Here's food for thought,
And why after several years of going back and forth I believe Jeff McDonald is guilty. Let's assume that that the minority of those it seems who belive in his innocence, what I can't understand is the following:
1.) Why was the living room so neat? This was a fight between a medically trained Green Barret and four drug-crazed hippies. Yet all we really have is an overturned coffee table, with the magazines, newspapers, and magazines neatly stacked. I believe there was a flowerpot that was tipped over. And Jeff's slippers are found under the coffee table with part of the slipper stuck under the table.
2.) How were Jeff and the intruders able to fight in such a small space and in the dark? There's only about four feet of space between the coffee table and the couch. How could five people fight in such a small area, where nothing is disturbed in the living room during the struggle?
3.) Where and when did Helena Stockley or whoever the girl with the boots and the floppy hate light the candle that she was carrying? It was raining outside at the time. The wick would have been wet from the rain. Helena would have had to have found a candle in the Macdonald's house to light it, or brought her own candle. Even if she brought her own, the wick would be wet. How did she light the candle? Did McDonald mistaken the candle for a flashlight?
4.) How did four people plan all this carnage in the living room and bedrooms with no knowledge of the house or where the Macdonalds' kept things? It was dark in that house? How could they see what they were doing? Where did the get the other weapons, the club, knife, and ice pick? Fatal Justice said that Helena told friends that she kept an icepick in her purse. Too coincidentle for me that the McDonald's had an icepick and the Mildred Kassab had used it when she would babysit the girls to thaw out popsicles for them. Macdonald always said he did not have an icepick?
5.) How come the intruders never say anything or give a motive to hurt Jeff or the family when they were there? How did they know that Jeff would be sleeping on the couch? Did they just calmly walk into the house? Who was attacked first? Jeff says that when he awoke that there were four people standing over him with a club, knife, and ice pick and hitting him with it. Meanwhile, he says that he heard Kim screaming "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy" and Colette screaming "Jeff, why are they doing this to me?" To whom were they talking? Were there two other people in the bedroom for a total of six people in the apartment that night?
6.) We know that the family was killed. We know that Jeff's injuries were minor, very minor compared to the rest of the family? Why leave the one person who could identify you kept alive? Fatal Justice said the phone rang during the murders, and that frightened off the assailants. But that seems to be a stretch. Even so, why weren't any of the assaients injured at all? That really bothered me. Jim Blackburn, the prosecutor said that if Macdonald's story were true, at least one of those people would be dead. Macdonald would have beating the living **** out of them. He was a Green Barret. medically trained as a doctor and solider to respond quickly to combat and emergency situations. Yet, an Afghan and his pajama top pulled over his head stopped him from trying to save his family?
Now on the Defense side of things:
1.) Yes, I believe the crime scene was not preserved properly and I always wanted to know what Macdonald's pajama bottoms who were thrown away could have presented?
2.) The unidentified fingerprints ruined in the photo lab. To whom did they belong?
3.) The black wool fibers found on Collette's mouth and shoulder and the unsourced candle wax drippings. The cigarette ashes in one of the rooms although neither Collette nor Jeff smoked?
4.) The biggest mystery is Jimmy Frier- He claimed that he called the Macdonald house the night of the murders and that "a lady answered the phone." Mr. Frier was looking for his psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Macdonald, who was another person on the base. The operator mistakenly put it through to Jeff Macdonad's house. For decades, I have always relished getting records of that phone conversation! Frier said he heard what sounded like a "Party going on." He was being treated for Alcoholism at Womack Hospital.
Interesting things from the defense for sure, but not enough there to raise reasonable doubt as to Macdonad's guilt. Just my view.
Satch
