| Jeffrey MacDonald stated that when he went to the hall bathroom to check his wounds, "there wasn't even a cut or anything." For more detail, see wounds |
Colette, Kimberley and Kristen MacDonald were brutally murdered, suffering horrific wounds from a club, icepick and knife. Colette was five months' pregnant at the time. For more detail, see wounds |
| MacDonald told psychiatrist Dr. Sadoff in April 1970 that he had had his nose broken four times in high school. | This is a false statement according to Fatal Vision, p. 616. |
| Told Dr. Sadoff in April 1970 that he was the first Patchogue High School student graduate in more than 20 years to attend any Ivy League college. | This is a false statement according to Fatal Vision, p. 616. |
| Described making love to Colette on the infield of the Saratoga racetrack during Happy Pappy weekend or a later spring visit to Skidmore. | The Saratoga racetrack is open only during August when Skidmore is not. |
| Described 15 days between completion of his internship and the date of his reporting to Fort Sam Houston as time spent on a vacation to an island he thought might have been Aruba. | There was only a single weekend between the completion of his internship and his reporting to Ft. Sam Houston. Jeffrey MacDonald spent this weekend moving Colette and the children from their Bergenfield apartment to Patchogue. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald described a "most memorable" lovemaking session with Colette, on the living room couch at the Kassab's Washington Square apartment during Thanksgiving vacation of his freshman year at Princeton. | The Kassabs did not move to the Washington Square apartment until the following year. Colette did not date Jeffrey MacDonald at all during his freshman year at Princeton. She was seeing Dean Chamberlain during this time. |
| During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, MacDonald testified that with regard to his brother Jay, "when I questioned him it was apparent that he had been speeding--taking amphetamines--for a long time that I hadn't been aware of." MacDonald also said "It never occurred to me that my brother would be taking amphetamines." | MacDonald's mother testified at the grand jury that during his freshman year in college Jay had apparently begun to use amphetamines to curb his appetite, and said that "I learned later from Jeff and Judy both that [Jay] was probably taking much too much Dexedrine and that they were both aware of it . . . " |
| Provided a tape to Joe McGinniss in which he "talked at considerable length and in extraordinary detail about how the night before his wedding he'd had to drive one of the bridesmaids home to New Jersey, but she could not remember where she lived and they had become lost for several hours and as a result he had arrived extremely late for his own bachelor party." | Contrary to his story on the tape, on the night before his wedding he had actually been back in Patchogue, putting a red-and-black negligee on the front seat of Carol Larson's (aka Penny Wells's) car. |
| During his Army physical examination MacDonald claimed there were no problems with his back. | During the Article 32 hearing in 1970, MacDonald said, "I had had a herniated lumbar disk, playing football, and I told less than the truth on my Army physical." |
| In a document believed to have been written circa 1994, MacDonald claimed that "[Colette] was so enamored with the two subsequent volunteering episodes, that of becoming a paratrooper, and then a Green Beret." | Years earlier, on a tape sent to Joe McGinniss, MacDonald told a different story: ". . . I remember I called Colette later that night or the next day and sort of announced rather than asked that I'd been offered this chance to go airborne and go to paratrooper school and join the Green Berets. And I remember there was a little silence at the other end of the phone . . . I remember there was a little silence and then Colette's next question was, 'Well, why in the world would you want to jump out of airplanes and be a Green Beret?' . . . Colette was uncomfortable about my becoming a Green Beret . . . " |
| At trial in 1979, MacDonald was asked about a weekend he had spent in San Antonio in December 1969 as part of a Special Forces group: Q During that weekend, did you meet a woman you spent any time with or had any sexual relations with? A We spent some time. We did not have any sexual relations. |
Judith DeWitt, the WAC with whom MacDonald had "spent some time," told investigators that she and MacDonald had been nude together and fondled one another. |
| At the grand jury in 1974, MacDonald claimed that Colette liked the stereo-color TV he had bought. | Mrs. Kalin, the next-door neighbor, told investigators that probably in December 1969, Colette asked if Mrs. Kalin had heard her screaming at MacDonald. Mrs. Kalin replied that she hadn't, and Colette went on to explain that MacDonald had bought an expensive color TV set/stereo combination and related that Colette said, "I just blew up." |
| Richard Thoesen was at a post gymnasium with MacDonald on the afternoon of February 16 and stated that Jeffrey MacDonald left the gym for his residence at about 6:00 p.m. | On February 17, told CID investigators that on February 16 he had arrived home between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. In the detailed account MacDonald prepared at the request of his military attorney in early April 1970, MacDonald wrote, "We ate dinner together at 5:45 p.m. (all 4)." During the Larry King Live interview on October 24, 2003, MacDonald said, "I came home at 5:00 o'clock." |
| During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, MacDonald said that after playing basketball, ". . . I went home, picked up both the children, and went down to feed the Shetland pony. And we had dinner at home and Colette split for class." | On February 19, 1970, MacDonald told a different story, claiming that he had fed the pony and then had gone home. He told FBI Agent Robert Caverly that he "played basketball until approximately 4:45 or 5:00 p.m. He left the gymnasium and went to feed his horse which is on a--behind a store located on Bragg Boulevard in Fayetteville and arrived home between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m." On February 20, 1970, MacDonald told CID investigators that after work and playing basketball, he returned to his residence, showered and ate the evening meal. No reference at all to the pony was made. During the interview on April 6, 1970, MacDonald said nothing at all about feeding the pony. |
| On Feb. 19, 1970, MacDonald told FBI Agent Caverly that Colette left for classes at North Carolina State University at Fort Bragg at about 6:20 p.m. | Elizabeth Ramage, who was in the same child psychology class as Colette MacDonald, stated that Colette picked her up at her residence on the evening of February 16, 1970 at about 6:10-6:15 p.m. and they drove to their evening class. |
| At trial in 1979, MacDonald was asked if he and Colette talked about school and the class she was taking. MacDonald said, "We normally did. I do not recall at this time specific sentences, but we normally talked about her class and what she was studying at that time and that had been going on for years." | Colette was taking a child psychology class, and on a calendar in the MacDonald kitchen she had written a notation of "Psych" for the date of February 16. On April 6, 1970, MacDonald told CID investigators Grebner, Ivory and Shaw that Colette was taking a class in "something literature." |
| In his "diary" (a reconstruction of events, prepared by MacDonald with the idea that a book may be written about the case), MacDonald had written that he would be traveling to Russia as physician for the boxing team, and that Colette had been "pleased" about this. | Contrary to MacDonald's assertion, Colette apparently had not been pleased about the supposed trip. She mentioned her apprehensiveness to a Long Island friend in January 1970, and to a friend who had begun to accompany her to her child psychology class in early February, who told investigators that Colette had said she didn't like being away from MacDonald, and "sort of dreaded the thought of being separated again." Two days before the murders, Mildred Kassab spoke with her daughter on the telephone and Colette told her that she was not doing very well and was upset because her husband was going to be out of the country when their third child was born. She told her mother that she would "like to come home." On August 22, 1979, Jeffrey MacDonald's mother testified at trial that with regard to the alleged trip to Russia, "Well, [Colette] was upset because it would mean a separation again." Sherridale Morgan, the boxing coach, told CID investigators that no trip to Russia had ever been planned or even discussed. |
| At trial on August 23, 1979, MacDonald said that he had arranged for a doctor to care for Colette during her third pregnancy. | Mildred Kassab testified at trial that Colette told her she was concerned because she did not have a doctor. |
| Told CID investigators on Feb. 20, 1970, that after Colette departed [for class], he remained in the residence with Kimberley and Kristen, and put Kristen to bed at 7:00 p.m. | Rosalie Edwards, a neighbor of the MacDonald's who lived about 50 feet from the MacDonald apartment, stated that Kristen came to visit her on the evening of the 16th and stayed until past 7:00 pm and that this was normal for her to do. |
| Told CID investigators during the Feb. 17-20 interview that Colette came home about 9:40 p.m. | During the Larry King Live interview on Oct. 24, 2003, MacDonald said, "My wife came home about 9:00 o'clock . . . " |
| Told CID investigators on Feb. 17 that Colette went to bed at about 11:30 p.m. | During the Larry King Live interview, MacDonald said, "And Colette went to bed about 11:00o'clock." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that he and Colette did not argue on the night of Feb. 16 or in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 1970. | Mrs. Kalin, the next-door neighbor, testified during the 1974 grand jury proceeding that in the early morning hours of February 17, 1970, "I came out of a deep sleep and heard Colette's voice . . . and it woke me up. The voice I heard was mad enough to kill." She was not able to distinguish the words, but said, "I got the gist of it, and I would swear on the Bible that it that what what it was like she was saying was, 'What do you think I'm going to be doing, while you are doing all of this? Do you think I am going to be standing here doing nothing? If you touch one hair of those children's head or my head, I'll kill you!'" |
| Claimed that he put Kristen to bed at 7:00 p.m. During the Larry King Live interview on Oct. 24, 2003, MacDonald said, "And when I went up to go to bed . . . my youngest daughter had gotten into our bed in the master bedroom and wet my side of the bed." | Told CID investigators on February 17 that he put Kristen in the bed with Colette when Colette retired at 11:30 p.m. |
| Claims that it was Kristen who wet the master bedroom bed. | The urine stain on the master bedroom sheet was shown to be Kimberley's urine, not Kristen's. |
| Claimed that Kristen had wet the master bedroom bed to such an extent that he didn't want to sleep there. | Later said that Kristen was not that wet, that there was just a small amount of urine on her pants. |
| Claimed to have taken Kristen from the wet master bedroom bed and carried her back to her own bed. | No urine was found on MacDonald's pajama top. |
| During the grand jury proceeding in 1974, when asked about Kristen's bedwetting, MacDonald said, "the bed-wetting was a relatively infrequent thing . . . it was kind of an infrequent thing or a weekly thing by now . . . " | Told CID investigators on April 6, 1970, that with regard to Kristen's bedwetting, "This happened all the time." Pamela Kalin, the babysitter, testified that Kristen "would wet the bed pretty often." |
| Claimed that Kimberley, age 5, had stopped wetting the bed at about age two. | A nurse with whom MacDonald had had intimate relations told investigators that MacDonald had told her that Kimberley suffered from enuresis (bedwetting). |
| Told CID investigators that at 1:00 a.m. he began to read a novel, he finished it about 2:00 a.m., then from about 2:00-2:30 a.m. he washed the dishes, and went to bed about 2:30 a.m. | During the 1979 hypnosis session, MacDonald said, "I'm reading--It's Mickey Spillane--It's almost 2--2 am--and I turned the FM off--Get ready for bed . . . " During the Larry King Live interview on Oct. 24, 2003, he said, "And when I went up to go to bed somewhere probably around 12:30 or 1:00 . . . " |
| During the 1979 MacDonald murder trial, Jimmy Friar came forward for the first time with information he deemed pertinent to MacDonald's innocence. He stated that he had inadvertently called the MacDonald home in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 1970, intending to reach Dr. Richard MacDonald. Friar claimed that a laughing woman answered the phone; that in the background he heard someone say, "Hang up the God-damned phone," and at that point the phone was disconnected. On July 24, 1979, Friar told MacDonald investigator John Dolan Myers that the phone call took place between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. On July 25, 1983, Frier reiterated his story, but now stated that the phone call happened "about 2:00 a.m." As late as June 10, 2013, in its Post-Hearing Memorandum, MacDonald's defense maintained that Friar called "at 2:00 a.m.," and that this is proof that Helena Stoeckley and her cohorts were in his home when the murders were being committed. |
Jeffrey MacDonald told CID investigators that at 1:00 a.m. he began to read a novel, he finished it about 2:00 a.m., then from about 2:00-2:30 a.m. he washed the dishes, and went to bed about 2:30 a.m. Jeffrey MacDonald has never said anything about any phone call to his residence at 2:00 a.m. or at any other time on the night of the murders. Believing that he was mentally unstable, the defense declined to call Friar as a witness at trial. The defense's claim that Friar's 2:00 a.m. phone call confirms the presence of the Stoeckley group in MacDonald's home at that time is at odds with their other claims that the Stoeckley group was still at Dunkin' Donuts at 2:00 a.m. In a July 18, 1985 brief, the government points out that Friar "was a habitual criminal with a history of epilepsy and of treatment for mental illness," and that "Stoeckley never made any reference to the alleged phone call until after Gunderson and Beasley were aware of Friar's 1979 statements. There was no independent evidence either of Friar having been treated by a Dr. Richard MacDonald while in the Army or of a phone call relayed from the Fort Bragg hospital to the MacDonald residence on the night of the murders as Friar claimed to have occurred." |
| During the April 6 interview, Shaw asked, "At any point during the night . . . did you wear a pair of gloves?" MacDonald replied, "Did I wear a pair of gloves?" Shaw said, "Yeah. You." MacDonald replied, "Oh, yeah, to do the dishes." "What kind of gloves were they?" Shaw asked. MacDonald said, "She usually had two pairs laying there. A yellow, thick dish glove and and a pair of my surgeon's gloves. I don't know which ones I used. I don't remember." Shaw asked, "But did you use gloves to wash the dishes?" MacDonald replied, "Yeah." | During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, Woerheide said, "Well, if you had the rubber gloves on while you were doing the dishes, how come some fingerprints were found on the dishes." MacDonald replied, "I have no idea." Woerheide said, "Your fingerprints." MacDonald replied, "I didn't say I had them on. You keep asking me if I had them on. I said I don't know." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that he did not know that the April 6, 1970 CID interview with Grebner, Ivory and Shaw was being taped. | CID Investigator William Ivory said, "The interview was tape recorded and then transcribed. [MacDonald] later made an issue about not knowing that it was being taped, but the machine was right by his elbow and he saw Joe Grebner turn it on." |
| MacDonald claimed that during the April 6, 1970 CID interview, the investigators turned a light into his eyes as an interrogation tactic. | CID Investigator William Ivory said, "The only light that was on Joe's desk was an old desk light with a green shade that wasn't even turned on." |
| MacDonald claimed that he was not read his rights prior to the April 6, 1970 CID interview and that the investigators were taken aback when he told them that he would take a polygraph. MacDonald stated that Grebner initially reacted with stone silence, then suddenly became nervous, and insisted that he first would need to find a polygraph operator to administer the test. | Grebner read MacDonald his rights prior to the interview, Grebner's voice was apparantly even and controlled, and Grebner's immediate response to Jeff's bluster was not that he had to find a polygraph operator. Grebner actually explained the polygraph process to MacDonald and told him that if he passed it, he would shake his hand, and tell him that he was sorry he bothered him. |
| Claimed that he went to sleep on the living room couch. There is some doubt about who, if anyone, actually slept on the couch that night, since Colette had indicated to her child psychology class that MacDonald wanted her to sleep on the sofa. | Per Kassab's notes: "Jeff normally slept with a pillow. Why did he not have one on the living room couch?" MacDonald's response when questioned by Grebner on April 6 about where the attack had actually taken place was hesitant. He replied, "Right right at the end right at the, ah, foot of the couch." Three times during the April 6, 1970, interview, MacDonald used the word "bed" instead of "couch" or "sofa" Twice during the Article 32 hearing MacDonald had to correct himself after he said "bed" instead of "couch." During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, Mildred Kassab testified that when MacDonald described the attack to her, he told her that "when he pitched forward off the end of the sofa, he referred to it as the bed through most of the time when he spoke of it . . . " MacDonald says he may have used a leopard-print sofa pillow as a bed pillow. The sofa pillow was of the type that held impressions, but no impressions were found on it. |
| MacDonald has always said that the reason he went to sleep on the couch was because "his side" of the bed was wet. | During questioning at the grand jury, MacDonald said that he and Colette didn't have "specific sides" of the bed. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald told CID investigators on Feb. 17, 1970, that he fell asleep on the sofa and woke because he heard his wife Colette screaming, "Jeff, Jeff, why are they doing this to me?" MacDonald also claims that, at the same time, he heard his daughter Kimberley screaming, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy!" | Jeffrey MacDonald told the hospital orderly that the "children were saying, 'Daddy, Daddy'." Told CID investigators on Feb. 18, 1970 that he heard both children saying, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy!' repeatedly. At the time he claims he heard these cries, the weapons with which Colette and Kimberley were attacked were, according to MacDonald, being used against him in the living room. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that at least four "intruders" attacked him and killed his family. | With at least four intruders in the living room, and at least two others in the bedrooms who were supposedly attacking Colette, Kim and Kristen, this means a minimum of ten people were in the apartment during the attack. Yet aside from an overturned coffee table, an overturned flower pot, Jeffrey MacDonald's eyeglasses under the draperies, and a bedroom lampshade slightly askew, nothing was disturbed in this small apartment. No conclusive physical or circumstantial evidence of any intruders was ever found in the apartment. |
| On Feb. 17, 1970, told CID investigators that he saw a single black male, two white males and one white female. | Physician's assistant Michael Newman testified at the 1970 Article 32 hearing that MacDonald had told him "that there were two colored males, one white male and one white female." SGT Kenneth Gillespie, a medical corpsman on duty at the hospital, furnished a written statement to the CID stating that he noted that "while he was in Jeffrey MacDonald's company he heard him say that his assailants were two Negro males, one male Caucasian and one female Caucasian . . . " SSG Wallace Henniger, another medical corpsman on duty at the hospital, furnished a written statement to the CID which said that MacDonald told him "that in addition to the female there were two Negro males and a male Caucasian . . . " On February 18, 1970, MacDonald told the CID investigators that he did not remember seeing all four assailants together. |
| During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, MacDonald testified that "I never said I saw hippies. I never said that." | MP Richard Tevere, the first person to enter the apartment, was questioned at the 1979 trial about MacDonald's description of the intruders. Blackburn said, ". . . You have told us both this morning and this afternoon that Dr. MacDonald said that the attacks on himself and on his family were committed by a group of hippies; is that right?" Tevere replied, "Yes, sir." Blackburn asked, "Now are those your words describing what Dr. MacDonald said; in other words, is that your word, 'hippie,' or is that Dr. MacDonald's word, 'hippie'?" Tevere replied, "It was Dr. MacDonald's word." MacDonald told the hospital orderly that the intruders wore "hippie-style" clothing. SSG Wallace Henniger, a medical corpsman on duty at the hospital, furnished a written statement to the CID which said that MacDonald told him "that in addition to the female there were two Negro males and a male Caucasian and all were dressed in hippie clothes." Ron Harrison, MacDonald's best friend, told the CID that when he visited MacDonald in the hospital on the morning of February 17, 1970, MacDonald referred to the alleged intruders as "hippies." An FBI report states that "Capt. MacDonald . . . advised crime committed by four 'hippies' . . . " During the grand jury, Woerheide said to Dr. Sadoff, ". . . [Jeffrey MacDonald] used the term hippies or longhairs . . . Did he interject the word hippie or did you interject the word hippie?" Dr. Sadoff replied, "Those are his words." |
| During the Pruett and Kearns interview in February 1971, MacDonald was asked about the female intruder. "You said she was holding a candle?" He replied, "I never said that." During the grand jury proceedings in 1974 he testified, "And I never said I saw candles either." Also claimed during the Pruett and Kearns interview that "I never saw the light in her hand. I never said I did." |
Told MPs at the scene that the blonde female was holding a candle. Told an orderly at the hospital that the female was carrying a candle. Told surgical resident Benjamin Klein at the hospital that the blonde female was holding a candle. Told Dr. Jacobson that he remembered seeing a female who was holding a candle. Told Mildred Kassab (Colette's mother) at the hospital on February 17 that "when he pitched forth off of the sofa he saw this woman carrying a candle . . . " Told Ron Harrison at the hospital on February 17 that the "girl was carrying a candle." Told CID investigators on February 17 that the female was holding a lit candle in her hands in front of her body. Told his friend Robert Butner that he saw someone standing over him holding a lighted candle and chanting. |
| In his submission to the parole board in early 2005, Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that post-trial, it was discovered that fresh wax drippings were found by investigators, but says this information was not made available to the defense or jury at trial. As late as December, 2005, 35 years after the murders, MacDonald still claimed that unsourced wax in his apartment could be seen as corroboration for his contention that the intruder with the long blond hair appeared to be carrying one or more lit and dripping candles. |
During the cross-examination of CID Chemist Dillard Browning at trial, the defense introduced testimony that wax was found in three locations. There is no evidence to support MacDonald's embellishment that the wax was "fresh." MacDonald has never described the female intruder as carrying three different candles, nor did he ever say any of the male intruders held candles. In the same December 2005 motion, MacDonald admits the fact that the unsourced candle wax came from three different candles. If MacDonald is trying to claim that Helena Stoeckley carried three candles, or that any of the male "intruders" carried candles, then that would be completely at odds with Stoeckley's statement that "I was the only person who carried a candle." No wax trails from any dripping candles were found in the apartment. Colette was fond of candles, and testimony was given that during the crime scene investigation candles were found in nearly every room of the house. It can be assumed that candle stubs from candles the MacDonalds burned were thrown out, which of course precludes them from being matched to wax found in the apartment after the murders. The wax on the coffee table was found to be old and filled with household debris. The wax in Kimberley's room was found to be consistent with that of birthday candles. |
| On February 17, 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald told a hospital orderly, as well as his friend Ron Harrison, that the female intruder wore white boots. | When questioned by investigators on February 17, 1970, MacDonald said that the female intruder wore brown or black fake leather boots. During the 1970 Article 32 military hearing, when asked about the color of the boots, MacDonald said his initial impression was that they were light brown. On March 20, 1971, Kearns questioned MacDonald about the color of the boots. MacDonald said he didn't know what color they were. Asked again what color the boots were, MacDonald said, "I was under the impression that they were darker red than lighter, the boots." During the Larry King Live interview on October 24, 2003 (long after MacDonald had learned that the boots the CID had were beige), MacDonald described the boots: "They were light in color . . . " |
| It was raining on February 16-17. On February 17, MacDonald told CID Agent Connolly that when he woke up, and again when he was knocked on the floor, that when he looked, he could see that "the water was just dripping off these people." He also told CID investigators that the female intruder was wearing boots that were "wet, but not bloody." | According to the testimony of the first people to enter the house no puddles nor water spots nor any other indications of wet-footed intruders were found anywhere in the apartment. During the Pruett and Kearns interview on March 20, 1971, Jeffrey MacDonald was asked about the female intruder's boots. He said, "It could have been wet or it could have been the vinyl-type thing. That was just again an instantaneous impression, similar with the candle thing. I don't know if they were wet." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that while he and his family were being violently attacked, the female intruder was chanting, "Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs." | The word "groovy" was an outdated word at this time, and not likely to have been used. Persons under the influence of LSD (a.k.a. "acid") would not be likely to engage in such continued and deliberate strenuous activity, and instead, would be lethargic. Per the words of a newspaper reporter who covered the Article 32 hearing, "four people who are doing acid couldn't organize a trip to the toilet, let alone organize a murder of three people." None of the other intruders spoke at all, or at least MacDonald has never mentioned any words spoken by any of them. |
| Claims that the black male assailant was 5' 10" to 5" 11" tall and that the intruder lifted his arms and raised a club high in preparation for a blow. | The living room had a height of 7', and the ceiling was too low for the attacker to have raised a 31" club to strike MacDonald. |
| Claims that just after being hit for the first time, while still wearing his pajama top, he felt a sharp pain in his right chest, and thought another attacker was "throwing a hell of a punch." Looking down, he saw the glint of a blade, and realized he had been stabbed with either a knife or ice pick. At the hospital, a small, 1-cm. wound was noted in his right chest area, causing a pneumothorax which was easily treated. |
The small, 1-cm. stab wound was described as being a "neat, clean" incision, not the type of wound likely to have been inflicted during the frenzy of a struggle. Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top contained no cuts which matched the wound which caused the pneumothorax. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald told Dr. Sadoff and others that he had suffered a hemopneumothorax, a more serious condition than a pneumothorax. | Medical records support the fact that MacDonald did not have a hemopneumothorax. |
| During the Feb. 17-20 interviews, MacDonald repeatedly referred to the wooden weapon as a "club," and said he was attacked with this club as he awoke from sleep on the couch. | The murder club was a 1-½" x 1-½" piece of wood which came from the MacDonald apartment. Despite the presence of wood splinters from the club which were found in all three bedrooms (including Kristen's, even though she had not been attacked with the club), no splinters were found where MacDonald said he was attacked. No bruises from any club were ever noted on MacDonald's body by any hospital personnel during the days he remained in the hospital, nor were any noted to have develped afterwards. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed to have no knowledge of the 31"-long piece of wood used as a club in the murders. | This piece of wood was found to be identical in type, grain, and all other physical characteristics to a bed slat in the south (Kimberley's) bedroom. It was also found to bear paint identical in chemical composition to paint on MacDonald's sidewalk, bookshelves and other items in the apartment, as well as to surgical gloves found in his storage shed. |
| During the February 17, 18 and 19 CID interviews, MacDonald claimed that he fought the intruders as he was on the sofa, even including in his account a description of how he reached out to grab the club in the black male's hands. He described continuing to fight the male intruders in the hallway, during which they tore his pajama top. He claims he then lost consciousness, and woke up to find the pajama top wrapped around his wrists. | Six weeks later, during the April 6 interview, MacDonald said that his pajama top actually had became wrapped around his wrists at the start of the struggle, while he was on the sofa, and that he used the top as a shield to fend off blows. |
| During the 1979 hypnosis session, MacDonald said that one of the assailants wore rough-grained gloves, also saying that "They are worker rubber gloves--gardening gloves or dishwasher gloves--coarse . . . " | Fragments of a rubber glove were found in the master bedroom, and these fragments were found to be of the same composition as the surgical gloves which were kept in a lower kitchen cabinet (the cabinet in front of which Jeffrey MacDonald's blood type was found). One fragment had been used to write the word "PIG" on the headboard of the master bedroom bed. A total of five whole gloves were found: two were dishwashing gloves, and the other three were cloth oven mitts (potholder-type gloves). On February 17, 1970, MacDonald told Agent Caverly that the black male intruder's hands were wet and slippery. |
| Told CID investigators that as he was pushing two of the assailants toward the hallway, both assailants were tearing his pajama top. | Told Dr. Sadoff that his pajama top was ripped over his head as he struggled with intruders on the sofa. Later claimed no knowledge of when his pajama top was torn. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that his pajama top must have been pulled over his back by the intruders as he was on the couch trying to defend himself. | The pajama top was torn on the left shoulder and was ripped down the front seam, as though someone had reached out and torn it as MacDonald was standing and spinning away. According to his story, no intruders were behind him as he was being attacked. No fibers from the pajama top were found where MacDonald claims to have been attacked. |
| Claimed to have been stabbed repeatedly by a knife and an icepick in the living room while he was on the sofa (the number of stab wounds seems to vary with each telling). | None of Jeffrey MacDonald's nor anyone else's blood was found at the spot where he was attacked. Type B blood (Jeffrey MacDonald's blood type) was found in front of the kitchen sink, the 13th stop in the "rounds" of the apartment MacDonald says he made while checking his family. No blood of any type was found where he says he was stabbed, yet his blood was found in the kitchen, which was the last place he went before going back into the master bedroom for the last time. |
| Told CID investigators on February 17 that he noticed that one of the assailants had a knife or icepick while he was struggling with the three male assailants in the hallway, after he fell off the couch. | During Jeffrey MacDonald's 1979 hypnosis session, he said that "I saw a blade," and that he saw this before he fell off the couch. |
| Claimed that with his pajama top wrapped around his wrists, he used the top as a shield, repeatedly thrusting it outwards in attempts to deflect the stabbings. | A cut was found in the webbing of one hand. MacDonald testified at his 1979 trial that he had no other wounds on his hands, wrists or forearms. MacDonald claimed that upon awakening in the hallway, he made his way to the master bedroom where Colette lay, removing the pajama top from his wrists as he entered the master bedroom. He says that at some point afterwards, he put the pajama top on Colette to keep her warm. When found, the left sleeve of the pajama top was not on Colette's body, but was trailing off to one side. The sleeve had no ice pick holes in it. The holes in the pajama top were perfectly round, with no tearing at the edges, indicating that the holes were made while the top was stationary. |
| Across the back of the pajama top there were 17 holes that looked as though they had been made with an icepick. | Jeffrey MacDonald had no wounds in his back. |
| On Feb. 17, 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald told CID investigators that he was fighting with three male assailants. | On Feb. 18, 1970, he told CID investigators that he was fighting with two male assailants. |
| MacDonald said he suffered two to three puncture wounds in the upper left chest during the attack, and three puncture wounds in the upper left bicep, all of which he believed were icepick wounds. Also claimed to have suffered "approximately 10" icepick wounds across the abdomen. | The emergency room orderly and the chief of surgery both testified that Jeffrey MacDonald had no icepick wounds on his body. Staff surgeon Merrill Bronstein testified that when Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas were removed he examined MacDonald "from head to toe," and that MacDonald "absolutely did not have any icepick wounds anywhere." MacDonald did not say anything about having received eight or ten icepick wounds in his abdomen until the Article 32 hearing in the summer of 1970. |
| Claimed to have fallen off the end of the sofa during the attack, with his legs still bound in an afghan. | The afghan was found on the sofa when investigators arrived. Despite the seriousness of what was happening to him, he told Dr. Sadoff that everything went "funny," and that he was laughing as he fell off the couch. |
| On Jan. 21, 1980, Jeffrey MacDonald furnished information to investigator Ted Gunderson about the crime scene investigation. Gunderson noted that one of MacDonald's complaints was that "Two red blood stains on wall over couch never processed, with the exception of field test for blood." | In fact, there were three spots in this area which were originally thought possibly to have been blood. CID lab technicians Craig Chamberlain and Janice Glisson both examined these spots (CID Exhibits D111, D112 and D113), and affirmed that the spots were definitely not blood. |
| On Feb. 17, 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald described the "female intruder" as being a Caucasian female, 16 to 25 years old, 5' 2" to 5' 4" tall, 110-130 lbs., long light blonde hair hanging to the middle of her back, wearing a large floppy hat, dark colored high brown or black fake leather boots, and wearing either shorts or a skirt. | Merrill Bronstein, staff surgeon at Womack Army Hospital, testified at trial that MacDonald had told him the female intruder had long, light brown hair. According to MacDonald's accounts, the female he saw was facing him at all times and didn't move, so he would not have been able to see that her hair came to the middle of her back. At the grand jury on August 15, 1974, MacDonald testified as to his recollection of the female intruder: "It was in the midst of a dark room and over a period of ten to twenty to thirty seconds, and I never really saw her." Despite many times having described this intruder as being female, he told Dr. Sadoff that the female intruder could have been a long-haired male. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims he was unable to effectively fight the intruders because he could not free his hands of the pajama top, and could not free his legs from the lightweight afghan on his legs. | Despite her pregnancy of five months, both of Colette's arms were broken in her attempt to defend herself. Two-year-old Kristen also had at least one defensive wound, down to the bone of a finger. |
| During the 1979 trial (August 24), in answer to Blackburn's questions regarding the supposed "struggle" with intruders, Jeffrey MacDonald gave the following testimony: Q Well, have you ever told anyone that you actually struggled with them in the hallway? A Not in the sense that there was a fight back in the middle of the hallway; no. Q How about towards the end of the hallway--towards the steps? A No; we never had a discussion with anyone about a struggle in the hallway. |
Told CID investigators on February 17, 1970, that he noticed that one of the assailants had a knife or icepick while he was struggling with the three male assailants in the hallway. During the April 6, 1970 interview, MacDonald said "We were kind of struggling in the hallway right there at the end of the couch . . . " |
| MacDonald claims to have fallen unconscious in the hallway. | If MacDonald had been knocked unconscious, he would have little to no memory of the events preceding the blow that rendered him unconscious. Also, depending upon long he was unconscious, his memory of events afterward would also be impaired. |
| MacDonald claims to have struggled with intruders in the hallway and to have fallen unconscious at the west end of the hallway. He said his torso was on the south side of the hallway and his legs were on the steps, extending into the living room. A crime scene photograph shows a pile of coats and/or clothing on the hallway floor exactly at the place where MacDonald claims to have fallen. | Despite many tellings of his various accounts of the night of the murders, MacDonald has never described falling upon any coats or clothing. Despite his account that he fought with intruders in the hallway, the crime scene photograph shows that the clothing does not appear to have been disturbed. |
| When asked during the April 6 interview how long he had struggled with the intruders, he said, "I'm sure it didn't take more than eight or ten seconds, when I think back about it . . . I'm sure this was a matter of seconds." Also claimed that he did not know how long he had lain unconscious in the hallway after the attack. | Long after the murders, MacDonald indicated that the events took place in about half an hour: "I wish that I had served my country in a combat zone rather than on Fort Bragg. Maybe I would have served the twelve months in a combat zone and come out a lot better than a half hour or whatever it was in, uh, 544 Castle Drive with at least four intruders." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed to have no knowledge of the ice pick used in the murders and denied that it came from his house. | The babysitter, Pamela Kalin, testified that she did use the icepick to aid in removing popsicles and other treats from the freezer, for the children. Lt. Harrison, Jeffrey MacDonald's best friend, said that during a Thanksgiving visit, MacDonald asked, "Where's the icepick?" and that MacDonald even attempted to look for it in an outside storage shed. Mildred Kassab (Colette's mother) saw an icepick in the apartment and used it during their Christmas 1969 visit. CID agent William Ivory reported on Dec. 17, 1971, that "Jeffrey MacDonald, when initially interviewed by a CID and an FBI agent, stated that he had an icepick in the house . . . " |
| The CID Final Report (covering the period Feb. 17, 1970 April 10, 1972) reflects "He [Jeffrey MacDonald] could recall nothing further of the attack and woke and heard a gurgling sound." Also: ". . . he then heard gurgling sounds again coming from Kristen's room and she was 'gurgling like a person who has blood in their lungs.' Per the interview with CID Agent Connolly, "The only time I detected any emotion at all was when [MacDonald] described how he heard a 'gurgling' coming from his youngest daughter's bedroom and he went in to try to help her." |
MacDonald very quickly dropped the references to "gurgling" from his accounts of the murders, and never mentioned it again. In subsequent accounts he would say that the house was silent when he woke. |
| During the Larry King Live show, MacDonald said, "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 . . . " | During the Article 32 military hearing, CID investigator Robert Shaw was asked about the floors and the condition of the hallway floor. He testified that ". . . it was dirty, it was dusty. There were some minute spots that I could see with my flashlight. I didn't know what they were. I could tell they weren't waxed or that sort of thing." |
| Told the hospital orderly that he woke up in the hallway and that he could see his wife. | During the April 6, 1970, interview, Shaw said, "You said when you woke up you could see your wife." MacDonald said, "Well, I could see yeah." Shaw asked, "You could see in there?" MacDonald replied, "Right." Shaw said, "You could see your wife. Was that because the light was on in there?" MacDonald replied, "Well, I I didn't say that I could see my wife when I woke up." |
| During the April 6, 1970 interview, MacDonald said, ". . . and I--my wife was lying on the--the floor next to the bed." | During the same interview, MacDonald seems to have a different idea about where Colette was when he found her (and believed her to be dead). Shaw asked MacDonald, "Did you try to move her any place?" MacDonald replied, "Geez, I don't know sir. I don't think so. I mean maybe. There was a green chair there. Maybe she was leaning against it." |
| Claims his pajama top was on his body when he went to sleep on the sofa, was still on his body (torn and wrapped around his wrists) when he woke in the hallway, and remained on his body until he removed it as he was going into the master bedroom to check on Colette. | There were 10 blood stains from Colette that were proven to have been on MacDonald's pajama top before it was torn. Six stains were located on the pajama top pocket which was torn from the jacket and ended up at Colette's feet. The remaining four stains were located on the left front seam, left shoulder, left sleeve, and left cuff of Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top. 15 entangled fibers were found under that flipped up portion of the rug. The fibers consisted of 7 pajama fibers and 8 carpet fibers. This indicates that a person wearing a blue pajama top grappled with someone in the master bedroom near the flipped-up rug which resulted in fibers becoming entangled. |
| MacDonald has claimed that the pocket from his pajama top probably fell off when he tossed the top aside in the master bedroom. | Colette's blood was found on the face of the pocket in six locations, but that portion of the pocket was found on an unbloodied section of a throw rug at Colette's feet. The six stains did not soak through the double layer of the pocket, indicating that Colette's blood was on the pocket before it was torn from the jacket. |
| Claimed he was not wearing his (torn) pajama top when he examined his family. | Fibers from Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas were found in all three bedrooms, including underneath the headboard of the master bedroom bed (where the word "PIG" had been written in Colette's blood), and underneath the covers of the children's beds. |
| MacDonald states that when he was attempting to aid Colette in the master bedroom, he never got close enough to the bed to even notice that the word PIG was written in blood on the headboard. | 22 fibers from Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas were found on top of the bed, Multiple fibers from his pajama top were found on the floor at the foot of the bed and on the floor underneath the headboard where the word "PIG" had been written. |
| When he learned that fibers from his pajama top had been found in all three bedrooms, MacDonald attempted to explain this by saying that the fibers might have come from his pajama bottoms. The many pajama fibers found in the bedrooms included two found under Kristen's bedcovers, and fourteen fibers found under the bedclothing with which Kim had been covered. |
The pajama bottoms were inadvertently thrown away at the hospital, but hospital personnel testified that they were torn along the seam in the crotch area, rather than the fabric itself being torn. Therefore, had they shed, they would have shed sewing threads, not fabric fibers. MacDonald was asked at trial if he had at any time gotten onto the bed with Kim. He said he had not done so. |
| Colette was injured most severely in Kristen's room but was found in the master bedroom, lying face up on the floor. | When questioned on April 6, 1970, MacDonald agreed with Grebner, Ivory and Shaw that hippies would not have moved the bodies. If, despite her severe injuries, Colette managed to make her way to the master bedroom after the attack, it is not logical that she would have landed face up when she fell. |
| MacDonald denies wrapping Colette in the master bedroom sheet and carrying her back to the master bedroom. He claims that he never touched the master bedroom sheet at all during or after the murders. | Bloody imprints from Colette's and MacDonald's pajamas were found on the sheet, as well as bloody handprints, a chin imprint and the bloody imprint of what appeared to be a bare left shoulder. This indicates that these stains were placed on the sheet at the same time and that Colette was wrapped in the sheet by someone who was wearing Jeffrey MacDonald's bloody pajama top. The defense's expert witness, Dr. Thornton, agreed with the prosecution that the imprints of MacDonald's bloody pajama cuffs were on the sheet. In the wadded-up master bedroom bedspread a blue seam thread matched to Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas was found entwined around a bloody hair of Colette's. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald's website claims that "Colette MacDonald's attacker is believed . . . to have been left-handed . . . Two . . . pathologists . . . researched the fatal blows suffered by Colette and concluded that they were inflicted by a left-handed person." (quote copied on June 9, 2004) As of December 2005, MacDonald's website still claimed that "Dr. Ronald Wright of Broward County, Florida, researched the fatal blows suffered by Colette and concluded that they were inflicted by a left-handed person." Jeffrey MacDonald claims to be right-handed. |
In Dr. Wright's declaration he stated that "In analyzing the severe blow to Colette MacDonald's head, the handedness of the person cannot be determined with certainty. Individuals intoxicated with psychomimetic drugs or enraged by their wife cannot be presumed to strike with their handed side. Therefore, while perhaps slightly more often forceful blows delivered from a deceased's right to left are delivered by left handed folk (adjusting for their minority status); it is certainly not unusual to see such a blow delivered by a right handed individual." The autopsy report for the children states: ". . . a determination as to whether the assailant(s) stabbing the victims were right or left handed could not be made since the relative position of the assailant(s) to the victims is unknown. The only one in which there is a suggestion of position is in Kimberly where an impression is that the wounds extended to the neck area. If she was on the right side of the bed as found during the crime search and lying on her back, then it is suggested that these wounds were inflicted by a right handed person." MacDonald's father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, said MacDonald is ambidextrous. |
| Claims he placed his torn pajama top on Colette to keep her "warm" and treat her for shock. | MacDonald, a trained doctor and surgeon, said he believed Colette to be dead when he first saw her, so it is not clear why he would try to treat for "shock." |
| When interviewed by the CID and Robert Caverly (FBI) on Feb. 17, 1970, MacDonald said that he covered Colette with a pajama top and a towel. | When questioned six weeks after the murders during the April 6, 1970 interview, MacDonald said he didn't remember seeing the towel. When asked during the 1970 Article 32 hearing if he had covered Colette with a towel, he replied, "No, sir, not that I remember." When asked during Grand Jury testimony on Jan. 21, 1975 if he remembered seeing a towel, MacDonald replied, "No." At trial on Aug. 24, 1979, MacDonald said he recognized the towel but didn't recall where it was, and didn't recall placing it on Colette's body. |
| During the April 6, 1970 interview with criminal investigators, Shaw said, "Well, this towel was laying right across [Colette's] abdomen, the abdomen and upper thighs area." MacDonald replied, "Well, then I must have--either I put it there or the medic put it there." | Despite his claims of a struggle with intruders, MacDonald did not say that the assailants might have put it there. |
| MacDonald testified during the 1970 Article 32 military hearing that in giving aid to Colette, ". . . I just sort of checked her again and looked at her chest wounds, and then I got up and realized that I had--you know, no one else except me, you know, and the alleged assailants were--were aware of what happened, so I picked up the phone in the bedroom." | MacDonald's use of the word "alleged" in describing his assailants is contrary to his insistence that he did actually struggle with intruders. |
| On Jan. 21, 1980, Jeffrey MacDonald furnished information to investigator Ted Gunderson about the crime scene investigation. Gunderson noted that "Dr. MacDonald thinks one MP wiped the bedroom phone with a handkerchief or his hand after using it to make a telephone call." | At the 1970 Article 32 hearing, the 1974 Grand Jury proceedings, and at the 1979 criminal trial, MP Richard Tevere admitted to using this phone. He testified that he placed the receiver near -- but not against -- his ear, and did not touch the main body of the phone at all. No testimony exists to affirm that Tevere or any other MP or investigator wiped the phone in any way. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that he pulled the dull, bent Geneva Forge knife from Colette's chest. | As a doctor, MacDonald would have known that pulling a knife from a wound is directly contrary to accepted medical practices; such an object should remain in place until X-rays can be done, since it provides a "plug" for the wound and also because it may be near vital organs which might be damaged should the weapon be removed. No fingerprints were found on the Geneva Forge knife. Forensic studies showed that it was exceedingly unlikely that any of the stab wounds in Colette's body were made with the Geneva Forge knife. No holes in Colette's pajama top were made by the Geneva Forge knife. |
| MacDonald claimed no knowledge of the bentbladed Geneva Forge knife found in the master bedroom. | The babysitter said that she did see this knife in the kitchen drawer and also on top of the kitchen counter. She recognized and remembered it because of the bent blade. |
| MacDonald claimed that Colette appeared to be dead when he saw her. When a pulse can be felt, but a person is not breathing, mouth-to-mouth is given (the chest is not compressed, as it is when performing CPR). On April 6, 1970, MacDonald told the CID that he merely gave Colette mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: "All I did was see her and" he cleared his throat "take the knife out of her chest and breathe into her mouth, really." |
When no pulse can be felt and a person is not breathing, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (with chest compression) is performed. On August 16, 1970, during the Article 32 hearing, MacDonald was asked why he took the knife out of his wife's chest, and now his explanation was that he performed CPR, explaining: ". . . you have to compress the chest to give artificial respiration and the knife was in the way." |
| During the 1970 Article 32 proceeding, MacDonald testified that in giving Colette mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he "just sort of laid her flat and opened her mouth and cleared out her mouth." | Colette was found with her mouth closed (as were the children). |
| MacDonald told CID investigators during the Feb. 17 interview that after waking in the hallway, he first went to Kimberley's room, then checked Kristen in her room, then went to the master bedroom, checking Colette last. | MacDonald told the hospital orderly that he woke up in the hallway, that he could see his wife, and that he crawled to her. Said during the April 6 interview that after he woke up in the hallway, everything was quiet, and he started remembering that he heard screaming, "so I was I really didn't even like look ahead. I I went into the bedroom and then I saw my wife." Told his military lawyer on April 20 that he had fallen unconscious in the hallway and had then made his way from the master bedroom to Kimberley's room. During the grand jury proceeding in 1974, when Woerheide asked how MacDonald's footprint, which was made in Type A blood (Colette's blood type) came to be exiting Kristen's room, MacDonald replied, "Well, I had been in the master bedroom first, Mr. Woerheide." During the hypnosis session in July 1979, prior to the start of trial, MacDonald described going to Colette first, then Kimberley, then Kristen. |
| During the Article 32 hearing, said that when he went to Kimberley's room, he could see her chest and neck. | Kim was found covered to the neck with a blanket. |
| On April 6, 1970, MacDonald told investigators that he approached Kim from the south side of the bed, because her record player and other items obstructed the entry on the north side. | Kimberley was found with her face pointing to the north, away from the side MacDonald said he approached in order to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. |
| Claimed to have placed one arm under Kimberley and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her as she lay in her bed. | As a doctor, MacDonald would have known that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation would not be effective on a child of Kimberley's size while the victim is on a soft surface; a hard surface is needed in order to have no resistance when pushing down on the chest. Kimberley was found with her mouth closed, as were Colette and Kristen. |
| During the Article 32 hearing, said that he stopped mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Kim because air was coming out of her chest. | Kimberley had no chest wounds. |
| Claimed he was not wearing his pajama top when he went to Kimberley's room to check her. | Kimberley's blood was found on the pajama top. A fiber from Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas was found underneath one of Kimberley's bed pillows. A 20½" fiber from his pajamas was found on top of the same pillow. 14 of his pajama fibers were found underneath her bed covers. |
| Claimed he was not wearing his pajama top when he went to Kristen's room to check her. | A fiber from Jeffrey MacDonald's pajamas was found underneath Kristen's fingernail, and two of his pajama fibers were found underneath her bed covers. |
| Claimed that he went to Kristen's room and saw that she was covered in blood. | Kristen's room received no light whatsoever from the hall bathroom or any other source, and was completely dark. MacDonald could not have seen her covered in blood since there was no light at all in the room. |
| Claimed that the bloody footprint (shown to be Jeffrey MacDonald's and not disputed by him or the defense) in Kristen's room, which was made in Type A blood Colette's blood type might have been made as he entered that room after checking the body of his wife in the master bedroom. | The footprint was exiting, not entering, Kristen's room. No footprints leading into her room were found. |
| Claimed that he was not carrying anything as he exited Kristen's room. | Study of MacDonald's footprint showed that he was carrying something relatively heavy as he exited Kristen's room. |
| Claimed to have done mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on all victims. | Both children were found lying on their sides, with their mouths closed. MacDonald could not have performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on them in the positions in which they were found. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald denies staging any part of the crime scene. | The only disturbance in the living room where MacDonald claims to have struggled with several "intruders" was a coffee table lying on its edge, an overturned plant and pot which an ambulance driver set upright, and MacDonald's eyeglasses which were found face down on the floor under the living room window. Investigators conducted numerous experiments and found that no matter how many times they kicked the coffee table it never landed on its edge; it was top-heavy and always landed on its top. Under the edge of the coffee table, magazines were neatly stacked, including an Esquire magazine which had an imprint on it in the shape of a fingertip; the imprint was made in Colette's or Kimberley's blood. As Grebner told MacDonald during the April 6, 1970 interview, "There's an Esquire magazine laying there. There's a box laying of top of it. And on the edge, right underneath that box, there's blood on the edges of the pages. This whole thing here was staged." MacDonald's house slippers were found with the toe of one slipper perched on top of one of the coffee table legs. It is not likely that during a violent struggle the slipper would have ended up in such a position. The existence of Kimberley's blood and brain serum in the master bedroom showed that the most severe injuries had taken place there. Yet she was found lying on her left side in her bed, with the massive injury to the left side of her head being against the pillow. After being placed in her bed, she had been clubbed on the right side of her head and stabbed several times in the neck. When found, she was covered with the bedclothes and had been tucked in with a "security blanket" she slept with habitually. As CID Investigator William Ivory noted, "With Kristen, she was positioned as if she was sleeping, with a baby bottle next to her mouth. With stab wounds to her front and back we know that could not be true." Forensic studies showed that Colette had suffered the most massive injuries while in Kristen's room, and that she had been carried back to the master bedroom in an attempt to make it appear that she had been attacked there. |
| Claimed he was not wearing his glasses while checking his family's injuries. | A small spot or speck of Type O blood (Kristen's blood type), was found on one lens of his glasses, which were lying face down on the living room floor under the draperies. |
| Realizing that the speck of Type O blood (Kristen's blood type) was incriminating, at the Article 32 hearing in 1970 MacDonald claimed that this blood on the outer lens of his eyeglasses must have gotten there when he treated an automobile accident victim at Cape Fear Valley Hospital on the night of February 15-16, 1970. | MacDonald was seen professionally by LTC (Dr.) F. W. Pierce, optometrist, on February 16, 1970, the afternoon before the murders. If there had been blood on the lens, the optometrist would have noticed it, and since optometrists routinely clean lenses during an examination, it is highly unlikely that a speck of blood would have remained there after the office visit. Per MacDonald's attorney, Bernie Segal, during closing arguments at trial: "If anything you have learned physically about Dr. MacDonald is what--is he a sloppy man? Is he a man likely to walk around with a blood spot on his reading glasses having to read for several hours? It does not seem to me that there is evidence to sustain such a conclusion." If Segal was trying to imply that the blood on the glasses was put there as it was flung off of one of the "intruders" during the struggle on the sofa, why was no other blood of any type, cast-off or otherwise, found in that area? |
| Claims he wore no gloves while checking his family's injuries, and that after checking his family's injuries, he used the master bedroom phone and then the kitchen phone, to call for help. | No blood or fingerprints were found on the master bedroom phone or the kitchen phone. |
| Was told by the operator during the first call from the master bedroom that he needed to call the MPs for help. | Despite claiming to want to help his injured family, he disobeyed the operator and laid the phone down, fully aware that no help was on the way. |
| Claimed that between 3:40 and 3:42 a.m., between his first and second phone calls, he had looked out the back door for signs of the intruders, had gone to the hall bathroom to check his own wounds, had washed his hands, had looked into the hall closet for medical supplies, had returned to Colette and checked her again, had administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on each victim, had checked for pulses at various points on both of his daughters' bodies, had collapsed to his hands and knees and possibly crawled for a time, had gone to the kitchen, and perhaps washed his hands at the kitchen sink. | In the accompaniment of CID investigators, Freddy Kassab, MacDonald's father-in-law, walked, then walked through more quickly, then ran through the actions MacDonald claimed to have performed. He found it impossible to have done all of those things within the two-minute timespan. |
| MacDonald stated he had to get down on his hands and knees to catch his breath prior to making the second phone call to dispatch. | No bloody handprints or transfer stains from MacDonald's pajama bottoms were found on either the hallway or dining room floor. |
| MacDonald claims the intruders had inflicted his chest wound during the fight, then he lay unconscious for some time. Shortly after MPs and medics arrived, he claimed he had trouble breathing. He also claimed that during the checking of his family, he had to get down on his hands and knees at least twice, because he was having trouble breathing. | He had a chest wound which impaired his lung but apparently didn't have any breathing problems while he was giving mouth-to-mouth to his family. |
| Claimed to have twice spent time on his hands and knees after the attacks, presumably trying to recover his equilibrium. Also dropped both phones as he was calling for help, presumably due to his weakness and/or injuries after the attacks. | He had apparently recovered full equilibrium as MPs and medics arrived; he was alert and agitated, and strong enough to struggle with medics. |
| During the April 6, 1970, interview, claimed that he entered the kitchen only as far as the telephone in the doorway. | Type B blood (Jeffrey MacDonald's blood type) was found on the floor in front of the kitchen sink. |
| During the Article 32 hearing, after learning that drops of his blood had been found near the kitchen sink, MacDonald changed his story, now saying that he was at the kitchen sink either before or after he used the kitchen phone. | Per Kassab's notes: "If it was before, why was no blood found in the sink? If after, why was there no blood on the phone?" |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed he was "thinking more like a doctor" during the checking of his family's injuries; that he was attempting to help them. | After discovering the bodies of his wife and children MacDonald says he continued to walk around the apartment, checking each member of his family again, checking his own injuries, washing his hands, etc., later stating no less than three times during the April 6 interview that all the while he was doing these things, he was fully aware that no help at all was on the way. At no time after discovering the bodies of his wife and children did he yell or scream for help. He said he did not want to bother the neighbors about it because he "didn't know them that well." During the April 6 interview, MacDonald said alerting the neighbors would be futile. "And I remember I--it flashed through my mind to go next door to my idiot neighbor, but I realized that would be futile, and--" Ivory asked, "Why was that?" MacDonald replied, "Well, our neighbors are--she's the kind of a lady that sits in her window with binoculars and watches the girl across the street undress and stuff like that, you know. And she comes over and she says, 'Now, don't leave your windows open because there's a lot of rapists and people around here.' . . . So that's the type of person that--that, you know, I just--I said, 'Shall I go next door or should I try to call again?' And I decided I should try to call again." |
| When MPs arrived, MacDonald was found lying beside his wife, in a pose meant to suggest that he had fallen unconscious. He was lying with his head on Colette's shoulder and one arm across Colette's chest, and his legs were fully outstretched. | If MacDonald had fallen unconscious, his body would not have been capable of landing in such a position, particularly if he had been checking Colette (who lay prone on the floor) as he claimed to have been doing. |
| When MPs arrived at the crime scene, MacDonald told them to check his children because "I heard my kids crying." | According to what he later told investigators, MacDonald knew by the time the MPs arrived that his children were dead because the had checked them for vital signs, had found none, and, being a doctor, it was clear to him that they were dead. |
| Claimed to have neither made nor received any telephone calls during the evening hours of Feb. 16 or during the early morning hours of Feb. 17. He was also asked specifically if he had placed a call to Mrs. Kane, the wife of his former commanding officer. He denied making such a call. | Mrs. Kane executed a written statement wherein she discussed certain details of a telephone call she received at her residence at about 3:20-3:30 a.m. on February 17. She said the caller was a male but she could not identify his voice or recall his conversation due to her sleepy state. Mrs. Kane's telephone number was found written on the wooden club used in the murders. |
| MacDonald implies that he was confused during the initial interviews at the hospital, due to the sedative medications he'd received. At the grand jury on August 16, 1974, he was asked, "Well, did anyone that came to see you that first day, and I assume there were a number of people that came in that day, remark to you that you seemed to be a little bit confused?" MacDonald replied, "Oh, a lot of people." | When asked "Would you tell us specifically who?" MacDonald's reply was, "I mean I just went--I really wasn't making any sense to anyone. I was--it seemed to me that--no, I honestly can't say that someone said to me, gee, you sound confused. Is that what you're asking for?" Woerheide replied, "Yeah," whereupon MacDonald said, "I don't remember hearing those specific words from anyone." |
| MacDonald first claimed that before calling for help he had examined himself in the bathroom mirror, and "there wasn't even a cut or anything." Weeks later, he described quite a few "wounds," claiming they were "little" and "small" and even "small, small" wounds. Over the years, the number and severity of his wounds has increased, even to the point where he has claimed he nearly died from them. | MacDonald's vital signs were normal upon his arrival at the hospital. Treatment consisted of a Vaseline gauze bandage for his chest wound, and some sedative medications. A chest tube was inserted to treat a pneumothorax, a second chest tube was implemented due to a malfunction of the first one, and he made a quick and uneventful recovery. A statement was made by medical corpsman Henninger that MacDonald could have walked into the hospital and it wouldn't have done him any harm. On the evening of February 17, the Kassabs visited MacDonald in the hospital and noted that he was sitting up and eating supper with apparent enjoyment. Dr. Gemma testified that the only reason MacDonald stayed in the hospital after his chest tube was removed was because the investigation was continuing and MacDonald "had no real home to go to to relax and recuperate." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that one of his wounds went down to the fascia. | Dr. Gemma testified at trial that "There is no record that this, in fact, is true . . . Dr. Jacobson, at least, in what I reviewed in the record, did not show that wound going to the fascia . . . " |
| MacDonald told CID investigators that his friend Ron Harrison brought champagne to MacDonald's hospital room because everyone was "down" and Harrison thought it might cheer them up. | Ron Harrison told CID investigators that MacDonald asked him to purchase a bottle of champagne for him. Harrison obliged and delivered the champagne to MacDonald's hospital room. |
| Claimed on the Dick Cavett show (Dec. 15, 1970) that he was in intensive care for "several days." | Merrill Bronstein, staff surgeon who attended MacDonald, testified during the 1974 grand jury proceeding that MacDonald was transferred out of intensive care the day after arriving at the hospital. |
| MacDonald stated that he told his mother and Ron Harrison about what transpired the night of the murders. | MacDonald admitted that his mother commented to him that there were differences between the story told to her and the story he had told to Harrison. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that a suede coat belonging to Colette MacDonald was missing from her personal effects. | On May 19, 1971, a re-examination of the crime scene was accomplished. During this activity, a dry cleaning receipt was found in a wallet with Colette MacDonald's identification papers. The receipt indicates that a suede coat was placed in a Fayetteville cleaning establishment in November 1969 for cleaning. |
| After the murders, MacDonald demanded and continued to demand that the CID return a sapphire ring to him. MacDonald also implied that a heartshaped ring was missing from his house, presumably trying to imply that it had been stolen from his house during the murders. | If indeed the CID had had such a sapphire ring, which MacDonald seemed to believe, then obviously it could not have been stolen by intruders. There seems to be no corroboration that any sapphire ring ever existed. If it did, there is nothing to contradict the possibility that it was misplaced or lost prior to the murders. On March 9, 1970, the Army gave MacDonald a heart-shaped ring that had come from his house. On April 6, 1970, MacDonald agreed with CID investigators that nothing had been stolen from his apartment. |
| During the interview MacDonald gave to the CID in 1971, he claimed that none of his patients that he counseled were angry with him on the day of the murders. | During the 1979 trial, MacDonald claimed that an addict he had treated was furious with him. On the CBS 48 Hours television program, "Time for Truth," aired on Nov. 6, 2005, MacDonald said, "If you were a physician, an Army physician, you were under orders to turn in drug-abusing patients." Asked whether he thought someone he turned in might have been involved, he says, "Sure, that's one of the thought processes we immediately went through, of course." |
| Trying to show that the CID did a poor job of investigating the murders, MacDonald claimed, "It is the most preposterous they had no evidence that Ron Harrison was in my house . . . ." | In the excerpts of Fingerprint identification data it states quite clearly that: Exhibits L-13 and L-25 were identified as belonging to Ronald H. Harrison. |
| MacDonald claimed that the CID was so inept that they failed to find evidence that Colette's parents, the Kassabs, had been in his house. | A blue hairbrush in the house belonged to Mildred. CID records also show that Mildred's hairs were found in two hairbrushes in the MacDonald home. |
| MacDonald claimed that the CID failed to find evidence that MacDonald's mother, Perry (a.k.a. Dorothy) had been in his house. | When MacDonald's mother and brother were asked by the CID to provide fingerprint and hair samples for purposes of elimination, they refused to do so. |
| MacDonald claimed that the CID failed to find evidence that MacDonald's brother, Jay, had been in his house. | When asked by the CID if he had ever visited the MacDonald's Fort Bragg apartment, Jay answered "no." |
| After MPs arrived at the crime scene, a wallet was stolen from the living room by an ambulance driver, James Paulsen. MacDonald has always used this incident as an example of the CID's incompetence in maintaining the crime scene. | MacDonald's lawyer, Bernard Segal, addressed this issue in his closing arguments at trial, but his statements were inexplicable, being at odds not only with the facts but also with MacDonald's own claims: "Mr. Ivory did say that a wallet that was believed to have belonged to Dr. MacDonald was stolen from the desk over near the door. He even mentioned a man's name. There is not the slightest word of evidence to support that. It is absolutely unsupported. We have never heard any proof of that. Was anybody prosecuted for the theft of that? Can you imagine someone stealing an officer's wallet in the Army and not being prosecuted? That is just absolutely Government talk without the facts or evidence to back it up." |
| Referring to errors made during the original investigation, Jeffrey MacDonald claims the CID investigation was incompetent. | MacDonald's defense lawyer, Bernard Segal, told Judge Dupree during the 1979 trial, "Your Honor cannot here entertain or consider the suggestion that the [CID] investigation was incompetent." |
| At the Grand Jury, MacDonald claimed that the FBI's forensic analysis was "ridiculous" and that, "at this point," the FBI could "do anything they want." | MacDonald's sister Judy said he told her that the FBI were the best investigators in the world. |
| On August 23, 1979, MacDonald was asked at trial why he did not return to his home after he was released from the hospital. He replied, "Well, number one, I wouldn't have returned to the home." "Why not?" he was asked. He replied, "I wouldn't want to return to that scene. I wouldn't want to live in the house again. And, number two, it was apparently still being processed." | Per the phone conversation between Mr. Bidwell and Sgt. Wilson (CID) on December 31, 1970, they were informed "that at one time, and we do not know exactly when, that MacDonald was very anxious to get back into his quarters. The reason given by MacDonald was 'for one last nostalgic look.' This prompted a letter from the Dept. of Justice, demanding that the scene and the scene [sic] and the evidence be preserved." |
| At the 1974 grand jury, Woerheide referred to a letter MacDonald had written in November 1971, and asked "You talked in the letter about writing a book. At that time were you involved in the writing of a book?" MacDonald replied, ". . . All these supposedly helpful friends of mine wanted me to write a book. I didn't want to write a book. So you keep putting them off, you know?" | During the Article 32 hearing in 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald contacted several authors with regard to writing a book about his case. |
| During the Article 32, MacDonald drew a diagram for Newsday, showing the interior of 544 Castle Drive, with stick figures to represent himself on the couch and the bodies of his wife and children in the locations in which he said found them. "In his handwriting there were identifications of the various rooms, such as 'Kristy's,' 'Kim's,' 'L.R.'" | During the grand jury proceedings in 1974, Woerheide asked MacDonald if this drawing represented his work product in any way. MacDonald replied, "No, sir . . . I believe this was a drawing furnished the news media by the provost marshal." |
| When asked during the 1974 grand jury proceeding, "Was there a girl who would come in and have sexual relationships with you during the period that you were in custody in your BOQ?" MacDonald replied, "No." | During the Article 32 hearing, MacDonald, while confined to Bachelor Officers' Quarters (BOQ), had entered into a sexual relationship with Linda Mathews. When questioned, she said she had visited him in his room throughout the summer and fall, and that the relationship "certainly wasn't a secret." She said she could not recall specifically how many times they'd had sex, but it was more than once and less than "dozens of times." |
| On February 17, 1973, in a telephone conversation taped by Freddy Kassab, Kassab told MacDonald that he had an affidavit from Linda Mathews, the girl with whom MacDonald had had sex while confined to the BOQ. | At the grand jury in 1974, Woerheide asked MacDonald about this conversation: Q And you say Freddy purported to have affidavits from fifteen girls? A That's the sense of the conversation. Fifteen. |
| MacDonald claims that the the Army investigated him (1970 Article 32 hearing) and then exonerated him of any involvement in the murders. | Judge (now Justice) Blackmun summed up the function of an Article 32 proceeding in one sentence: "The proceeding was what its description indicated, namely, an investigation." As the Dept. of Justice noted, "The investigating officer merely recommends whether or not a court-martial should be convened and his recommendation that charges be dismissed for lack of evidence did not constitute a 'trial' which precluded civilian trial of the serviceman." Per MacDonald's attorney, Bernard Segal, "The point is, [Colonel Rock] is not a judge. He is an investigating officer." Despite his claims that the Army "exonerated" him, the MacDonald camp also implies that the Army was involved in a vast conspiracy and was determined to blame the crimes on him. The outcome of the 1970 Article 32 hearing, which took place before much of the evidence was known, was that the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Jeffrey MacDonald was not exonerated at the Article 32 military hearing. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed in a Newsday article published Oct. 20, 1970, that "I plan to do a lot of writing and investigating. We hope to get either the appropriate civilian agency or to get our own investigators so we can find the real killers." | When asked by Woerheide during the grand jury proceeding if MacDonald had in fact hired investigators, MacDonald replied, "I never hired investigators, no." When asked, "Were you personally seeking out the perpetrators?" MacDonald replied, "Only in a very ineffectual manner." At trial in 1979, MacDonald said he had a "sense of guilt that if [Kassab] was going to continue that type of search, that I should be helping him." Blackburn then asked, "But in your heart of hearts, you had no will for it?" MacDonald replied, "None whatsoever." |
| In November 1970 MacDonald told Freddy Kassab that he had tracked down and killed one of the intruders. He claims that he told Freddy this because he was "desperately to provide some relief" to the Kassabs. | Three months earlier, in August 1970, MacDonald told family friend Bob Stern the same story of tracking down and killing one of the intruders. Jeffrey MacDonald later admitted that his story of tracking down and killing one of the intruders was a lie. |
| At the grand jury in 1974, MacDonald claimed "And I went to the justice department in December [1970] and banged on a desk, and they even refused to interview me. I had a congressman with me. Okay, they wouldn't even talk to me; they wouldn't even give me the courtesy of saying hel-lo. It was by a phone from down the hall. They rejected any information we could give them." Woerheide then asked, "You went to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.?" MacDonald replied, "That is correct." Woerheide said, "Who was the congressman?" MacDonald replied, "Congressman Allen [Allard] Lowenstein." | In Freddy Kassab's "A Denouncement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," he writes, "While it may be true that his attorneys wrote the Department of Justice, requesting termination of the investigation (2 letters) MacDonald never in person went to the Dept. of Justice. In his statement he claims to have done so accompanied by (former) Congressman A. Lowenstein. Mr. Lowenstein has stated to me that no such occurrence ever took place." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that his in-laws, Freddy and Mildred Kassab, who had previously supported him, turned against him because he decided to move to California and start a new life after the murders. | Freddy Kassab wrote, "MacDonald's fatal mistake was made when he told me in a phone conversation which I recorded, that he had caught and killed one of the alleged assailants. That was the beginning of the end for him." |
| MacDonald claimed that in the years after the 1970 Article 32 military hearing, his financial resources were drained and he was "curtailed in his associations or subjected to public obloquy." | By 1975 it had been determined that since 1970 MacDonald's assets had increased approximately $100,000 and his salary had multiplied approximately seven times. At his bail reduction hearing, a multitude of new friends and associates came forth to testify as character references, and later put up their own money as bail so that MacDonald did not have to use any of his own. From October 1970 to January 1975 MacDonald stood under no accusation against which he had to defend himself. |
| Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (quote copied June 9, 2004): "There were no scratch or gouge marks found on Jeffrey MacDonald. | MP Kenneth Mica and others testified that they did see scratches on MacDonald's chest. During the Pruett and Kearns interview, MacDonald told Pruett, "There was a scratch on my left upper chest." Pruett then asked, "The scratches then, you are saying are on the side, the left, in which direction? The left portion of the chest?" Macdonald replied, "Yes, but it wasn't on the outside. It was on the inside of the nipple." Kearns asked MacDonald, "Were these wounds bleeding?" MacDonald replied, "My left hand was, but not--it was a scratch really. It wasn't--it didn't require sutures." During the Article 32 military hearing, Captain Somers asked MacDonald to describe his injuries. Among other things, MacDonald said, "There were several, what appeared to me to be small, small puncture wounds, on the left of the chest and some scratches . . . " He also said, "I had a scratch on my right arm." During the same hearing, MacDonald's lawyer Bernie Segal asked: "Now, did you have any others? Just describe each one as you recall discovering or finding on your body now." MacDonald replied, "Yes, sir. I had some scratches on my left pectoral region, the upper left chest . . . " On August 16, 1974, during the grand jury proceeding, MacDonald said, "I had--there was a scratch somewhere on my right shoulder." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald's defense team claimed that a piece of skin found in Colette's fingernail scrapings may have proven him innocent. | It has not been proven that this "piece of skin" ever existed. CID Investigator William Ivory testified that he had found a box that was marked as fingernail scrapings taken at Womack Army Hospital, and that he had taken some vials from this box and placed them under a microscope so that he could see through the vials and observe the contents. He thought he observed a small piece of skin, drawing his conclusion from seeing the oily texture of the substance. During subsequent laboratory examinations of the fingernail scrapings, no piece of skin was found. Despite Jeffrey MacDonald's belief that this piece of "skin" could exonerate him, the defense chose not to ask witnesses Ivory, Browning, Hawkins, Gammel, Chamberlain or Glisson about it on cross-examination, nor was the "skin" mentioned in the defense's closing arguments. |
| Sometime between February 28, 1970, and December 19, 1970, as the government concedes, the piece of skin, if there was one, was lost. MacDonald claimed that his due process rights were violated because the government lost valuable evidence. | In 1985, the court found that "[William Ivory's] observation and the significant amount of physical evidence which contradicted MacDonald's version of the murders diminishes the possibility that the skin found under Colette MacDonald's fingernail would have exonerated MacDonald. Because there is no evidence to support a finding that the government acted in bad faith in losing this potentially valuable evidence and its exculpatory value is open to serious doubt, the court concludes that the loss of the piece of skin did not violate MacDonald's due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution." |
| MacDonald alleged that the failure to disclose Agent Ivory's statements relating to the skin amounted to suppression. | In 1985, the court found that Ivory's statements would have been of little use to MacDonald in light of the questionable exculpatory value of the evidence and that their use for impeachment purposes would merely have been cumulative. In 1985, the court found that the CID laboratory report of August 31, 1971 was sufficient to put the defense on notice that the substance no longer existed. The court concluded that there was no suppression of evidence. |
| MacDonald claimed that his defense was hampered because he did not have access to FBI Agent Tool's February 21, 1970, report of the briefing of the FBI by the CID, regarding the alleged existence of a "half-filled bloody syringe," and that he had discovered this document years after trial, through the FOIA. | This document was part of the report of Special Agent Lacy Walthall, and as such, was made available to defense attorneys Segal, Eisman, Malley and Douthat during the Army's Article 32 hearing in 1970. As the Government wondered, "Since the FBI report released under FOIA deletes all references to the names of the FBI Agents conducting the interview, how did counsel know the name of the interviewing FBI Agent, unless he already had a copy of the report?" |
| MacDonald contended that the government suppressed the existence of a half-filled bloody syringe which could have proved that he did not commit the murders. | Investigative agents having firsthand knowledge of the contents of the hall closet state, or would have stated if called to testify at trial, that no "bloody half-filled syringe" or other half-filled syringe was found in the closet. Moreover, the chemist who processed the hall closet for blood stains, Craig Chamberlain, and the agent who inventoried the medical supplies in the closet, Hagan Rossi, state without reservation that no half-filled syringe of any kind was found during the crime scene investigation. The strongest evidence that a bloody syringe was not found at the crime scene, and hence wasn't suppressed, is the fact that the Government didn't offer any evidence of this item at trial. If a bloody syringe had been found in the linen closet (which did contain movant's blood type on the slidingdoor) this wouldn't have exculpated him. Rather, the presence of such a syringe would only have strengthened the links in the chain of circumstantial evidence, which proved that after inflicting an incision on himself with one of the disposable scalpel blades from the linen closet, he used a hypodermic needle to penetrate his chest wall and complete the injuries necessary to make it appear that he had sustained a "life threatening wound to his lung." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that Dr. Jacobson testified at trial that "he did not believe that the stab wound in [MacDonald's] lung was self-inflicted." | When questioned about this at trial, Dr. Jacobson was asked by the defense, "As a matter of fact, you saw no evidence of that; did you?" Dr. Jacobson replied, "I don't know." |
| Regarding the only serious wound MacDonald received on the night of February 16-17, 1970, a tiny, neat, "clean" 1-cm. chest wound, MacDonald claims that this wound was not self-inflicted. | At the grand jury, Dr. Fisher was asked, "Could a doctor, with surgical training and working towards being a surgeon, inflict a pneumothorax on himself under controlled conditions that would not imperil or endanger his life?" Dr. Fisher replied, "Oh, I think so. Certainly." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that unidentified female hairs found in Kimberley's and Kristen's hands prove the existence of outside assailants. | The hairs were dissimilar, were not compared to the hair of Colette, Kimberley or Kristen, and were compared to only three of nine sample hairs from the body of Jeffrey MacDonald. The two hairs were hair fragments. Hair fragments do not contain enough distinguishable characteristics for microscopic comparisons. Therefore there is no forensic basis for claims of intruders being the source for those two hair fragments. |
| Regarding testing of the hairs found under the children's fingernails, the MacDonald camp often refers to Janice Glisson's words that "they will not be reported by me." | Study of Janice Glisson's FBI note (R-11) shows that it actually says, ". . . did not label all the vials containing fibers and hairs (#1, #7, #8), but gave #'s and slide comparisons to these #'s, since they will not be reported by me." This is because Janice Glisson was not assigned to do those comparisons. |
| Through the plastic windows of his jeep on the rainy morning of Feb. 17, MP Kenneth Mica claims to have seen a female in a raincoat and rain hat by a phone booth on his way to the crime scene. She was alone. |
Mica's patrol partner, Dennis Morris, testified at the 1970 Article 32 hearing but said nothing about this alleged sighting. In no description of the assailants has Jeffrey MacDonald ever said the female intruder was wearing a raincoat or rain hat. MacDonald claims the female intruder was accompanied by at least three males. |
| Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (quote copied June 9, 2004): "[Helena Stoeckley] was seen by military police, standing at a street corner on post, as they rushed to the crime scene." | The woman Mica claims to have seen on the street corner was never identified. In none of Helena Stoeckley's statements did she ever describe standing on a street corner after the murders. |
| MacDonald claims that ". . . the 'cult' members remained together immediately after the murders . . . " | If MacDonald believes this, then obviously he doesn't believe that Stoeckley was seen standing alone on a street corner after the murders. |
| The MacDonald camp claimed that during the 1970 Article 32 military hearing, Kenneth Mica was ordered by Captain Somers not to say anything about the girl Mica had allegedly seen on the street corner. | When asked for advice on testimony by any government witness, Captain Somers told them the best technique was not to volunteer any information but to be truthful and to answer questions to the best of their knowledge. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that Helena Stoeckley and her friends committed the murders. Per MacDonald's website: "Helena Stoeckley made statements that suggested she had been involved in the murders." | When MacDonald was shown Stoeckley's photo in 1970 and again in 1971, he didn't recognize her. Helena Stoeckley several times denied being at 544 Castle Drive on the night of the murders, and testifed to this at trial. Helena Stoeckley said she was at 544 Castle Drive on the night of the murders, and that she saw MacDonald committing the murders. Stoeckley was a hard-core drug user who was shown to be a confabulator due in part to her need for affection and approval. The facts show that her "confessions" were false and were, moreover, directly at odds with MacDonald's own accounts of the murder night. Fingerprints from Helena Stoeckley which were obtained by Nashville police officer Jim Gaddis did not match any prints in the MacDonald apartment. DNA test results publicly released March 10, 2006 showed no match to Helena Stoeckley's DNA. |
| MacDonald claims that the defense located Helena Stoeckley during the trial. | Stoeckley was actually located and arrested by FBI Special Agent Frank J. Mills, who was executing a Material Witness Warrant issued by the Court on the Government's motion. |
| MacDonald claimed that the crimes were committed by Stoeckley and several other intruders who were apparently seeking drugs. | Although MacDonald had a linen closet filled with a great number of hypodermic syringes, amphetamines and other drugs, nothing was taken. |
| During the Larry King Live interview in 2003, MacDonald claimed that the intruders "were so high on five different drugs, they were on barbiturates, they were on LSD, they were on heroine, they were on opium and they were on -one more, which escapes me at the moment." | Examination of the word PIG written on the headboard of the master bed showed that the writer was in complete control of his motor sensory facilities (in other words not under the influence of drugs). |
| On August 17, 1979, MacDonald gave a statement to the press. As reported in the Raleigh Observer on August 18, "MacDonald told reporters outside the courtroom that he recognized Miss Stoeckley 'The voice as much as the face' as one of the intruders who bludgeoned and stabbed his family and attacked him on that night." | There were no lights on in the living room at the time MacDonald claims to have been attacked. MacDonald is nearsighted and wasn't wearing his glasses during the alleged attack. At the 1970 Article 32 hearing, MacDonald described seeing the female "intruder" and said, "Yes, because I saw her probably the least. It was the briefest glimpse and this is why I only have, really, an impression." At the grand jury on August 15, 1974, MacDonald testified as to his recollection of the female intruder: "It was in the midst of a dark room and over a period of ten to twenty to thirty seconds, and I never really saw her." On August 17, 1979, Helena Stoeckley was 9½ years older than she was in 1970, she was much heavier with a fuller face, and had jet black hair. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims that Helena Stoeckley wore a white or oyster colored floppy hat during the murders. | MacDonald claims that Helena Stoeckley gave her floppy hat to P. E. Beasley, a Fayetteville detective. Beasley said that the hat Helena gave him was black. Dwight Smith told FBI Special Agent Raymond Madden that it was his recollection that after the murders, Helena Stoeckley started wearing a brown floppy hat which was kind of a joke among the drug scene in Fayetteville, as it was felt she was merely wearing the hat to gain attention and a possible connection with the MacDonald murders. |
| Attempting to bolster his argument about the female intruder's boots, Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that in early 1971, by way of Mrs. Garcia, the CID came into possession of bloody clothes and beige boots belonging either to Helena Stoeckley or to Cathy Perry Williams. MacDonald alleged that the government never disclosed any information regarding the bloody clothes and boots to the defense team. | Jeffrey MacDonald's military lawyer and Agent Ivory both signed statements listing the items that were submitted for examination and subsequently returned. No clothing appears on the list. In 1985 the court found that MacDonald, through two of his former attorneys, knew that the CID once had possession of the boots. The court also found that the boots were properly returned to the woman who gave them to the CID because theydid not match MacDonald's description of those worn by the female assailant and a laboratory analysis of the boots yielded no evidence connecting the boots to the crimes. Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (quote copied Oct. 10, 2005), he claims that Stoeckley "burned the hat, wig and boots . . . ," leading to the conclusion that he believes that the boots were burned and that they were not burned. At no time did Mrs. Garcia, Mr. Nance, Mr. Kirkman or Cpt. Douthat furnish to the CID or advise them of the existence of any bloodstained clothes alleged to belong to Cathy Perry. James Nance, Jr., who represented MacDonald's legal counsels in any actions introduced in the State and Federal Courts of North Carolina during the 1970 Article 32 military hearing, told CID Agents Ivory and Kearns that while there was no apparent connection with the MacDonald murders, he was trying to humor Mrs. Garcia. MacDonald told CID investigators that the female intruder was wearing boots that were "wet, but not bloody." |
| Jeffrey MacDonald has long proclaimed that saran fibers found at the crime scene came from Helena Stoeckley's blonde wig. During the Oct. 24, 2003, Larry King Live interview, MacDonald said, "And the government record shows the evidence. It shows wig fibers from Helena Stoeckley's wig." | Three blonde synthetic hairs were found in a clearhandled hairbrush. The hairs differed in chemical composition and the longest of the three hairs was matched with doll hair found in the FBI exemplar collection. Platinum-colored synthetic hair was found in a clear-handled hairbrush and a blue-handled hairbrush. The two hairs were identical in chemical composition and were matched to a fall owned by Colette. Black synthetic fibers were also found in a bluehandled hairbrush, which were matched to a hairpiece owned by Mildred Kassab. In 1971 Dianne Cazares, a friend of Stoeckley's, was asked by the CID "[On the night of the murders] was [Helena Stoeckley] wearing a blonde wig?" Cazares replied, "No. I'm sure about that.She didn't even own a blonde wig . . . I never saw her wear a blonde wig of any kind." Stoeckley told P. E. Beasley that she once had a blonde fall (a hairpiece) but that she had given it to Cathy Smith or some other girl. The fall was described as being chin-length. Stoeckley testified at the 1979 trial that she did not wear her blonde wig [fall] on February 17, 1970 because Greg Mitchell did not like how it looked on her. |
| MacDonald has consistently maintained that a hair he described as being clutched in Colette's hand could only have come from her murderer. During the Oct. 24, 2003, Larry King Live interview, MacDonald said, "And the government record shows the evidence . . . It shows brown hair in my wife's hand that was--secretly tried to match to me." The Case Facts section of Jeffrey MacDonald's website states: "A brown hair was found clutched in Colette's hand. Greg Mitchell had brown hair (Jeffrey's was blonde). Despite the discrepency in color, the CID lab tried to source the hair to Jeffrey anyway, but failed." |
Although this hair was initially found not to match MacDonald, it was not tested against hairs from the children's heads, nor was it tested against hairs from all parts of MacDonald's body. The unidentified hair was classified by Dillard Browning, Janice Glisson, and Paul Stombaugh as the distal portion or the tip of a limb hair. Limb hairs are microscopically uncomparable, so there was no forensic basis for MacDonald's claim that the hair was Greg Mitchell's. This hair was known to the defense as early as the 1970 Article 32 hearing where it was reported. Jeffrey MacDonald was described as having brown hair in the Criminal Investigation Division report: "MacDonald: 12 Oct 43; Jamaica, NY; M; Cauc; 71 in; 175 lbs; brown hair; green eyes; medium build; discharged from US Army 4 Dec 70 . . . " DNA test results showed that this hair was Jeffrey MacDonald's own. |
| On May 18, 1995, MacDonald wrote that when the CID was plucking him for hair samples, William Ivory was smirking. | At trial on July 25, 1979, Bernie Segal asked Ivory if he was present when the hair samples were obtained. Ivory stated that he was not present. |
| MacDonald thoroughly chastised the CID for not obtaining hair samples from the victims. | Defense attorney Bernard Segal tried to enjoin the Army from obtaining MacDonald's hair samples for comparison purposes. MacDonald filed a pre-trial motion to suppress hair samples obtained at the exhumation of the victims' bodies. The motion was denied. The Court noted that "The law does not allow [Jeffrey MacDonald] to use some of the hair evidence as a sword, and then hide behind the shield of property rights." |
| MacDonald claims that Greg Mitchell was one of the "intruders" who attacked him in the living room. | Mitchell voluntarily appeared at the Charolotte FBI office to be intereviewed about the murders. There is no credible evidence to dispute the account that Mitchell gave, when alive, that he was at his parents' home on the night of the murders. Greg Mitchell passed a polygraph which indicated that he was being truthful when he denied being involved in the MacDonald murders. Despite MacDonald's claims that Mitchell was in the living room while MacDonald was allegedly being attacked, MacDonald also claims that Mitchell was in the master bedroom at the time, stabbing Colette. DNA test results publicly released March 10, 2006 showed no match to Greg Mitchell's DNA. |
| MacDonald claims that Stoeckley's description of the rocking horse in Kristen's room is something she would only know about if she had been present during the murders. | A photo of Kristen's room and the rocking horse appeared in the Fayetteville Observer on the day of the murders. Before testifying at trial in 1979, Stoeckley had been shown a photo of the rocking horse, which was displayed to her by MacDonald's attorney, Bernard Segal. |
| Per MacDonald's website (2003), "Helena Stoeckley identified and described items within the MacDonald home in great detail, including a jewelry box found in the master bedroom . . . " In the years since the murders, rumors have continued to circulate that one or more "bloody fingerprints" were found on the jewelry box. |
Before testifying at trial in 1979, Stoeckley had been shown crime scene photos of the master bedroom, which were displayed to her by MacDonald's attorney, Bernard Segal. Helena Stoeckley told the FBI that in approximately early December, 1980, Gunderson and Beasley took her out to various stores looking at jewelry boxes, and that she eventually recalled signing another statement for Gunderson which was very similar to the first, but was more specific regarding the description of a jewelry box. On February 17, 1970, the fabric-covered jewelry box found on the dresser in 544 Castle Dr. was examined by US Army CI Lab chemist Craig Chamberlain. A stain found on the inside surface of the box lid was tested at the crime scene on that date by Chamberlain and found not to contain human blood. |
| As late as May 2005, in his submission to the parole board, MacDonald still claimed that with regard to fibers found on the murder club, "in 1989 these fibers were examined again by the government and found to be black wool, not blue cotton from Jeff MacDonald's pajama top, as stated at trial to the jury." | As the government noted in its response: "Essentially MacDonald has persistently sought to convey the false impression that blue cotton fibers, which Government experts described at trial matched the composition of MacDonald's pajama top, were misidentified because the same fibers are actually composed of dark wool. In fact these exhibits contain both blue cotton fibers (which match the pajama top) and dark wool." |
| In October 1980 Helena Stoeckley gave a signed "confession" to Ted Gunderson and P. E. Beasley. Jeffrey MacDonald claims that because Stoeckley was described as being a "reliable" police informant her "confession" should also be considered to be reliable. | If, as has been stated, Helena was a reliable police informant, why did she not report that the 'cult' was planning to murder the MacDonald family? Despite the fact that Helena Stoeckley had supplied the names of people she said accompanied her to the MacDonald apartment on the night of the murders, neither Gunderson nor Beasley tried to locate or interview those people. After obtaining this "confession," Gunderson and Beasley kept it for six months, not turning it over to any police department or law enforcement agency. Defense witness Brisentine testified on voir dire at trial that during his interview of Stoeckley, "she asserted that she had been lying when she admitted knowing who committed the murders . . . Further, that her rationale was based on the fact that four hippies could not have entered Captain MacDonald's home without being observed by neighbors or causing dogs to bark." As one of the trial jurors said when interviewed by a reporter, "A confession by a pathetic acid head such as Helena Stoeckley does not deter for an instant from the mountains of evidence against MacDonald presented at the trial." The facts show that Stoeckley's post-trial statements are inconsistent with MacDonald's account, inconsistent with each other, inconsistent with physical evidence from the crime scene, and were obtained under false pretenses and duress. In a statement dated March 1, 1971, Beasley declared that "Helena would do anything to get me to pat her on the back and act proud of her." In Beasley's statement about Helena (Dec. 12, 1980), he related that "the remark was made that now that [Gunderson] had everything he needed he couldn't care less if [Stoeckley] was run over by a truck." Stoeckley stated that Detective Prince Beasley, of the Fayetteville Police Department, had told her, "tell them anything, just get them off your back." Stoeckley later recanted her confession. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald maintains that the "Stoeckley group" was at Dunkin' Donuts on the night of the murders, but the defense's statements vary as to the names of the members who were supposedly there, and the time they supposedly left the restaurant. | In its Aug. 24, 1984 Response to Government's Opposition to Motion for New Trial, the defense states that "some time between midnight and 2:00 a.m. she [Helena Stoeckley], Greg Mitchell, and Smitty [Dwight Smith] went to Dunkin' Donuts..." In its May 31, 1985 Brief for Appellant, the defense states that "At 2:00 a.m., Stoeckley, Mitchell, Harris and 'Smitty' left Dunkin' Donuts and drove to MacDonald's residence..." In the same brief, the defense states that the Stoeckley gruop was at Dunkin's Donuts "from approximately midnight until approximately 1:30 a.m." In its June 10, 2013 Post-Hearing Memorandum, the defense states that "At approximately 2:00 a.m., Stoeckley, Harris, Mitchell, and Fowler left Dunkin' Donuts for the MacDonald residence." In the same Memorandum, the defense states that "At approximately 1:30 p.m. [sic], Marian Campbell...saw a woman resembling Stoeckley...a black man...and one white man leave Dunkin' Donuts." |
| In its June 10, 2013 Post-Hearing Memorandum, MacDonald's defense team still claimed that Shelby Don Harris was a member of the Stoeckley group and was present in the MacDonald home when the murders were committed. In the same Memorandum, the defense states that evidence newly discovered by post-trial investigation includes a statement by Shelby Don Harris. They maintain that this statement, along with others, establishes "that the Stoeckley group wounded Dr. MacDonald and killed Colette MacDonald and their two children..." |
In his Dec. 2, 1982 voluntary statement to the FBI, Harris stated that he had no personal relationship with Helena Stoeckley but they did have "mutual friends" (not named); that he had no involvement in the crimes; that Stoeckley "was a very unstable person who liked to be the center of attention. She would twist the truth to suit her own purpose." He also stated that he was "willing to take a polygraph examination to prove that I had nothing to do with these murders and do not know the identity of anyone involved in them." |
| Among other statements that were found not to match MacDonald's accounts or the physical evidence, Helena Stoeckley said that she and her friends forced MacDonald to make a phone call to try to obtain drugs. When confronted with the fact that his version and Stoeckley's version of events were different, MacDonald claimed retrograde amnesia. | The examination by Dr. Sadoff in April, 1970, revealed that MacDonald wasn't repressing any of the events he claimed happened. MacDonald didn't mention anything about this episode during the hypnotic session that produced the 1979 composite drawings. |
| MacDonald claims that during a conversation with Bryant and Norma Lane, Greg Mitchell confessed to the murders of Colette, Kimberley and Kristen. | Bryant Lane told an FBI agent that Mitchell never brought up any conversation about Captain MacDonald or the killing of MacDonald's family. Lane related that on one occasion, a year or two before Mitchell died, Lane's wife stated that she did not think that MacDonald killed his family and Mitchell agreed. Lane said that this is the only conversation that he can recall having with Mitchell concerning MacDonald. |
| To support his claim of "intruders," MacDonald relies on Helena Stoeckley's claim that she was with Greg Mitchell on the night of the murders. | In 1971, Stoeckley admitted to CID investigator Richard Mahon that her story of being with Greg Mitchell on the night of the murders was a fabrication. |
| Referring to the supposed "intruders" Helena Stoeckley and Greg Mitchell, during the Larry King Live show MacDonald said, "The other two are dead. They died mysteriously in the 80's, both of them within two weeks of having been visited by the FBI." | Neither Greg Mitchell nor Helena Stoeckley died under mysterious circumstances. Mitchell died of liver failure and Stoeckley died of pneumonia, brought on by cirrhosis of the liver. MacDonald has never been able to explain how the FBI could induce deadly liver symptoms upon Mitchell and Stoeckley. |
| Referring to Cathy Perry, one of the supposed "intruders," during the Larry King Live show MacDonald said, "[Cathy Perry] is living in Florida. She has been interviewed several times by the FBI. She never recanted the confession." | Cathy Perry's confession was at extreme odds with the actual facts in the case, and did not match the known physical evidence. Jeffrey MacDonald was shown Cathy Perry's photograph in 1971. He did not recognize her. Perry currently lives in Florida, and did recant her confession to the FBI after receiving Thorazine treatment for her schizophrenia. |
| Almost 10 years after the murders, James Milne, who had lived within 100 yards of Castle Drive, testified at trial that at about midnight on Monday, February 16, he had seen two white men and one white woman with long blonde hair, all wearing sheets and all carrying candles, walking past his doorway toward Castle Drive. He also testified that the woman "had very beautiful hair." | It was raining and therefore it is not logical that people outside would be carrying candles. Jeffrey MacDonald has described the "intruders" many times, but has never said that any of them were wearing sheets. MacDonald has never said that three of the intruders were carrying candles. MacDonald claims that the female "intruder" had unkempt, stringy hair. |
| The "New York Four" were roommates of Jeff's brother during the summer of 1969 and Jeff visited his brother during that time period. During his visit Jeff went out with his brother to the Shortstop Bar in Long Island and a number of bar patrons witnessed Jeff in the presence of individuals who matched the descriptions of the New York Four. | During the Article 32 hearing, CID agent Bennie Hawkins described the New York Four. Their descriptions matched the descriptions MacDonald had given of the so-called "intruders." During his Grand Jury testimony, MacDonald called the Article 32 testimony of Bennie Hawkins "bizarre" and denied ever being aware of the New York Four. |
| All of the New York Four had ironclad alibis for their whereabouts on the night of the murders. Their descriptions, however, matched virtually identically with the descriptions MacDonald had provided of the "intruders." | In December, 1970, ten months after the murders, MacDonald reviewed arrest records of the New York Four. Despite the fact that they matched his descriptions of the intruders, he said nothing to anyone about it. |
| During an interview with Dr. Brussel on August 13, 1979, MacDonald was asked "How many of [your] friends and neighbors saw these people enter the apartment?" MacDonald answered, "Several." | No person in this case has ever stated or testified to seeing anyone enter the MacDonald apartment on the night of the murders. |
| MacDonald implies that he was prevented from inspecting the crime scene. During the 2003 Larry King Live interview, he said that the apartment "was kept for about 15 years, and then when we wanted entry, when the defense finally was close to getting an order from a judge to go into that apartment, they wrecked it." | In June of 1979 Bernie Segal, Joe McGinniss, John Thornton, and James Osterburg spent five hours inside 544 Castle Drive in preparation for the trial. The Court found that the defense "had every reasonable opportunity to inspect this crime scene at any reasonable time during the last thirteen years . . . " |
| During the grand jury proceeding, Woerheide asked MacDonald about the psychological exam he had been given, asking how long it lasted: "Could it have been more than three days?" MacDonald replied, "I would say that would be the upper limit. It was parts of two or three days." | In fact, there had been only a single, three-hour interview by this psychologist. |
| MacDonald claimed that the defense was unaware at the time of the 1979 trial of Dr. Brussel's prior consultation with the CID. | On May 17, 1971, Bernard Segal and Jeffrey MacDonald were forwarded a letter identifying Drs. Brussel and Silverman as the CID's experts to review MacDonald's Rorschach tests. |
| During the 1974 grand jury proceeding, Woerheide asked MacDonald whether he was interviewed by anyone else in April 1970 when he went to Philadelphia: "Specifically, were you given a polygraph test?" MacDonald replied, "We had some discussion about it, but the answer is no." | John Reid administered a polygraph to MacDonald. As described by MacDonald, Reid was "not satisfied with my results . . . they were not conclusively proving my innocence . . . and . . . he had a consultation with Bernie, and Bernie uh, sort of abruptly dismissed him . . . the results were not conclusive of my innocence." Cleve Backster, a polygraph examiners hired by the defense, testified at the Jeffrey MacDonald vs. McGinniss civil trial that he had administered a polygraph to Jeffrey MacDonald and that in his opinion MacDonald had failed. Despite Backster's testimony at the civil trial, MacDonald continues to claim that he walked out on that test and it was never completed. |
| In March, 1971, MacDonald was asked by investigators if he would take a sodium amytal exam. | MacDonald refused to submit to such an examination. |
| During the 1974-1975 grand jury proceedings, MacDonald was asked by Woerheide if he would submit to a sodium amytal exam. Testimony was given that this exam could help him if he was innocent. | MacDonald refused to submit to a sodium amytal examination, stating that it would cause him to "relive" the night of the murders, which would be too traumatic for him. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claims he was convicted of triple homicide in 1979 because of his failure to explain the physical evidence. | Jeffrey MacDonald was not convicted because he failed to explain the evidence. He was convicted because the physical evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the only possible criminal agent, and because the physical evidence when coupled with his conflicting account of intruders and his attempts to disassociate himself from the instrumentalities and other trace evidence of the crime, was sufficient as a matter of law to sustain the jury's verdict. |
| Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (e-mail): "Dr. MacDonald voluntarily surrendered his license . . . His license was not revoked . . . the California licensing board . . . did not revoke his license, and, upon the surrender of the license, wrote to say the door would be open for his eventual release and return to medicine . . . Dr. MacDonald surrendered his license in deference to the sentence he was facing . . . " On Dec. 18, 2015, in his Informal Reply Brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, MacDonald claimed that in 1982, after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated his conviction, he "voluntarily surrendered his medical licenses, believing that, because he was innocent, he would soon be released again and have his privileges reinstated." |
The Medical Board of California official records show "License Status: LICENSE REVOKED" as a matter of public record. Jeffrey MacDonald's medical licenses in both California and North Carolina were revoked. "Voluntary surrender" means to tender through counsel after a formal hearing which ultimately resulted in a finding of revocation. |
| Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (e-mail): "Dr. MacDonald was . . . never disciplined or investigated by the Medical Board." | The North Carolina medical board did mete out discipline: Presumptive Maximum Discipline: Revocation of license Presumptive Minimum Discipline: Indefinite suspension of license |
| Per Jeffrey MacDonald's website (quote copied June 9, 2004): ". . . thousands of pages of government reports . . . prove the existence of outside assailants . . . " | No proof of any outside assailants has ever surfaced. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed during a 60 Minutes interview (Sept. 18, 1983) that he "never physically assaulted someone in my life, and certainly not my wife and my two children." | MacDonald's mother stated that during a fight with his brother, Jay, MacDonald had once "almost killed" Jay. During a sporting match it was reported that MacDonald flew into a violent and uncontrollable rage against another player, and had to be physically pulled away by others because he kept beating the man even after he was down. June Reich, a friend of Colette's said that once when they were dating each other, she witnessed an incident when MacDonald had hit Colette. During a visit with a female friend and her child in which they were boating, he became so enraged at the boy that he threatened to crush the child's skull against the dock, and ended up throwing him into the water. During his testimony at the 1970 Article 32 military hearing, MacDonald's lawyer Bernard Segal asked him how long the alleged struggle in the living room had lasted. MacDonald replied, "Well, that's a rough--my only experience would be in other fist fights, and the time seems like it's dragging and it hardly ever is . . . " MacDonald told Victor Woerheide during his grand jury testimony that at the Shortstop bar, he initiated a fight with someone he believed to be selling drugs to his brother Jay. He told the grand jury that ". . . the words got a little heated and I pushed him and he pushed me and I hit him." MacDonald asked Woerheide during the grand jury proceeding whether Woerheide wanted him to recount "every little fistfight." He also informed Woerheide that after such incidents, "You leave before the MP's get there." |
| In the article he wrote for Soldier of Fortune magazine ("Adrift In The American Gulag") in July 2000, MacDonald claimed that with regard to the DNA testing, prosecutor Brian Murtagh "has delayed and obstructed these tests . . . " | Jeffrey MacDonald's own lawyers delayed the testing by filing numerous motions, each one of which had to be addressed before testing could continue. |
| Jeffrey MacDonald claimed to have been completely satisfied and happy in his marriage and to have loved his family. | During the April 6 interview, MacDonald told investigators that "When I woke up, the first thing I thought of was you know, I'm ashamed to say myself." Attempted to revive Carol Larson's (a.k.a. Penny Wells's) interest in him on the day before he married Colette and on the day after Kimberley was born. When MacDonald moved to California in June 1971, she picked him up at the airport upon his arrival and he temporarily took up residence with her. When shown Colette's wedding ring at trial, MacDonald didn't recognize it. MacDonald had numerous intimate relations with other women while married to Colette. During an examination by Dr. Mack, MacDonald "began to verbalize some of his feelings that he had had of feeling trapped in marriage and caught up in responsibilities that he had assumed." Told Dr. Sadoff that he felt "relief" that his family was gone, but was ashamed of that feeling. Told Dr. Mack that "he was aware that in some sense [the murders of his wife and children] provided him with relief . . . " Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted in 1979 of the brutal clubbing and butchering of Colette, Kim and Kristen MacDonald and remains incarcerated today, serving three consecutive life sentences for those horrific crimes. DNA test results publicly released March 10, 2006 show that the hair in Colette's hand was matched to Jeffrey MacDonald himself, and that no DNA of Helena Stoeckley's or Greg Mitchell's or any other "intruder's" matched that in any exhibit. |
A partial list of inconsistencies, untruths and just-not-believables in the
Jeffrey MacDonald case
Jeffrey MacDonald case
