KIMBERLY and KRISTEN MACDONALD - 5 and 2 yo/ Convicted: Father; Jeffrey MacDonald - Fort Bragg NC

Jeffrey MacDonald: Judge to Consider New Evidence in 42-Year-Old Murder Case
'Fatal Vision' Convict Seeks New Trial

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb)
Sept. 16, 2012

Jeffrey MacDonald, a green beret and doctor who was convicted 33 years ago in the stabbing and beating deaths of his pregnant wife and two daughters, will be back in court on Monday as a judge considers new evidence that may prove his innocence.

The 68-year-old, who is serving three life sentences, will be eligible for parole in 2020, however supporters are hoping new DNA evidence, which was not available at the time of his conviction, as well as witness testimony, will exonerate him.

"The case has bothered me for years," said Errol Morris, a former private detective and author of "A Wilderness of Error," a book examining MacDonald's case.

"The trial in and of itself was a terrible miscarriage of justice. He's been asking for three decades for someone to listen to all the evidence and this will be the first time that that has happened," Morris said.

On Feb. 17, 1970, MacDonald said he woke up on his sofa in his North Carolina home to find drugged-up hippies-- three men and a woman-- beating his pregnant wife, Colette, and their two daughters, 5-year-old Kimberley and 2-year-old Kristen.

The word "Pig" was written in blood on the headboard in MacDonald's bedroom.

The gruesome murders, which came months after details of the Manson Family murders were revealed, captivated the nation and eventually spawned a best selling book, "Fatal Vision," and a 1984 television mini-series.

Freddy Kassab, MacDonald's father-in-law, initially stood by him following the murders, however over time his confidence in MacDonald's story faded. He pushed for charges to be brought against his son-in-law.

MacDonald was convicted in 1979, nine years after the slayings.

In a letter provided to the Associated Press from 2000, MacDonald wrote to his new wife, Kathryn: "It would be a dishonor to their memory to compromise the truth and 'admit' to something I didn't do — no matter how long it takes."

Now, nearly 33 years to the day he was convicted, MacDonald may have a solid opportunity to clear his name.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-macdonald-evidence-42-year-murder-case/story?id=17248184#.UFdRBFEvB3U

Jeffrey MacDonald case: Man says sister was present at killings

By David Zucchino
September 18, 2012, 10:40 a.m.

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Lawyers for convicted killer and former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald continued to offer evidence Tuesday that they say suggests intruders were in his house the night his pregnant wife and two daughters were killed in 1970.

MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the killings, but has maintained that four intruders, among them a woman in a floppy hat, knocked him unconscious and committed the brutal murders at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The killings became the basis for a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision,’’ and a hit TV miniseries.

On the second day of a federal hearing on new evidence, the brother of the late Helena Stoeckley, who the defense says was the woman in the floppy hat, testified that she confessed to being at the MacDonald house the night of the murders.

Eugene Stoeckley, who was 11 at the time of the killings, said his sister told her mother in 1982 that she was present during the murders and that MacDonald was innocent. He described how his mother, also named Helena Stoeckley, gave an affidavit in 2007 detailing her daughter’s confession.

Eugene Stoeckley said his mother told him she was warned by the FBI to force her daughter to stop talking about her alleged involvement. The younger Helena Stoeckley was a heroin addict and police informant.

"She should keep her mouth shut and keep her nose out of the business of the case,’’ Stoeckley said, describing his mother’s words to him in 2007. The elder Stoeckley died in 2009.

Stoeckley testified that his mother described his sister’s 1982 confession as an attempt by the younger woman to "set things right’’ before her death. "She could no longer live with the guilt,’’ Stoeckley quoted his mother as saying.

The younger Helena Stoeckley died the following year.

On cross-examination, prosecutor John Bruce suggested that the elder Helena Stoeckley was unduly influenced by MacDonald’s current wife, Kathryn MacDonald. Kathryn McDonald flew to North Carolina to take part in the affidavit, given by Helena Stoeckley while she was ill and in an assisted living center in Fayetteville, N.C., near Ft. Bragg.

Kathryn MacDonald married Jefferey MacDonald in a federal prison in Maryland in 2002.

The younger Helena Stoeckley told several reporters and TV interviewers that she was at the murder scene, and that her boyfriend and another man killed Colette MacDonald and the couple’s daughters, Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2. The boyfriend has since died.

But at MacDonald’s 1979 federal murder trial, Stoeckley testified that she could not remember anything about the night of the murders because she was high on heroin, opium, mescaline and marijuana. The defense introduced sworn statements Tuesday by a former federal marshal, now dead, who said he heard a federal prosecutor threaten to charge Stoeckley with murder if she testified that she was at the MacDonald house.

Prosecutors have contended that Stoeckley’s version of events is unreliable because her cognitive processes had been badly damaged by her years of heavy drug abuse.

The hearing continues Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-jeffrey-macdonald-fatal-vision-murders-20120918,0,6117275.story

MACDONALD REQUEST FOR NEW TRIAL DENIED BY FEDERAL JUDGE

Thursday, July 24, 2014

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Late Thursday afternoon, a judge denied Jeffrey MacDonald's attempts to get a new trial.

MacDonald is a former Fort Bragg doctor. He was convicted of stabbing his wife and two daughters to death more than 40 years ago.

His case was famously profiled in the "Fatal Vision" book.

MacDonald's lawyers asked a federal judge back in April to toss out the convictions citing new DNA evidence.

Macdonald has always claimed drug crazed hippies were to blame for the killings.

The 70 year-old former Army captain is currently serving three life sentences for the murders.

http://abc11.com/news/macdonald-request-for-new-trial-denied-by-federal-judge/217281/

CONVICTED KILLER JEFFREY MACDONALD SEEKS NEW TRIAL, AGAIN

By DEREK ROWLES
Thursday, August 21, 2014

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Former Fort Bragg doctor Jeffrey MacDonald filed a motion Thursday seeking a new trial in the murder of his wife and children more than 40 years ago.

In the filing, MacDonald claims there is new evidence to support a new trial.

"The defense learned of the existence of handwritten lab notes that revealed numerous blond synthetic hairs, up to 22 inches in length, had been found in a hairbrush in the kitchen of the MacDonald home following the murders," according to court documents.

"These hairs could not be matched to any known items in the MacDonald home," the documents went on to say. "The analyst who testified as a government witness at the trial never mentioned finding these long blond synthetic hairs. Synthetic hairs possibly coming from a wig would have been powerful corroborating evidence of intruders as Dr. MacDonald's consistent accounts of the evening included a female intruder who appeared to be wearing a wig with long blonde hair."

The court filing claims FBI agent Michael P. Malone submitted a false affidavit claiming the hairs were from a doll, not a wig.

MacDonald, who was convicted in 1979 in the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters in 1970, has tried numerous times to get a new trial, each time being denied.

In July, a judge rejected a new trial request that cited new DNA evidence.

The Jeffrey MacDonald case was famously profiled in the book "Fatal Vision."

http://abc11.com/news/convicted-killer-jeffrey-macdonald-seeks-new-trial-again/274816/