WS: They were a very normal-looking mama and daddy. MacDonald claimed the mysterious blonde woman who oversaw the murders was wearing a floppy hat and high-heeled boots and was holding a candle while chanting, Acid is groovy. And as is believed to have been the case when a large drug shipment made its way to the region in the past five years, and the Kassab/Kheir family made temporary peace with the Tibas that can sometimes mean forming a truce to distribute the product, and ensure its security. Wade Smith rarely grants interviews. It frustrates police that low-level gangsters without a shred of integrity jut their chins out and shake their heads in a misplaced attempt at honour when asked who shot them, despite, in many instances, being maimed for life. According to exclusive statistics from the armed crime squad, there has been a five-fold increase in non-fatal shootings in the north-west in four years and the region now sees almost two thirds of Victoria's non-fatal shootings. MacDonald claimed the hairs were from the wig of one of the murders, but the forensic examiner incorrectly claimed they were from one of the childrens dolls. In the early '80s, I whipped through a dog-eared copy of Fatal Vision, Joe McGinniss sensational true-crime novel about the killings. Smerling is the director of the documentary series A Wilderness of Error, which examines the MacDonald case. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. Others relate to significant organised crime figures, and their businesses, such as tattoo parlours. None of this has set MacDonald free. MacDonald settled into bachelor life, buying a yacht and marina-front condominium in Long Beach, California, Vanity Fair reports. Many felt that his acquittal would be a cinch, but much more was to go wrong. The one hardly anyone sees, but that rages, nonetheless. The couples youngest daughter, 2-year-old Kristen, had a total of 33 stab wounds. His honesty and humility regarding these losses give the story its poignancy. I would have said to the jury: they were not there, and neither was I. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. The prosecution, led by James Blackburn and Brian Murtagh, argued that MacDonald staged the crime scene to blame hippies. It doesnt make sense that this man, with no history of violence, went crazy like that. We even came back at night so we would have the same lighting conditions as the night of the murders. She was the type of girlthe best way I can explain it, I never met a girl that did not like Colette, he once told the Washington Post. WS: In every murder of a spouse, the remaining spouse is the number-one suspect and is almost always charged. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. Together, Mildred who Stevenson said came to mortally hate her former son-in-law and Freddy Kassab pushed for MacDonalds arrest. Bernie Segal, a long-haired Jewish lawyer from Philadelphia, took the lead in the case and managed to alienate the entire courtroom. The simple acts of coming and going as I please and caring for my own basic needs have been denied him. MacDonald said there had been a stabbing and begged for an ambulance. His memoir reads as a classic Syrian rags-to-riches story, except for the fact that he lost everything when he speculated in real estate just before the Great Depression. Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. But he had multiple bruises and puncture wounds, and two stab wounds, including one that collapsed his lung -- a serious injury that left him falling in and out of consciouness. That is the way our legal system is set up. But then I felt uneasy. But his mother and father-in-law did not want him to do that. Enough somethings to fill the long, solitary chapters of a mans life unfolding behind prison walls. One is titled Memoirs by Wadea Kassab; it is 210 pages and was written in 1954. A portrait photograph of Wadea (left) and Aelyas (right) Kassab. Silverglate believes that Jeffrey MacDonald has been railroaded, and that this railroading exposes disturbing trends in our federal criminal justice system. He survived. 6,889 Family Trees. Wadea died in February, 1972; Aelyas in October, 1987. Evidence the defense never saw. He explained his lie initially by attributing it to drug addiction-induced paranoia and then said he believed that once he told his family the lies, he had to keep lying.. "We're concentrating on the actions of the shooter, because what happens to the victim is outside our control the line between a non-fatal shooting and a murder is wafer thin. Thank you. Then he injured himself and set up the scene to make the crimes appear to be the work of intruders. Another page in another chapter in the new gangland war. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. Donor retains full ownership of any and all copyright currently controlled in agreement with Khayrallah Center. He theorized that diet pills caused MacDonald to fly into a fit of rage. But just what changed Kassabs mind about the man he once called a nice, presentable young man?". Even before bureaucratic stalling and federal machinery overtook the search for truth, things were working against Jeffrey MacDonald. Allard Lowenstein supporting MacDonalds claim that the Army wrongfully accused him and were trying to cover up their mistake. But while Kassab saw MacDonald as an engaged and loving father and husband, Army investigators grew suspicious of MacDonalds account of the killings and ordered him to appear for an Article 32 hearinga military process used to determine whether there was enough evidence to pursue formal charges against MacDonald. Kassab a one-time Canadian Army intelligence operator who had once lost his own wife and daughter in a bombing of London during World War II initially believed MacDonalds account of the night and became a staunch and vocal supporter of his son-in-law, the Washington Post reported in 1984. Now deceased, she remains a pivotal figure in the case. Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesRep. He was more interested in working with people on hallucinogenic and things like that. Kassab a one-time Canadian Army intelligence operator who had once lost his own wife and daughter in a bombing of London during World War II initially believed MacDonalds account of the night and became a staunch and vocal supporter of his son-in-law, the Washington Post reported in 1984. What follows is the transcript of our conversation. In other words, an FBI lab technician trusted exculpatory evidence to a member of the prosecution team. In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. The CIDs five-month-long interrogation (referred to as an Article 32 hearing) began in April, with officials intent on using only physical evidence and MacDonalds own statements to form their view. A neighbors dog and MP guards securing the MacDonald property. WebThe Kassab family name was found in the USA in 1920. Its a case that if you were telling scary stories around the dining room table and you had all your family gathered, people could hardly believe it. WebIn July 1974, a Federal judge acted on a citizen's criminal complaint by Kassab and others, by putting the case before a grand jury. MacDonald was convicted of the three murders in 1979, nine years after Colette and her children were slain. Will artificial intelligence overthrow its capitalist overlords? Friends since grade school, he and Colette Stevens began dating as teenagers, and grew serious during college. He tried to take his case to the Supreme Court in 1979, but they declined to review the lower courts decision. MacDonald in late 1970 after the Army acquitted him of all charges. The new war involves men with names many Victorians could barely pronounce shooting each other in downtrodden suburbs they have almost certainly never visited. Who else is going to fight this thing if not me? Freddy Kassab said of his years-long quest to put his son-in-law Jeffrey MacDonald behind bars for killing his stepdaughter and two young granddaughters. Additionally, MacDonalds medical records showed that he had no defensive wounds on his arms or hands consistent with the alleged attack. He was the lawyer she was talking to one-on-one who had been appointed to advise her of her rights. MacDonald claimed that his daughter Kimberly wet his side of the bed, prompting him to go to sleep on the couch. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. It implicates us all. Rep. Allard Lowenstein supporting MacDonalds claim that the Army wrongfully accused him and were trying to cover up their mistake. It has Charles Manson written all over it. In July 1974, a Federal judge acted on a citizen's criminal complaint by Kassab and others, by putting the case before a grand jury. In 1989after Freddy Kassab had been diagnosed with emphysemahe decided to videotape his arguments against MacDonalds release and arranged for the tape to be played, if necessary, in front of a parole board after he died, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He looked angry on the stand. Aside from being the Wall Street of Victoria's firearms and drugs market, and the enormous consequences this trafficking has on the state, and the impact on the medical system of record numbers of people being maimed, there are the people who die completely innocently because the rules of these markets means shooting first has become an unwritten rule. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . Picture #1. Invest with us. Prosecutors appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and in 1978 the countrys highest court decided to reinstate the indictment. But things got out of hand. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. That got my attention: the Oscar-winning Morris, whose film The Thin Blue Line exonerated a Texas man wrongfully convicted for murder, is one of the worlds great documentary filmmakers. MacDonalds relationship with his father-in-law, who had been a staunch supporter, became strained. Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. "There's a lot of luck good and bad in a non-fatal shooting, You can be shot once and die, or you can be shot five times and live. Maybe more than I would have thought as a teen. Four military police (MP) officers arrived at 4 a.m. to find an unspeakable crime scene. The Tibas, Haddaras, Chaouks, Kassabs, and Kheirs are north-west Melbourne's version of the Five Families, the major players in the New York mafia. There were few major drug or weapon importations in the state that police could not, in some way, trace back to these families. How I Changed My Mind About the Jeffrey MacDonald Murder Case. A crime scene was left open to bystander traffic. The Tibas, Haddaras, Chaouks, Kassabs, and Kheirs are north-west Melbourne's version of the Five Families, the major players in the New York mafia. The crime scene was so messed up that you couldnt depend on it. View all records. And a victim falls on the concrete. McGinniss drew on pop-sociology to render an image of a psychopathic killer in the guise of the friendly doctor-next-door; the kind we know from endless horror movies. Unfortunately for MacDonald, she would never admit any memory of her involvement in the killings in court. (See Silverglate's article on the case in Forbes.). In 1982, she sat down with Gunderson and Beasley in a taped interview, claiming that she had been part of a satanic cult that had killed the family because MacDonald was not cooperative in helping heroin addicts during his time at Fort Bragg. Not only did the U.S. Army surgeon marry his high school sweetheart, but he had a flourishing career, two beautiful young daughters, and a son on the way. 959 Census & Voter Lists. At some time before 3.30am someone brutally attacked the MacDonald family in their home at 544 Castle Drive on what was then the open military base of Fort Bragg. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. He was troubled by MacDonalds apparently cavalier attitude about the brutal murders on an appearance of "The Dick Cavett Show. In a video published online in December, he spoke about how he had overcome drug addiction, and detailed the cycle of using, getting hooked, needing money, and then committing crime. This can drive a surge in shootings, and then be forgotten again just as quickly, said Detective Inspector Stephen Clark of the armed crime squad. A judge later awarded MacDonald $50,000 of the proceeds but gave the remainder of his $325,000 share to attorneys, MacDonalds mother and the Kassabs. Inexperienced military police failed to pick up a woman near the house who fit MacDonalds description. She was a pretty girl, not beautiful, but pretty, and she was down to earth and she hated to see anybody hurt.. He moved to California to become the director of emergency medicine at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach. After completing high school in Chester, he too went to dental school and set up practice in Wadeas office. MacDonald invited author Joe McGinniss to write a book about the case before it had reached a verdict. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. Even scarier stories, Ive found, can be true. Waters rubbished that explanation. The couple got married when Colette was just 20 years old after discovering that she was pregnant. They are the dealers who, as Osman Tiba alluded to, were probably driven to the job because of their own addictions who cannot afford to forgive a middling debt, even if it is only for a few hundred dollars. On Sept. 17, 2012, in Wilmington, N.C., a crowd of familiar faces assembled for a new hearing. Wadea Kassab was born in Damascus in 1872 to an Orthodox family that had long and deep connections to British and American Protestant missionaries in Damascus and Beirut. His uncle, Salim Kassab, was a long-time assistant to, first, Lady Hester Stanhope and later to Elizabeth Bowen Thompson, who helped found British mission schools in Greater Syria. Kill the pigs.. MacDonald was convicted twice, both in the courtroom and in the all-important court of public opinion, which was sealed by McGinniss book and miniseries. You think you know what youre seeing, but then you arent so sure. Most recently, retired US Marshall Jimmy Britt came forward with information that another suspect in the case, Helena Stoeckley, admitted to the prosecutor that she was in the house on the night of MacDonalds murder and that he threatened to indict her for first-degree murder if she admitted that in court. Other witnesses claimed that Stoeckly had confessed at various times that she thought she might have been present during the murders. In 1921, Aelyas married Soumaya Khoury of Beirut, Lebanon; by all accounts the two were deeply in love, and they died within 48 hours of one another. Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. According to her, they wanted to teach MacDonald a lesson and rough up his family the night of the killings. Remember the perceptual illusion where you look at a picture and youre certain that you see the bust of a young woman? So did I. I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, about an hour from the Fort Bragg army base in Fayetteville where the murders occurred on Feb. 17, 1970, in the middle of the night. Finally, in Wilmington, Jerry Leonard was ordered to tell what she had said to him 30 years ago. She knew this world, and was herself a police informant. An arm extends out of the passenger side window of a car. Such is the power of a good story. It is hard not to be shocked by the footage of Oueida's shooting. With their encouragement, he graduated from dental school in Philadelphia in 1895 and set up a practice in Chester. It sickened me and it enraged me.. I dont know what the odds are. LP: In Joe McGinnis book, Fatal Vision, Freddy Kassab, MacDonalds father-in-law, was presented as the protagonist. 26-year-old Colette MacDonald had been stabbed nearly forty times with an icepick and a knife while pig was scrawled on the headboard of her bed in her own blood. Kassab filed a citizens criminal complaint in April 1974, petitioning a federal court to convene a grand jury and determine if MacDonald could be charged. Steve Liss/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesJeffrey MacDonald behind bars in Terminal Island federal penitentiary. Yet, the new gangland war fails to capture the imagination. He worries that we are moving into a period in which the finality of verdicts is so zealously protected (a legacy, in part, of 9/11) that new evidence offers little hope of challenging them. Next, his trial in Raleigh, North Carolina presided over by Judge Franklin Dupree began on July 16, 1979. Not only did the living room show few signs of a struggle, but the murder weapons were found outside the back door. In addition, DNA testing on evidence that was recovered from the fingernails scrapings of one of the victims and a hair found under another victim did not match MacDonald. The shootings can be over particularly petty reasons, not just the drug trade: women, a perceived slight, or, increasingly, a prison feud. MacDonald has had mostly good lawyers, though not always the appropriate ones. My friend and I sat around in her backyard, tossing up what facts about the case we could recall. Most people who go through traumatic things like this, nowhere near as lengthy, almost always end up in divorce, but with us its drawn us closer.. This collection is a part of a larger collection that has been divided into more specific collections. We needed the Kassabs to shut up, just calm down, let us do the investigation and well find out who did it.. You can give it to him.' The Jeffrey MacDonald murder case is one of the most disturbing in living memory. Oueida amassed a fortune before he was imprisoned in 2011, and had done so through dealing drugs, and doing it more rapaciously than anyone in recent history: hence the $6 million in a Swiss bank account, light plane, Ferrari and $2.8 million mansion he had when he was arrested. ". The walls will tell you what happened if you keep it pristine. There were fibers from a blonde wig that matched the description of Helena Stoeckley. They grew to become serious forces, in part, because of failures by police to respond to the problem. They hoped to get a confession, but she stated firmly that she had never been inside MacDonalds home contrary to previous claims she purportedly made to defense attorneys during witness hearings. Not only did victims of drug addiction build that fortune, but there are the consequences of maintaining this empire. Wherever you see the label psychopath," you could almost substitute monster or vampire youre talking about an unnatural person who does not behave according to normal human rules, and with that label, you can believe anything of them. While none of the hairs found at the scene matched Stoeckleys DNA or that of any of her known associates, MacDonald maintains they prove something more essential to his freedom that someone else was there that night. MacDonald, bloody but alive, was next to his wife, who had been pregnant with their third child when she was stabbed 16 times with a kitchen knife and 21 times with an icepick. At various times that she was talking to one-on-one who had been stabbing! And Colette Stevens began dating as teenagers, and neither was I in working people... Justice system to mortally hate her former son-in-law and Freddy Kassab, became strained in 1978 the countrys highest decided! A picture and youre certain that you couldnt depend on it records that... 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