TexasPoet wrote:

Grandfather wrote:

Agree TP, as usual, you are on the money.
It did not have to end the way it did. I believe there was a pause, where the initial rage was spent, and he had time to think. The evidence shows that he took the time to flip through a magazine, with blood on his hands. We know that Colette got up and walked into Kristen's room under her own power, so she could have survived at that point. Her baby boy would have survived, and Kristen too. What a different world this would be for both sides of the family. Even if Kimmy had died, it wouldn't have been the end of his life.  As others have pointed out, attitudes towards domestic violence were different, and he could have claimed the drugs affected him. And to some extent, that was true.
He could have rebuilt his life. After a few years he would have been free. I think he would have changed his name, and done quite well in a medical related field, such as a salesman for expensive medical equipment. Maybe today he would have been a proud father and grandfather.
But he made another choice. To go all in.  He wanted full freedom. He didnt want to suffer, even a little bit. So he had to finish what was started. It would take a strong determined effort, but he was up to the challenge. And he knew he would need a cover story to deflect and distract. And then go toe to toe with the investigators. But he was confident that he would succeed. He thought he was much smarter than everyone else, and he thought a good lawyer is capable of almost anything.
And once he went down that road, there was no turning back.  Later on he thought that just by saying something, he could make it true. Such as, i didn't kill them. Or, they have no evidence!  Nothing!
He also misunderstood terms like reasonable doubt, and made up terms like factual innocence.
Then he thought by appealing on grounds like speedy trial, or prosecution or judge misconduct, he could get off that way. But none of it worked. And so he is stuck. He gambled and lost.

Bravo GF, well said. I believe that if MacDonald had stopped when he hit Kimberley, that would have been the end of it. At the most, there would have been a cursory investigation by the military, probably divorce proceedings by Colette, and personal turmoil and angst, until MacDonald was discharged and began practicing medicine full time, somewhere else. He would have remained a doctor. Eventually he would have come up with a story that blamed Colette and portrayed him as the aggrieved. As I stated, domestic violence was viewed differently in 1970 and at that time the military had it’s hands full with bad publicity and public disapproval. They would have been happy to sweep everything under the “rug”. 

But, as you say, “ he chose to go all in.”

About the same time, beginning in 1970, there was a famous domestic murder in Houston Texas by a doctor, Dr. John Hill The case  culminated with  a trial and then mistrial. No one believed Dr. John Hill would ever be convicted. (Racehorse Haynes was the attorney). Joan Hill’s father pursued justice another way, Dr. Hill was murdered.

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Blood-Money-and-Murder-In-Texas-The-Strange-Case-of-Dr-John-Hill

There are many similarities between the two cases, and I believe if MacDonald had never been tried, or had been acquitted, he would have married again and eventually would have murdered, or tried to murder his second wife. Just like Dr. Hill.

Grandfather wrote:

Interesting case TP.  That Ann sure was conniving!  A nasty piece of work.
Freddy said once that if the courts did not provide justice, he would.
I think he was telling the truth. He was willing to wait until the courts had their chance, and he proved he had the patience of Jobe!
But he was ready to take action if need be. He knew who killed his daughter and grandchildren, and he would not have let JRM walk free.
He would have ended him.  And I would not fault him for that.

I believe you’re right. That’s why I brought up the Dr Hill case. Freddie Kassab told someone exactly that; “I have the patience of Job.” Wasn’t Freddy Kassab some sort of ex-intelligence. I know I’ve read that somewhere. I m going to look for it.

Be well.

Great Article TP.  Yes, Freddy was the real thing.  Not a fake soldier like JRM.
And he was a real man, who would protect his family.

Thanks Tim.  I enjoy posting about this case. It is endlessly fascinating. And in a way, it keeps the memory of the victims alive.

Tim2020 wrote:

I just finished reading Christina's wonderful book for the 3rd time.  The detail, she has in Scales of Justice, is incredible.  Here's my take on why cm is guilty, simple facts.  Nobody on "acid"  would be violent, I know this from personal experience in my college days, even Helena knew this and she also knew speed could do it, so I think Joe was right, cm was taking large quantity of speed for several weeks, was prone to having a very violent temper.  His beating up Jay and the boat incident described in Fatal Vision confirms this, pg 859.
Also, his version of the hippies, 3 in the living room, at least 2 more w/ Colette, "  Help, help Jeff, why are they doing this to me!"  So there has to be at least 5 intruders in the house and the ones with Colette are the butchers.  So they butcher her and her 2 children but leave an athletic man alive.  This defies all logic.
But if you take the scenario, a man with a history of a violent temper, using drugs that can cause explosions of rage and he is left alive while a woman and 2 children are killed many times.  It could only be him.

According to MacDonald, there were four(4) intruders in the living room; three (3) men (2 white and 1 black) and a woman. Two more in the back of the house attacking Colette (“Jeff, Jeff, help! Jeff, why are they doing this to me!") and Kimberley(Daddy, Daddy!),  would have made six (6) intruders. Why McDonald, the biggest threat, and asleep on the couch, wouldn’t be attacked first and killed, is beyond all reason and logic. Except, there were no intruders. One psychologist theorized that in McDonald’s mind there were four intruders, Colette, Kimberley, Kristin, and the baby! “They” were threatening the life he wanted.

MacDonald’s description of hippies on acid and their remarks. (“Acid is groovy, kill the pigs) was something someone who was part of the establishment would describe. One expert said; “A group of people on acid couldn’t organize a trip to the bathroom, much less murders.”

MacDonald did describe four of the intruders perfectly; they were his brother’s friends, from Long Island. They were eventually arrested and questioned, and then cleared.

“New York Four
Law enforcement officers arrested Kenneth Barnett, Annette Cullity, Gary Burnett, and Joseph Lee in Suffolk County, New York on May 9, 1970.  The Suffolk County police subsequently contacted the CID due to the fact that these four individuals matched the physical descriptions of the intruder suspects in the MacDonald murders.
CID agent Bennie Hawkins subsequently traveled to Suffolk County to discuss the case with police officials.  Hawkins discovered that these four individuals had rented a house in Fire Island with Jeffrey MacDonald's brother, Jay, in the summer of 1969.  Jeffrey MacDonald had visited his brother during that summer and was seen conversing with people who matched the descriptions of the New York Four at the Shortstop Bar in Long Island.  Joseph Lee was an African-American male, Gary Burnett and Kenneth Barnett were Caucasian males, and Annette Cullity was a Caucasian female.  Lee was seen wearing an army field jacket and Cullity was known to wear a floppy hat and hip boots.  The number of intruders, their racial make-up, and their clothing items all matched the descriptions provided by Jeffrey MacDonald.  Hawkins obtained fingerprint exemplars of the New York Four and their prints did not match any of the prints found at 544 Castle Drive.”

https://macdonaldcasefacts.com/html/suspects.html


I believe something was going on with MacDonald and Kimberly that night. Kimberley wet the bed, not Kristen, and MacDonald has lied about it for fifty-three (53) years, always claiming it was Kristen. Maybe MacDonald flew into a rage over the wet bed and was screaming at Kimberley and threatening her, or abusing her. Colette intervened to protect her daughter and things got worse. She hit MacDonald with the hairbrush, he hit her. She picked up the forge knife to defend herself and he grabbed the bed slat and poked her with bayonet thrusts to keep her away. Then he swung it like a baseball bat, and poor little Kimberley got in the way, trying to protect her mother. MacDonald surveyed the carnage in the bedroom and then went and sat on the sofa and cried (a neighbor heard either laughing or sobbing). Sitting there sobbing, for himself and his career, he saw the Esquire magazine, had an idea, and became a brutal murderer and a monster!

Yes, there was sleep deprivation. There were most likely drugs involved, like Eskatrol. But there was also a brutal, Narcissistic monster full of resentment and rage, living inside MacDonald. For whatever reason, the monster was set free that horrible night.