title: Michelle Wu

text: In December 2021, Wu signed into law an ordinance amending the city's zoning code by eliminating off-street parking minimums for new affordable developments where 60% of the units are income-restricted at 100% the area median income in order to remove a barrier for the construction of new units of affordable housing. In October 2022, Wu signed an executive order that changed the approval process in the city for new income-restricted affordable housing developments. The order sought to halve the time that the approval process takes. Impacting nine city agencies (including the BPDA), the order established a separate review and approval process for affordable housing developments and requested the BPDA give priority to such developments.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In October 2022, the city of Boston provided $12 million in funding to assist in the acquisition of thirty-six apartment buildings in East Boston by the East Boston Neighborhood Trust, a new organization that is the first mixed-income neighborhood trust (MINT) in the state of Massachusetts. The trust is managed by the East Boston Community Development Corporation, a neighborhood organization. The acquisition of these buildings by the new trust, in consort with a municipal deed restriction, will ensure that the 114 housing units in these buildings permanently remain affordable. The city's funding to this came from $9 million received from the American Rescue Plan Act, $2 million received in the CARES Act, and $1 million in inclusionary development funds.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has worked with the state government to seek federal funding to realign the Massachusetts Turnpike's route through the Beacon Park Yard. The realignment would enable plans by Harvard University to build development above the railroad tracks and realigned turnpike. It would also help to bridge a community divide created in the 1960s by the construction of the viaduct on which the highway currently runs.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Boston's public transportation operator, the MBTA, is a division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), limiting the power that the mayor of Boston has over transportation in the city. Nevertheless, Wu has taken actions and voiced positions related to the city's transportation.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In August 2022, Wu's city administration and the state government worked together to prepare for and alleviate the impact of a several-week closure of a key segment of the MBTA Orange Line to facilitate needed repairs. Wu outlined alternate public transportation means that could utilized by MBTA riders during the closure. Wu also urged Boston area residents that could to utilize MBTA commuter rail lines in order to avoid increased road congestion anticipated to result from the Orange Line closure. Wu also worked to facilitate the operations shuttle busses to several neighborhoods, making sure space was reserved for the loading and unloading of passengers. Wu urged employers in the parts of the city impacted by the closure to avoid giving penalties to employees that show up tardy to work as a consequence of their impacted commutes. Amid this closure and other concerns, such as a temporary closure of a smaller part of the MBTA Green Line, Wu disagreed with the prospect of the Federal Transit Administration assuming control of the MBTA, remarking that the system's problems, which she called "a breaking point", called for, "a partnership, not a takeover" from the federal government.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Also in August 2022, Wu and local transit advocacy organizations requested federal assistance to be provided to the MBTA to address service cuts made to the MBTA's service as a result of staffing shortages.They urged for the state's congressional delegation and for United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to take action to direct assistance to the MBTA.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In December 2021 Wu extended the fare-free pilot program for the MBTA Route 28 bus that was started under the acting mayoralty of Kim Janey by two months. She did this with while engaging in talks with the MBTA to further extend the pilot program. The City had, in November 2021, announced that its data showed that during the pilot program ridership had increased to an excess of 70,000 in weekly ridership. Pre COVID-pandemic weekly ridership on the route had been 47,000, making the COVID-era pilot program ridership significantly greater despite the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transportation rider. The city concluded that, in comparison to ridership trends on comparable routes of the MBTA, the increase in ridership was directly attributable to the pilot program. A later more in-depth 2022 analysis found an overall 38% increase in weekday ridership from 7,500 before the pandemic to 10,200 during the September and October periods during the pilot program.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In mid-November 2021, Wu sent an appropriations order to the Boston City Council to asking for approval to appropriate $8 million of federal funds to fund two years of fare-free service on the MBTA Route 23, 28, and 29 buses. These buses serve the Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury communities. At the start of December, the City Council approved the appropriations order 12–1. On February 9, 2022, it was announced by Wu and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak that the two-year program for the three routes to be fare-free was officially agreed to and would be launched on March 1, 2022.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has expressed a belief that her cabinet should be reflective of the city's population, arguing that that is consequential towards making the city's government more responsive to its different communities. People of color hold a majority in her cabinet. As of August 2022, Wu's cabinet had thirteen Black members, thirteen White members, six Latinx members, and two Asian American members.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In February 2022, Wu established the city's Office for Black Male Advancement (OBMA), which will be a component of the city's already-existing Equity and Inclusion Cabinet. Wu's office stated that, The office will, among other responsibilities, design projects and programs to promote equity benefiting Black men and boys, advancing the representation of Black men and boys in city government, and collaborating with the city on advocating for state and federal programs and legislation related to Black men and boys. The office will also oversee the Commission on Black Men and Boys that had been established by an ordinance signed by Kim Janey during her acting mayoralty. The following month, Wu appointed the inaugural twenty-one members of the Commission on Black Men and Boys.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In January 2022, Wu signed an executive order to adopt a municipal Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing policy. This made Boston the largest city in the United States to adopt such a policy.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In May 2022, Wu unveiled plans for a "Green New Deal" for Boston Public School buildings which doubles the capital spending that the city will devote to the construction new and renovated school buildings to $2 billion compared to the $1 million that had been outlined in former mayor Marty Walsh's 2015 BuildBPS plan. Wu has pledged for the city to have a more equitable and transparent process for school construction and capital improvements than in the past and that the process will involve input from students, educators, and parents. In September 2022, Wu announced the creation of the Cabinet for Worker Empowerment. One of the tasks of this new department is providing oversight to this "Green New Deal" for the city's schools. Another of the department's tasks is to establish a trust fund for childcare.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In mid-2022, Wu distributed grants to family childcare providers. In July 2022, Wu signed an executive order which outlined the formula for what funds developers building in the city's downtown must contribute to fund child care services in the city. This executive order builds upon a policy implemented in 1989 under the mayoralty of Raymond Flynn which requires that new commercial developments in the city's downtown provide childcare services on-site or otherwise fund resources for off-site childcare spaces. However, the policy had, previous to Wu's executive order, been difficult to enforce due to the fact that the policy did not previous provide a clear definition of the amounts that developers needed to pay.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu nominated Tommy Welch to serve as superintendent of Boston Public Schools. He was confirmed by the Boston School Committee in a 4–3 vote in July 2022. Wu has opposed proposals by the state to place Boston Public Schools into state receivership, which arise from negative assessments of the city's schools in studies that were taken in 2020, before her mayoralty.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In August 2022, Boston received a $23 million American Rescue Plan challenge grant from the Economic Development Administration to establish a Regional Workforce Training System aimed at training and placing individuals for 4,618 quality jobs in targeted industries over three years starting in October 2022. The Mayor's Office of Workforce Development had been the lead applicant, working with other there parties and organizations in their grant application. On Labor Day 2022, Wu announced the creation of the Cabinet for Worker Empowerment. One of the tasks this new department was assigned is overseeing the creation of more job training centers in the city.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In early 2022, some restaurant owners, particularly many in Boston's North End, criticized Wu for only allowing North End restaurants to take part in the city's pilot outdoor dining program a month after restaurants in other neighborhoods were allowed to participate, and for levying a $7,500 charge for North End restaurants that wished to take part in the pilot program while not charging that fee for other parts of the city. Wu argued that the rationale for this was that seventy-seventy outdoor dining patios were located in a single area of the North End, a particularly large number in a small area. Wu claimed that these policies were done in an attempt to help,


title: Michelle Wu

text: In addition to affected restaurant owners' resistance, this controversy was taken up as a cause by many general critics of Wu, making it a heated matter.


title: Michelle Wu

text: "Boston Herald" political columnist Joe Battenfeld, a general critic of Wu, expressed agreement with Wu's policies related to North End restaurants, calling it, "one of the few times Wu has been right in her young administration." He argued that the charge seemed to be "a reasonable amount", and argued that if the restaurants did not pay for the expenses related to the impact of their use of road and sidewalk space, the expenses be borne by the city's taxpayers. Battenfeld asked his readers, "Why should taxpayers subsidize restaurants, which make a hefty profit, for their outdoor dining spaces? The answer is they shouldn't." Contrarily, when Tufts University political science professor Jeffrey Berry gave WCVB-TV his overall positive assessment of Wu's first six months in office, he expressed the belief that her handling of outdoor dining on the North End had been a significant misstep. He opined, "The North End mess, and I do call it a mess, is a self-inflicted wound. It was not necessary. She overreached in terms of what she was going to charge restaurateurs there. It seemed excessive."


title: Michelle Wu

text: After a seven month search, Wu named Michael Cox as the new commissioner of the Boston Police Department in July 2022.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In October 2022, Wu vetoed a 20% pay increase for city councilors that had been passed by the City Council. Wu had supported an 11% increase, which had been the recommendation of Boston’s compensation advisory board, but opposed a 20% increase.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In March 2022, by a 9–4 vote, the City Council passed an ordinance that had been proposed the previous month by Wu to limit the hours at which targeted protests outside of people's homes can take place to between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Wu herself had been the subject of targeted protesting outside of her home against her COVID-19 measures. Violations are punishable by fine. The ordinance generated some controversy.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu endorsed Sonia Chang-Díaz's candidacy in the Democratic primary of the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. After Chang-Díaz withdrew from the race, Wu endorsed Maura Healey's gubernatorial candidacy. Wu endorsed the unsuccessful campaign of Shannon Liss-Riordan in the Democratic primary of the 2022 Massachusetts attorney general election. In 2022, she supported Chris Dempsey's unsuccessful campaign in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts state auditor. Also in 2022, Wu endorsed Steven W. Tompkins' reelection campaign for Suffolk County sheriff before his Democratic primary. Wu also endorsed a number of state legislature candidates in 2022. Before past sexual assault allegations against him became known, Wu had endorsed Ricardo Arroyo's 2022 campaign for Suffolk County district attorney. However, after the allegations surfaced, Wu and many joined many other prominent politicians in withdrawing her nomination of Arroyo. Wu supported the reelection campaign of Raphael Warnock in the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia.


title: Michelle Wu

text: The Harvard College Class of 2022 selected Wu to be their Class Day speaker. In 2022, "Time" magazine recognized Wu in its Time100 Next list of emerging leaders. The article accompanying her entry was authored by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. In 2022, Wu received the "Catalyst for Justice Award" from Massachusetts Public Health Association. In 2022, "Boston" magazine ranked Wu at the top of its list of "100 Most Influential Bostonians" list. The Boston Bar Association has announced that they will give Wu the "Voice of Change" award at the 2023 Beacon Awards for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In a September 2022 article, Ginia Bellafante of "The New York Times" described Wu as an "progressive but not aggressively ideological" mayor.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has spearheaded a number of implemented environmental policies both during her time as a city councilor and as mayor.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has supported the resolution authored by Senator Ed Markey and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to recognize a duty of the federal government to create a Green New Deal. In August 2020, Wu laid out her proposal for a municipal Green New Deal program for the city of Boston.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has called attention to the health risks that many residents, and disproportionately people of color, face due to air pollution from highways, especially in Chinatown Wu has been a supporter of disinvestment from fossil fuels.


title: Michelle Wu

text: As a city councilor, Wu called for reforming the procurement process for city contracts in order to ensure that businesses owned by people of color, women, and city residents are given a "fair shot" at winning contracts. She also called for the city to provide assistance for entrepreneurs of color as well as support for small neighborhood businesses. She also called for greater government transparency regarding corporate tax breaks, and introduced an ordinance in 20190 that was aimed at accomplishing that. In December 2017, after the Boston City Council passed the "Ordinance on Equity in Opportunity for City Contracting", Wu and fellow city councilor Ayanna Pressley authored an op-ed published in the "Dorchester Reporter" which hailed the ordinance and argued that the city needed to "continue to create pipelines for local residents and businesses owned by women and people of color."


title: Michelle Wu

text: In February 2014, the Boston City Council unanimously passed a resolution authored by Wu which voiced the City Council's support for the Massachusetts Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights that was pending before the Massachusetts State Legislature.


title: Michelle Wu

text: As City Councilor, Wu voiced support for a “fair work week”, $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, protections for freelancerss.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In October 2018, Wu proposed a "fair work week" ordinance, which would have required all city contractors to give employees at least two weeks of notice prior to changing their schedules, and would require employers to compensate workers for late schedule changes.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu’s 2020 proposal for a “food justice” agenda for Boston called for an increase to the minimum wage paid to food-sector workers and for providing guaranteed paid sick leave to them. It also took a stance in favor of gradually phasing out tipped wage for restaurant and bar workers.


title: Michelle Wu

text: As a city councilor, Wu authored an adopted ordinance which provided paid parental leave to municipal employees. Before the passage of the ordinance by the City Council, Wu and Mayor Mary Walsh co-authored an op-ed in "The Boston Globe" that called paid parental leave, "a must for working families".


title: Michelle Wu

text: Since as early as 2019, Wu has supported reviving rent stabilization in Boston, which would first require a change to state law.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu's 2020 Municipal Green New Deal proposal calls for "decommodifying housing" through the expansion of cooperative housing, community land trusts, and community ownerships. It also calls for the establishment of a renters' right to counsel, guaranteeing legal representation to tenants in eviction proceedings.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu advocated for late night public transit in her original platform when running for City Council in 2012. In this vain, in 2015, she voiced her support for having the MBTA extend its pilot "late-night T" program, which kept transit service open late on the weekends.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu is a supporter of fare-free public transit. Wu argued in a in a January 31, 2019 op-ed published in "The Boston Globe" that the MBTA should explore the elimination of transit fares, writing


title: Michelle Wu

text: She further argued that Boston should set an example for the rest of the county in free access to transit, likening it to past municipal innovations the city introduced. Wu's 2020 proposal for a municipal Green New Deal incorporated her proposal for fare-free public transit.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu has supported federal legislation on the matter of fare-free public transit, including helping Senator Ed Markey and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley in 2020 to promote their proposed "Freedom to Move Act". The act would provide grants to communities that eliminate transit fares.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu's advocacy is seen as popularizing the idea of fare-free public transportation in Boston. Crediting Wu as a leader on fare-free public transit, in January 2021, "The Boston Globe"'s editorial board endorsed the idea of making the city's buses fare-free. Wu's promotion of fare-free public transit also inspired Lawrence, Massachusetts mayor Daniel Rivera to implement it in his city.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Both Kim Janey, as acting mayor, and Wu, as mayor, took steps that introduced fare-free transit on several bus routes in the city.


title: Michelle Wu

text: In 2016, Wu supported Massachusetts Question 4 to legalize the recreational use of cannabis in Massachusetts. This put her at odds with Mayor Marty Walsh, who was a prominent opponent of legalization.


title: Michelle Wu

text: When Wu was in her early twenties, living in Boston and working for Boston Consulting Group, her mother developed severe mental illness and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Wu returned to the family home in the Chicago suburbs to care for the mother and raise her two youngest siblings. She opened a teahouse, hoping her mother might recover enough to run it. She also secured medical care for her mother. Later, after moving back to Boston with her mother and sister, she became the legal guardian of her youngest sibling, and entered law school. She sees this as the turning point of her life.


title: Michelle Wu

text: Wu married Conor Pewarski in September 2012. They live in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood with their two sons and her mother.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Jeffrey Robert MacDonald (born October 12, 1943) is an American former medical doctor and United States Army captain who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald has always proclaimed his innocence of the murders, which he claims were committed by four intruders—three male and one female—who had entered the unlocked rear door of his apartment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and attacked him, his wife, and his children with instruments such as knives, clubs and ice picks. Prosecutors and appellate courts have pointed to strong physical evidence attesting to his guilt. He is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The MacDonald murder case remains one of the most litigated murder cases in American criminal history.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Jeffrey MacDonald was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, the second of three children born to Robert and Dorothy (née Perry) MacDonald. He was raised in a poor household on Long Island, with a disciplinarian father who, although nonviolent towards his wife and children, demanded obedience and achievement from his family. MacDonald attended Patchogue-Medford High School, where he became president of the student council. He was voted both "most popular" and "most likely to succeed" by his fellow students, and was king of the senior prom.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Towards the end of his eighth grade year, MacDonald became acquainted with Colette Kathryn Stevenson (b. May 10, 1944). He would later recollect he had first observed Colette "walking down the hallway (of Patchogue High School) with her best friend" and that, although he was attracted to both girls, he found Colette more attractive. Approximately two weeks later, they began talking and formed a friendship, with MacDonald soon "asking her out to the movies". The two formed a brief romantic relationship in the ninth grade, with MacDonald later recollecting they fell in love while holding hands on a balcony while watching the movie "A Summer Place" at the Rialto Theater in Patchogue. He would later reminisce that whenever he or Colette heard the song "Theme from A Summer Place" across the airwaves, "either of us would turn up the radio".


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The following summer, while visiting a friend on Fire Island, Colette announced to MacDonald their relationship was over. MacDonald later formed a relationship with a girl named Penny Wells.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's high school grades were sufficient for him to earn a three-year scholarship at Princeton University, where he enrolled as a premedical student in 1962. By the second year of his studies, MacDonald and Wells had separated. He soon resumed his romantic relationship with Colette then a freshman at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. He would later recollect Colette had grown into a shy young woman with a "slight fear of the world in general" who would rely on his own self-confidence. MacDonald found her timidity touching, and gradually viewed himself as her protector in addition to her boyfriend. The two regularly exchanged letters, and he would frequently hitchhike to Skidmore College to be in her company at weekends. Although MacDonald was dating other women at the time, he resolved to marry Colette upon learning she was pregnant with his child in August 1963. She in turn left college to raise their child.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: With the consent of Colette's family, the two married on September 14 in New York City. One hundred people attended the service, with the reception held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The couple then honeymooned at Cape Cod. Their first daughter, Kimberley Kathryn, was born on April 18, 1964.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Upon completion of his undergraduate degree at Princeton, MacDonald briefly worked as a construction supervisor before he moved with his wife and child to Chicago in the summer of 1965, where he had been accepted at Northwestern University Medical School. The couple moved into a small one-bedroom apartment, with Colette committed to maintaining the household and raising their daughter as MacDonald focused on his studies, while also working a series of part-time jobs to assist with family finances. The following year, the family relocated to a middle-class neighborhood. Their second child, Kristen Jean, was born on May 8, 1967.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Shortly after MacDonald graduated from medical school in 1968, he and his family relocated to Bergenfield, New Jersey as he completed a one-year internship at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, specializing in thoracic surgery. MacDonald later described his internship year as "a horrendous year" for both himself and Colette, adding he frequently worked 36 hours with only 12 hours at home. Consequently, when at home, he was frequently exhausted and had limited interaction with his wife and daughters. At the completion of his internship, MacDonald and Colette vacationed in Aruba before MacDonald joined the Army.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald enlisted in the United States Army on June 28, 1969, and was sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas to undergo a six-week physician's basic training course. While at Fort Sam Houston, he volunteered to be assigned to the Army's Special Forces ("Green Berets") to become a Special Forces physician. He was then assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he completed their paratrooper training course. Although MacDonald had joined the Army knowing he might be deployed to serve in the Vietnam War, he later learned that, as a Green Beret doctor, he was unlikely to serve overseas.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In late August, MacDonald reported to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina to serve as the group's surgeon. He was joined by his wife and children, and the MacDonald family resided at 544 Castle Drive, in a section of the base reserved for married officers and afforded security by military police. The couple quickly became popular among their neighbors, although MacDonald and Colette are known to have argued occasionally.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: By the time the MacDonalds moved into their new apartment at Fort Bragg, Colette had accrued two years of studies, with aspirations to obtain a bachelor's degree in English literature and teach part-time. Both daughters had developed distinctive personalities: Kimberley being markedly feminine, intelligent, and shy; Kristen a boisterous tomboy who would "run over and crack someone" if she observed her older sister being bullied by other children.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On December 10, the 3rd Special Forces Group was deactivated, and MacDonald was transferred on base to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, to serve as a preventive medical officer.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Shortly before Christmas 1969, with his wife approximately three months pregnant with their third child and first son, MacDonald bought his daughters a Shetland pony, anticipating the family would soon relocate to a farm in Connecticut. He kept this purchase a secret from his wife and children, and he and his stepfather-in-law drove them to the stable as a surprise on Christmas Day. His daughters chose to name the pony "Trooper". The same month, Colette is known to have penned a letter to college acquaintances in which she described her life as "never [being] so normal or happy", adding she and her husband were content, that their baby son was due to be born in July, and her family would be complete.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: By 1970, MacDonald had earned the rank of captain. He was planning to study advanced medical training at Yale University upon completion of his tour of duty as a Green Beret doctor.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On the afternoon of February 16, MacDonald took his daughters to feed and ride the pony he had bought them for Christmas. The trio then returned home at about 5:45 p.m. MacDonald then showered, and changed into an old pair of blue pajamas. After the family ate supper, Colette left the household to attend an evening teaching class at Fort Bragg's North Carolina University extension.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: According to MacDonald, he then played "horsey": allowing his daughters to ride upon his back as if he was their Shetland pony for a short while before he had put Kristen to bed at approximately 7 p.m. as Kimberley played a game on the coffee table. He then slept for an hour before watching Kimberley's favorite television show, "Laugh-In", with her before his older daughter also went to bed. Colette herself returned home at 9:40 p.m. The two had sat on the couch watching television together before Colette decided to go to bed midway through "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". MacDonald had himself fallen asleep in the living room in the early hours of the following day.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: At 3:42 a.m. on February 17, 1970, dispatchers at Fort Bragg received an emergency phone call from MacDonald, who faintly spoke into the receiver: "Help! Five forty-four Castle Drive! Stabbing! ... Five forty-four Castle Drive! Stabbing! Hurry!" The operator then heard the sound of the receiver clatter against a wall or floor.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Within ten minutes, responding military police had arrived at the address, initially believing they were responding to a domestic disturbance. They found the front door closed and locked and the house dark inside. When no one answered the door, they circled to the back of the house, where a police sergeant discovered the back screen door closed and unlocked and the back door wide open. Upon entering, the sergeant walked into the master bedroom before running to the front of the house, shouting, "Tell them to get Womack, ASAP!"


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Colette MacDonald was discovered sprawled on the floor of the master bedroom. She lay on her back, with one eye open and one breast exposed. She had been repeatedly clubbed about her body, with both her forearms later found to be broken. The pathologist would note these wounds had likely been inflicted as Colette had raised her arms to protect her face. In addition, she had been stabbed 21 times in the chest with an ice pick and 16 times about the neck and chest with a knife, with her trachea severed in two places. A bloodied and torn pajama top was draped upon her chest, and a paring knife lay beside her body. Beside her, Jeffrey MacDonald was found lying face-down, alive but wounded, with his head on Colette's chest and one arm around her neck. As military personnel approached, he whispered: "Check my kids! I heard my kids crying!"


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Five-year-old Kimberley was found in her bed, having been repeatedly bludgeoned about the head and body and stabbed in the neck with a knife between eight and ten times. She lay on her left side. Her skull had been fractured from at least two blows to the right side of her head, and one wound to her face had caused her cheekbone to protrude through her skin. The wounds to Kimberley's head were severe in nature to have caused bruising to her brain, coma, and death soon after infliction.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Across the hallway, two-year-old Kristen was found in her own bed, also lying on her left side, with a baby bottle close to her mouth. She had been stabbed 33 times across the chest, neck, hands, and back with a knife and 15 times with an ice pick. Two knife wounds had penetrated her heart, and the ice pick wounds were noted to be shallow. The injuries to her hands were likely defense wounds. On the headboard of the MacDonalds' marital bed, the word "PIG" was written in eight inch capital letters. The blood used to write this word was later determined to belong to Colette.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Having received impromptu resuscitation, MacDonald sat upright, then exclaimed: "Jesus Christ! Look at my wife! I'm gonna kill those goddamned acid heads!" He was immediately taken to nearby Womack Hospital, shouting, "Let me see my kids!" as he was carried out of his home on a stretcher.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Taken to the Womack Army Medical Center, medical staff discovered the wounds MacDonald had suffered were much less numerous and severe than those inflicted upon his wife and children. He had suffered cuts, bruises, and fingernail scratches to his face and chest, although none of these wounds were life-threatening or required stitches. MacDonald was also found to have a mild concussion. He had also received a single stab wound between two ribs on his right torso. This wound was described by a staff surgeon as a "clean, small, sharp" incision measuring five-eighths of an inch in depth, and had caused his lung to partially collapse. MacDonald was released from the hospital after nine days.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Questioned by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), MacDonald claimed that at about 2:00 a.m. on February 17, he had washed the evening's dinner dishes before deciding to go to bed, although because his younger daughter, Kristen, had wet his side of the bed, he had taken her to her own bed. Not wishing to wake his wife to change the sheets, he had then taken a blanket from Kristen's room and fallen asleep on the living room couch. According to MacDonald, he was later awakened by Colette and Kimberley's screams, and Colette shouting: "Jeff! Jeff! Help! Why are they doing this to me?" As he rose from the couch to go to their aid, he was attacked by three male intruders, one black and two white. The shorter of the two white men had worn lightweight, possibly surgical, gloves. A fourth intruder he described as a white female with long blonde hair (possibly a wig) and wearing high heeled, knee-high boots and a white floppy hat partially covering her face. This individual stood nearby holding a lighted candle, chanting, "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs!"


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald claimed the three males then attacked him with a club and ice pick, with the female intruder shouting "Hit 'em again!" During the struggle, his pajama top was pulled over his head to his wrists and he had used this bound garment to ward off thrusts from the ice pick although eventually, he was overcome by his assailants and knocked unconscious in the living room end of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. When he had regained consciousness, the intruders had left the house. He had then stumbled from room to room, attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation upon each of his daughters, to no avail, before discovering his wife. He had pulled a small paring knife from Colette's chest which he then tossed onto the floor, attempted in vain to find her pulse, then draped his pajama jacket over her body. Then he had phoned for help.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Within minutes of the discoveries at Castle Drive, military police were instructed to check the occupants of all vehicles in and around Fort Bragg, seeking two white men, one black man, and a white woman with blonde hair and a floppy hat in an effort to apprehend the four intruders MacDonald alleged had attacked him and his family. Despite these efforts, military police failed to locate the four intruders, and the initiative was abandoned by 6:00 a.m.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Shortly after daylight on February 17, investigators recovered the murder weapons just outside the back door. These instruments were an "Old Hickory" kitchen knife, an ice pick, and a 31-inch long piece of lumber with two blue threads attached with blood; all three were quickly determined to have come from the MacDonald house, and all had been wiped clean of fingerprints. MacDonald later claimed to have never seen these items before.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: As Army investigators studied the physical evidence, the Army CID quickly came to disbelieve MacDonald's account, as they found very little evidence to support his version of events. Although MacDonald was trained in unarmed combat, the living room where he had supposedly fought for his life against three armed assailants showed few signs of a struggle apart from a coffee table that had been knocked onto its side with a pile of magazines beneath the edge, and a flower plant that had fallen to the floor. Questioning of the MacDonalds' neighbors revealed they had heard no sounds of a struggle or disturbance within the household in the early hours, but had heard Colette shouting in a loud and angry voice. The 16-year-old daughter of these neighbors—who occasionally babysat for the family—informed investigators the two had seemed taciturn and indifferent to each other in the month prior to the murders. By February 23, Colonel Robert Kriwanek, the Fort Bragg provost marshal, had advised the FBI to discontinue their search for the four intruders.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In addition to the lack of damage to the inside of the house, no fibers from MacDonald's torn pajama top were found in the living room, where he claimed the garment had been when torn in his struggle with the intruders. However, fibers from the pajama top were found beneath Colette's body and in the bedrooms of both of his daughters, and one fiber from this garment was also found under Kristen's fingernail. A single fragment of skin was recovered from beneath one of Colette's fingernails, although this evidence was later lost. Bloodstained splinters likely sourcing from the section of lumber recovered close to the back door of the apartment were recovered from all three bedrooms of the apartment, but not the room where MacDonald claimed to have been attacked. No blood or fingerprints were found on either telephone MacDonald claimed he had used to call for help after checking each member of his family and attempting to resuscitate them. Furthermore, the bloodstained tip of a surgical glove was also found beneath the headboard where the blood inscription was written; this glove was identical in composition to a medical supply MacDonald invariably kept in the family kitchen.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Although it had rained on the night of February 16–17 and MacDonald also specifically claimed the female intruder's boots were "all wet", with rainwater "just dripping off them", the sole footprint observed at the scene was a bloody bare footprint located in Kristen's bedroom, leading from the child's bed in the direction of the doorway.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: By mid-March, the CID had obtained the results of forensic testing of the blood, hair, and fiber samples within 544 Castle Drive that contradicted MacDonald's accounts of his movements and further convinced investigators of his guilt. For example, Kimberley's blood was also found on his pajama top, even though MacDonald had claimed he was not wearing this garment while in her room attempting resuscitation. MacDonald's own blood was located in significant quantities in only two locations: in front of the kitchen cabinet containing rubber gloves, and upon the right side of a hallway bathroom sink.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Investigators also questioned why Colette's blood was found in Kristen's room, although all three victims were found in separate rooms, suggesting they had been attacked separately. Moreover, although blood evidence indicated Kimberley had been attacked as she entered the master bedroom, investigators questioned why home intruders would bother to carry her back to her bedroom to continue their attack.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The four members of the MacDonald family had different blood types: a statistical anomaly that assisted investigators in determining the movements of each member of the household and their subsequent theory as to a likely scenario of the unfolding events. Upon the assumption the four individuals discovered by responding military police were the only four people in the house in the early hours of February 17, investigators were able to reconstruct a likely scenario of the chain of events that had unfolded via blood typing and the nature and severity of the wounds discovered upon each individual.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: An argument or fight between MacDonald and Colette began in the master bedroom, possibly over the issue of Kristen's repeatedly wetting his side of the bed while sleeping there, or his adultery. Investigators speculated that the argument turned physical and she had probably hit him on the forehead with a hairbrush, which resulted in a mark on his forehead which failed to break his skin. As he retaliated by hitting her, first with his fists and then beating her with a piece of lumber, Kimberley, whose blood and brain serum were found in the doorway, may have walked in after hearing the commotion and was struck at least once on the head, possibly by accident. Believing Colette dead, MacDonald carried the mortally wounded Kimberley back to her bedroom. After stabbing her, MacDonald then proceeded to Kristen's room, carrying the club he had used to bludgeon Kimberley, intent on disposing of the last remaining potential witness. Before he could do so, Colette, whose blood was found on Kristen's bed covers and on one wall of her room, apparently regained consciousness, stumbled into her younger daughter's bedroom and threw her own body over Kristen in a desperate effort to protect her. After killing both of them, MacDonald then wrapped Colette's body in a sheet and carried her body to the master bedroom, leaving a smudged footprint matching her blood type as he exited Kristen's bedroom.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: CID investigators then theorized that MacDonald attempted to cover up the murders, using articles on the Manson Family murders that he had recently read in the March 1970 issue of "Esquire" investigators had found in the living room. Putting on surgical gloves from a medical supply in the kitchen closet, he went to the master bedroom, where he used Colette's blood to write the word "PIG" on the headboard. MacDonald then laid his torn pajama top over her dead body and repeatedly stabbed her in the chest with an ice pick, then discarded the weapons close to the back door of the property after wiping them clean of fingerprints. Finally, MacDonald took a scalpel blade from the supply closet, entered the adjacent bathroom, and stabbed himself once in the chest while standing beside the sink before disposing of the surgical gloves. He had then used the family telephone to summon an ambulance before lying down beside Colette's body as he waited for the military police to arrive.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On April 6, 1970, Army investigators formally cautioned, then interrogated MacDonald. He was first offered the chance to recount his version of events, and recounted his claims of being attacked by four intruders, with whom he grappled before falling to the ground, observing "the top of some boots" and being rendered unconscious before regaining consciousness, experiencing symptoms of pneumothorax, in the hallway after the intruders had left.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Investigators were unconvinced of MacDonald's accounts. Midway through questioning, MacDonald was asked the question about his stab wounds by CID Investigator William Ivory: "You didn't do it yourself, did you?" This question prompted MacDonald to deny the accusation before referencing his puncture wound and his having to persuade hospital doctors to insert a chest tube into his body as he was sure his lung was punctured. Questioning then focused upon the crime scene and results of the forensic testing. MacDonald denied any of the murder weapons had originated from his household, despite the fact the section of lumber matched wood from Kimberley's closet. He also claimed to be unaware of how the fiber and blood evidence contradicted his accounts of his movements and actions.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Investigator Robert Shaw then questioned MacDonald as to the lack of disorder and damage within the household, and the lack of any motive, stating that in the investigators' experience, had four intruders embarked on a murderous frenzy within a small household, they would expect to encounter evidence such as "busted furniture and broken mirrors and bashed-in walls", but the only signs of the struggle were the top-heavy living room coffee table, which had not flipped over all the way in the midst of his struggle, and a flower pot beside the table with the plant upon the carpet and the pot standing upright. MacDonald was unable to offer a plausible explanation for this observation, and also claimed to be unaware how Kimberley's blood and brain serum were recovered from the master bedroom.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following a short break, questioning resumed the same afternoon. Investigator Franz Grebner listed further physical discrepancies between MacDonald's account and the forensic evidence, repeatedly stating all the facts pointed to his having staged the crime scene. MacDonald was unable to offer a plausible explanation to this questioning before abruptly accusing Grebner of having "run out of ideas" and attempting to frame him to maintain a 100% solved homicide rate. In response, Grebner stated: "We have all this business here that would tend to indicate that you were involved in this rather than people who came in from the outside and picked 544 Castle Drive and went up there and were lucky enough to find your door open."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: When investigators asked MacDonald to submit to a polygraph test to verify his accounts, he readily agreed, although within ten minutes of the conclusion of the interview, he called investigators to state he had changed his mind, and would not submit to any polygraph testing.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On the evening of April 6, MacDonald was relieved of his duties and placed under restriction, pending further inquiries. The following day, he was assigned an army lawyer. At the recommendation of his mother, on April 10, he instead hired a flamboyant civilian defense attorney, Bernard Segal, to defend him. Less than a month later, on May 1, the Army formally charged MacDonald with three counts of murder. That same day, MacDonald penned a letter to Colette's mother and stepfather professing his innocence, emphasizing the Army would "never admit" their error, and speculating his wife's soul may hold "infinite patience and understanding" of his current legal predicament.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: An initial Army Article 32 hearing into MacDonald's possible guilt, overseen by Colonel Warren Rock, convened on July 6, 1970. This hearing lasted until September.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's lawyer, Bernard Segal, adopted an offensive strategy on behalf of his client at this hearing, citing numerous examples of incompetence on behalf of the Army CID, who he stated had clumsily and unprofessionally "trampled all over" the crime scene during their examination of the house, obliterating any traces of evidence the perpetrators might have left and losing vital pieces of evidence including a single thread found beneath Kimberley's nail, MacDonald's pajama trousers, four torn tips of rubber surgical gloves found in the master bedroom, and a single layer of skin found beneath one of Colette's fingernails. Segal elicited several examples of incompetence from military police and responding personnel, including testimony revealing that an ambulance driver had stolen MacDonald's wallet from the living room, and a pathologist who testified to having failed to obtain the children's fingerprints for comparison at the crime scene.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The first witness to testify in MacDonald's defense, responding military policeman Kenneth Mica, testified that on the way to answering MacDonald's emergency call on the night of the murders, he had observed a blonde woman with a wide-brimmed hat standing on a street corner approximately half a mile from the MacDonald home. He noted that this sighting was unusual, given the late hour and the weather. Mica also testified that, contrary to instruction, an ambulance driver had placed the tilted flower pot upright while at the crime scene.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Colonel Rock also testified that he himself went to the scene of the crime and tipped the coffee table over, with it striking the side of a rocking chair and coming to rest on its edge. Rock also noted the fact that if no wet footprints and mud were found at the crime scene belonging to the alleged intruders, that meant the crime scene investigators had also failed to find any evidence of the large numbers of military police and civilians who also walked around the house.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In August, Segal was approached by a deliveryman named William Posey, who claimed the blonde woman MacDonald stated had attacked his family might have been a local 17-year-old drug addict and police informant named Helena Werle Stoeckley. According to Posey, Stoeckley had been in the company of "two or three" young males in a car parked outside her apartment at approximately 4:00 a.m. on the morning of the murders. Posey also claimed Stoeckley had ceased wearing her boots and floppy hat subsequent to February 17, and had dressed in black on the date of the funerals, also stating to him she "[did not] remember what [she] did" on the date of the murders. Posey later relayed this information at the hearing, adding that Stoeckley had informed him months later that she and her boyfriend could not marry until "we go out and kill some more people".


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Stoeckley was located and questioned regarding her whereabouts on February 17. Her answers were vague and self-contradictory. She recalled being in the company of her boyfriend, Gregory Mitchell, on the night of February 16, and going "out for a ride" in a car in the early hours of the following day, "driving aimlessly", but claimed to have been "so far out" on mescaline that she could not say for sure whether she had been at the house or not. Although witnesses had claimed Stoeckley had admitted her involvement in the murders, with several also remembering her wearing clothing similar to that described by MacDonald on the date in question, she was not subpoenaed to testify. Procedural irregularities regarding investigative conduct into Stoeckley were also highlighted by Segal at this hearing.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following favorable character testimony from several acquaintances and a military psychiatrist, MacDonald testified for three days in mid-August. Sections of his testimony contradicted what he had informed investigators on April 6, including his claim on this occasion to have actually moved Colette's body, having found her "a little bit propped up against a chair" before he "just sort of laid her flat" on the floor. He also stated that, possibly because of his surgical background, he had "sort of rinsed off [his] hands" as he checked his own injuries in the bathroom before calling for help. Referencing the type B blood found in the kitchen, MacDonald testified that he "may have" also washed his hands in the kitchen sink "for some reason" prior to making the phone call to emergency services. Contrary to medical reports and his earlier accounts, he also claimed to have located two bumps on the back of his head and "two or three" puncture wounds in his upper left chest, other wounds to his right bicep, and approximately ten ice pick wounds to his abdomen on February 17 or 18—all of which had healed without treatment and none of which had required surgery.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Questioned in regards to his infidelity, MacDonald admitted he had been unfaithful on two occasions, but insisted Colette had not known about either affair. He also claimed their time at Fort Bragg had been the most content of their married life.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's testimony was followed by that of a clinical psychologist, who testified as to conclusions of a series of tests he had conducted on MacDonald. This expert testified that the tests revealed an extraordinary absence of anxiety, depression, and anger in MacDonald with regard to the loss of his family, and that his report concluded he was "able to muster massive denial or repression" to such a degree that the "impact of the recent events in his life has been blunted". Furthermore, this extreme psychological response would likely see an individual convey himself as "victimized" and "perhaps, somewhat of a martyr".


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: To the chagrin of Colonel Kriwanek, on October 13, 1970, Colonel Rock issued a report recommending that charges be dismissed against MacDonald as insufficient evidence existed to prove his guilt, adding his belief no truth existed in the charges, and that the nature of the murders led him to believe the perpetrator(s) were either insane or under the influence of drugs. Rock also recommended that civilian authorities further investigate Stoeckley. Later the same month, all charges were formally dismissed, although a new CID investigation tasked with finding the murderer(s) was assembled in February 1971, with MacDonald still considered a suspect.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In December, MacDonald received an honorable discharge from the Army and initially returned to New York City, where he briefly worked as a doctor before relocating to Long Beach, California in July 1971 in an effort to "put the past" behind him and to distance himself from the "constant reminders" of his wife and daughters. He obtained employment as an emergency room physician at the St. Mary Medical Center, frequently working long hours. He also became an instructor at the UCLA medical school, a medical director of the Long Beach Grand Prix, a lecturer on the subject of the recognition and treatment of child abuse, and a participant in the development of a national cardiopulmonary resuscitation training program. MacDonald lived in a $350,000 Huntington Beach condominium apartment, and is known to have lived a promiscuous lifestyle prior to forming a long-term relationship with a 22-year-old airline stewardess named Candy Kramer in the late 1970s.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In the years immediately following the dismissal of the murder charges, MacDonald received an abundance of emotional and public support. He also wrote letters to several magazines and newspapers detailing his willingness to further publicize the background and legalities of his case.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Within days of the dismissal, MacDonald began granting press interviews and media appearances, most notably on the December 15, 1970, episode of "The Dick Cavett Show", during which he appeared flippant as he complained about the Army investigation and their focus on him as a suspect. On this occasion he claimed to have sustained 23 wounds—some of which he claimed were "potentially fatal".


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's stepfather-in-law, Alfred Kassab, had initially believed in his stepson-in-law's innocence. Both he and Colette's mother, Mildred, had testified in support of MacDonald during the Army's Article 32 hearing, informing the press: "My wife and I feel very strongly about Captain MacDonald's innocence. After all, it was our daughter and two grandchildren who were butchered." However, by November 1970, Kassab had grown suspicious of MacDonald's repeated reluctance to provide him with a copy of the 2,000-page transcript of the Article 32 hearing. In an apparent effort to discourage Kassab's efforts to obtain a copy of this transcript in his pursuit of the killers, MacDonald told his stepfather-in-law that he and some Army colleagues had actually tracked down, tortured, and eventually murdered one of the four alleged murderers. Kassab's suspicion greatly increased following MacDonald's casual and dismissive demeanor on "The Dick Cavett Show"—just days after he had himself hand-delivered 500 copies of an eleven-page letter to members of Congress requesting a congressionally mandated re-investigation of the murders—and he and his wife publicly turned against MacDonald.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Kassab successfully obtained a copy of the Article 32 transcript from the Army in February 1971. He repeatedly studied the document, realizing MacDonald's claims were inconsistent with the physical facts and concluding his account was nothing more than a "tissue of lies" that repeatedly contradicted the known facts of the case. One example was MacDonald's assertion that he had sustained life-threatening injuries—including ten ice pick wounds—during the alleged physical assault at the hands of his assailants; Kassab had met MacDonald in hospital less than 18 hours after the attack and had observed him sitting up in bed, eating a meal, with very little bandaging or other medical dressing on his body. An examination of hospital records confirmed MacDonald had received no such wounds. Kassab also discovered that, within weeks of the murders of his family, MacDonald had begun dating a young woman employed at Fort Bragg. He and his wife also later discovered that, by 1969, he had rekindled his relationship with Penny Wells.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: With the cooperation of Colonel Kriwanek and other Army investigators, Kassab visited the crime scene for several hours in order to compare the physical evidence against MacDonald's testimony in March 1971. This personal assessment ultimately convinced Kassab of MacDonald's guilt, and he resolved to devote his life to pursuing all legal avenues to bring MacDonald to justice. As the Army's investigation was completed, the only way Kassab could bring MacDonald to trial was via a citizen's complaint filed through the United States Department of Justice. He filed this complaint in early 1972; however, because the murders had occurred while MacDonald was serving in the Army, and he had since been discharged, the citizen's complaint was declared moot. The FBI refused to take on the case.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Between 1972 and 1974, the case remained trapped in limbo in the Department of Justice as legal issues were raised and debated over whether sufficient evidence and probable cause existed for indictment and prosecution. On April 30, 1974, the Kassabs, their attorney, Richard Cahn, and CID agent Peter Kearns presented a citizen's complaint against MacDonald to US Chief District Court Judge Algernon Butler, requesting the convening of a grand jury to indict MacDonald for the murders. The following month, Justice Department attorney Victor Woerheide ruled the case worthy of prosecution.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On August 12, 1974, a grand jury convened before U.S. District Judge Franklin Dupree in Raleigh, North Carolina, to hear the legal proceedings. Seventy-five witnesses were called to testify. MacDonald was the first individual to testify at this hearing. His testimony lasted five days, during which he conceded that although he had publicly resolved to pursue all legal avenues following the 1970 dismissal of the murder charges against him, and to hire investigators, he had failed to do so. Nonetheless, he was adamant he had made his own efforts to identify the perpetrators and to locate Helena Stoeckley. He also claimed the numerous fabrications he had provided to the Kassabs and to sections of the media in the intervening years were to placate his in-laws, and that he had received more stab and puncture wounds to his body than recorded in contemporary medical records (which he blamed on malpractice). When asked by Victor Woerheide if he would submit to either a polygraph or sodium amytal test to verify his version of events, MacDonald read a statement prepared by his attorneys denying their request.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Other witnesses to testify included surgeons on duty at Womack Hospital who had examined MacDonald and who testified that, aside from his punctured lung, MacDonald was "not in any great danger, medically", and that, save for a superficial stab wound to his upper left arm and abdomen, MacDonald had no other stab wounds to his body. A reporter who had covered the Article 32 hearing and who interviewed MacDonald after the charges were dropped also stated that, in his experience, individuals under the influence of LSD seldom become violent and that, by contrast, those who consume amphetamines frequently do.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On December 12, a former chief of psychiatry who had also testified at the Article 32 hearing, Bruce Bailey, testified. Bailey stated that, when discussing his family and the events surrounding their deaths with him, MacDonald would occasionally "become emotional, become tearful, but he recovered quickly". Bailey also testified he found MacDonald to be a controlling individual who was "extremely dependent on what others thought of him" and that he would often launch into a verbal "tirade" to allow his deep-seated emotions to become expressed by other means. When questioned as to whether MacDonald suffered from a mental disorder, Bailey testified he did not, although he could not discount the possibility of him murdering members of his family in a situation of extreme stress. This testimony was followed by a Philadelphia-based psychologist who conceded that, had MacDonald committed such an act of violence, he would successfully "completely block" the episode from his mind.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The chief of the FBI's crime laboratory chemistry section, Paul Stombaugh, then testified the pajama top placed over Colette's body had been heavily bloodstained before the garment was torn, and that—contrary to MacDonald's claims—a lack of tearing at the edges of these holes proved that all 48 holes within this item of clothing had been inflicted while the garment was stationary, rather than in motion. Stombaugh also testified all the cuts within all garments other than the pajama top had been inflicted with the "Old Hickory" kitchen knife found outside the family home and not the paring knife he claimed to have removed from Colette's body, that the majority of this blood had belonged to Colette, and her blood had transferred onto the garment on at least four locations prior the garment being torn. Furthermore, the club used to bludgeon Colette and Kimberley, which MacDonald had denied any knowledge of, had also been sawed from one of the mattress slats in Kimberley's bedroom, and a single hair found in Colette's right palm had sourced from her own body and not a blonde-haired intruder.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald was recalled to testify before the grand jury on January 21, 1975. On this occasion, he was markedly arrogant and sarcastic when questioned with regards to issues such as his infidelity or the prosecution's illustration of forensic contradictions between his version of events and the physical evidence, on one occasion shouting: "I have no idea! I don't even know what crap you're trying to feed me!" in response to a question as to how his blood and Colette's blood had transferred onto a sheet taken from Kristen's bedroom into the master bedroom. He also refused to discuss the results of a private polygraph test to which he had consented in 1970, the results of which had been given to Bernard Segal, indicating he would have to speak with his attorney on this matter before consenting to this line of inquiry.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following a brief recess, MacDonald read a statement prepared by his attorneys denying the prosecution's request to discuss the results of his 1970 polygraph examination, contending Woerheide had violated attorney-client privilege. He then read his own statement to the jury, claiming "five long years" had passed since the murder of his family and his efforts to start life afresh, and that the questions posed by the prosecution were ones he had had to "live with for five years".


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On January 24, 1975, the grand jury formally indicted MacDonald on three counts of murder. Within the hour, he was arrested in California. On January 31, he was freed upon a $100,000 bail raised by friends and colleagues, pending disposition of the charges, although he was arraigned on May 23, and pleaded not guilty to the murders on this date. On July 29, Judge Dupree denied the double jeopardy and speedy trial arguments successively filed by his attorneys, and allowed the proposed trial date of August 18, 1975 to stand, although the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to stay the proceedings on August 15. The panel of this court ordered the indictment dismissed on the grounds of a defendant's right to a speedy trial on January 23, 1976. MacDonald himself later claimed to weep "tears of relief rather than tears of joy" upon hearing this news, and later recollected to return to a "big celebration" that his ordeal was now over.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: An appeal on behalf of the Government led to a reinstatement of the indictment via an 8-0 margin within the United States Supreme Court on May 1, 1978. In response to this decision, Alfred Kassab informed the press he and his wife welcomed the developments, stating: "It has been [a] tremendous personal pressure to have someone running around that you are convinced killed your daughter and grandchildren." On October 22, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected MacDonald's double jeopardy arguments. The Supreme Court refused to review this decision on March 19, 1979.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald was brought to trial on July 16, 1979, charged with three counts of murder. He was tried in Raleigh, North Carolina, before Judge Dupree, and pleaded not guilty to the charges. MacDonald was defended by Bernard Segal and Wade Smith; James Blackburn and Brian Murtagh prosecuted the case. Initial jury selection began on this date, and would continue for three days.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Although MacDonald's lawyers had been confident of an acquittal, there were successive rulings against the defense. The first such ruling was Judge Dupree's refusal to admit into evidence a 1979 psychiatric evaluation of MacDonald, which suggested that an individual of his personality and mindset was highly unlikely to be capable of killing his family. Dupree justified this refusal by stating that, as MacDonald's attorneys had not entered an insanity plea for their client, he did not wish for the trial to be hindered by opinionated and contradictory psychiatric testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses. A further defense setback was the judge's ruling against a motion to suppress the introduction of MacDonald's pajama top as evidence.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On the first day of the trial, Judge Dupree allowed the prosecution to admit into evidence the March 1970 copy of "Esquire" magazine, found in the MacDonald house, part of which contained the lengthy article relating to the Manson Family murders. However, Dupree also refused the prosecution's request to allow any sections of the earlier Article 32 transcripts from MacDonald's 1970 Army hearing to be produced as evidence, ruling that as the current trial was a civilian trial and the Article 32 military hearing held several reports from the military investigators, which had suggested that MacDonald had murdered his family in a drug-induced rage, this evidence was also opinionated.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In his opening statement to the jury, delivered on July 19, James Blackburn outlined the burden of proof the prosecution faced in proving MacDonald's guilt; that the prosecution intended to meet this burden; and that the murders had been committed with malice aforethought. Blackburn then outlined the prosecution's intention to outline both physical and circumstantial evidence indicating MacDonald's guilt, and to introduce numerous witnesses, imploring the jurors to "listen to the evidence that comes from the witness stand, [to] examine the evidence, as it is shown to you, and reach your own conclusion". Blackburn finished his opening statement by stating to the jurors: "Basically, we believe that the physical evidence points to the fact that, unfortunately, one person—not two, three, four or more—killed Colette, Kimberley, and Kristen, and that person is the defendant."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Wade Smith then argued on behalf of the defense. Smith referenced the events of February 17, 1970, the Army investigation and subsequent dismissal of all charges. Repeatedly emphasizing the case had occurred over nine years ago, and that, in the intervening years, "Jeff" had done his utmost to rebuild his life while "others" would not allow him to forget his painful past, their client had now been brought to trial to face the charges of murdering his wife and children, Smith emphasized to the jurors their ability to relieve their client of his ongoing ordeal by acquitting him of all charges.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: One of the chief prosecution witnesses to testify was Paul Stombaugh, whom the prosecution summoned to testify on August 7. Stombaugh demonstrated to the jurors how MacDonald's pajama top had been pierced by 48 small, smooth, and cylindrical ice pick holes after the garment had been placed atop his wife's chest. Stombaugh contended that, in order for the holes to have been as smooth and devoid of fraying or tearing, the garment would have had to remain stationary, an extremely unlikely occurrence if, as MacDonald contended, he had wrapped it around his hands to defend himself from blows from an attacker wielding an ice pick or club. Furthermore, Stombaugh demonstrated that by folding the garment in the manner depicted in the crime scene photographs, all 48 holes could have been made by 21 thrusts of the ice pick through the garment, and in an identical pattern, implying Colette had been repeatedly stabbed through the pajama top while the garment was lying on her body. Although Segal subjected Stombaugh to a harsh cross-examination—repeatedly raising his voice as he challenged Stombaugh's credentials and forensic methods—Stombaugh remained steadfast as to his conclusions.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: A further piece of damaging evidence against MacDonald was an audio tape made of the April 6, 1970 interview by military investigators, which was played in the courtroom immediately after the jurors had returned from visiting the still-intact crime scene. The jury heard MacDonald's matter-of-fact, indifferent recitation of the murders. They heard him become angry, defensive, and emotional in response to suggestions by the investigators that he had committed the murders. He asked the investigators why would they think he, who had a beautiful family and "everything going for [him]", could have murdered his family in cold blood for no reason. The jury also heard investigators later confront him with their knowledge of his extramarital affairs, to which MacDonald murmured, "Oh... you guys are more thorough than I thought."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Despite earlier rulings against the defense counsel, the prosecution was also hampered by the lack of an obvious motive for MacDonald to have committed the murders. He had no history of violence or domestic abuse against his wife or children. The defense also argued the crime scene was hopelessly compromised during the investigation and potential evidence either was destroyed, was lost, or remained uncollected.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's defense attorneys also called several favorable character witnesses, plus a forensic expert named James Thornton, to the stand. Thornton attempted to rebut Stombaugh's contention that the pajama top was stationary on Colette's chest, rather than wrapped around MacDonald's wrists as he warded off blows, stating he had attempted to stab a pajama top wrapped around a ham with an ice pick as an assistant moved the item back and forth, resulting perfectly cylindrical holes with no tearing around the edges of the garment.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following Thornton's testimony, prosecutors Murtagh and Blackburn staged an impromptu re-enactment of the alleged attack on MacDonald. Murtagh wrapped a pajama top of the same material around his hands and attempted to fend off a series of blows that Blackburn attempted to inflict on him with the ice pick used in the murders. The resulting ice pick holes in the pajama top were jagged and elongated, not smoothly cylindrical like the ones within the garment recovered upon Colette's body. Furthermore, Murtagh received a small wound on his right arm. MacDonald had received no defensive wounds on his arms or hands consistent with a struggle. In addition, aside from a small smear of blood discovered upon the "Esquire" magazine and a single speck of blood upon MacDonald's spectacles, no other traces of blood were recovered from the room in which MacDonald claimed to have fought for his life.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: One of the final defense witnesses Segal subpoenaed to testify was Helena Stoeckley. Intent on extracting a confession from her that she had been one of the intruders MacDonald claimed had entered his house, murdered his family and attacked him, Segal talked to Stoeckley in private for over two hours, attempting to persuade her to confess to end MacDonald's years of "suffering unjustly"—also promising her immunity from prosecution due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Stoeckley repeatedly informed Segal she was unable to help him. She also denied ever having seen MacDonald, and refused to testify to acts she was adamant she did not commit.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Under oath, Stoeckley denied any culpability in murders, and any knowledge of who may have committed the acts. Insistent she was unable to recall her whereabouts on the date of the murders, Stoeckley emphasized her extensive drug use in 1970 and the intervening years, adding the night of February 16–17, 1970 was "by no means" the first or last night in which she was unable to recall her whereabouts. Following this testimony, Murtagh and Segal alternately argued before Judge Dupree for the dismissal, or introduction of, testimony from several witnesses to whom Stoeckley had earlier allegedly confessed. On August 20, Dupree refused the introduction of this testimony, citing legal trustworthiness requisites and stating the introduction of these witnesses would add no further value to the proceedings than what they had experienced from Stoeckley's own testimony.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The final witness to testify on behalf of the defense was MacDonald himself, who testified on his own behalf on August 23 and 24.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald was first questioned by Bernard Segal, who sought to humanize his client in the eyes of the jury. He began his questioning by asking MacDonald about his family. MacDonald described each family member and their individual personalities, stating the family "shared almost everything ... we were all friends. Colette and I shared the children growing up. We shared our life experiences." He also claimed the reason he had never remarried was the fact he was unable to forget his wife and children, whom he thought about daily. Segal then asked MacDonald to recount his family background, his career at Fort Bragg, and his family's general lifestyle in February 1970. He then produced several family photographs and artifacts, asking MacDonald to describe each item or the circumstances surrounding each photograph, and to identify the individual in each image. MacDonald then recounted his life in the years since the deaths of his family, describing his decision to relocate to California as an effort to distance himself from well-wishers and insisting the reason he worked up to eighty hours a week was that it was "easier than sitting and thinking" about his family.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The following day, James Blackburn cross-examined MacDonald. He outlined every piece of physical and circumstantial evidence recovered at the crime scene which contradicted MacDonald's own accounts of "the assailants" attacking him and murdering his family and instead indicated his own guilt. Blackburn typically began each question with a statement to the effect of: "Dr. MacDonald. Should the jury find from the evidence..." MacDonald was unable to offer any plausible explanations for these discrepancies. For example, he was unable to explain how the piece of lumber used as a weapon came from a mattress slat on Kimberley's bed, but claimed there "may have been" some wood in the utility room, later adding his insistence the club which had struck him across the head was "sort of smooth" and may have been a baseball bat as opposed to a wooden instrument. He also claimed the earlier testimony of Army investigators pertaining to his questioning on April 6, 1970, was unreliable due to the poor conduct of the investigators, and the fact several weeks had elapsed between the murders and his formal questioning.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: When questioning MacDonald with regards to various discrepancies in his accounts of his movements, the injuries he sustained, and the positioning of his pajama jacket upon his body throughout the night of the murders with regards to the tearing and fiber evidence sourcing from the garment, Blackburn succeeded in highlighting several discrepancies in MacDonald's accounts by comparison to previous interview transcripts and his current claims, and the contradictions of this testimony with the forensic evidence. In response, Segal repeatedly raised objections to this line of questioning, claiming the discrepancies were misleading. His objections were frequently overruled.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following a brief recess, Blackburn resumed his cross-examination. On this occasion, he illustrated instances of MacDonald adjusting his testimony regarding having moved his wife's body after learning fibers from his pajama top were found beneath her body. He then asked direct questions regarding the location of blood, fiber, and other physical evidence within his apartment which directly contradicted his accounts of his movements and those of members of his family. Blackburn frequently accompanied these questions with a hypothetical suggestion that "if the jury should find from the evidence" forensic or circumstantial evidence which contradicted MacDonald's testimony, would he have any plausible explanation for these discrepancies. MacDonald did frequently attempt to rebuff this line of questioning, but was typically unable to offer any explanation for this evidence.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On August 28, 1979, both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury. James Blackburn argued first, first outlining the injuries inflicted upon Colette, Kimberley and Kristen as opposed to MacDonald. He then outlined the medical testimony which listed the sole serious injury MacDonald had suffered as being the pneumothorax wound to his chest, stating that even if the prosecution conceded the wound was potentially life-threatening, the wound was the sole serious injury he had sustained. Referencing the life-and-death struggle MacDonald claimed to have engaged in with the alleged intruders, Blackburn stated the evidence indicated a struggle had occurred in the MacDonald home, but this struggle was between "only one white male and one white female. The white female was Colette and the white male was her husband."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Blackburn then poured scorn on the character witnesses who had earlier testified MacDonald had been a good husband and father, then returned to the evidence, stating: "If we convince you, by the evidence, he "did" it, we don't have to show you he is the sort of person that "could" have done it." He then closed his initial argument by stating: "I can only tell you from the physical evidence that ... things do not lie. But I suggest that people can, and do."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The following day, Bernard Segal and Wade Smith delivered their closing arguments on behalf of the defense. Segal focused much of his closing argument upon the "campaign of persecution" his client had been subjected to by the legal system for almost a decade in an attempt to frame him for the murder of his family, describing the prosecution's case as a "house built on sand". Portraying MacDonald as a loving husband and father, Segal then emphasized MacDonald's insistence from the outset that four intruders had been responsible for the murders. Segal spoke for over three hours, using virtually all of the defense's allotted time. Blackburn and Murtagh agreed to forfeit 10 minutes of their allocated rebuttal time to allow Smith to make an argument to the jury.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Following a brief recess, Smith appealed to the jurors to question the lack of an obvious motive for MacDonald to have committed the murders. He referenced the family photographs of MacDonald enjoying the company of his wife and children in the years, and even weeks, before their deaths, stating: "It makes no sense. There is no motive." He then appealed to the jurors to give MacDonald "the peace" he had sought for almost a decade.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In his rebuttal argument, James Blackburn referenced Smith's earlier observation regarding "the unbelievability" of a successful doctor murdering his family, but contended the events of February 17, 1970, occurred "because events overtook themselves too fast ... everything else, ladies and gentlemen, we say, in that crime scene, flowed from that moment". He then referred once again to the physical evidence, stating the evidence unequivocally illustrated the chain of events which occurred and which only pointed to MacDonald's guilt. Blackburn closed his rebuttal argument by stating that, although the prosecution was convinced of MacDonald's guilt, they only wished he was not, given the final moments of the victims and "who it was that was going to make them die", adding that the defendant would never have peace.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In a final address to the jury, Judge Dupree informed the panel they had three choices to choose from: To find MacDonald not guilty; to find him guilty of first-degree murder; or guilty of second-degree murder in each case.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on August 29, 1979, the jury, having deliberated for six-and-a-half hours, announced they had reached their verdict. MacDonald was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the death of Kristen and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Colette and Kimberley. Four jurors wept as they announced their verdicts, and MacDonald's mother rushed out of the courtroom. MacDonald himself displayed no emotion. Judge Dupree imposed a life sentence for each of the murders, to be served consecutively. Bail was revoked, and MacDonald was temporarily transferred to a Butner County jail, prior to his permanent transferral to the Federal Correctional Institution in Terminal Island, California.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Immediately following the verdict, Alfred Kassab telephoned the family lawyer, Richard Cahn. Kassab thanked the lawyer for his exhaustive efforts over the years, stating: "Hi, Dick, I just got what I wanted. Three life sentences. Thanks for everything. We couldn't have done it without your help!" The Kassabs also informed the press: "This was something that had to be done. Now, we can rest in peace."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald appealed Dupree's bail revocation ruling, requesting that bail be granted pending the outcome of his appeal. This application was rejected on September 7. A further appeal to be freed on bail was rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 20.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On July 29, 1980, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed MacDonald's conviction, ruling via a 2–1 margin that the nine-year delay in bringing him to trial violated his Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy trial.<ref name="United States of America 07/29/80"></ref> He was released on August 22, having posted $100,000 bail, and subsequently returned to work as the Director of Emergency Medicine at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach, California. He would later announce his engagement to his fiancée, Randi Dee Markwith, in March 1982.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Six months later, on December 18, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 5–5 to hear the appeal "en banc". As a majority did not vote to hear this appeal, the application was accordingly denied, upholding the previous ruling. This decision was appealed, and on May 26, 1981, the US Supreme Court accepted the case for consideration, hearing oral arguments on December 7. On March 31, 1982, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that MacDonald's rights to a speedy trial had not been violated, stating the time interval between the dismissal of the military charges and the indictment on civilian charges should "not be considered in determining whether the delay in bringing [MacDonald] to trial violated his right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment". He was rearrested and returned to federal prison and his original sentence of three consecutive life terms reinstated. The following year, MacDonald dismissed Segal as his legal representative.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Defense lawyers filed a new motion for MacDonald to be freed on bail pending appeal, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals refused. His remaining points of appeal—including his contention the evidence presented at trial did not justify the finding of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—were heard on June 9, 1982, although his conviction was unanimously affirmed on August 16. Shortly thereafter, MacDonald's licenses to practice medicine in both North Carolina and California were revoked.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald again appealed this decision, contending his conviction should be overturned due to suppressed exculpatory evidence. Dupree rejected these defense motions on March 1, 1985. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision October 6, 1986. A further defense motion that MacDonald should be granted a new murder trial on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct was denied on July 8, 1991. This ruling was appealed on the grounds of judicial bias on October 3, but was denied.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: A further appeal was argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in February 1992. This appeal listed newly discovered evidence which MacDonald contended was suppressed at his trial and which, he claimed, corroborated his exculpatory account of the murders. This appeal contended that, had Judge Dupree permitted this evidence, the jurors would have learned that all of the doctors hired by the defense, who had worked for the Army, or the government at Walter Reed Hospital, had concluded that MacDonald was psychologically incapable of committing such acts of violence.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: The court ruled against awarding a new trial on June 2,<ref name="United States of America (06/02/92)"></ref> stating Judge Dupree had acted correctly when he refused to allow the jury to view a transcript of the 1970 Article 32 hearing, and because this was not an insanity trial, he had also acted properly in not allowing the jurors to hear any of the psychiatric testimony. This ruling also stated that Helena Stoeckley's confessions of guilt pertaining to the murders were unreliable and conflicted with the established facts of the case, and accordingly, the judge's ruling against her being allowed to testify at MacDonald's 1979 trial was valid.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On September 2, 1997, the district court granted MacDonald's motion to file a supplemental affidavit with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This affidavit contended that, although several saran fibers found at the crime scene which did not match any evidentiary item recovered had most likely sourced from a doll and not a wig, these fibers were also used in the manufacture of human wigs prior to 1970, and thus added to "the weight of previously amassed exculpatory evidence". His motion for DNA testing upon these fibers was transferred from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to the district court. MacDonald's lawyers were also given the right to pursue DNA tests on limited hair and blood evidence on October 17, 1997. This testing began in December 2000, with MacDonald's lawyers hoping the results would tie Stoeckley and her then-boyfriend, Gregory Mitchell, to the crime scene.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On March 10, 2006, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory announced that the results of this DNA testing revealed that the DNA of neither Stoeckley nor Mitchell matched that upon any of the exhibits tested. Furthermore, although a single hair found within Colette's left palm was also cited by MacDonald as belonging to one of the alleged intruders, this testing also revealed the hair to have come from his own body. This hair was also a precise match with others recovered from the bedspread within the master bedroom and upon the top sheet of Kristen's bed. A hair found in Colette's right palm was also determined to be her own. Three hairs, one from the bed sheet, one found in Colette's body outline in the area of her legs, and a single hair measuring one-fifth of an inch found beneath Kristen's fingernail did not match the DNA profile of any MacDonald family member or known suspect.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In September 2012, the district court conducted a formal evidentiary hearing regarding DNA evidence and statements relating to key witnesses who offered testimony indicating MacDonald's innocence. On July 24, 2014, the district court rejected these claims in their entirety and re-affirmed MacDonald's conviction on all counts. Reportedly, MacDonald was disappointed, but not surprised, with this ruling. He presented a motion to alter or amend this judgment to the district court, although this was denied in November 2014. He then appealed the denial of this motion to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. On December 21, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In April 2021, MacDonald was denied a request for compassionate release upon the grounds of his ailing health, with Judge Terrence Boyle citing the compassionate release law applies only to individuals whose crimes occurred on or after November 1, 1987. A further appeal against this ruling was dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on September 16, 2021.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Shortly after MacDonald's initial release from prison in August 1980, his supporters hired a retired FBI Special Agent and private investigator named Ted Gunderson to assist in overturning his conviction. Gunderson contacted Helena Stoeckley, who on this occasion confessed that she and five members of what she described as a "drug cult" had developed a deep grudge against MacDonald as he had "refused to treat heroin- and opium-addicted" patients. Accordingly, she and other members of this group had plotted revenge against MacDonald, intending specifically to murder his family but leave him alive.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: According to Stoeckley, she had telephoned the MacDonald residence late in the evening of February 16 to determine all members of the family were present in the house. Colette had answered and stated a babysitter would be there in the early evening but that after she had left, all the family would be present and alone. The group had then "dropped mescaline" before driving to the MacDonald residence. She and four others had entered the house and confronted MacDonald, intent on him signing a Dexedrine prescription, although the situation quickly deteriorated, with MacDonald attempting to fight his attackers before quickly lapsing into unconsciousness. Stoeckley alleged she then ran into the master bedroom to "find 'Death to All Pigs' or something like that" scrawled on the headboard and two of her friends bludgeoning Colette on the bed as her child lay asleep next to her. Stoeckley was adamant she had worn a beige, floppy hat on the evening in question.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Stoeckley had submitted to a polygraph test in April 1971, with the military examiner stating: "It is concluded that Miss Stoeckley is convinced in her mind that she knows the identity of those person(s) who killed Colette, Kimberley, and Christine MacDonald. It is further concluded that Miss Stoeckley is convinced in her mind that she was physically present when the three members of the MacDonald family were killed. No abnormal physiological responses were noted in the polygraph tracings: however, due to Miss Stoeckley's admitted confused state of mind and her excessive drug use during and immediately following the homicides in question, a conclusion cannot be reached as to whether she, in fact, knows who perpetrated the homicides or whether she, in fact, was present at the scene of the murders."


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On April 16, 2007, MacDonald's attorneys filed an affidavit on behalf of Stoeckley's mother, Helena Teresa Stoeckley, who stated that her daughter had twice confessed to her that she was present in the MacDonald house on the evening of the murders and that her daughter was afraid of the prosecutors. MacDonald requested to expand his then-outstanding appeal to include this affidavit alongside all the evidence amassed at trial, the developments which he claimed had been subsequently discovered (including the 2006 results of DNA testing), and the statements of individuals to whom Stoeckley had made these confessions. This appeal also alleged that the trial statements of prosecutor James Blackburn should be considered unreliable as he had been convicted of fraud, forgery, and embezzlement, and subsequently disbarred in 1993.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald's motions regarding the DNA results and the affidavit of Stoeckley's mother were denied. The denial of these two motions was based on jurisdictional issues, specifically that MacDonald had not obtained the required pre-filing authorization from the Circuit Court for these motions to the district court. Nonetheless, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted MacDonald's motion for a successive habeas petition and remanded the matter back to the District Court Eastern Division.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: On January 12, 2006, MacDonald was granted leave to file a further appeal based upon a November 2005 affidavit of retired Deputy United States Marshal Jim Britt, who had served in this role during the trial. Britt stated that he had overheard Helena Stoeckley admit to prosecutor James Blackburn she had actually been present at the MacDonald house at the time of the murders and that Blackburn had threatened her with prosecution if she testified as a defense witness admitting this claim. (Stoeckley had earlier met with the defense counsel prior to this alleged meeting with Blackburn, and informed them she had no memory of her whereabouts on the night in question.)


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: In November 2008, Judge James Carroll Fox denied this appeal. This denial was based on the merits of the claim, specifically that, as Stoeckley had made many contradictory statements regarding her participation, or lack thereof, in the murders, her claims were unreliable. In addition, MacDonald's claim that Stoeckley had been expected to testify in a manner favorable to him at trial until she had been threatened by Blackburn is contradicted by the official trial records.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: Subsequent to this November 2008 decision, a government motion to modify the decision to negate Britt's claims was denied. Included within the motion was jail documentation establishing that Stoeckley was originally confined to the jail in Pickens, South Carolina, not Greenville, South Carolina, as Britt had claimed. Also included were custody commitment and release forms indicating that, although Britt and fellow Deputy United States Marshal Geraldine Holden had escorted Stoeckley into the Raleigh courthouse on August 16, 1979, agents other than Britt and Holden had actually transported Stoeckley to the 1979 trial. MacDonald appealed the district court's denial of his claim to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2011, the Court of Appeals reversed this decision, remanding MacDonald's claims back to the district court for further consideration.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: MacDonald faced several legal obstacles in his efforts to incorporate a motion relating to the earlier results of DNA testing of hair and fiber evidence recovered from 544 Castle Drive into his motion regarding the claims made in Britt's affidavit, with the court stating he must obtain a pre-authorization for what should be a separate motion filed in relation to the results of the DNA testing. On April 19, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals granted a pre-filing authorization relating to his DNA claims, reversing the decision of the district court, and remanding his appeals for further proceedings.


title: Jeffrey R. MacDonald

text: An evidentiary hearing relating to the claims within the Britt affidavit, the hair and fiber evidence, and further testimony pertaining to Stoeckley's verbal confessions, was held in September 2012. However, in July 2014, Judge Fox ruled against MacDonald's appeal, upholding his convictions.