Sept. 1, 2025
Labor Day Family Massacre: Day 3 "JEFFREY MACDONALD: The Green Beret Who Blamed Hippies for His Family's Massacre"
Content warning - disturbing content Reid Carter concludes Labor Day Family Massacre with the Fort Bragg murders that divided America for 50 years. Jeffrey MacDonald, Princeton-educated Green Beret doctor, claimed four hippie intruders stabbed his...
Content warning - disturbing content
Reid Carter concludes Labor Day Family Massacre with the Fort Bragg murders that divided America for 50 years. Jeffrey MacDonald, Princeton-educated Green Beret doctor, claimed four hippie intruders stabbed his pregnant wife Colette and daughters Kimberley (5) and Kristen (2) while chanting "acid is groovy, kill the pigs." But his wounds were superficial, the crime scene was staged, and his story kept changing. From the Army's initial clearance to his conviction nine years later, from Joe McGinniss's betrayal to MacDonald's prison marriage, this is how a man trained to save lives used that knowledge to end them.
Join the Celebrity Trials community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Celebrity Trials Podcast" on either platform. You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Reid Carter's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Reid's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
Reid Carter concludes Labor Day Family Massacre with the Fort Bragg murders that divided America for 50 years. Jeffrey MacDonald, Princeton-educated Green Beret doctor, claimed four hippie intruders stabbed his pregnant wife Colette and daughters Kimberley (5) and Kristen (2) while chanting "acid is groovy, kill the pigs." But his wounds were superficial, the crime scene was staged, and his story kept changing. From the Army's initial clearance to his conviction nine years later, from Joe McGinniss's betrayal to MacDonald's prison marriage, this is how a man trained to save lives used that knowledge to end them.
Join the Celebrity Trials community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Celebrity Trials Podcast" on either platform. You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Reid Carter's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Reid's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
WEBVTT
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Warning. This special episode contains graphic descriptions of family murders,
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including violence against children and pregnant women. The content includes
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detailed forensic evidence and disturbing testimony from actual cases. This
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material may not be suitable for all listeners. Discretion is
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strongly advised. Calarugashock Media.
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Good morning, I'm read Carter. Monday, September one, twenty twenty five,
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Labor Day, the final day of our Family Massacre series.
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While you're enjoying your day off, let me tell you
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about Jeffrey MacDonald, Green Beret doctor, Princeton Man, the Golden
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boy who claimed Charles Manson copycats murdered his family while
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he fought heroically to save them. February seventeenth, nineteen seventy,
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Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Collet MacDonald, twenty six, was pregnant
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with her third child. Daughters, Kimberly aged five, Kristin two,
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all stabbed and beaten to death in their home. Jeffrey
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McDonald survived with minor wounds and a story about four
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hippie intruders that made no sense, but it took nine
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years to convict him because nobody wanted to believe a
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Green Beret doctor could massacre his own family. He's still
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in prison, still claiming innocence, still married to a woman
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who met him after his conviction. This is celebrity trials.
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Let's finish this trilogy of family annihilation. Jeffrey Robert MacDonald
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had everything. Princeton undergraduate, Northwestern Medical School, captain in the
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Army Special Forces, married to his high school sweetheart Collette,
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two beautiful daughters, with another on the way. By nineteen seventy,
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he was stationed at Fort Bragg working as a preventive
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medicine officer. The McDonald home at five forty four Castle
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Drive was officer housing, modest but comfortable. The perfect military
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family living the American dream. February sixteenth, nineteen seventy was routine.
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Jeff worked at the base, Collette took a child psychology
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class at North Carolina State. The girls played, they had
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dinner together. Collette put the kids to bed while Jeff
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watched TV, a comedy show, then Johnny Carson. Here's where
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MacDonald's story begins. He says he dozed off on the
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couch around two thirty am. He heard Collette screaming, Jeff,
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why are they doing this to me? He jumped up
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to find four intruders in his living room. Three men,
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two white, one black, and a woman with long blonde
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hair wearing a floppy hat, holding a candle, chanting acid
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is groovy, Kill the pigs. The intruders attacked him. He
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says one hit him with a club, another stabbed at
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him with an ice pick. He fought back, but got
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tangled in his pajama top. Everything went black. When he
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woke up, the intruders were gone. He was lying on
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the hallway floor. His pajama top was around his wrists.
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He had a minor stab wound in his chest. He
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went to the master bedroom. Collette was on the floor
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covered in blood. The word pig was written in blood
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on the headboard. He went to Kimberly's room. She was
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in her bed, blood everywhere. He went to Kristen's room,
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same thing, Blood soaked sheets, His baby girls destroyed. He says.
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He tried CPR on each of them, mouth to mouth
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on Colette, checked for pulses, then called for help. Help
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five forty four Castle Drive Stabbing Hurry MPs arrived at
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three forty two am to find McDonald in his pajama bottoms.
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Relatively minor injuries pacing around and three bodies that looked
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like a slaughterhouse. Colette MacDonald thirty seven stab wounds, including
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twenty one in the chest with an ice pick. Her
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skull was fractured from club blows. Both arms were broken
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defensive wounds. She fought desperately for her life and her
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unborn child. Kimberly McDonald five years old, skull fractured by
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at least six blows, ten stab wounds in her neck.
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This little girl was beaten so severely that bone fragments
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were driven into her brain. Kristin McDonald two years old,
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thirty three stab wounds, fifteen inches in her chest alone.
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A baby. Folks Someone stabbed a baby thirty three times.
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The weapons were found outside the back door, a club,
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an ice pick, and a paring knife from the McDonald kitchen.
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And Jeffrey McDonald. He had one small new methorax, a
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partially collapsed lung from a single stab wound, some superficial cuts,
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a bump on his head. The green beret who fought
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off four intruders had less injuries than you'd get in
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a bar fight. The Army CID Criminal Investigation Division immediately
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saw problems with McDonald's story. First, the living room where
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this epic battle supposedly took place, almost undisturbed. A coffee
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table was overturned, but the magazines on it had fallen
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in a neat stack. A plant was tipped but not broken.
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No blood, despite McDonald claiming he was stabbed there. Second,
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the pajama top. McDonald said it got pulled over his
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head during the struggle, that the intruders stabbed at him
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through it. But when they matched the forty eight ice
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pick holes in the pajama top to the twenty one
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wounds in Colette's chest, they aligned perfectly. When the pajama
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top was laid on her body, stationary not torn in
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a fight, laid on her and stabbed through. Third the wounds.
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Collette and the girls had massive fatal injuries. McDonald had
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wounds that carefully avoided vital organs. The chest wound that
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collapsed his lung. It went between his ribs at exactly
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the right angle to avoid his heart, almost like someone
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with medical knowledge did it to themselves. Fourth, the blood evidence.
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McDonald's blood was nowhere except on his glasses, but his
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footprint in Colette's blood was leaving Kristen's room, he'd stepped
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in his wife's blood and walked to his daughter's room.
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Fifth the fibers. Fibers from McDonald's pajama top were found
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under Collette's body, under Kimberly's body in Christen's room, but
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not in the living room, where the pajama top was
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supposedly torn. Sixth no evidence of intruders, no footprints outside
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despite recent rain, no finger prints, None of the neighbors
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heard anything. The supposed murder weapons were from inside the house.
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The army's conclusion, McDonald killed his family then inflicted minor
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wounds on himself. Their theory, McDonald and Colette had been fighting.
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Maybe she found out about his infidelities, he'd been with
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other women. Maybe it was about money or his controlling nature.
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The fight escalated, he killed her in rage, then killed
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the girls because they were witnesses. But here's where it
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gets complicated. The army charged McDonald with triple murder in
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May nineteen seventy, but at his article thirty two hearing,
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basically a military grand jury, his lawyer, Bernard Siegel, destroyed
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the CID's investigation. The crime scene had been contaminated, evidence
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was lost, The investigation was sloppy, and Siegel had a
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surprise witness, Helena Steckley. Stuckley was a known drug user
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in Fayetteville who sometimes wore a blonde wig and floppy hat.
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She told people she might have been at the McDonald
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house that night, but couldn't remember because she was high.
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The hearing officer, Colonel Warren Rock, found the charge, which
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is not true. McDonald was freed. The army even gave
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him an honorable discharge. Jeffrey MacDonald was a free man.
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His family was dead, but he was free. We'll be
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right back with how Jeffrey MacDonald's own father in law
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spent nine years proving he was the killer, and the
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bizarre relationship with the writer who betrayed him. After his acquittal,
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Jeffrey MacDonald moved to California, started working as an emergency
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room doctor, bought a condo on the beach, dated beautiful women,
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drove a sports car, living his best life while his
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family rotted in graves. But Freddie Cassab wasn't done. Cassab
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was Collett's stepfather. Initially, he'd supported MacDonald believed the hippie story,
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but as he read the article thirty two transcripts studied
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the evidence, he realized the truth. Jeff killed them all.
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For nine years, Casab pursued justice. He pushed for a
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civilian trial, lobbied congressman hired investigators. This grieving stepfather became
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a one man prosecution team. Finally, in nineteen seventy five,
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a federal grand jury indicted MacDonald for murder. The trial
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began in nineteen seventy nine, nine years after the murders.
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This time the prosecution was ready. They'd found Helena Steckley.
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She now said she couldn't have been there. They had
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experts who showed McDonald's wounds were self inflicted. They demonstrated
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how the crime scene was staged. But the star evidence
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was the pajama top demonstration Prosecutor James Blackburn folded the
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top and laid it on a mannikin the forty eight
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ice pick holes aligned with twenty one wounds in Colette's chest.
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McDonald had laid his pajama top on his dying wife
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and stabbed through it to make it look like he'd
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been attacked. The defense claimed this was junk science, that
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McDonald was a loving father, that the investigation was botched.
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Then McDonald made a fatal Error. He testified on the stand.
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McDonald was arrogant, combative. He showed no emotion discussing his
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family's deaths, but got angry when his story was challenged.
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The jury saw the real jeff MacDonald, narcissistic, controlling, and
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capable of murder. On August twenty ninth, nineteen seventy nine,
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after six weeks of trial, the jury found Jeffrey MacDonald
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guilty of second degree murder of Colette and Kimberly, and
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first degree murder of Kristen. The baby got first degree
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because she was killed last after premeditation. He was sentenced
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to three consecutive life terms. But the story doesn't end there.
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Enter Joe McGinnis. McGinnis was a journalist who'd written the
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Selling of the President. McDonald hired him to write a
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book about the case, giving him complete access. I thought
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McGinnis would prove his innocence. McGinnis lived with the defense team,
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became McDonald's friend, sent him support of letters, all while
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becoming convinced MacDonald was guilty. The book Fatal Vision, published
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in nineteen eighty three, portrayed McDonald as a psychopathic killer
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who murdered his family after taking amphetamines. It became a
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best seller and a TV movie. McDonald sued McGinnis for fraud.
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The case settled for three hundred twenty five thousand dollars.
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McDonald then commissioned his own book, Fatal Justice, claiming his innocence.
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This created two camps, Fatal Vision believers who think he's
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guilty and Fatal Justice supporters, who think he's innocent. The
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case became a cultural rawshack test about American justice. Jeffrey
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McDonald is now eighty one years old, still in federal
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prison in Maryland. He's been behind bars for forty five years.
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He's never admitted gives, never shown remorse, never stopped claiming
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four hippies did it. He married Catherine Courage in two
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thousand and two, a woman who started writing to him
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in prison, convinced of his innocence. She was a drama
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teacher who'd never met him before his conviction. They got
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married in a prison ceremony. She visits him regularly maintains
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websites proclaiming his innocence. Think about that psychology. A woman
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falls in love with a convicted family annihilator through prison letters,
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marries him, knowing he'll never get out, devotes her life
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to a man who stabbed a two year old thirty
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three times. McDonald has filed appeal. After appeal, DNA testing
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in two thousand and six found three hairs that didn't
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match the family, but also confirmed McDonald's pajama top fibers
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under the bodies. The courts weren't impressed. His supporters claim
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Helena Steckley confessed multiple times. She also recanted multiple times
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and was a drug addict. The crime scene was mishandled, true,
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but the evidence still points to McDonald. A federal prosecutor
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hid evidence. That prosecutor was later disbarred for other cases,
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but it didn't change McDonald's guilt. The FBI analyst lied
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about evidence, some testimony was questionable, but the core evidence remains.
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But here's what his supporters can't explain. Why did McDonald's
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wounds carefully avoid vital organs. Why were fibers from his
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pajama top under the bodies but not in the living room.
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Why did the pajama top holes aligned with Collette's wounds
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when stationary. Why was there no evidence of intruders. Why
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did McDonald show no emotion about his family but rage
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about being questioned, you know what I think happened that night?
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Jeffrey and Collette fought, maybe about his affairs. Maybe she
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threatened divorce. McDonald, The Princeton man, the doctor, the Green
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Beret couldn't handle losing control. He hit her, she fought back.
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It escalated. He grabbed a club and beat her. Kimberly
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heard the commotion and came to the master bedroom. Daddy
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was killing mommy, so he killed her too. Then he
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realized Kristen was a witness. The baby had to die.
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He went to her room and stabbed her thirty three times,
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thirty three times a two year old. Then the cover up.
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He knew about the Manson murders from six months earlier,
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hippies killing pregnant women. Perfect scapegoat, he wrote, pig in blood,
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staged the scene, gave himself minor wounds using his medical knowledge,
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but he made mistakes. The pajama top, the fibers, the
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blood patterns, the lack of defensive wounds on himself. Jeffrey
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MacDonald thought he was smarter than everyone. The Princeton education,
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the medical degree, the Green Beret training. He thought he
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could outsmart investigators. For nine years he did. He lived
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free while his family's blood cried from the ground. Dated
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women saved lives in the the er by day while
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hiding that he'd taken three at night. But Freddie Cassab
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didn't give up. Collette's stepfather spent nine years and his
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life savings to get justice. He died in nineteen ninety four,
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but he died knowing McDonald was in prison. This Labor Day,
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Jeffrey McDonald is in his cell. Catherine is probably visiting,
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holding hands through security glass, telling him she believes in
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his innocence. Meanwhile, Collette MacDonald never got to have her
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third child, Kimberly never went to kindergarten, Kristin never learned
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to read. They're buried at Long Island National Cemetery. Their
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headstone reads beloved wife and daughters, not victims of hippie attack,
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not killed by intruders. Because everyone knows the truth, even
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if McDonald won't admit it. A Green Beret doctor trained
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to save lives used his skills to end them. A
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father meant to protect became the destroyer. Fifty years later,
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he still says he's innocent, still claims four people invaded
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his home, killed his family, and left him with superficial wounds.
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But the evidence says otherwise, the blood says otherwise, the
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fibers say otherwise. Jeffrey MacDonald is exactly where he belongs.
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Not because the system worked it took nine years, not
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because justice prevailed. His family is still dead. He's in
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prison because one stepfather wouldn't stop fighting for three people
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who couldn't fight for themselves anymore. That's the thin line
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between justice and injustice. Sometimes it's not the system that works.
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