Affidavits, Declarations and Statements


July 12, 1984

United States District Court
Eastern District of North Carolina

Affidavit #15 of Raymond Madden, Jr. (FBI) re: Dr. Rex Beaber

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : Criminal No. 75-26-CR-3
:
v. : Criminal No. 84-41-CIV-3
:
JEFFREY R. MACDONALD :
AFFIDAVIT OF RAYMOND MADDEN, JR. - #15

Raymond Madden, Jr., being duly sworn does depose and say that:

1. I am a Special Agent of the FBI assigned to the Raleigh, N.C. Resident Agency, and on September 24, 1981, Dr. Rex Beaber, Clinical Psychologist, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), was contacted and advised of the identities of the interviewing Agents, and the nature of the interview, and that he was to be interviewed concerning his findings regarding an examination of Helena Stoeckley Davis. He provided the following information:

2. An unrecalled investigator contacted UCLA regarding the recommendation of a psychologist to examine a particular patient. Somehow he was recommended to do the examination and he was subsequently contacted by telephone by Ted L. Gunderson, who outlined the issues as follows:
(a) The examination would concern the MacDonald case.

(b) Whether or not a particular witness was competent.

(c) That the particular witness had been previously denied the right to testify by a Federal Judge.

(d) That the particular client had been previously examined.
3. Dr. Beaber agreed to do the examination and specifically noted that he knew very little, if anything, about the MacDonald murders. He noted that he does many criminal examinations and for this particular reason, attempts to avoid reading all material relating to any crimes.

4. He later examined Helena Stoeckley Davis at his private office, 924 Westwood Boulevard, Suite 800, Los Angeles, California. He believes Gunderson brought Helena to his office and the examination was conducted on a Sunday, specific date unrecalled. He normally would not discuss the details of any examination with a patient, but was of the opinion that no privilege existed with Davis and therefore he examined her. In this regard, Gunderson wanted to know whether or not she was crazy. Prior to examining Davis, he talked with her and made sure that the examination was voluntary on her part and was not ordered by a court or Gunderson. Essentially, at the beginning of the examination, he took her family history, psychiatric information, and any medical problems. He thereafter administered psychological tests to her, the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). He explained the MMPI is a screening instrument and that the TAT would measure what degree a person's recollection involved fantasies or to create fantasies. He interviewed her regarding her alleged recollection of events on February 16-17, 1970, and reiterated that he knew very little about the MacDonald case. He did not know whether or not to discuss her interview. The examination lasted approximately four to six hours.

5. Dr. Beaber explained that every psychologist has a prejudice or feeling about "threshold". He stated that he has a high threshold compared to other psychologists in that he needs a lot of data to indicate to him that people are incompetent.

6. After examining Helena he concluded that she was competent, but stated he could not tell whether or not she was telling the truth. Competency, to Dr. Beaber means that a person does not have to have mental disease or a mental defect which would preclude them from knowing the difference between truth or falsehood, or which would impede them to knowingly tell a falsehood notwithstanding that knowledge. He advised the above was his definition of "competency" and that he did not make decisions concerning the "believability" or the "truthfulness" of a person.

7. Dr. Beaber stated that after his examination of Helena he concluded she was competent to comprehend the truthfulness or falsehood of what she utters. He specifically noted, however, that he had no way of knowing whether or not she was truthful and that anyone who said he definitely knew whether or not Helena was truthful would be dealing outside the sphere of psychiatry.

8. He was shown Page 159 of an investigative report written by Ted L. Gunderson and after reading it stated that it was basically a fair opinion, but noted that the report was not written in as elegant a manner as he would have prepared. He specifically noted that even that opinion was only as good as the data furnished him for the examination.

9. Dr. Beaber stated that the entire examination of Helena was fully recorded and that he has the transcripts of the tapes which he had previously forwarded to Ted L. Gunderson. Should Helena Davis provide an appropriate release regarding her examination, Dr. Beaber would be happy to make all of his tapes, notes, and examination results available to the FBI.

10. Dr. Beaber further noted that he does hypnosis; however, upon request during the examination with Helena, she refused to be hypnotized by him. Regarding hypnosis, Dr. Beaber stated that people can "construct" alleged happenings and/or events and that he only views hypnosis as an exploratory tool and does not believe that hypnosis can be used as a "cure all" for investigative purposes.

11. Regarding polygraph examinations, Dr. Beaber stated that if a person has no fear or anxiety regarding a particular question, that that individual could probably successfully lie and pass a polygraph examination.

Further your affiant sayeth not:

 
 
/Raymond Madden, Jr./
 
 
RAYMOND MADDEN, JR.
 
 
Special Agent
 
 
 
 
 
 
Subscribed and sworn to
 
 
before me this    12th   
 
 
day of July, 1984.
 
 









/[illegible]/
 
 
N0TARY PUBLIC
 
 
 
 
 

My Commission Expires May 31, 1985