Jeffrey MacDonald /// Part 1 /// 464 | Forensic Files

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[Music] crime what I heard was acid is groovy kill the pigs and I believe I heard that
twice at first that was the first thing that I remember hearing but it's it's very jumbl because that's mixed up with
my wife screaming Jeff help me and my daughter screaming she looks funny she looks
[Music] dead she's saying acid is groovy kill the pigs acid and rain as in Rain she looks
[Music] dead the following is an adaptation from the book American Justice great crimes
and trials by Paul bag and Martin pho Dr Jeffrey McDonald was an Army captain in the prestigious Green Beret
the crack special teams operation unit of the American Army trained for particularly hazardous
roles McDonald was a good soldier he worked hard and graduated from Princeton University while still a student there
he got married in 1963 Jeffrey completed his medical studies at Northwestern University in
1969 1969 was the year of Charles Manson and his so-called family's arrest for the horrific murders of Sharon Tate and
her house guest followed by those of Mr and Mrs Lanka so it was appalling to learn that
in February of 1970 the hippies had struck again another household had been violated another family had been
savagely DED to death their blood too had been used for crude graffiti 1970 the McDonald family of
four was living at Fort Bragg a large military base in North Carolina the McDonald apartment was located at 544
Castle Drive military police provided Security in the early morning hours of Tuesday February 17th Jeff McDonald
calls the military police his voice was weak and croaky his message alarming and
imprecise help 544 Castle Drive stabbing 544 Castle Drive stabbing hurry Duty police raced to the house on Castle
Drive in the living room they found signs of a struggle in the main bedroom Dr Jeffrey McDonald and his wife Colette
are found lying on the floor Colette is dead she was savagely battered and covered with
blood on the wall the word Pig had been scrolled in her blood the couple's two daughters both lay dead in their bed
bedrooms the murder weapons were found outside the back door McDonald was taken to the military hospital he had a severe
stab to the chest which punctured a lung his story the family had gone to bed he
reported except for him he stayed up reading and dozing off in his pajamas on the couch in the sitting room he awoke
to find four hippies in the house three of them men the fourth was a woman Jeffrey struggled with them but they
overpowered him and tied his hands before clubbing him over the head when he finally came around the house was
cold and Silent the hippies were gone Jeffrey went upstairs to find blood stains on the floors and
walls his whole family had been brutally massacred the military police were working under severe handicaps their
normal employment does not involve solving serious crimes let alone the notoriously difficult stranger murders
they can give experienced detectives serious problems the MPS are normally used to breaking up drunken brawls
pursuing enlisted men who have gone awall and perhaps handling the odd case of pilfering they are usually enclosed
Barracks too where guards on the gates mean all entries and exits have been checked and the whole Community can be
sealed off for immediate investigation in a crisis but Fort Brag was an open base the public had the to enter and
pass through parts of it it was not possible to close everything down at once and hope the hippies would be
caught in a trap this is true crime garage I just screamed uh acid as groovy kill the pigs hit him
again and he was crying and said we did it he said they didn't mean to kill anybody but said things just went
mad she looks Dead all right Captain we are going to dive right into this week's timeline and
we're going to start with the McDonald family timeline leading up to the day in question because there is a lot to cover
here in our two fantastic episodes here in the garage in 1943 both Colette Catherine Stevenson
and Jeffrey McDonald were born Colette's father Edward passes away in 1954 in 1956 Colette's mother Mildred starts
dating a man named Freddy cassab these will all be major players in this week's case in
1963 Jeffrey and Colette are married Jeffrey is still a student at Princeton University at this time a little
backstory here captain they grew up in the same area went to the same High School Jeffrey McDonald and Colette
Stevenson are kids that grew up together went to school together they dated on and off in high school in fact they were
a bit of high school sweethearts yeah but there were some time periods where they were not together in a relationship
but they start seeing each other again at college and while Jeffrey still in college they get married in
1963 this is because Colette is already pregnant with jeffy's child so in 1964 their first daughter is born her name is
Kimberly Katherine McDonald the McDonald's then mov to Chicago where Jeff starts medical school at
Northwestern University just 3 years after their first daughter in 1967 their second daughter is born this is Kristen
Jean McDonald now 1969 Captain is going to be a very busy year for Jeffrey and the McDonald family this is because
Jeffrey joins the US Army so first Jeff reports to Fort Sam Houston Army Medical
in San Antonio for 6 weeks then he is off to Fort Benning in Georgia for 3 weeks of paratrooper training then
Jeffrey McDonald was sent to Fort Bragg in North Carolina he is assigned to the Green Beret as a surgeon for the Special
Forces Group one thing that will come into question later as we're going through the case itself the
investigation in the actual murders is Jeffrey McDonald's army training Green Berets are a Special Forces Unit they're
able to handle very difficult situations most of the time they are trained in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat and
all kinds of different tactical strategic fighting moves that fool but we have Jeffrey McDonald here who is
sent to the green Braes as a surgeon so he is not trained the same way that they
would train these typical ground troops normally they have some kind of boot camp and some initial training but
specialty soldiers they're going to go through a different training after the initial training correct he receives
this boot camp type training he receives this paratrooper training which is kind
of above and beyond anyway he never gets into the martial arts or any of that because it's understood that it's very
unlikely as a surgeon that he will actually see any real Combat yeah I mean if you ever watched the show MASH it
wasn't like they were K Fu Fighting right only if you were absolutely forced into some very difficult situation yeah
but that's when you just yell I don't know karate but I know crazy that same year shortly after
arriving at Fort Brag Jeffrey and the McDonald family of four move into to the apartment on base in officer's housing
this is the 544 or 544 Castle Drive residence this takes place in 1970 so the setup here is we have a
family of four the victims are going to be the wife and the two daughters the only sole survivor will be the husband
and of course the wife and daughters are killed either late on February 16th or very early on February 17th the
following will be Jeffrey McDonald's account of the events leading up to that and what took place during the attack
brought on by these Intruders starting with Saturday February 14th Lieutenant Ronald Harrison made a visit to the
McDonald residents this would be in the evening hours during the visit Harrison and McDonald discussed the Sharon Tate
murder yeah that's from the Charles Manson case the conversation comes about because Harrison spotted an issue of
Esquire magazine sitting on the coffee table on the cover of the magazine was quote Lee Marvin is afraid evil lurks in
California Harrison picked up the magazine looked at it and McDonald basically told him the issue was a
mustre Harrison flipped through the magazine while McDonald told him about the Articles inside McDonald said that
there were articles about the bar tape murder and a cult in California yeah that'd be the Charles Manson cult the
two had a 5minute conversation that mostly included joking but also discussed in a serious manner the witch
the sorcerer the Black Swan and the acid goddess these are all from articles in this particular magazine they both
agreed it was unbelievable what was happening in California they went on to discuss drugs and people who who take
drugs McDonald says from what I've read and medically speaking that marijuana isn't so bad but the harder stuff he had
some serious concerns with so we're setting it up in this manner because this is an important part of his account
because what happened was just the year before was the Sharon Tate and Mr and Mrs lanca murders right Charles Manson
and Manson's family killing people invading homes in California and this now we're in early
1970 the trials hadn't even started for Manson and his followers yet this is big
big news and of course this is something that McDonald's discussing with his friend The Conversation Piece was the
magazine itself but this is also a topic of discussion in homes around America at
the time because what went down and California was just so heinous and so unbelievable yeah it's one of the big
bang moments it's like everybody knows where they were at when Kennedy was shot everybody remembers hearing about the
Manson Murders everybody knows where they're at on 911 is one of the big bang moments this will lead us to Sunday the
15th on Sunday February 15th McDonald went to work at the hospital in Hamlet North Carolina he reports nothing un
usual happening that day he says that he treated a small number of patients and worked all day long now to be clear
Captain this is a 24hour shift that he worked from Sunday at 6:00 a.m. to Monday at 6 a.m.
probably too long for a surgeon to be working steady the hands my friend yeah I mean I don't want to be the guy that
goes into surgery on the 22nd hour right I don't think he's performing surgeries
I don't know exactly what he's doing is a surgeon what else is he supposed to be
doing shining shoes well he says that he took two naps while on shift and says that he slept for approximately 5 and a
half hours total that day and he went on to say that that would be about what he
would sleep on a normal night at home on Monday February 16th and I want everybody to pay really
really close attention to everything that is said here take some notes if you're able to after only if you're
driving his shift McDonald went back to his home at the base and had breakfast with Colette and the kids it sounds like
he may have taken a nap or slept at some point during the daytime on that Monday
at 4:45 p.m. McDonald and his two daughters leave the house to go see the horse that
he bought for the family for Christmas mhm the pasture is about 5 mil from their house what's the horse's name you
know what I I did know this at one point I didn't put the whole story we'll call
him Rusty I think I think you can actually easily find the horse's name but I I can't recall what it is at this
point at 5:00 p.m. McDonald's daughters ride and feed the horse and then they return to the home arriving around 5:30
to 5:40 p.m. the McDonald family of they sit down to dinner together for a short
dinner at 6:10 p.m. his wife Colette left the house for an evening class at the University of North Carolina this
was a extension school that was located on the military base Colette was taking child psychology courses at that time we
should point out some some things here about the family and Colette and Jeffrey before we move on too far Jeffrey
McDonald he's a doctor he's a surgeon but he's in I mean he's incredibly smart of course doctors and surgeons are
incredibly smart anyway but we're talking about schooling at Princeton in Northwestern University where he
graduated near the top of his class right and people that knew these individuals very well would tell you
that Not only was Jeffrey McDonald incredibly intelligent but Colette might have been smarter than than Jeffrey and
probably so her life is a little bit on because she's staying at home and raising their two children but we see
here when he's at home when he's able to be home between these long shifts she's
able to go and continue her education McDonald said that after Colette left that he cleaned up dinner and played
with the kids for a while his daughter Kristen went to bed between 7 and 7:30 p.m. these are very young children
Kimberly stayed up watching TV McDonald said he fell asleep on the living room floor which was pretty common Kimberly
woke him up around 8:00 p.m. and he knows this to be accurate as far as the time goes because he says that Kimberly
and him always watched a show called laughing together it was Kimberly's favorite TV show so she woke him up so
they could watch the TV show together at 8:00 p.m. and then after the show he says he put Kimberly to bed in her
bedroom at 9900 p.m. McDonald returned to the living room to watch the Bob Hope special that was on that night right at
9:40 p.m. kette returned home and at that time she changed into her PJs joined McDonald in the living room where
they watch TV together McDonald would say that because they had two children because he worked so much because
Colette is continuing her education they had very little time to spend just one on one the two of them so it was very
common that late night they would spend an hour or two together either watching TV listening to records or reading or
just talking about their day that was kind of their time once the kids were put to bed and once all the busyness
hustle and bustle of the day-to-day life was done M he says that Colette went to
bed around midnight McDonald says he may have dozed off but spent some time reading reading a book and watching
Johnny Carson at the same time here's Johnny at 1:00 a.m. he shut off the TV and continued reading his book at 1:30
a.m. Jeffrey McDonald says he went to bed and he noticed that dishes were not done so he decided all right I'm not
going to bed just yet I'm going to take care of these dishes so he washes the dishes and straightens up the kitchen a
little bit he says this is to you know earn some points with with his wife yeah some brownie points yeah you don't don't
want to upset mom or the wife by not cleaning up the dinner that he probably promised to clean up McDonald says that
sometime during the last hour that he was up that night that Christy got out of bed and went into the master bedroom
and fell asleep next to Colette her mother so when he goes in to go to bed he found her in the bed on his side of
the bed right she had WEP the bed and there was a large wet spot on his half of the bed great yeah long day just did
the dishes go you you almost fell asleep on the couch but now it's time to go to
bed one you see your daughter there so you're like oh great I got to move her oh no she peed she peed the bed and
she's two so this is fairly common that she would get up sometime in the middle of the night and creep in and go sleep
with Mom and Dad in there bad it's still one of those moments where you're like can I freaking just win one right let me
win one today could have slept easier at the hospital yeah so he says he picked up Christie carried her back to her
bedroom placed her in her bed then he gives her a bottle now he decides rather than he's not going to go sleep in the
wet spot nobody wants to sleep in the wet spot regardless of how it got wet so he decides you know what rather than
waking up my wife changing the sheets you know fixing everything up she's fine she's sleeping her half of the bed is is
fine he decides it will be easier if I just go and sleep on the couch for the night go sleep on the couch in the
living room wake up take care of it in the morning right right he says at that time when he goes to bed when he goes to
go to sleep on the couch he remembers specifically that the only lights on in the house where a kitchen ceiling light
and the main bathroom light McDonald says he fell asleep within a matter of 3 to four minutes he says he never had
trouble falling asleep some of us do he never had any trouble falling asleep it seems like very likely because he's
tired from doing so much all of the time yeah McDonald says that the next thing that he is aware of he's awakened by a
scream coming from his wife he hears his wife screaming he's in the living room and he says the living room
when he wakes up to hearing this screaming it's mainly darkness in that room he describes this as a very loud
scream and he said it was definitely Colette's voice he says quote things all happened at once he says I was sitting
up I was hearing this very piercing scream then she said quote meaning Colette quote quot help Jeff why are
they doing this to me there were people at the foot of my couch he says in the living room these people are three males
and he says then I saw a female behind the three males so I saw a total of four people so four people is all that he
ever says that he saw during this entire event says I heard Kimberly scre scaming
at the same time and I started to get up and said either what's going on or what
the hell's going on or what's going on here okay so let's paint this picture a little bit better those are his words
I'm going to give you the Colonel's words picture this he says he wakes up in near Darkness he's hearing his wife
scream Jeff why are they doing this to me notices three males standing at the foot of his couch he's in the living
living room Colette's in the bedroom master bedroom he notices a woman standing behind the three males and then
he's hearing his daughter scream now at the same he says at the same time so I'm
going all right same time either all three of these things are happening at the same time wife screams notices the
people daughter screams or his words would indicate that the he hears his daughter screaming at the same time as
some other event meaning either his wife screaming or at the same time that he notices these people in the living room
with him he says what's going on what the hell's going on he doesn't remember exactly what he says to these people
when he sees them now Jeffrey says there were two men at the foot of the couch and the third man was between the couch
and the coffee table they were all facing him he says he saw a woman behind the two men at the foot of the couch he
goes on to say all I really saw was that it appeared to be a girl with long blonde hair and a big floppy hat I
had the impression that she was holding quote like a candle in her hands he says
this because mainly there was sort of a light on her face he does go on to say that it could have been a flashlight he
says there was a light coming from the kitchen and the hallway there is enough light to see the
figures of these people the silhouette of these people but not so much enough to see details of these people well to
be clear the McDonald's house it it's connected to other houses correct yes it's it's an apartment on base so it's
on base officer housing and yes they share walls with other officers in their fam and it's pretty large I I'd almost
say that it's almost seems like houses that are connected as opposed to what we would assume as Apartments connected it
really seems like a pretty large space the building itself no I'm saying the individual units that are connected you
can go online and see diagrams that people have made 3D diagrams uh if you want to dive in just to the the
structure and the layout of the house yeah I don't know the square footage of of the apartment itself but it's kind of
that's what I'm looking for now the the easy way to describe it would be long it's
rectangular and for my understanding Captain the living room that he's in and the if you want to call it the upstairs
level or the bedrooms is really only separated by a step or two if this diagram is correct
it looks like the front of the house is roughly 52 ft and the depth of the house
is roughly I'd say 28 to 30 ft okay he goes on to tell us that two of the three men were
white and one of the males was black he says that the black man was wearing an army fatigue jacket he says that he
started approaching me he raised something over his head and swung it down towards me I started to fall back
and I put my arm up to fend it off this attack he's trying to fend off then he hit me on the forehead at which time I
literally saw Stars I was knocked backwards onto the couch I was becoming more confused I struggled back to a
sitting position and he raised the club up again and started swinging it down I sort of fended it off he says I grabbed
his arm and slid down onto the club so I was holding the club with my hands at this time I saw sergeant stripes on his
sleeve so he's saying one of the attackers the black male is wearing an army fatigue jacket and it's this man
who is striking him with something in the forehead and during the scuffle with this guy he
notices sergeant stripes on the army fatigue jacket while this was occurring he says that the girl he's referring to
this this is a grown woman but he keeps saying girl while this was occurring the
girl was saying quote acid is groovy and kill the pigs someone said once or twice
hit him again it may have been the girl that said this Jeffrey McDonald says I'm
not sure yeah well Jeffrey's given us a lot of details but it seems like he's also questioning the details as he's
giving them he goes on to say I was holding on to the club at which time the struggle became more confusing
I'm guessing this is because he's been struck in the head with this club but then I developed a terrific pain in my
chest my right chest I assumed I was being punched I thought I had been punched in the chest really really hard
maybe the wind was knocked out of me I let go of the club and I began grappling with the other two men at this time my
shirt so McDonald is wearing his pajamas he's wearing pajama uh pants and a button-up long sleeve pajama top he says
at this time my shirt was either pulled over my head or it was ripped I have the
feeling it was ripped because I don't remember something being pulled over my head in any case my shirt ended up
wrapped around my forearms and partially around my hand I'm still struggling with
these guys I had the impression that one of the white guys that I was struggling
with was was wearing gloves I hit one of the men not sure who in the face in the
face I grabbed one of the men and I was holding on to his hand I looked and I saw a blade in his hand and I realized
at this point I was being stabbed I was not being punched I never really got on My Feet Again the long sleeve pajama top
was still on my arms the so it was he says in my way so he was using it as like a buffer right they're trying to
strike him or stab him or hit him with things and he's got this pajama toop that's now wrapped around his forearms
and hand and he's kind of using it as almost a shield he goes on to say at this point I was aware of being hit on
the left shoulder and head and I started falling I sort of fell towards the stairs at the end of the couch is the
hallway it comes out right there and the hallway is too stairs up from the living
room I just sort of fell that way and then I saw right in front of me a knee in the top of a boot I was under the
impression that it was a female that I was looking at I saw a knee in the top of a boot and I had the impression of
the boot being wet that is the last thing I saw before I woke up [Music] at Crystal Farms we're thankful for the
farmers who work hard to put food on our tables and for the families who make crystal Farms a part of their holiday
traditions we're thankful to be the shredded cheddar in your legendary baked mac and cheese and to top your pecan pie
with entirely too much whipped cream this year Crystal Farms is giving thanks to both sides of the table by offering
savings on holiday Essentials and by sourcing our cheese from Family Farms across the Heartland learn more at
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mates cheers to you Colonel Hallelujah to the people in the back cheers to all you snow covered Critters out there
let's continue on captain with Jeffrey McDonald's account of what went down that night okay when we left off he says
that he's been knocked out basically you know they he's been attacked and then this is the last thing I remember was
seeing a wet boot who he believed belonged to the woman that he spotted in the living room before he blacks out or
goes unconscious yeah at this point he thinks he was hit in the head multiple times by multiple individuals and also
possibly stabbed he goes on to say that the first recollection that he had when he woke up was that I was on my stomach
on the hallway floor and my arms were still wrapped in this pajama top my teeth were chattering and I thought I
was going into shock I got up at which time I was dizzy and confused I had a pain in my chest and it was hard to
breathe so I went down to our master bedroom I probably turned on the light lights my wife was lying off of the bed
and on the floor her feet were toward the hallway her head was toward the bed she was sort of next to the bed
partially leaning against the Green easy chair that is next to the bed she didn't
look good at all she looked very bad there was a knife sticking out of her chest and as I was coming into the room
I started taking off this top he's referring to his pajama shirt right so my hands were free and when I saw the
knife I pulled it out of her chest and sort of tossed the knife well pulling a knife from somebody's chest might be a
very awkward or maybe uncommon thing I think for a normal victim but we do know that he's a surgeon so maybe that is the
reason why he did so he goes on to say that I then tried to give her and this is his words artificial breathing
simulation so maybe that's very doctor speak I don't know but CPR well not CPR he's simply giving her mouth to- mouth
resuscitation at that time but he says that the air bubbles the air bubbles were coming out of her chest and neck
when he's trying to breathe for her think about that when you're eating your lunch yeah he says that it's then
that he realized that he the fact the sad fact that he would not be able to revive her he said that there was no way
that she could sustain her own breathing he's a surgeon so he's going to act a little differently I think than most
people he says he then stopped doing the mouth to mouth and he says I didn't know
what to do so I covered her chest with my pajama top under the theory that if she's not dead she's at least in deep
shock and you go over and Elevate their legs and lie them flat he says I don't know if it was now or later that I
checked her pulse but at this point I realized that I had heard Kimberly yelling also so what I think he means
here Captain is that he remembered hearing Kimberly yelling before he was knocked out not that she's yelling at
this exact moment yeah cuz he reported hearing his wife yell and also possibly one of his children yell now he's
remembering that so he says I got up again and it was getting harder for him to breathe at this time he says I went
down the hallway into Kimberly's room Kimberly was in her bed on the right side of the bed I saw what I thought
were stab wounds I didn't notice any other wound I just saw a lot of blood I don't know if it was now or later I
tried to give artificial respiration I think I checked her pulse I turned around went out of the bedroom and into
the other bedroom this would be the other little girl's bedroom I found Christy lying in her bed she had a lot
of blood on her I checked her pulse and remembered trying to breathe and give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the
same thing happened that happened with this okay he's giving this these statements in an interview and this is
his recollection not with police right this is an interview that's not being conducted by police so he's starting to
say I believe that that the same thing happened when he gave mouth to mouth to his wife and seeing the air
bubbles coming from the chest in the neck right I'm kind of guessing here because he says the same thing happened
that happened with and then the notes state that the interview stopped for about 10 minutes because they needed
Jeffrey McDonald to you know regain his composure to carry on with the actual interview we don't get him to finish
that sentence when the interview picks up he says I ran into the hallway and I just stood there not knowing what to do
I noticed blood on my hand so I went to the master bathroom rinsed my hands off and dried my hands off with some toilet
paper or something and dropped it either on the toilet or onto the floor I remember coming back into the master
bedroom so I was back to Colette his wife I checked her cored pulse I took away my pajama top and looked at her
chest wounds again and at this time I kind of knew all of this probably occurred in just a matter of a few
minutes it was getting very hard for me to breathe my head was really hurting and I was getting dizzy and I just
didn't know what to do there is a phone in the bedroom so I went over to the phone picked up the phone and I dialed
zero the operator came on and I said something to the effect like this is Captain McDonald or Dr McDonald I'm at
544 Castle Drive and there has been some people stabbed and we need ambulances doctors and MPS and she said referring
to the operator is it on poost or off-post meaning where he's calling from and Dr McDonald says I said whatat the
hell are you talking about she repeated is this on post or off-post Dr McDonald said for Christ's sake what difference
does that make she said well if it's on post it's an MP matter military police matter I said it is on post she said
well you have to contact the military police and with that he says I just laid down the phone or dropped the phone he
says I went back to Kimberly and I went back to Christie checked them for pulses
and possibly gave them mouth to mouth again that part's a little confusing to me Captain because it seems to me like
he's already decided there's nothing more he could do for at least two of these three victims I don't want to
bring up too many things that I find suspicious because that's something that we're going to be going over but the
fact that he he does all these things and checks on so many people before he tries to call for help is definitely
something that I think needs to be noted he goes on to say that he didn't get any
pulses and again he says he finds himself standing in the hallway saying to himself what's going to happen he
says that he then went to the kitchen there's there's another phone in the kitchen area he says I went to the
kitchen phone through the dining room picked up the phone and the operator was already on the line she had never broken
the connection he says I said this is Captain McDonald Donal at 544 Castle Drive just a minute I'll connect you to
the MPS there apparently that's what she's saying to him M he says that he heard some dial tones and clicks and
then a military police officer came on the line and said can I help you McDonald says I said people have been
stabbed and I asked repeatedly for an MP for doctors and ambulances I told them I'm at 544 Castle
Drive he said they're on their way McDonald says again he dropped the phone at this time he says I'm all covered in
blood from the kids and from Colette I rinsed off in the sink I started out of the kitchen and
that's really the last thing I remember the next thing I remember so he's blacking out again the next thing I
remember I was being given mouth to mouth by an MP officer when I was awakened I was right next to my wife on
the floor in the master bedroom I remember there's people all around me and all I could see was the MP shiny
helmets I saw this circle of people and they were all talking yelling and screaming put that down don't touch her
they put me on a stretcher I kept asking about my kids everyone kept telling me everyone's okay they took me to a
hospital where they were treating me he said everyone during the treatment process kept telling him to calm down
that everyone's okay but finally a doctor came into check on him and he says it was a doctor that he knew and
had worked with at one point and he said I kept asking him over and over how are
they he said no one's told you I said no he said they're all dead he paused and said I'm sorry to tell you yeah McDonald
says I was crying for a while then the doctor came back in and asked what he could do and McDonald said call my
mother and call my in-laws and have them come right away but don't tell them what
happened but question for you cuz the the the initial 911 call talking to the operator putting the phone down going to
the hallway coming back talking to the operator Ator putting the phone down again does that remind you of any case
that we've covered H it reminds me a lot of the the Scott Peterson the the staircase murders that's right where the
911 call where it seems like he's panicking but then he's backing away from the call then getting back on the
call Oddly enough another military man as well yeah now according to just general knowledge this is all agreed
upon by all parties involved on February 17th at 3:42 a.m. you know because we do
not have McDonald filling Us in with any exact times here when all of this is taking place right so at 3:42 a.m.
dispatchers at Fort Brag were notified by a chief operator of the Carolina telephone company regarding a call for
help that they received the operator patched the call through to to Fort Brag where Jeffrey McDonald reported that
quote some people had been stabbed at his residence and that he needed MPS and Medics and ambulances when the MP and
Medics arrived McDonald was found on the master bedroom floor lying partially on
his stomach with one of his arms across Colette's upper body McDonald tells mpes
and Medics that he and his family were attacked by four hippies and we'll Circle back to that real quickly
McDonald is then transferred to Cape Fear Hospital for treatment Colette Kimberly and Kristen are all pronounced
dead they are transferred to the morg at Cape Fear Hospital it's interesting how
many cases are similar but this one is kind of amalgamation of multiple cases U one the Chris Watts case the Scott
Peterson case and and then you mix in the Sam Shepard case and now you have the Jeffrey McDonald case so some things
real quick that I want to touch on in his account that might clear some things up it might just muddy the waters even
more I don't know but as the captain said we're going to go through this in a very compartmentalized way but I wanted
to touch on some of these things before we simply forget to get to them so he says the very basic General description
that's in the papers and put out to everybody immediately is that this Jeffrey McDonald this respected doctor
this respected Green Beret member of the army he says that we are attacked by four hippies there's some pretty major
dispute going on if that was in fact what he said because people th this case is one of the most debated cases I think
to to to date I mean it's up there with any of the other ones that you hear people that that start off having very
intelligent discussion that heightens to yelling and screaming matches because people are so
decided one way or the other did Jeffrey McDonald kill his family or did this group of four hippies kill his family
like he says yeah some people would say it's so debatable that to debate it itself you'd have to be a master
debater well one of the very first things that comes into question is he gives a description of the attackers
and people are saying well he's calling them hippies yet one of them had on an army fatigue jacket to which he says he
noticed sergeant stripes yeah but that look we've all seen Forest Gump right when he goes to the capital and he and
they have the protesters they have the hippies protes in Vietnam and he gets mixed up in them there's a lot of
so-called you know quote unquote hippies and what were they wearing they're wearing Army fatigues it was very
fashionable in the mid-60s to to Mid '70s well and I think the description of hippie sometimes can be open to
interpretation a little bit yeah or go go see a bunch of footage of John Lenin performing and he's constantly wearing
what Army fatigues and he's he was the definition the the biggest icon of the hippie movement well in what McDonald
would later say is I never said the word hippies I never said it was for Hipp hippies I simply described the four
people that I saw right and somebody from the Army or somebody from the newspaper changed it to a very general
description of four hippies now I can kind of believe that because we've been doing this long enough Captain I've seen
things get skewed in the news and in the papers because it sells copies we've talked about it many times it gets
clicks on the internet obviously that's not a concern Back in 1970 but it also gets people talking and it gets people
tuning into the news what would have been on everyone's Minds is what we just talked about earlier the Manson family
yeah Sharon Tate yeah the crazy hippies that that broke into homes and and murdered everybody inside and and wrote
things on the walls yeah and I I bet if you look back at what of whatever articles were written about the Manson
family and these quote unquote so-called hippies if that was lingo that was used
in those reports that's why that lingo was used and this case now very interestingly though we have a similar
situation here at the McDonald home after the attack so all four of the people are attacked inside the home
three of them are left dead and on the wall in the bedroom I apologize not on the wall it was on the headboard to the
the bed in the master bedroom somebody wrote the word Pig in blood right which is with Colette's blood we would later
figure out yeah which is something that was rumored I don't think it was confirmed in the the Manson Murders but
supposedly there was the words Pig ridden in Blood and those murders as well well yeah and that that definitely
happened in both of those well I'm just saying at the time of this murder since the trial didn't happen I just wonder if
that was actually confirmed you see what I'm saying yeah and this we should be clear here we already pointed out that
this account that he's given is an account that he is given to a person conducting an interview a reporter this
is not his words to the MPS when he's interviewed right after the attack although he would tell us that this is
the same thing that he told the military police right I've seen that version it is very similar but the things that that
are a little wonky again the word hippies he says he never used the word hippies mhm and second it's very quickly
pointed out to McDonald during the investigation that the triple homicide investigation that are you sure that
this woman was holding a candle mhm and in his initial statement he does say candle I believe she was holding a
candle because I saw some kind of flickering glowing light on her face they say you know we didn't find any
evidence of of wax of candle wax in the living room right but because she was holding a candle doesn't mean that
they're going to find wax on the floor well and this is what's interesting he may have been altering his statement to
play along with what they were finding or not finding at the scene because in this interview he's saying it may have
been a flashlight I don't know I didn't see a candle I didn't see a flashlight I
simply saw the light shining up on her face yes and it could be multiple things it could be uh a candle it could be a
flashlight it could be a knife that was somehow reflecting light onto her face as said McDonald's mother is called and
his in-laws are called they obviously rush to Fort Brag and unfortunately there's going to be funeral services
held for three on February 21st a little background story though to talk about Freddy and Mildred cassab so this is his
in-laws right Colette's father died when she was very young and Freddy cassab married her mother when Colette was
still pretty young and remember we said that these two had a relationship in high school they were friends boyfriend
girlfriend that sort of thing on and off the cassabs Freddy and Mildred knew Jeffrey well well before the two ever
got married and this Freddy cassab I look him up sometime or if you read up want to read further on this case you'll
find the same thing I believe you'll find the same thing that I thought this guy is he's a very likable guy but he's
also very personable he seems to be very personable with everybody and what I mean is that he treated Mildred's
daughters and and her children as if they were his own and he he raised they loved him dearly and Freddy cassab loved
Jeffrey McDonald dearly and immediately after this this was a weird case because
they're going to go and look for these whatever you want to call them four hippies the MPS are they're not going to
find anybody they don't find anybody matching that description they don't arrest anybody matching that description
and after days and days people go from feeling bad for Jeffrey McDonald to deciding well maybe he is lying
maybe he's the one that is responsible for the murder of his family and it's Freddy casab his father-in-law I think
this is a rare thing I don't think we've seen this in a lot of cases Captain right Freddy cassab goes to bat for
Jeffrey McDonald 100% stands by this guy he says you know you you'd have to be crazy to think that Jeffrey McDonald
would kill his family he was very vocal about it and he stood in front of the media and the newspapers and told all of
them that they are crazy for claiming that Jeffrey McDonald would kill his family right because normally what
happens oh well they had some fights they had some money problems uh my my son-in-law he was a
little bit of hotthead right that's normally what you hear mhm that that it's a possibility or we couldn't
believe it at all with the other Scott Pearson case right couldn't believe it at all but then more things that are
uncovered you start going well maybe this is a possibility yes maybe it is a possibility and then you have to go well
if he did do it what is the motive for it there's that is another question mark another big question mark in this case
did he have a motive to kill his family some say that it was because he was angered that the child wet his bed and
that it started as a small argument that escalated greatly again this uh you know the more and more and I know
that you have been uh researching cases years before I ever did but again this guy you're going to tell me that this
guy his daughter probably W the bed multiple times but he went to go to bed and and she went the bed and he he
decided to then kill everybody and then he's going to make up this story about these Intruders and it's it's very
similar to the John Benet Ramsay oh John Benet Ramsey wet the bed and so the mother decided Well she has to die and
Colette we should point out was pregnant with what would have been the third child for the McDonald family and do
they know what the sex was I believe this time it was going to be a boy so she was well into her pregnancy and look
McDonald had affairs he went outside of his marriage not once not twice probably
I I don't want to put a number on it 5,000 million I'm not going to put a number on it I I don't know for certain
but I know that it was it's kajillion a number according to all the reports and everything that I've read over the years
that it was multiple times well hold on let's get this out of the way so he's a scumbag cheater right but surgeon it was
known to some people that that Colette and Jeffrey had argued and fought about this type of cheating behavior before
that it was kind of a long ongoing argument so so he's a cheater we know that it's like the common thread the guy
is a cheater and then he murders his wife mhm and sometimes he murders his family but is there any financial
troubles I mean he they're living on Fort Bragg and he's a surgeon so he probably
makes decent money as a Green Beret surgeon I don't think that we have any kind of money issues I mean they he
purchased a horse for his daughters for Christmas Rusty just months before this and I think that there's not money
issues because look one given the time period 1970 people spent their money and lived a little quite a bit differently
actually back then than they do today but take that a step further they're living in officer housing he is working
in his profession that will pay him handsomely at some point being a surgeon they're just a young family you know
they're just a young family with two little kids and they're they're coming up through the world they're building
their family they're building their their life and you know so if if money was an issue I don't think it would be a
long-term issue right I also wonder if his father-in-law knew about his infidelity I believe that he did and I
say that because it's obvious to me that colle had expressed the difficulties and
the the trouble with her marriage to her mother and given Freddy cassab's personality him being so personable and
so loving and trusting to his wife and in her children this is not a guy that it strikes me that you keep stuff from
this guy when he walks into a room it's very obvious he's in charge of the whole
room he he takes over a room in that manner but is also like I said extremely personable and loyal to the people
around him this all took place as said captain on February 16th and 17th 1970 it wouldn't be until July of
1970 when Jeffrey McDonald is going to have to go to trial for the murders of his family and I and I should clear that
up and clean that up a bit because that's not exactly what's Happening Here it's it's what the Army calls an article
32 hearing to the civilians out there I would liken this to like kind of like a grand jury hearing where we're going to
decide if there's enough evidence here to charge this guy and bring him to court but because it took place at Fort
Brag on Military property it's the military's jurisdiction yeah so hold on a second so what we have is a guy
that claims that these Intruders killed his family but it doesn't seem like we have a lot of evidence that there was
even Intruders in the house so as far as the investigation goes that's kind of why they're forced into this you know
hey we we don't have much evidence that there was even other individuals there so now we need to look at the most
likely suspect in in a crime like this the husband and then from that they're trying to determine if there's enough
evidence against him to take him to trial the short of it Captain regarding this article 32 hearing that's conducted
by the military they decide that there's really not enough evidence to go forward
and try Jeffrey McDonald for the murders of his family in fact they dismissed the
case with the suggestion that the MPS or maybe even civilian police and law enforcement
agencies look for these four people that McDonald says broke into the apartment and murdered the family I mean cases
especially that are this horrifying you want to get them right because if you don't get it right you can't ever charge
him again and I think this is one of those cases where we can spend the time doing the storytelling and telling you
what happened and how it played out and this thing was a monster of a story to tell because it's a story that that
spans decades and Decades of action in and outside of the courtroom and we'll get back to the storytelling portion a
bit but what I think is really key here in this case is that we look at what we know we look at the facts we examine it
here in the garage and see what our opinions are as well as the listeners out there to figure out if Jeffrey
McDonald is in fact guilty of these murders so let's start with the autopsies so the following is a list of
wounds that were inflicted upon the McDonald family and we'll go through these victim by victim starting with
Colette McDonald Colette sustained several blunt trauma injuries to her head and arm
she was struck at least six times in the head with a blunt object resulting in lacerations to her right Temple left
temple forehead and on top of her head all of these lacerations were deep enough to expose bone she also received
two blows under her chin resulting in extensive bruising to the left front chin area in the right front chin area
there was a small fracture in the midline portion of K skull the blunt trauma injuries to Colette's arms were
defensive type wounds you see that very often so you're seeing obvious signs of she was attacked with a club or
something of that nature struck in her head area and she's trying to block these
blows during this scuffle using her hands and forearms right and what's interesting here is these injuries the
the blunt force trauma to her head would be consistent with Jeffrey McDonald what
he says he was attacked with in the living room yeah and to believe his story you have to believe that somebody
started to attack her and that she woke up then she defended herself Colette's right wrist was fractured and the inner
aspect of her upper arm bore an extensive bruise and a superficial abrasion the fingers and hand of her
right arm had extensive black and blue marks associated with abrasion so this is not a a one andone attack that
happened very quickly this is a fight right that we're seeing here we know this by Colette's injuries her left arm
was also fractured in two places so defending herself and being struck so hard that whatever she's being hit with
is breaking bone as she's trying to fend it off does law enforcement have any clue to what this object would be yes in
fact it's believed that all of the murder weapons and I say all because there are different types of attacks
here right different types of wounds indicating different murder weapons all of them were found at the crime
scene so one was a it's been referred to as a club in some statements McDonald says that he believed he was being hit
with a bat the best way to describe this quote unquote Club is it's like a slat that you would use for a bed and it's
believed well I shouldn't say believed it seems to be damn near 100% proven that this wood this wooden slat came
from the master bed from Jeffrey and his wife's bed in the master bedroom noted Colette also had nine deep knife wounds
to the front of her neck and seven deep knife wounds to her chest and 21 puncture wounds to her chest area and
but you were also saying that the the knife was found at the scene of the crime as well yeah so from my
understanding here Captain what we have is we have uh four murder weapons one is
that club that we just kind of described which you think is a slack that came from the master bed that's that's what
investigators have stated so do investigators also believe that the not only the slack comes from the house but
the knife comes from the house as well so there were two knives and an ice pick so those are your four murder weapons
remember McDonald's account he pulled the knife out of Colette's chest and just kind of tossed it or or threw it
down so that goes what they find at the scene backs up his story for that portion at least that one sentence
because they find a knife in the master bedroom on the floor but they find the club The Ice Pick and a knife outside of
the apartment so they find them basically what you would call the backyard even though this is a shared
space right they have a front door to the apartment and a back door to the apartment when officers arrived at the
scene they found the front door locked and secured they found the back door open and it's right at a bush near this
back door at the base of a bush where they find these murder weapons like so if if four people went into the house
killed this family they must have got in through this back door maybe it was left
unlocked and when they left they of course left the back door unlocked left the door slightly a jar and it would
appear that they just tossed the weapons down as they were fleeing the apartment
but you're right Captain one very difficult thing that I have with this story is that McDonald says that he
didn't recognize some of these items and yet the MPS and the detectives would tell us that they believe that they have
reason to believe that all of these items came from the McDonald family from from their home right you have to
picture this this story starts to become very incredible very fast did these four
individuals happen to find an unlocked back door to the McDonald family home enter with no
weapons go around the house collecting weapons of their own and then using these weapons on the family and then
toss them aside as they flee the crime scene it could have been a mixture of both you know what I mean they could
have found some of the items there they could have brought maybe one or both of the knives with them but the the police
and law enforcement have said the knives belong to to the McDonald family is that
because they think they're a part of a set the answer is I I do not know what they're basing this off of I don't have
any reason to not believe this statement because this thing has gone to trial you
know the article 32 hearing and then we have the actual trial of Jeffrey McDonald later and it seems to be agreed
upon that that these items came from the apartment Kimberly McDonald was struck at least three times in the head with a
blunt object Kimberly's right cheek right ear and right mastoid area had overlapping black and blue marks and
irregular abrasions her right eye was recessed and she had a fractured nose which was deviated to the right her left
cheekbone was fractured and a piece of the cheekbone was protruding through the skin Kimberly skull showed multiple
fractures and the Dome portion of her skull was fractured through it entire thickness it's it's horrific to describe
these things and and I I hate having to say these words but to put it simply her
head was bashed in I mean that's how brutally she was attacked and they found 8 to 10 Deep knife wounds on the right
side of her neck this is one of those weird cases captain and again I'll throw this warning out to you because you
cannot unsee these things you can find crime scene photographs colored photographs online of the McDonald crime
scene unfortunately you can see these victims pictures of these victims how they were found that night when MPS
responded to the call Kristen McDonald sustained 12 knife wounds to her upper back four wounds to her chest and one to
the neck two of the wounds to her back penetrated her heart causing Massive Internal
bleeding 15 shallow puncture wounds were found in her chest as well as multiple cuts on both of her hands there was a
through and through laceration of the skin involving the middle of the right ring finger
so this young girl is attacked she's stabbed as said but again we're seeing obvious signs of defensive wounds here
the she has these wounds to her hand hands and fingers because she's putting them up trying to prevent whatever
attack is going on at that time you know the knife attack the laceration that we
just discussed about the middle of the right ring finger was deep enough to expose bone and the index finger of the
right hand revealed a triangular flap of skin so using the hands to try to fend off this attack this brings us to
Jeffrey McDonald the man that says that he was sleeping on the couch and wakes up in the middle of the night and he's
being attacked by three men in the living room he says that he's attacked there he says that he hears his wife
screaming in the bedroom he hears his daughter screaming in her bedroom now his injuries are as such McDonald
sustained bruising over the left eye beneath the hairline a stab wound of the upper left arm a stab wound of the left
bicep he also received a laceration of the left index finger and a stab wound to the left abdomen in the form of an
upside down V if you can picture that several small puncture type wounds were present on the upper left chest remember
he said when he came to he was confused that would be from the strikes the blows
to the Head MH he said that it became increasingly more difficult to breathe well this is going to be because he
stabbed in the abdomen in the chest area and one of these stabs is powerful enough it went between two of the ribs
on the right side of his chest which resulted in a collapse right lung so of course he's having difficulty breathing
during this time we went through all of that for me to say and I don't want to speak for the captain here cuz again
this is a case that everybody has their own opinion on it and some of them are very strong some people are very strong
in their opinions on this case but we go through all of that for me to tell you this what I see here and what I question
here is I have three female victims Colette and her two small young daughters on these three individuals I
see Overkill yeah on Jeffrey McDonald I see exactly what he described in his defense it's exactly as he would
describe it wound I would expect to see on him given his account of what happened however how does four people
kill three individuals so brutally to the point that their their bodies their clothing their beds are covered in blood
yeah and the one major threat you have in this house I was just going to say that is the Green Beret that's sleeping
on the couch and he does not have anywhere near the number of blows stabs blood on him yeah cuz look if if you're
one of The Intruders you don't know who this guy is you're you're on Fort Brag and if you don't know who this guy
is all you can assume that is he's an officer of the military right mhm and maybe if you know anything about Fort
Brag maybe you know he is a part of the green braids I don't know if they separate the people like that in the
house let's take that all out of account any Intruder that goes into any house who's
their biggest threat to them the 2-year-old girl the 5-year-old girl the mother or the
husband probably the husband and you're going to have what he tells you at least
two males and a female in the same room to attack him with multiple weapons and like you said the other ones their their
bodies are mangled and he somehow is alive yeah we know this from seeing these other attacks and other cases
where people break into a home or you know home invasion type cases BTK type cases the first thing that they
do is neutralize the threat Jeffrey McDonald is the number one threat to the Intruders maybe they neutralized him it
it seems like they if we believe McDonald that they did a good job to neutralize him let's say that but then
why the overkill on these other three individuals why didn't they finish the job on Jeffrey McDonald are we to
believe McDonald that he just was able to fight them off better than his other family members
were [Music] join us back here in the garage tomorrow same bat Time same bat Channel and until
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Jeffrey MacDonald /// Part 1 /// 464

Part 1 of 2

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This week Nic & the Captain tell the story of one of the most litigated murder cases in American criminal history. Doctor and Army officer Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of murdering his wife and two children. The man says he is innocent. Jeffrey claims the murders were committed by four intruders in the middle of the night. He says they tried to kill him as well. Join the guys in the garage for a beer and hear one of the most debated murder cases to date.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the McDonald family murders, Jeffrey McDonald's claims of intruders, and the investigation's findings, raising questions about his guilt.

Key points

Thanksgiving Gratitude. Crystal Farms expresses gratitude for farmers and families during the holiday season.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Nick introduces the show with humor and excitement, setting the stage for the episode.
The McDonald Family Tragedy. A chilling account of the McDonald family murders unfolds, beginning with Jeffrey McDonald's call for help.
The Awakening. Jeffrey wakes to a horrifying scream from his wife, Colette.
The Attack. Jeffrey describes the chaotic scene as he confronts intruders in his home.
The Devastating News. After the attack, Jeffrey learns the tragic fate of his family.

Episode highlights

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8:45WatchNov 16, 2023

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