A Wilderness of Error (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Chapter 1: - full transcript

Rview, take one.

Soft sticks. Mark.

So, what brings you here today?

(smerling laughs)

all right, I want to start
with your story

inside the story,
like you do in the book.

Um...

Christmas 1991...
Could we start there?

Can you remember that day?

I do remember the day.

♪ ♪



morris: Early that morning,

I suggested to my wife
we should just go up

and look at the jeffrey
macdonald crime scene together.

Um...

What better way
to spend christmas?

♪ ♪

I get interested in stuff

because I get bothered by stuff.

And what's really interesting
about the macdonald murder case

is how many, many,

many people
have gone back over this.

It's a case that resists
definitive explanations.

♪ ♪

wandering in that wilderness
of conflicting evidence



and interpretations,

of mistakes, of errors...

Certainly in this case,

the mystery is
about what happened

in that house.

I went into it with the hope
that I could crack it...

...That I could come
to some kind of conclusion.

But you don't know

whether truth is going to be
difficult to find

unless you try to find it.

The wife and two young
daughters of an army doctor

were found dead in their home
in fort bragg, north carolina.

Mike wallace: You may remember the crime,
back in 1970...

One of america's most
sensational murder cases...

...One of the most bizarre
murder cases...

The most complicated
murder case in history.

Macdonald says the murderers
were three men and a woman,

shouting, "acid is great!
Kill all the pigs!"

it's a baffling story, the more
you begin to look into it...

Newswoman:
Jeffrey macdonald's life became

the subject of a book,
a popular miniseries...

...A television movie
called fatal vision.

Newsman: The bestseller
portrayed macdonald

as a cold-blooded killer.

Newsman 2:
Today macdonald was sentenced

to three life terms in prison.

(echoing thud)

man 2: Something really,
really bad happened here.

-It was a miscarriage of justice.
-Macdonald: Well...

I cannot overcome fatal vision.

Morris:
What happens when a narrative

takes the place of reality?

It's almost as if nothing
really happened in history

unless it has been recorded
in a movie.

Or in a television series.

Newswoman 2: A new book by
acclaimed author and filmmaker

errol morris says that the case
may be more complicated

- than previously thought.
- Macdonald: I did not...

Hurt my wife and my children.

Woman: That evening
I was wearing a blonde wig

- and floppy hat.
- Man 3: An innocent man

- is in jail today.
- Woman 2: The man is guilty

- as can be.
- I am innocent.

He's lucky I haven't gone out
and killed him.

Macdonald (echoes):
I am not that monster.

(phone dialing)

(line ringing)

(phone ringing)

morris: How old were you
when this happened?

Mica: That was 1970...
I would have been 23.

I was an mp at fort bragg,

1968 to 1971.

And I was one of the first mps

in the house at 544 castle drive

the night
of the macdonald murders.

Mica: February 17, 1970,

was, uh, quiet.

It was drizzly, rainy, cold.

(distorted police radio
transmission)

- (siren wailing)
- About 3:40 in the morning,

we got a radio call
for a disturbance.

When we get to the call,

couple cars are already there.

I run into richard tevere.

We're standing on the steps
in front of the entrance

to castle drive, and I believed

that there was a disturbance
and possibly a stabbing.

- (siren approaching in distance)
- We couldn't...

Gain entry to the house,

so I took my flashlight
and I went around the back.

The rear door was ajar.

I pulled out my weapon,

and I put a round
in the chamber...

Not knowing if there was
somebody still in the house.

I took one step in to the...

What was, I guess, the bedroom.

There was blood on the wall,
blood on the ceiling,

blood all over the place.

That's when I saw her,
a woman lying on the ground,

covered with blood,

and, uh,
a male lying next to her,

who I didn't know at the time
was jeffrey macdonald.

At first I thought

it was a homicide-suicide.

Uh, but then he started to move.

I got down next to him

and started giving him
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

He wakes up, and he's saying,
"check my kids, check my kids.

I heard my kids."

tevere: From the master bedroom,

we just took a few steps,

looked into the first,
smaller bedroom,

and I could see the girl.

She was lifeless.

And then I went
into the second bedroom,

and I saw, again,

a very young girl, lifeless.

There was blood dripping down
the side of the bed,

and there was a puddle of blood
on the floor.

I, uh...

Never in a million years
expected to...

Walk in on something like that.

So it was a lot to, really,

process at the time.

Ivory: Within five minutes,

we were at the house.

There was an army ambulance

and a number of mp cars

already there.

In the house,
it looked like the living room

had been caught up
in some sort of struggle.

There was a man on a gurney
being wheeled out.

He was unconscious.

There was a female on the floor
of the master bedroom.

There was a blue pajama top
laying across her chest.

That was strange.

And then, I noticed,
in the headboard

in the master bed,

there was a bloody imprint
of the word "pig."

hodges: It's the worst thing,

in my 53 years
in law enforcement,

that I've ever walked into.

Uh, it was a gruesome scene
to see a, uh,

a mother and two daughters
mutilated like they were.

And, uh, it's, uh...

It's a s... it's a scene
that you ain't gonna forget.

Colette macdonald was stabbed

multiple times
in the neck and chest.

Both arms were broken.

And she was pregnant.

The older girl had been stabbed.

And had a blunt instrument wound
to her head.

And the younger girl had been
stabbed numerous times.

Ivory: My partner did a 360

around the house.

He went out and he came back
in and he said,

"I think I found
the murder weapons."

there was a club, a knife

and an ice pick.

(siren wailing in distance)

hodges: At that point,
I went to the hospital

to try to interview macdonald.

When I got there,
I was briefed by a doctor.

Gemma: There were some scrapes

on his abdomen and on his chest,

some small puncture wounds
which didn't seem

to be very serious at all.

It's not life-threatening.

He was...

In no real acute distress.

Hodges: When I went in,
we identified who we were,

and said, "what can you tell us
about what happened?"

he said that he and colette
had been listening to a record.

He dozed off on the couch,
and she had went to bed.

He heard colette hollering,

"jeff, jeff,
why are they doing this to me?"

he woke up.

Hippies had broke into the house
and attacked him and his family.

He'd seen two white males,

black guy in an army jacket,

and a woman with long blonde
hair and a white floppy hat,

wearing boots.

And she was saying,

"acid is groovy,
acid is groovy,"

and was holding a candle.

He had tried to fight 'em off.

Somehow, my pajama top,

I don't know
if it was ripped forward

or pulled over my head.

-Colette (echoing): Jeff!
-Macdonald: All of a sudden,
it was in my way.

-I couldn't get my hand free.
-Colette: Why are they doing this to me?!

Macdonald: I was grappling with him,
and I saw,

you know, a-a blade.

I-I really didn't even defend
myself.

It was really too-too fast.

Kimberly (echoing):
Daddy! Daddy!

And all this time,

I was hearing screams.

Kimberly (echoing):
Daddy! Daddy!

♪ ♪

next thing I remember
was lying in the hallway

at the end of the hallway floor.

And I-I went down,
um, to the bedroom.

My wife was lying
on-on the floor,

next to the bed.

I tried to give her
artificial respiration,

but the air was...

Was coming out of her chest.

So, uh...

I went, picked up the phone,

and, uh, I said
my name was captain macdonald

and I was at 544 castle drive

and I needed a doctor
and an ambulance.

I dropped the phone,

and I went back
to check the kids,

check their pulses and stuff
and, uh...

(inhales)

I don't know.

It kept hitting me
that, really, nothing

had been solved
when I called the operator.

So, I went in, you know,
into the kitchen,

picked up that phone
and a sergeant came on.

He said, "can I help you?"

so I told him that I needed
a doctor and an ambulance,

that some people
had been stabbed,

and I thought
I was going to die.

By this time, I was finding it
really hard to breathe,

and, uh, and, um...

The next thing I knew,
an mp was giving me

mouth-to-mouth resuscitation

next to, next to my wife.

What a strange, strange,
strange story.

A product of the times,
the craziness of the times.

Remember how violent and crazy
the '60s were.

Nixon:
Tonight, in south vietnam,
american units

will attack
the headquarters for...

Mine eyes have seen...

Dr. Martin luther king
has been shot to death.

News anchor: Senator robert
francis kennedy died today.

News anchor 2: Guardsmen
opened fire on the students, killing...

Morris: It was a time
of confusion and anger.

With each escalation,
the world comes closer

to the brink of cosmic disaster.

And then, we have
the manson murders.

News anchor: In a scene
described as reminiscent

of a weird religious rite,

five persons, including actress
sharon tate, were found dead.

Miss tate was
eight months pregnant.

Not far away, a middle-aged
couple was found murdered.

Morris: This was one of the cases
of the century. It's everywhere.

News anchor: The word "war"
had been carved on his chest.

With blood, the killer had
scrawled "death to pigs."

morris: The mansons are
arrested in December of 1969,

just months before the
macdonald murders occurred,

in February of 1970.

The army has suspects,
but no prime suspects

in the bizarre murders
of the wife

and two young daughters
of an army doctor.

Captain jeffrey macdonald
was reported in fair condition.

Tevere:
We immediately started looking

for these crazed people
running around fayetteville,

emulating what had happened
in california.

It put the entire fort bragg
and fayetteville area

into a, you know, panic alert.

Everybody was concerned about,

you know, "would they come back
into the housing area again?"

you know, "what do I do
to protect myself?"

what about my family?
What about my kids?"

hodges:
When I went home, my wife

had a butcher knife and
a police pistol under a pillow.

She figured if it was hippies,
I guess,

that they were still running
loose out there, you know?

And if they did it one time,
they could do it again.

Fort bragg is part
of fayetteville.

Fayetteville was called
"fayettenam" at that time.

Tevere: It was a melting pot
for a lot of different scenarios.

There were hippies,
and there were a lot of guys

that came back from vietnam
that had drug issues.

Hodges: There was an
area called haymount hill

that was really bad for drugs.

We went there and rounded up

a bunch of hippies
that halfway matched

the description
that macdonald had given.

And none of them denied
they were on drugs,

but they all denied

having anything to do
with the murders.

Or knowing anybody
fitting the descriptions.

Then, her name came up.

Helena stoeckley.

A city police officer
named prince beasley

clamed that helena
fit this description.

I had seen helena
on many occasions,

with these other people
that, uh,

dr. Macdonald gave
the description of.

Ivory: Prince beasley
called my office,

so I made it a point to go down
and talk to him.

When I got down there,
she was there.

I interviewed her
and found no leads at all.

Absolutely no information
that would tie her to the case.

It was just...
Added more to the confusion.

Ivory: It was...

About halfway
through the first day.

At that point,
we went back to the house

to take a closer look
at the crime scene...

...To find out

what the story was,
what actually happened there.

Hodges: It didn't really add up
to anybody broke into the house.

What had happened,
it happened inside that house.

When you get right down to it,
macdonald's the only one

that possibly could've done it.

Announcer: This is cbs
news with walter cronkite.

The army has changed green
beret doctor jeffrey macdonald

with the murders
of his pregnant wife

and their two young daughters

of fort bragg, north carolina
last February.

It said the case
will be referred...

News anchor:
A military article 32 hearing

is scheduled to begin
at fort bragg

with special forces captain
jeffrey macdonald.

News anchor 2: An article
32 is the military equivalent

of a civilian
preliminary hearing.

Malley: I was just getting
ready to leave for infantry school

when I saw the story
about the murder at fort bragg.

I thought, "you know,
he looks familiar."

and then I read it,
and I was shocked.

I thought, "this has really...

"got to be wrong.

"I mean, I don't know why
it's wrong, or how it's wrong,

"but it's got...
I mean, why would jeff macdonald

do something like this?"

and I kept saying,
"I h... to me, it makes no sense,

because I know the guy."

jeff was my roommate
sophomore year,

in, um, I-in college.

We went to princeton,

but jeff left at the end
of our junior year

to go to medical school,
and I went to law school.

Y-you could think, you know,

"I wonder if jeff's
got... gone crazy.

I wonder if jeff's taking drugs.
I wonder..."

y-you know, th... all those
things you can think of,

'cause I haven't s...
I hadn't seen him in a year or...

More than a year.

But none of that made any sense,
about the person that I knew.

Then I got a letter from jeff

saying that he is gonna
request me to be

part of the defense team.

I told him, "you know,
I'm barely out of law school."

he needed to have
a trial lawyer.

News anchor: The mother of
green beret captain jeffrey macdonald

has hired a lawyer to defend
her 26-year-old son.

The lawyer, bernard segal,
says he has started

his own investigation
of February's slayings.

(excited chatter)

segal: With all my heart,
I tell every one of them

that jeffrey macdonald
did not kill his family.

Malley: Bernie segal
had a reputation as being

one of the upcoming criminal
trial lawyers in philadelphia.

Segal: He is innocent of
the charges against him.

Morris: So, cliff,
why did you sit down to do this interview?

You asked me.
You're the only ones who have.

Nobody ever asked me.
I was sort of surprised.

Article 32s are normally
quiet investigations.

But this case was a big deal.

And so,

when they asked me
to be the lead prosecutor,

hot dog that I was, I said,
"gee, that'd be wonderful."

♪ ♪

douthat:
You've got to realize there was

an anti-army feeling
at the time.

♪ ♪

in this case
had so much publicity.

It was on the headlines
every day.

It had everything...
Ivy league school,

doctor, green beret,
all-american boy,

pregnant wife, children,

homicide, and the

pressure was
on the army to perform.

♪ ♪

beale:
This tragic murder happened,

and it was just awful.

But, uh, fortunately,
I was in the right place

at the right time
and the general offered me

the chance to be the judge.

Of course, when I say "judge,"
technically I was

the legal advisor
to the article 32 officer...

Colonel rock.

This article 32 was
the biggest one I've ever seen.

We knew...
We being the defense team...

We're not rolling over here.

Somers: I don't think any of us

at that point had a real grasp

of just how complex this
was going to turn out to be.

Rock:
This hearing will come to order.

Somers: In order to establish

what was found
from the beginning,

you have to call the witnesses

who were on the scene
at the beginning.

And that would be mica.

The government calls
specialist fourth class mica.

Mica: When they started
the article 32,

I testified the 5th of July.

It was my birthday.

Somers: What was the
weather like that morning?

Mica: It was raining.

It rained off and on
all night long.

Somers: Did you note any unusual

pedestrians or disturbances

in the early morning
of the 17th of February

in that castle drive area?

Mica: No, sir.

Somers: According to
captain mcdonald's story,

four intruders
came into his house.

Did you see any mud
or foreign debris

on the floor of the hall,
which traversed the living room?

Mica: No, sir.

Somers:
I was trying to establish

an amazing lack

of evidence of anyone

having come into that place.

When you glanced
into the living room,

dining room, kitchen area,
did you notice any

particular disarray
in the dining room area?

Mica: Not in the dining room.

Somers: The dining
room could not have been

more than six feet at most
away from where all

this fighting was taking place.

Yet cards, which were
standing up on the table,

are still standing.

Which I find almost impossible

if there had been a fight there.

Mica:
In the living room, there was

a coffee table overturned.

Somers: How was it lying,
on its top or...?

Mica: On its edge.

Somers: The cid investigators
knocked that coffee table

over again and again

and again.

It always fell on its top.

How this table could have been
sitting on its side

on top of this stack
of magazines

as a result of being

knocked over in a fight

is inconceivable.

I have no further questions.

Malley: The prosecution said,
"everybody knows

that the guy who is accused
did it anyway,"

and so, they felt they have an
authority that nobody else has.

They had no idea, no idea,

what real defense counsel
could do.

Segal: At this time,

I want to show you
some photographs

that have been supplied to
the defense by the government.

Douthat: We got

the witness statements
and whatnot from the various mps

and the crime scene photographs,

and they didn't
necessarily jive.

Segal: Specialist mica,
do you ever recall

seeing the telephone
in that particular fashion?

Mica: Yes, sir.

Segal: Do you ever recall the
handset being where it appears to be

in this photograph?

Mica:
No, sir, not that I remember.

What happened was,

photographer came in,
he started taking photos...

...And he got so upset and sick
that he couldn't continue.

So you had one set of
photographs I-in the beginning,

then you had a time lapse

by the time they brought
a second photographer in.

And they had two different sets
of photos they were using.

Douthat: To me,
the first thing you do is secure

the crime scene,
and that was not done.

Segal: What is different
in this photograph

than as what you recall seeing?

Mica:
Well, it shows
this red thing here.

I thought it was
more or less down the steps

in front of the stairs.

Malley:
Bernie's view was, "you know,

"once you start pulling
those little threads out,

the garment might fall apart,"
and it turned out, it did.

Segal: What is different
about that white flower pot

in the photograph
than as what you recall seeing?

In this photograph,
it is standing

on what appears to be its base.

I remember it as being
on its side.

Beale: There was a flower pot

that got stood up.

They had moved the clothing.

Somebody put the phone

back on the hook.

It really started
to raise questions

in your mind of, "gee whiz,
what were they doing?

Who was moving all this stuff?"

segal: I would like,
if you could assist us, specialist mica,

to help us determine

how many people were
in the macdonald house

at the time the medics came
and removed captain macdonald.

Mica: There were just
too many people in there.

At one point, somebody said,

"how long is it gonna be
before they, you know,

remove the bodies," they said,
"oh, it's gonna be hours,"

and this guy's like, "ugh."

he walked across,
sat on the couch.

I said, "get off the couch."

segal: That white flower pot,

how had it gotten
from its position

lying on its side
to standing on its base?

Mica: I believe it was that
man who sat on the couch

I believe he sat it upright.

Segal: I have nothing further
of this witness, sir, at this time.

Douthat: Once we started to cut

the feet out from under them,
we began to feel pretty good.

Bernie decided,

"let's go back
to the table going over.

That was a big deal for them."

and if you look
at the photographs,

there was a rocking chair
in front of the table.

And we figured, "wait a minute,
what happened was,

"is the-the coffee table hit the
chair, spun the chair around,

"it stopped the momentum,
the magazines fell

and the coffee table
landed on top of 'em."

we asked colonel rock
to try and settle it.

Beale:
Colonel rock and I went over

to the quarters where
the murders took place.

He wanted to try this little
experiment with this table.

How'd it land-land on its side?

He kind of laughed and said,
"so much for that theory."

(indistinct chatter)

segal: The crime scene handling by the,
uh, army cid

is a primary example of a crime
scene investigation gone mad.

27 different people marched
through the crime scene,

destroying a great deal of what
was potential evidence there,

without a doubt.

Morris:
The deaths were horrible.

And we're talking
about his wife, his children.

We're talking about
two little girls.

Kimberley and kristen,
five and two.

If jeffrey indeed
was responsible

for these murders...

...What was the motivation?

Why did he do it?

Rock:
Does counsel for the accused

have any further witnesses
at this time?

Segal:
Yes, sir. Mr. Kassab, please.

Would you state what
relationship you are

to captain jeffrey macdonald?

I am his father-in-law.

Douthat: Did you ever hear
jeff macdonald

raise his voice
to your daughter in anger?

Freddy: No. Never at any time.

They were the happiest
I'd ever seen them.

Malley: We interviewed a lot
of his friends, his family,

his-his former patients, to show
what kind of a guy he was.

Everybody liked jeff,

including freddy kassab.

Segal:
Can you describe
his attitude and conduct

towards his children?

Freddy:
Every time you'd turn around,

he had one of the girls
playing with him.

Man:
Do you and mildred miss colette?

Oh, god, yes.

And the children.

Man: Life hasn't
been quite the same?

Freddy: It's never been
the same since that day.

Stevenson: I remember
standing there, waiting,

and then seeing...

...Beside my sister's coffin,

two little coffins
about this big

being put into the ground.

It broke me. It broke me.

-Morris: When we spoke the first time...
-Yes.

Morris:
...You seemed at wit's end

with this constant retelling
of this story.

Every year, somebody wants
to throw a rope around my legs

and drag me through
the family pool of blood again,

and I have to go through all of
it and learning too many things,

uh... remembering things I don't
want to remember anymore,

and I'm not gonna do it anymore.

That was... That was it.

But I've come to understand
that it's not going to go away.

I'll tell my story.

I'll tell what I can.

♪ ♪

my mother wanted a girl
desperately.

She had had stillborn children.

Each one was named colette.

I remember one of my mother's
catholic friends saying,

"how will god ever know
which colette is which?"

tried to deter her.

"don't do another colette."

but yet, my sister was
colette three.

My mother dressed her
to a fault.

She was
the most picturesque thing

you ever saw in your life.

Smerling:
When did you meet colette?

Kindergarten.

You know, you walk in
the first day,

and, you know,
you look to find somebody.

Right from the beginning,
we were kind of buddies.

She was funny,
she was lighthearted.

She was my best friend.

But as close as I was to her...

...She camouflaged
a lot of things.

The only thing she shared is
when her father died,

how sad, how devastated she was.

We were really much closer

than most mothers and daughters,

because as a little child,
she lost her father,

and I meant...

More to her because of that.

And then, when I married freddy,

she just loved him as a father.

Man: How old was colette
when you first met her?

Freddy:
When I first met colette,

she was approximately
13 years of age.

I was courting her mother.

Um, it was
quite a while back now.

Stevenson: Colette loved freddy.

She loved him very, very much.

Man: You have also

known jeff macdonald
for a long, long time.

When did you first meet
macdonald?

I first met macdonald

probably within a month or two
after I met colette.

They were in junior high school
together,

and he would come over
to the house.

Mildred: He and colette
dated through high school.

We thought he was a...
An especially nice boy.

Very nice.

Reich: Jeff was a football star.

He had charisma.

Everybody liked him.

He was outgoing.

Uh, he was friendly.

He was just everything.

Smerling: How quickly did
jeffrey and colette get married?

Reich: She was 20.

I came back from school, and

she called to say
she was getting married.

And, you know,
I was a little surprised,

but then I realized she told me

why they were getting married,
so...

Smerling: And why was that?

She was pregnant.

Man: I take it you and
mildred were pleased

when they decided
to get married?

Freddy: Oh, yes.

He was a nice,
presentable young man,

good potential for the future,

so therefore
we saw nothing wrong

with them getting married.

Freddy: May I add one thing?

Segal: Yes, you may.

Freddy:
If I had another daughter,

I'd still want
the same son-in-law.

(crowd chatter)

my daughter
and two grandchildren...

(clears throat) excuse me.

...Suffered in excess
of 80 stab wounds.

What they want the public
to believe is

that a sane man...

And they charged premeditation,
mind you...

Sat down and planned

to perform such an act.

I don't believe anybody in
this country would believe that.

That a sane man would do this.

Somers: You can't explain this

horrendous event logically,

because if indeed
macdonald did it,

he was in no frame of mind
to be logical.

I believe

if the story fits
the physical evidence,

then you probably
have a good story.

If it doesn't fit
the physical evidence,

then it's a loser.

Jeff's never fit that evidence.

(doors open)

attorney: The government calls

specialist fourth class
craig chamberlain.

Somers: There is only one story

that fit that evidence.

Chamberlain: I was called in

to the head of the lab and said,

"there's a murder case
at fort bragg.

We need you to go there
as a member of a team."

probably the most important
evidence was that

each member of the group of four

in that family had
a different blood type.

Somers: Jeff had b blood,

colette had a blood,

kimberley had ab blood,

and kristen had o blood.

So you could trace

where everybody's blood was
in that unit.

Chamberlain: Macdonald had said

he was assaulted
in the living room.

Smerling: Do you remember where
blood was found in the living room?

It just wasn't there.

But there was a massive amount
of blood

in the master bedroom
where colette's body was found.

Somers: Our theory was
that an argument ensued

in the master bedroom
with colette.

That argument

begins to escalate.

At some point,
macdonald picks up this stick,

and he starts beating her.

Kimberly (echoing):
Daddy! Daddy!

We believe,
while this is going on,

kimberley, his older daughter,
gets out of bed.

He has the stick in his hand.

He swings it around,

and it hits her...

Right across the side
of the head,

crushes her skull.

I mean, knocked it in
a couple of inches.

At this point,
he is a physician.

He knows
she is either going to die,

or she is going to have serious,
serious consequences

of that wound.

I believe he takes kimberley

back to her bedroom.

Attorney:
Specialist chamberlain,

I see that you have drawn
two oblongs on this picture,

and they seem
to be labeled "ab."

would you tell us
what that means?

Chamberlain:
That means I determined

there was ab blood
within these areas.

Somers: That's kimberley's blood

in the entrance
to the master bedroom.

Smerling: Kristy's bed...

Do you remember
how much blood was there?

Chamberlain: There was a
lot of blood on the bed clothing.

The sheets that had colette's
type a blood indicated on it.

It was like, "why is colette's
blood in the kids' room?"

somers: At some point,

colette goes into kristen's room

as though she were attempting

to protect her youngest child,

and jeff hits her in the head.

She falls, and she bleeds

all over the top part
of the bed.

Jeff's got to figure out,
what does he do now?

(camera shutter clicks)

under the table
in the living room,

an esquire magazine was found.

Chamberlain: There was type ab

blood on the edge
of the, uh, magazine.

Somers: How did ab blood
get into the magazine?

It's kimberley's blood.
She sure didn't put it there.

In that magazine was an article
about the manson killings,

including the word "pig"
written in blood.

The theory was that

jeff consulted
the esquire magazine,

and he says, "I got it.

"a bunch of hippies came in.

But wait a minute."

he can't tell them

that some hippies came in
and just beat up two of them.

He goes back
into kristen's room,

and using a knife,

he stabs her.

(blood dripping)

we know she was awake,
because kristen

had wounds to her hands.

Then he stabs his wife
repeatedly with

the ice pick.

And then he staged "pig"
on the headboard.

Chamberlain:
Written on, uh, the headboard

was "p-I-g."

no fingerprints involved
in that.

Somers: We found fragments

of surgical gloves
in the bedroom.

No.

We found b blood in the kitchen

on the floor.

We look in the cabinet
under the kitchen sink.

There was a whole package
of surgical gloves.

That has to be macdonald.

Unless there's somebody else
in there bleeding,

and his story doesn't have

any of them bleeding.

Captain macdonald
had a laceration

between his ribs that resulted

in a collapsed lung.

Chamberlain: In the bathroom,

there was blood drippings
around the sink.

It was type b blood,

which was
jeffrey macdonald's blood type.

Somers:
I think he inflicted that wound

on himself very carefully.

And that is essentially the way

in which jeffrey macdonald
became a murderer.

- (siren wailing)
- (indistinct radio chatter)

when we first started
getting interviewed

before the article 32,
I bring the girl up,

and they're like, "what girl?"
I said, "the girl I saw."

(laughs softly)

I got to say, I thought...

...Excuse my language...
Bullshit.

Bullshit.

Mica, at that point,

sounded like he wanted to be
an investigative hero.

Mica: I knew what I saw.

I figured,

it's gonna come up
sooner or later.

So I went to the defense
and I told 'em.

Bernie segal says, "I'm gonna
put you back on the stand."

segal: Specialist mica,

you're the same witness
who was previously called

and testified
in these proceedings?

Yes, sir.

Segal:
Does that drawing resemble

any person that you believe
to have seen?

Mica: It could, sir.

Segal: Who do you
believe it could represent?

Mica: Possibly the girl I
saw on the corner that night.

(reporters clamoring)

segal: A woman who had been
uncovered by myself was in fact a person

whom the civilian authorities
should investigate

for complicity in the murders
of dr. Macdonald's family

and assaulting him.

Douthat: It was on
the headlines that day.

And people were
sending us letters

and-and calling us on the phone.

And some of them were crazy
and some of them were right

on the money and-and were trying
to be as helpful as they could.

And we came upon
a guy named posey.

Segal: The defense calls
william edward posey.

Douthat: He said that
he had this neighbor

that was strange,
to say the least.

And then, on the night
that the murders took place,

he saw her come in
in the middle of the night

in a mustang car.

He was getting out of the car
and going to the house.

Segal: Would you describe

what her normal
wearing apparel was?

Posey: Well,
she had a big old white floppy hat

that she wore.

And she had a pair of white
boots that she wore a lot.

Douthat: She fit the
description of the person

that jeffrey macdonald
described and mica described.

Her name was helena stoeckley.

All the stuff hanging out there
about stoeckley...

...Everything pointed to her.

What in the world
would somebody be out there

dressed just like the hippie
that macdonald described,

that had just attacked him?

That-that really did raise
some interesting questions.

♪ ♪

smerling: Now you're
waiting for colonel rock

- to make his decision.
- Douthat: Mm-hmm.

Smerling:
How long did that take?

(exhales)

a month, six weeks?
Uh, it took a while.

We kind of heard it was coming
down, and every now and then,

we'd get a whiff
of what was gonna happen,

but we didn't know.

Colonel rock
had been given a job

that was the headlines
of every paper,

and he was gonna get it right.

Smerling:
Can you read it for me?

Yeah. Yeah, well, sure,
I can read it.

Um...

"high security report

"on the meeting
between colonel rock

general flanagan
and captain beale."

I remember flanagan was

the commanding general
of special forces,

and colonel rock, his job
was to make a recommendation

as to whether this case
ought to go forward

with an actual trial.

Must have been
an exchange between them.

"rock offered the statement
that 'I searched high and low

"'for points that show
jeff did it,

but they ain't there.'"

"flanagan said,

"'but what about
the grass and mud?'

rock said, '14 mps hadn't
carried any in, either.'"

"flanagan said, 'but what about
the coffee table?'

rock recounted the entire
sequence of events."

"flanagan asked if there was
any evidence for anyone else

being in the house."

"rock covered all the points,
and also posey."

"'is there anything else
the government can do now

"to solidify the case?'

rock said,
'no, you shot your wad.'"

(laughs softly)

"rock then said,

"'the army had already spent
large sums,

"'and to spend any more money

would make the army
look like fools.'"

yeah.

Yeah.

No, I don't. But that doesn't
mean it didn't happen.

Malley:
This case was a big deal.

And I think the army thought,

"we got to wrap this up quickly.

"um, it's... it... you know,

"cbs evening news knows
about it,

and that's not what we want."

cronkite: The army today

cleared captain
jeffrey macdonald,

a green beret physician,
of charges that he murdered

his wife and two young
daughters nine months ago

in their fort bragg,
north carolina apartment.

The army said that five weeks
of closed-door hearings had not

produced sufficient evidence
to support the charges.

We have all of these myths
about our system.

How it works,

the importance
of a level playing field.

Fairness, equality
before the law.

Here you have a tangled mess

of people all trying
to figure out

what's real

and what's make believe.

What really happened versus
what we think really happened.

Why the fascination
with criminal trials?

Because it's an attempt
to grab ahold of the world,

to figure out what's really
out there, to find truth,

to find something that you can
grab ahold of and shake.

After hearing the decision,
captain macdonald said

he wanted to get out
of the army, start a new life.

Macdonald (over tv): I have said,
in the future, that more investigation

will be done
into certain suspects

that were brought out
by us in the hearing.

Reporter: Do you plan to do
any investigating of your own?

Uh, no comment.

Helena: Dear kathy,

today on the news, I heard that
they had definitely dropped

the charges against macdonald.

Remember how I didn't
have an alibi

for the night of the murder?

Believe me,

I am in deep, deep trouble.

Love and peace. Helena.