Author Joe McGinness was on Fox News Friday to plug his latest book about the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case which has raised a storm of controversy ever since the Green Beret doctor was convicted of murdering his wife and two children in 1979.
MacDonald has been residing in prison for the 1970 murders which he claims he didn't do, despite the three life sentences he has been serving ever since 1979.
Did he do it?
McGinness, who wrote the bestseller "Fatal Vision" back in the 1980s, reached the conclusion that MacDonald was guilty. In his new book "Final Vision", which he discussed Friday on Fox, he reaches the same conclusion.
There is no love lost between McGinness and MacDonald, who sued the author after the first book was written.
There have been a lot of changes in the legal landscape since the trial including the development of DNA evidence which was not available at the time.
The jury didn't believe MacDonald's story that a "woman in a floppy hat" accompanied by several men invaded his home that fateful night and attacked him as he tried to defend his family. The Green Beret doctor did suffer a collapsed lung and other injuries as a result of what he claims was an attack by these strangers.
DNA testing was performed in 2006 of hairs found on MacDonald's wife Collette and his daughter Kristen. The hairs were found on the leg of Collette and under the fingernails of Kristen. The DNA does not match to Dr. MacDonald.
And a woman did come forward who claimed to be the lady wearing the floppy hat. She said in an affidavit that she along with two male companions were in the doctor's home that night to procure drugs. She also said her companions committed the murders. Unfortunately, she has since passed away, although witnesses do still exist to whom she told the story. Her mother verifies that her daughter told her the same story.
She also corroborates the doctor's story that they chanted, "Death to the pigs, acid is groovy" in the home of the MacDonald family the night they were slaughtered. Her name is Helena Stoeckley.
A military tribunal originally heard the case, found MacDonald innocent and recommended charges by filed against Stoeckley.
A second author has since written a book which reaches the conclusion MacDonald is innocent.
Errol Morris, in his book A Wilderness of Error, says MacDonald is innocent and no evidence even connects him to the crime.
Judge James C. Fox heard the new evidence in September of 2012, according to an October 8 article in People magazine. He gave both sides 60 days to file written briefs in support of their arguments.
The defense is asking for a new trial while the prosecution is opposing it.
MacDonald's wife was 26, his daughter Kimberly 5 and his daughter Kristen 2 at the time of their murders.
Jeffrey MacDonald is awaiting the judge's decision in his prison cell.
Anyone interested in receiving free notice of future National Places and Faces articles should click on the subscribe link above this article.
Comments