It is also a Manson-like killing. 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.. It has Helena Stoeckley, the dominant person who continues to play a remarkable role. McGinniss' publisher settled with MacDonald out of court, after the judge called the author a conman. (This story, in its own right, became a famous book about journalistic ethics by Janet Malcolm.). Jeffrey MacDonald, a Princeton-educated Green Beret doctor with no history of violence and a sterling record, butchered his pregnant wife and two young daughters using a knife, ice pick and club. It was almost as scary as Helter Skelter the story of the Charles Manson murders in Californa that are said to have inspired Jeffrey MacDonald in the coverup for his homicidal rampage. A grandson, also called Abdul, was considered such a threat he was subject to a National Anti-Gang Squad investigation last year the Australian Federal Police led team that represents an even greater escalation in the police response than the formation of Santiago. I wasnt there that night. Also last year, Osman, 32, one of the middle brothers, was released from prison. Currently serving three life sentences for their murders, MacDonald continues to maintain his innocence even as a new documentary series digs into his case. Even before bureaucratic stalling and federal machinery overtook the search for truth, things were working against Jeffrey MacDonald. Evidence the defense never saw. But MacDonalds legal teamled by Bernie Segalpersuaded the Fourth Circuit Court to throw out the charges, claiming that MacDonald had been denied a speedy trial. Young woman; old woman. Then, if someone draws your attention to certain details, suddenly the picture transforms into the profile of an old woman. MacDonald, it appeared, had been endlessly, unfaithful having at least 15 girlfriends, Vanity Fair reports. And so there are going to be cases where there is a reasonable doubt as to what actually happened. He theorized that diet pills caused MacDonald to fly into a fit of rage. The family lost its large house in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and was forced to live in small quarters in a building they still owned. In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. 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. I accused the Army of every blunder that they made in the original investigation, he once said, according to the docuseries. 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.. I was born in May of that year, and would thus be the same age as the child Colette MacDonald was carrying when her life was snuffed out. But an unfortunate thing happened in the following years. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . It all was intruders. I held out to the last ditch. He didnt do that. The family claims his body has never been found. Smerling is the director of the documentary series A Wilderness of Error, which examines the MacDonald case. Unfortunately for MacDonald, she would never admit any memory of her involvement in the killings in court. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. He claimed they chanted, Kill the pigs!Acid is groovy! and scrawled the word PIG on the wall in his wifes blood. In the end, MacDonald himself took the stand. Whats your sense of this? LP: Then why did MacDonald, the emblem of law-and-order, the Green Beret, become a suspect? Im giving you an extra copy for Bernie Segal [the defense counsel]. Out of all the evidentiary and procedural twists and turns, I asked Silverglate to name the one that bothered him the most about the MacDonald case. That didnt happen here. He awoke to the sound of screaming and found three male intruders being overseen by a blonde woman. 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. Together, the manuscripts provide a detailed look into nearly a century of one familys history in Syria and the United States, as well as a rich insight into the social fabric and workplace challenges faced by early immigrants. Then he injured himself and set up the scene to make the crimes appear to be the work of intruders. After completing high school in Chester, he too went to dental school and set up practice in Wadeas office. 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. Family members of radio personality Casey Kasem have settled a lawsuit against his widow that alleged her neglect and physical abuse led to his death in 2014. Not only were three hairs discovered at the crime scene that didnt match any of the familys DNA, but an affidavit revealed that Blackburn had allegedly threatened Stoeckley not to tell the truth in court. By now, many members of the original hearing and 1979 trial are dead, including Judge Dupree. Desperate to save his family, he said he fought back until they stabbed him and beat him unconscious. Some criminal networks were recently identified as having more than 1000 members, of various ages and ethnic backgrounds; unlike the five families, they were not simply the first generation of children born in Australia to parents hailing from northern Lebanon. Friends since grade school, he and Colette Stevens began dating as teenagers, and grew serious during college. Pennsylvania had the highest population of Kassab families in 1920. For all of us independent news organizations, its no exception. He was more interested in working with people on hallucinogenic and things like that. But his mother and father-in-law did not want him to do that. Stories about the innocent caught in a machine that perverts every possibility of justice. The man is a fanatic.. Then, in 2012 Jeffrey MacDonalds most famous defender, filmmaker Errol Morris, was so intrigued by the case that he wrote the 500-page book A Wilderness of Error. Picture #1. 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. My wife and I can sit for hours and days and not talk to each other, but were both thinking, you know. Kassabs suspicions deepened after he received a copy of a transcript of the Article 32 hearing and began to pore through the evidence himself. 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. Materials provided by the families of Wadea and Aelyas Kassab. That is why, police say, it is important to consider what the shooting represents, rather than the act itself. 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. Wadea left Syria in 1889 with two companions and arrived in the United States that same year. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Because that's what crime figures do in the north-west, most of the time. A lengthy trial heard Moustafa and Kassab had gone to the Brunswick panel beating shop to confront Moustafa over $50,000 in cash and $10,000 in aftershave they believe he had stolen. 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. Mildred and Freddy Kassab both died, months apart, in 1994. Eventually, he turned on the man he had once so ardently defended. That was my closing argument. According to her, they wanted to teach MacDonald a lesson and rough up his family the night of the killings. The bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. The couple got married when Colette was just 20 years old after discovering that she was pregnant. Interview: The Spookiest Case Wade Smith Ever Encountered. Dupree would not admit overwhelming psychiatric testimony in MacDonalds favor, nor the testminony of witnesses to whom Helena Stoeckley had confessed her involvement. I even laughed at the idea of hippie murderers in North Carolina. The writer had full access to the trial, and appeared sympathetic. There were fibers from a blonde wig that matched the description of Helena Stoeckley. Though the U.S. Army formally charged MacDonald with the murders, presiding officer Colonel Warren Rock recommended the charges be dropped. Jeffrey MacDonald was arraigned in May 1975 and pleaded not guilty. Weve covered everything thrown at us this past year and will continue to do so with your support. Since MacDonald was convicted of the murders in 1979, considerable evidence of his innocence has come to light. The cost to Melbourne's north-west is huge. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . The family claims his body has never been found. "More senior criminal figures are exploiting the vulnerabilities of younger or less sophisticated offenders," he said. But there was no evidence that had ever taken place. When a terrible crime is committed, society comes together to find someone to blame and to pay for the collective sense of violation. Of those in prison, one was jailed for having guns that so troubled a judge she described them as "the sort of weapons that were used down in Tasmania", a reference to the Port Arthur massacre. Sometimes that doesnt happen. Even his in-laws Mildred and Freddie Kassab believed him and testified at his hearing. Melbourne's north-west has become a hotbed for armed crime. Although Kassab didnt join the family until Colette was a teenager, he had always been close with his stepdaughter. None of this has set MacDonald free. 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. His most significant injury was a puncture wound and deflated lung. MacDonald was convicted of the three murders in 1979, nine years after Colette and her children were slain. The strength of the families now almost a decade after the launch of Santiago are largely determined by how many of them have been killed or locked up. 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. Earlier, evidence came to light that a FBI forensic examiner mislead the jury about synthetic hair evidence. Together, Mildred who Stevenson said came to mortally hate her former son-in-law and Freddy Kassab pushed for MacDonalds arrest. When the initial military hearing was conducted in 1970, no one in his life could be found who had a bad thing to say about him. Prosecutors appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and in 1978 the countrys highest court decided to reinstate the indictment. 959 Census & Voter Lists. 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. Both brothers married women in Syria and brought them back to the United States. For his part, MacDonald called Kassab and made a grandiose claim that he and some Green Beret buddies had gone out on the streets to look for the hippies responsible and found and killed one of them. In 1978, MacDonalds case went to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, who rejected it. But for every Khayre, a case most people have heard of with a clear link to the north-west, there are dozens more that barely make a ripple. I contacted his office, and to my surprise, he was willing to talk to me. Oh, yes. MacDonald later admitted the claim had been a lie. Aelyas followed Wadea to the United States in 1899. I thought of devils that lurked in human flesh, like in The Exorcist, another popular based-on-a true-story-book-turned-movie of the period that floated around our house. Kassab testified on MacDonalds behalf, declaring, If I had another daughter, Id still want the same son-in-law.. WebWadea 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. 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. MacDonald was tried in a civilian court in 1979. As if they had seen it with their own eyes. He said the so-called Fagin Laws, which were introduced last year and allow police to charge adults who coerce children to offend, would be useful in dismantling these networks. Other witnesses claimed that Stoeckly had confessed at various times that she thought she might have been present during the murders. And police officers knowing how to take care of a crime scene and preserve it. 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. Judge James Fox, a close friend of Dupree's and quite elderly himself, has taken over and has dismissed appeals. Mr Oueida has been overseas for most of the time since the attack, predominantly in Lebanon and Dubai a haunt for a string of Australian organised crime figures. 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. These fibers on the bodies didnt match any fibers found in the MacDonald house. Pennsylvania had the highest population of Kassab families in 1920. Despite the young familys financial burdens, the important things seemed secure. But in the years that followed the gruesome murders, Kassab drastically changed his opinion of his surgeon son-in-law and became one of MacDonalds fiercest adversariesleading the charge to have MacDonald tried for three counts of murder in the case. Kassab wanted to find justice and began writing letters to the Army and congressmen slamming the investigators for their errors and urging authorities to continue the investigation. WebWe found 33,440 records for Kassab last name. I dont have that magic. She allegedly told one person that she recalled holding a candle that dripped with blood. MacDonald was ultimately convicted in 1979 for killing his pregnant wife Colette MacDonald and their two young daughters, Kimberley and Kristen. Aelyas (Elias) Kassab, Wadeas younger brother, was born in the Kassabs' summer residence in Bloudan, Syria in 1883. Walk through the house, walk through the rooms and talk about what we know,investigator Mike Pickering said in the docuseries. The list of misfortunes goes on: exculpatory evidence withheld; possible prosecutorial misconduct; and fallible humans who twisted the MacDonald story to fit their own agendas. Others would say that that was a healthy thing to do. So MacDonald was the logical choice. Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesGrieving mother Mildred Kassab weeps for her daughter while being escorted into JFK Memorial Chapel to see her buried. He was a true gentleman, even though there were things in the trial and there were decisions he made that I disagree with. MacDonald sued McGinniss for fraud in 1987, with a mistrial leading them to settle out of court for $325,000. (See Silverglate's article on the case in Forbes.). I thought the world of Judge Dupree. Since adapted into a documentary series of the same name directed by Marc Smirling, the project aims to detail how much evidence Morris believes was lost, mismanaged or glaringly unreliable from the start. Some of the facts I thought I knew began to look more like ideas conjured by eager prosecutors and a journalist who had dealt so disingenuously with Jeffrey MacDonald in writing Fatal Vision that he was sued after publication. He remained haunted by the horrific way his stepdaughter and grandchildren had lost their lives. His relentless persistence prompted the government to open a second investigation. But he is hopeful that the Fourth Court of Appeals, located in Richmond, Virginia, will take a careful look at the case and as a whole be more favorable to MacDonald. LP: Judge Fox is a close friend of Judge Dupree, who presided over the 1979 trial. Although Kassab didnt join the family until Colette was a teenager, he had always been close with his stepdaughter. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . We even came back at night so we would have the same lighting conditions as the night of the murders. I wouldnt allow myself to believe it, because it made it so much worse that it was he instead of strangers, she later said in an interview, according to the docuseries. Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. The surgical gloves used to scrawl pig on the headboard were identical to the supply MacDonald kept in his kitchen. 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. An arm extends out of the passenger side window of a car. The second is "Kassab Family History by Aelyas Kassab; it is 125 pages and was composed circa 1958. In this case, it carries particular weight: police are trying to break the hold, in some cases, of family ties that go back generations. Good potential for the future, so therefore we saw nothing wrong with them getting married, Kassab once said of his son-in-law, according to the docuseries. 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. 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. He looked angry on the stand. Harvey Silverglate, a renowned civil liberties advocate, has been an appellate attorney for MacDonald. If he could have a psychotic episode and destroy his family stab them with an ice pick and a knife 100 times, beat them with a stick, then Billy Graham could. 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. He could have gone on with his life, and he should have. In the hearing we just had in Wilmington she played an important role, decades after her death. My friend and I sat around in her backyard, tossing up what facts about the case we could recall. However, instead of the firm defense MacDonald expected, the 1983 bestseller A Fatal Vision described him as a narcissistic psychopath.. 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. "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. MacDonald claimed that his daughter Kimberly wet his side of the bed, prompting him to go to sleep on the couch. 959 Census & Voter Lists. Vietnam-era Fayetteville was not sleepy Raleigh in the 1980s. Many think this woman could have been Helena Stoeckley, a drug abuser and professed member of a witchcraft cult who repeatedly confessed to having been at the MacDonald house the night of the murders, but recanted her story whenever she seemed to fear prosecution. 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. Shortly after relocating to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was made Group Surgeon to the Green Berets. WS: In every murder of a spouse, the remaining spouse is the number-one suspect and is almost always charged. Through his aggressive pursuit of the case, MacDonald was indicted. The simple acts of coming and going as I please and caring for my own basic needs have been denied him. 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. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! LP: Did anything new come out in the Wilmington hearing in September? Anybody could. And the physical evidence, the circumstantial evidence, just kept mounting against him and contradicting his story for events from that evening.. One thing about this case is never in doubt no matter whos talking: If Wade Smith had been able to lead and give his closing remarks, MacDonald would be a free man today. 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. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. Not only did the living room show few signs of a struggle, but the murder weapons were found outside the back door. He could get an answer by the end of this year. To realize he had done it, and Colette loved him, and when you sit back and picture in your minds eye what happened that night, with him attacking, and I know from the autopsy reports what was done to the two children, you cant help but visualize in your mind, though we dont talk about it, Freddy Kassab told The Washington Post in 1984, just as the popular mini-series Fatal Vision, which depicted the crimes, was airing across the country. 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. He went directly to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a teacher of his had settled. WebWadea 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. But he taunted the police. In Fayetteville, an army town, strong tensions existed between army types like Jeffrey MacDonald on one side of the war, and hippies and protesters on the other. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. Freddy Kassab had inserted himself into the 1970 military hearing and made himself the center of a media circus, holding news conferences and firing off letters to members of Congress. These were the families police identified in 2011 as causing most of the trouble in the band, which stretches roughly from Coburg North to Campbellfield, then in an arc around to Altona in the west. ". Weve always understood the importance of calling out corruption, regardless of political affiliation. Mica remembered seeing a woman who fit this description while en route to the scene but said the Armys Criminal Investigation Division (CID) omitted this during their subsequent inquest. Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Mr Oueida has been overseas for most of the time since the attack, predominantly in Lebanon and Dubai a haunt for a string of Australian organised crime figures. Years after he was blasted with a shotgun by a crime figure who continues to wield influence in the north-west, one victim is still dealing with his injuries. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. Although the family started out as his benefactors, he ultimately became their caregivers as their positions reversed. Appearances didnt help MacDonald, either. 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. It begins with Aelyas' grandfather Elyas Kassab, born in 1814, and traces the family through the nineteenth century; particular attention is paid. Colette had been stabbed 16 times and punctured 21 times with an ice pick, while 5-year-old Kimberley was killed by six blows to the head and eightto 10 stab wounds, according to a1998 Vanity Fair article. And she told him she had been there, at the MacDonald home, the night of the murders. The lead prosecutor for the case, Jim Blackburn began to analyze every piece of evidence from the trial, including MacDonald's pajama shirt, which was draped over Colette's body, and the bedsheet she was wrapped in. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. Colettes sister-in-law Vivian Pep Stevenson told the outlet that Colette knew of the affairs and was growing tired of the infidelities before she died, at one point lamenting, I dont want to do this anymore.. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. But there was, including wax drippings (MacDonald insisted that one of the intruders carried a candle), fibers, and hairs that did not belong to the household or family members. LP: She said that to her lawyer at the time of the 1979 trial? MacDonald in late 1970 after the Army acquitted him of all charges. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. These shootings rarely involve significant figures, such as Oueida, or Nabil Maghnie, who was shot in the head last September but survived, or George Marrogi, who was charged with a shooting murder that same month. Their second child Kristen was born in May 1967. Jeffrey MacDonald had it all. The families have been involved in drug trafficking since at least the turn of the century, or, in the case of Macchour Chaouk, the patriarch of that family, since 1983. McGinniss made the murders sound like the work of a diabolical genius, a man who could transform in a moment from a loving father to a homicidal maniac, and again, in the blink of an eye, to a calculating conman. 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. Lynn Parramore: In all your years as a lawyer, what makes this case stand out? He wanted his son-in-law to stay on the east coast and pursue the killers. Mundane things that Jeffrey MacDonald has not been able to do for over 30 years. "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. I personally delivered a copy by hand to every congressman and every senator in the country.. The defendant has no obligation to prove anything whatsoever. The chanting blonde, meanwhile, had not been found. 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. A finger squeezes a trigger until the chamber empties. WS: We all depend on excellent, honest detective work. Bettmann/Getty ImagesMacDonald in late 1970 after the Army acquitted him of all charges. We decided we needed Freddie and Mildred Kassab on our sides, lead investigator Peter Kearns said in a December 1986 lecture on the case, according to the docuseries. Hes the guy that lives next door. 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. 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. 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