NC - MacDonald family murders at Fort Bragg, 1970 - Jeffrey MacDonald innocent?

I always thought he did it for sure, but with all of the supressed evidence that is coming out now, it's really making me think twice.

I want to know now why the police and the prosecution did not want to explore other options even when they were right in front of them. Then to completly ignore the young woman who came forward?? It seems to me that something fishy was going on.

Yes he is/was very unlikable but it doesn't exactly mean guilty. I'm glad they are opening things up again. Then maybe he can get a fair trial with all of the evidence brought in.
 
Three hairs? Well, are they going to go back and cross check all of the MP's etc who responded to the call?

Three hairs dont stand up to no significant wounds on MacDonald, as well as motive and opportunity. And evidence. All of the blood and fiber and puncture evidence. In my honest opinion, it doesnt even slightly equate to reasonable doubt.

I am passionate about the death of these three females. I am passionate about the length of time and the number of trials it took to get them the slightest amount of justice.

At the end of the day MacDonald was just another run of the mill ego driven rage killer. He is nothing special. Now Colette and the girls-they were truly truly special.
 
It seems like in every town, there are "characters." An oddball that everyone recognizes, whether they are slow, a little crazy or dress weird. I guarantee Helen Stoakley was one of Fort Bragg's characters. Funny, he could describe her to a T, but only offered a generic "black guy" description about the guy he was physically fighting, though he was observant enough to notice the man was wielding an ice pick.
 
MacDonald claimed to have mistaken the plank for a baseball bat.

Must have been that slight tap on the head that caused the confusion.

I cant help but to compare him to Scott Peterson. And Drew Peterson. There will always be people who think their convictions were based upon unreliable evidence.

For me, at the end of the day, it didnt even moderately look like any of the things Macdonald claimed.

I suspect that there are a number of Green Berets that considered him something less than a man for being so uninjured and for clearly being incapable of defending those poor girls and that poor woman.

Let's remember that the bulk of Colette's stab wounds were done when she was stationary. Lying prone on the floor. The alleged killers happened upon MacDonald's latex surgical gloves under the sink and decided that this was the moment to don one and write in her blood. After the overkill. Suddenly a need for hygeine prevailed. Oh right, and they wiped off the weapons on the bath mat.

They bashed in the head and then stabbed one child and then cut the throat and stabbed the next. And if I recall correctly, then they tucked the girls in.

They carried Colette back into the bedroom too-she was struck in the head while trying to protect the youngest child.

And the whole time, MacDonald lay in the hallway just fine. Breathing. With a minor bump on the head.

Uh huh.

Thank God the 4 of them had different blood types. If nothing else, consider the blood evidence. Where it wasnt and where it was.
 
It seems like in every town, there are "characters." An oddball that everyone recognizes, whether they are slow, a little crazy or dress weird. I guarantee Helen Stoakley was one of Fort Bragg's characters. Funny, he could describe her to a T, but only offered a generic "black guy" description about the guy he was physically fighting, though he was observant enough to notice the man was wielding an ice pick.

An ice pick that never injured him.
 
Just because Mac collapsed his own lung doesn't make it an insignificant injury.
 
I remember that movie so vividly.....I recall the father in law coming in and all the holiday cards were on the mantel yet none were knocked over as if there had been a struggle.....
 
The alleged killers happened upon MacDonald's latex surgical gloves under the sink and decided that this was the moment to don one and write in her blood. After the overkill. Suddenly a need for hygeine prevailed. Oh right, and they wiped off the weapons on the bath mat.
I last read the book many years ago and don't remember a lot of it. But, if this is true, what drug crazed stranger is going to care about wiping away evidence? I also seem to remember that fingerprints were wiped from the telephone. Maybe Stokely was threatened that she would be charged with murder if she gave MacDonald an alibi, but I don't know that this is illegal. Seems like just a true statement to me.

I also found it odd that in such a small apartment, anyone could sleep through the carnage and screaming. And when MacDonald does finally wake up, he's all foggy and confused. Most victims of violence are beaten a hellova lot more and still can recount what happened. Collette fought up until the minute she received the final blow, while her husband supposedly crawled around in a fog from non-life threatening injuries.

I always wanted to believe that MacDonald was innocent- that no one could wipe out their family like this. Way back then, I even wrote to him in prison, innocently hoping he could give me some logical explanation (remember, this was way before the internet). But all I received back was info about donating to his defense fund. I held onto that for 20 years until I finally got rid of it.

His cavalier attitude during interviews and TV appearances certainly didn't help his image. But now that I'm more knowledgeable, I realize that a narcissist just can't help himself. He really just didn't care about anyone but himself, and he hasn't changed one bit. He still thinks he's smarter than everybody else. He'll most likely die in prison because he never has admitted guilt and expressed remorse.
 
I cannot believe JM may get a new trial.
Who would enter a house and just stab him once, knock him on the head then slaughter the woman and children they way they were. Over kill is what it was for the female's and that tells me everything I need to know. Plus his arrogance.
My common sense tells me he is exactly where he belongs.
 
Ooh, I searched all over for a thread about this case (one I'd never heard of) after a visit to Costco where I picked up and read the sleeve blurb for a new book - A Wilderness of Error - by Errol Morris. All I could find was this thread in the Archived Cases forum where I posted.

I did go back and get the book and managed to devour 200 pages or so yesterday afternoon before getting dragged away by husband out to dinner with friends. Obviously it's coming from the POV that JM is innocent and, I have to say, EM's account is very compelling thus far and leads me to a presumption of at least reasonable doubt and an unsafe conviction. Trying not to jump to any hasty conclusions though, I'm going to find and buy the other book - Fatal Vision - referenced in the Archived thread and read that too before forming an opinion.

Watch the movie, too, if you can find it.
 
I remember being convinced of his innocence. Then I remember there were all these trials, guilty/not guilty, free/not free, and I thought it odd with the double jeopardy laws.

I would love to see modern forensics and profiling applied to this case, see what the experts would say now.
 
Even the defense had serious concerns about HS.

Why would Blackburn threaten a witness/suspect who was never credible in the first place?
 
Even the defense had serious concerns about HS.

Why would Blackburn threaten a witness/suspect who was never credible in the first place?

I had to go back and review the case because it has been so long since I studied it. I am going to have to say I think that he really is innocent. I believe HS was telling the truth when she said she was in the house that night. I hope the DNA testing will prove him innocent. If I remember right they determined that Collette was killed by someone who was left handed....Jeffrey MacDonald is right handed. Also the officer seeing the woman with the floppy hat on the side of the street after the time of the murders....Jeffrey MacDonald had stated seeing a woman with blonde hair with a big floppy hat.....that would have been HS. I don't see why HS would have said that she was in that house that night if she really wasn't. It was HS's boyfriend that killed Collette. JMO
 
I know I'm an outsider on my thoughts on this case but I think he is innocent. I believe HS when she confessed to being in the house that night and that her boyfriend was the one that killed Colette.
 
Helena Stoeckly was a drug abuser who changed her story about a dozen times. Sometimes she was there, sometimes not, sometimes she couldn't remember. She was determined to be an unreliable witness because she was so impaired she couldn't figure out what day it was most of the time. She was a heroin addict, an alcoholic, and couldn't determine reality.

What hippies walk into someone's home, don't have any weapons on them, go searching and find an icepick and a knife and also take a slat of wood matching one daughter's bed and go on a rampage on a 2 yr old, a 5 yr old and a helpless sleeping pregnant woman? Not even Charlie Manson would allow the hurting of a child (though I guess he didn't care about pregnant women).

You have to look at the evidence to see how ridiculous JM's claims are and how they don't match the crime scene.
 
If I remember right they determined that Collette was killed by someone who was left handed....Jeffrey MacDonald is right handed.
I don't recall this finding one way or the other. I'd have to research it.

Also the officer seeing the woman with the floppy hat on the side of the street after the time of the murders....Jeffrey MacDonald had stated seeing a woman with blonde hair with a big floppy hat.....that would have been HS.
At that time period lots of girls wore floppy hats; it was the style. One of my best friends in high school wore one of those hats, too, so it wouldn't be unusual to see a girl wearing one.

I don't see why HS would have said that she was in that house that night if she really wasn't. It was HS's boyfriend that killed Collette. JMO
I never could figure out why HS would say she was in the house if she wasn't. But, then again, I've never been a druggie and have no idea what goes on in their minds.

I wonder how the investigators will know if the hairs match HS's boyfriend. Did they save DNA from him? If I'm not mistaken, everyone that was supposed to be at the murder scene with HS is now deceased. Not to mention, the hairs could have gotten there from anyone the family was in contact with. I just can't imagine MacDonald's sentence being reversed because of 3 hairs. All the other evidence apparently pointed directly to him.
 
I wonder if Morris is missing the accolades and is grasping to find another innocent man to champion. I see this as a desperate attempt to regain some fame, regardless of whether McDonald is guilty or not.

Which I totally think he is and always have.

This was my introduction to true crime; I read Fatal Vision under the covers when I was barely even a teenager. The idea of him ever getting out makes me sick.

This was one of the first crimes I followed, this and the Manson murders. I have always thought that he was guilty.
 
Oh my goodness, people confess all of the time to crimes they didnt commit. Especially when they are as unbalanced and lost as HS. She called the judge at home to tell him that MacDonalds attorneys were trying to kill her didnt she? Or the DA was? Or the judge?

Credible, no.

MacDonald claimed he had killed that generic black guy about 18 months after the crime-remember? That is what he told Colette's parents. They couldnt understand why he did something like that and why he wouldnt use the guy to lead LE to everyone else....then he confessed that he lied about that story. Oh and he was headed to Russia to be the Army Team Doctor to the Army's boxing team. Oops that was a lie to....

MacDonald is getting what he wants again-he is shining the spotlight back on himself. He isnt getting out-I remember all of the hoopla about him caving and going to his parole hearing.
 

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