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

[Madeleine74]

This case fascinated me. There was a magazine opened to an article in which the Manson murders were the feature in the LR of the macDonald apt. There is speculation that's where MacDonald got the idea for the things he said and did after the murder.

What's really interesting and unique about this particular case is that each of the victims and MacDonald himself had different blood types. Four different blood types at the scene. So even though DNA testing wasn't available back then, the pattern of where the blood was found, along with whose blood was where and in which rooms, told a very different tale than MacDonald claimed. That's how they got him. Also the LR where MacDonald claimed a struggle took place looked staged, and not very well staged.

The physical evidence nailed him, including the pattern and placement of the holes in pajama top MacDonald claimed he wore, and the fact that there was no tearing or ripping with those marks, as there would be in a struggle. Folded up a certain way, the stab marks on his pajama top matched the wound pattern exactly on his wife's body...meaning...MacDonald's story about that pajama top and fighting with the intruder cannot be true, and he had placed his own pajama top on his wife's body as he continued to stab her.

Yes, read the Joe McGinnis book. It's riveting! And I'll never forget actor Gary Cole playing MacDonald in the TV movie of the same name "Fatal Vision." He was chilling and masterful.

I have zero doubt that MacDonald is guilty after looking at the evidence presented at trial.

 

[kline]

This case fascinated me. There was a magazine opened to an article in which the Manson murders were the feature in the LR of the macDonald apt. There is speculation that's where MacDonald got the idea for the things he said and did after the murder.

What's really interesting and unique about this particular case is that each of the victims and MacDonald himself had different blood types. Four different blood types at the scene. So even though DNA testing wasn't available back then, the pattern of where the blood was found, along with whose blood was where and in which rooms, told a very different tale than MacDonald claimed. That's how they got him. Also the LR where MacDonald claimed a struggle took place looked staged, and not very well staged.

The physical evidence nailed him, including the pattern and placement of the holes in pajama top MacDonald claimed he wore, and the fact that there was no tearing or ripping with those marks, as there would be in a struggle. Folded up a certain way, the stab marks on his pajama top matched the wound pattern exactly on his wife's body...meaning...MacDonald's story about that pajama top and fighting with the intruder cannot be true, and he had placed his own pajama top on his wife's body as he continued to stab her.

Yes, read the Joe McGinnis book. It's riveting! And I'll never forget actor Gary Cole playing MacDonald in the TV movie of the same name "Fatal Vision." He was chilling and masterful.

I have zero doubt that MacDonald is guilty after looking at the evidence presented at trial.

Yeah I was very young then but during that time news of the Manson case was everywhere.
Though I dont think alot of the details of the Tate murders had came out in the trial yet....MacDonalds version sounds like what someone who was basicly clueless about the counter culture would imagine the Manson Killers behaving like.
And your right the physical evidence nailed him cold.
I dont see how anyone could believe him.
Unless they buy into his version that everyone in the world is jealous of his perfect self and everyone is involved in a massive conspiracy to get poor little Jeffrey.

 

[kemo]

Whoyagonabelieve: A charming, clean-cut Green Beret Doctor who says a bunch of low life hippies did it OR a lot of phisical evidence that points directly to the Doctor's guilt?

 

[believe09]

Jeff wasnt wrongfully convicted. I bet he enjoys the show immensely when the spotlight comes back onto him....I wish the only spotlight on this case was on the females he brutalized.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I remember when this happened, how horrified my parents were at the time. And when it became know that Jeffrey MacDonald was the suspected killer, everyone was surprised.

He did it, without a doubt.

 

[rosierider]

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/30/errol-morris-s-a-wilderness-of-error-revisits-jeffrey-macdonald-case.html

 

[STANDREID]

I would have voted guilty if I had been on the jury. MacDonald's "story" is about all that goes the other way.

 

[Fishee]

He lost me right here;

"Morris says there is “no proof” of MacDonald’s guilt."

 

[Nova]

I respect Errol Morris as a filmmaker and as an activist. I'm really disappointed that he too has been conned by Dr. MacDonald.

 

[Nova]

He lost me right here;

"Morris says there is “no proof” of MacDonald’s guilt."

I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way in most threads here at WS. The people who insist "no proof" or "all the proof" are rarely credible.

 

[JodyMT]

I have been fascinated with this case since the first time I saw that tv movie. I heard somewhere that his new wife is nearly broke trying to keep up with his legal expenses. I wonder how much longer she will be with him?

 

[texaslb218]

I'm going to buy for my Kindle. I am a definite GUILTY. You think it will change my mind?

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Author seeks to prove murderer is innocent

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/08/justice/errol-morris-book/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

I'll never forget seeing the video of his appearance on that late night talk show......GUILTY!

 

[my2sense]

Green Berets don't kill? That's a weird thing to say.

 

[katydid23]

So here is a green beret, in top physical condition, and having gone through years of armed combat training---and his precious babies are being slaughtered and stabbed to death, and he comes away with very minor injuries. I know that my husband would have been cut to shreds and on his last dying breath before his kids were slaughtered in our home.

 

[Cappuccino]

Its a shame to see Errol Morris taken in by this conman. Morris made an excellent documentary called The Thin Blue Line, about a man who really was innocent, and his film helped right the injustice and free the man on Death Row.

His talents could be much better spent speaking out for one of the other cases where the defendant has been wrongly convicted. IMO, McDonald is not one of them.

 

[Cracka*Jaxx]

I've done quite a bit of research on this case. When it first happened I found it hard to believe that anyone would brutally murder their own children. But I was young and naive in 1977. I have since come to the conclusion that he probably did kill the children to cover up the accidental murder of his wife. If he was doing meth back then, we all now know the rage meth addicts can have.

 

[angelmom]

Its a shame to see Errol Morris taken in by this conman. Morris made an excellent documentary called The Thin Blue Line, about a man who really was innocent, and his film helped right the injustice and free the man on Death Row.

His talents could be much better spent speaking out for one of the other cases where the defendant has been wrongly convicted. IMO, McDonald is not one of them.

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.

 

[Cracka*Jaxx]

I just listened to his old interview with Larry King. McDonald said that one of the attackers was swinging a baseball bat at him. I thought, in actuality, LE found some kind of wooden plank outside the back door- not a baseball bat. Maybe I'm remembering McDonald's story incorrectly. If it was a baseball bat, where did the attackers supposedly get that from? Did McDonald have one in the apartment?