states 1969 and article 32 uniform code of military justice in my opinion there is insufficient evidence

available to justify reference of the charges for trial by court martial afterward macdonald commented quote i feel both relief and let down I'm still without a family and with the life ahead of me. MacDonald also said that he would seek an immediate discharge, adding, I am still extremely proud of having earned my green beret. I have met some outstanding men in the army. Captain Jeffrey McDonald received an honorable discharge on December 14, 1970, due to his request for a hardship discharge because of the loss of his family.

Afterwards, he returned to New York City where he worked as an emergency physician in the newly built World Trade Center. McDonald soon began making public appearances. Just a week after his discharge, he appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite. A few days later, he appeared on the Dick Cavett show. And it was on this show that McDonald cracked jokes and criticized the army and its investigation into his family's murders. But I think the very important part of this Dick Cavett show appearance was that

Jeffrey McDonald never once appeared to be the grieving husband and father that one would expect. Even Dick Cavett thought that this guy was not acting right. Here's what he told CBS's 48 hours in 2007. His affect is wrong. Totally wrong. My affect was, gee, to find your wife and kids murdered. And even his answer to that was something like, hey, yeah, and that's something almost like Bob Hope. It was this appearance that helped change how Freddie and Mildred Kassab saw their son-in-law. And it motivated the Kassabs to seek justice for their daughter and granddaughters. After the murder charges against McDonald were dismissed in October of 1970, the CID re-investigation

and in the murders began and was completed in 1972. CID agent Peter Kearns and Colonel Jack Pruitt were given office space in the federal building in downtown Fayetteville and assembled a team of eight agents. They began going over the original investigation and concluded the evidence collected at the crime scene was not contaminated by the MPs and medics who arrived. at the McDonald's home on February 17th, 1970. Kerns and Pruitt interviewed Jeffrey McDonald in March of 1971. Also president at this interview was McDonald's defense attorney, Bernie Siegel from Philadelphia.

At the interview, Kearns and Pruitt showed McDonald's pictures of Helena Stokely and a few other individuals, but he didn't recognize any of them. And for the first time, Kerns and Pruitt asked the FBI to look at the evidence in this case. CID agent William Ivory handed over several items of evidence to the chief of FBI's chemistry division, a guy by the name of Paul Stomba. Paul inspected all the cuts and puncture holes in the pajamas worn by the McDonnell family, as well as the bloodstained patterns on Jeffrey's pajama top.

He determined that all of the puncture holes in the pajamas worn by Jeffrey, Colette, and Kristen were completely round with no jagged edges, which to him meant the garments were probably not moving when they were punctured. Stombaugh also concluded that the old Hickory knife, and remember, this was the one that was found outside of the McDonald's home, was responsible for. the cuts in Colette's and Kristen's pajamas. The Geneva Forge knife, he concluded, was most likely the source of the two cuts in Jeffrey's pajama top.

Most of the blood found on his pajama top was from Collette. Stomba discovered four stains from Colette's top that was cut. Those stains, he concluded, were on the pajama top before it was cut. And again, more of all of this, right, extremely important in what is about to come in the McDonald case. After removing a bed slat from under Kimberly's bed, Ivory sent it to a lab for microscopic examinations. It was determined that this bedslat was the blunt force murder weapon used to strike the victims. Next, Kearns and Pruitt instructed their agents to investigate any individuals who could be suspects. the agents eventually interviewed Helena Stokely, Greg Mitchell, Bruce Fowler, and Kathy Perry.

All of them, with the exception of Helena, denied any involvement in the murders. And Helena Stokely didn't seem reliable. One minute she remembered being in the McDonald home during the homicides, and the next, she had no memory whatsoever where she was on February 17, 1970. Investigators collected hair samples and fingerprints from each of the suspects to match against any of the head hares or prints found at the crime scene. On March 27, 1971, Freddie Kasab visited the house at 544 Castle Drive. He was accompanied by Kearns and Pruitt.

Freddie reenacted the two-minute span of time between dropping the phone in the master bedroom and picking it up again in the kitchen. And all of this based on Jeffrey McDonald's statements to police, he found it impossible that anyone could complete all of those activities in such a short period of time. And it was at this point that Freddie was convinced his son-in-law killed Colette and the girls. And from that moment forward, he made it his mission. He spent the next eight years trying to ensure that Jeffrey McDonald was convicted of those crimes. On April 23, 1971, CID agent Robert Brissentine administered a polygraph test to Helena Stokely. He concluded that Helena believed she was present at the crime scene, but the results were inconclusive due to Helena's excessive use of drugs.

A month later in May, Brissantine administered a polygraph to Greg Mitchell, Helena's boyfriend, and he passed. In June, Bruce Fowler and William Poseley also took and passed polygraph tests. CID agents also conducted interviews with Jeffrey McDonald's family and friends. By all accounts, McDonald was a respected doctor and well-liked by his colleagues. He seemed to be a loving father to Kimberly and Kristen, but investigators discovered that McDonald had at least eight affairs during his marriage to Colette, and they suspected he may have had up to 15 from 16. to 1969. In July 1971,

Jeffrey McDonald relocated to Long Beach, California, where he accepted a position as an emergency room physician at St. Mary Medical Center at the request of his friend Jerry Hughes. The next year in early 1972, Freddie and Mildred Kasab

filed a citizen's criminal complaint against their son-in-law for the murders. But it was declared moot because the murders happened while McDonald was in the Army and he was no longer in the Army. On June 1st, 1972, Peter Kearns wrote and submitted a 10,000 page re-investigation report along with a film that he narrated and produced on the case to the Department of Justice. It was his recommendation that Jeffrey McDonald be prosecuted for the murders of his pregnant wife and their two daughters.

This massive report contained a wealth of information as evidenced by the 699 people investigators interviewed tons of leads pursued in 32 different states and all of the evidence that was reanalyzed by both the CID and the evidence. and the FBI. After Colette's stepfather, Freddie Kasab, became convinced of his son-in-law's guilt. He began a personal campaign of letters, face-to-face visits,

and newspaper ads aimed at the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and Congress. He cited apparent inconsistencies in Jeffrey McDonald's story, demeanor, and some of the physical evidence. Freddie insisted numerous times at the federal government, who had assumed jurisdiction in the case

after McDonald's separated from the army, should keep the case open. On February 25, 1974, Freddie wrote then- Attorney General William B. Saxby, I swear to you that I will not allow the murder of my daughter and two granddaughters to get away with these brutal killings. On April 30, 1974, Cairns, Freddie, and Mildred Kasab filed a citizen's criminal complaint against Jeffrey McDonald for the murders of Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen. The 27-page affidavit also included a diagram of 544 Castle Drive. All three, Cairns, Freddie, and Mildredd drove to Clinton, North Carolina for a meeting with

Judge Algernon Butler. Butler was the senior federal district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Judge Butler had agreed to hear them. So Judge Butler, he took a look at all the information that Kearns and the Kassabs brought with them, and he was convinced at least enough to the point that he decided to convene a grand jury. The grand jury began in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 12, 1974. With Victor Warhyde as lead government attorney, Jeffrey McDonald testified over a four-day period. This was a fairly lengthy grand jury more if it went all the way to the end of January 1975, but when it concluded, McDonald was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder

and arrested by the FBI. He posted bail on January 31st and was released pending disposition of the charges. On April 8, 1975, Jeffrey McDonald's lawyer, Bernard Siegel, petitioned the court to have the trial declared null and void on the grounds of double jeopardy. The defendant had already been tried once at the Article 32 hearing five years before. He also argued that McDonald had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Over a month later on May 23rd, 1975, Jeffrey McDonald was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The defense requested a change of venue, but a new judge denied it.

Judge Franklin Dupree denied the double jeopardy. and speedy trial motions, and he set a trial date of August 18, 1975. But on August 15, 1975, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the trial. And on January 23, 1976, it dismissed the murder charges against Jeffrey McDonald. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled two to one that the delay of more than four and a half years from the time Dr. McDonald was accused by the army of killing his family until his federal court indictment did violate his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Freddie Kasab placed a half-page ad in the May 10th, 1976 issue of the Fayetteville Observer

Times, asking the public to urge the United States Solicitor General to continue efforts to put Jeffrey McDonald on trial for murder. In the ad, Freddie denounced the dismissal of charges by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The government appealed the dismissal of charges, and on May 1, 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a vote of eight to zero, overruled the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and reinstated the indictment. So to me, morph, that's pretty telling, right? A vote of eight to zero.

I don't know how often that happens, but that means. unanimously, the U.S. Supreme Court felt that the lower court was wrong. I think in their eyes it had to be overwhelming that this lower court had made an incorrect decision. Just a few months later, on October 22nd, 1978, the court rejected Jeffrey McDonald's double jeopardy arguments. And in March 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review that decision. So the other thing to me is this timeline. I mean, just look at how many years it took from the time that, you know, they started to try to get Jeffrey McDonald indicted after he got out of the army. It took many, many years, a very long time.

Jeffrey McDonald met with author Joe McGinnis and invited him to write a book on the case detailing McDonald's innocence on July 13th, 197. McGinnis agreed and McDonald's defense attorney Bernie Siegel drew up an employment agreement signed by him and McGinnis three days later. Segal signed a release to Sterling Lord for the exclusive story rights to the life of Jeffrey McDonald for Joe McGinnis. That story would later materialize into a bestselling book called Fatal Vision and although McDonald thought that the book might help him clear his name, the author's research led him to conclude that Jeffrey McDonald was actually guilty. And he wrote the book in a way that reflected those conclusions. Later on, the book would be the inspiration for an NBC miniseries of the same name.

Six days after McDonald signed the book agreement with McGinnis on July 19, 1979, the U.S. versus Jeffrey McDonald trial began. And this is what we will cover in our next episode, right? The second part of the McDonald family murders. Special thanks for writing and research assistants in this episode goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com. If you like the show and you haven't done so, please take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating.

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You can also join our Facebook discussion group, which is called Criminology Podcast, discussion and fans. All right, Morf, that is it. I can't believe my voice held out for that entire time. Hopefully next week it'll be much stronger. We'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all new episode of criminology. So until then, this is Mike. And Morf.

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