One sick man. And in my opinion, guilty. Never understood WHY he did it though.
Writing papers on this case for the past 25 years from both prosecution and defense views, my hypothesis is that this was a fight that began in the Master Bedroom about Kim wetting the bed, or it really could have been anything, It got violent, really violent. I think that what set Jeff off into a rage was that during the struggle, Collette picked up that hairbrush and threw it at him, bruising Jeff's forehead.
Now in a true rage, Jeff found a wood slab club. Where he got it from in the house is not certain, but the test showed that it had the same composition as wood from inside the house. Prosecutors believe that Collette got the Geneva Forge knife to protect herself. She struck Jeff in the abdomen, and at some point, Jeff picked up that wooden club intending to hit Colette and hurt her badly. In sheer horror, Kim woke up and went to investigate the screaming and when she opened the door, the blow intended for Collette smashed into Kim's skull.
Realizing that her injury was so severe, Jeff knew that if the rest of the family lived, they could be character witnesses against him so he was forced to kill them, because of Collette being beaten badly, she could report it, and Kristin, the toddler who had been asleep, it was theorized that Jeff killed her in cold blood, because for the rest of her life, she would remember that night and the horror of what she saw.
This is why MacDonald had to make this look like a crazed hippie attack. He was able to use the article from the
Esquire Magazine about the Manson murders, and his information about people that he knew when visiting Fire Island who resembled the alleged Hippies that Macdonald always claimed attacked him and killed the family. People have told me, "Well, what if there were no people resembling the Hippies or Esquire Magazine. Jeff, could have just made up a story of a burglary going bad."
I never believed McGuinnes diet pills theory in
Fatal Vision nor that Jeff had been molesting Kimberly. This was a fight that got out of hand over the bed-wetting. People have said that there have been many cases of domestic violence of children over bed-wetting arguments. McDonald could have become a fugitive and chosen to flee like John List, who was letter apprehended, or William Bradford Bishop, who murdered his family, set their bodies on fire, and was never found. But I think that he thought that running away would be an admission of guilt. There was enough uncertainty there, and some mistakes by the investigators where to many people, until most dug deeper thought that McDonald could be telling the truth of hippies breaking into his home and killing his family. But his story, no matter how hard he tries, does not support the evidence of the crime scene, the darkness of the home, the space in the living room where the attack was supposed to have happened between the couch and the coffee table, nor the graphic overkill of his family, compared to a few superficial wounds and scratches on McDonald's body. The partially collapsed lung, the most severe of McDonald's injuries, believed that as a doctor, he inflicted that on himself to cover up his crime.
Satch
