Fifty years ago today, Fayetteville and Fort Bragg would be shocked to their core by the murders of Jeffrey MacDonald’s pregnant wife Colette and their daughters Kimberley and Kristen in their home on Castle Drive.
Not surprisingly given the notoriety of this case, the Fayetteville Observer ran a retrospective story (linked below) and one picture in particular took my breath away.
The officer standing behind Jeff MacDonald as he’s getting into the car is my father who was detailed to escort him anywhere whilst he was under investigation by the Army CID, particularly if he was going to leave the confines of Fort Bragg.
Dad rarely spoke of the case or his role in it. About a year and a half ago, a TV producer from Brooklyn sent a FEDEX package to my address that was meant for my father (who passed away in December 2015) which mentioned my father’s testimony during the 1979 trial in Raleigh that ultimately resulted in Jeff MacDonald’s conviction.
I will admit that reading that transcript is chilling. I can picture him sitting on the witness stand and answering the questions and probably getting quite annoyed at the cross-examination where the prosecution got hung up on whether ice picks were standard issue kit for Army kitchens. He was never particularly fond of lawyers and then his experience with them during a rather unpleasant divorce and custody battle just a few years prior to his appearance on the stand at this trial wouldn’t have improved his opinions of them. At all.
But then there is a bit toward the end of the questioning from the defence where he mentions Jeff MacDonald coming to our house and at one point holding me in his arms when I couldn’t have been more than a month old. There I am playing a small part of one of the most notorious murder trials in North Carolina history and I never knew that until reading it in the transcript.
Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it?
![Jeffrey MacDonald gets into a car on Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]](https://www.sunfox.com/wp-content/gallery/sunfox_20200217_001_macdonald/1970.macdonald.148.jpg "Jeffrey MacDonald gets into a car on Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]")
![Jeffrey MacDonald gets into a car on Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]](https://www.sunfox.com/wp-content/gallery/sunfox_20200217_001_macdonald/1970.macdonald.148-Edit.jpg "Jeffrey MacDonald gets into a car on Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]")
![Special Forces soldiers carry the bodies of Colette MacDonald and her two children, Kimberly, 5, and Kristen, 2, into the JFK Chapel on Fort Bragg, N.C., on Feb. 17, 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]](https://www.sunfox.com/wp-content/gallery/sunfox_20200217_001_macdonald/1970.02.17.macdonald.146.jpg "Special Forces soldiers carry the bodies of Colette MacDonald and her two children, Kimberly, 5, and Kristen, 2, into the JFK Chapel on Fort Bragg, N.C., on Feb. 17, 1970. [Bill Shaw/The Fayetteville Observer]")
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020(Becky Lewis Claborn)
I remember Jim telling the whole story, and I bought the book about the trial. Jim was the first to go to the crime scene because he was nearby. He knew McDonald very well, but never liked him.
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I suspect you may have heard that story whilst I was away at UCF.
If you read the Article 32 transcript and the 1979 trial transcript…you will see that they were very close and Dad considered him a friend and a mentor, particularly where it comes to being a father for the first time.
In fact, not only did he trust Jeff to hold me in his arms soon after I was born…he was also responsible for me being able to walk as I was born with club feet and Jeff MacDonald was the one that set my legs.
It was around the time I went away to uni that his opinion changed but he never told me what it was that changed it and I got the distinct impression it wasn’t something he really wished to discuss. I know he was often being sought for questioning by reporters but he always refused them as far as I knew.
Given how painful the whole situation was and his reticence, this was a line of enquiry I never pursued.
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020(Dana Fry)
Your Dad always had the best stories. This one is not one that I had heard.
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(Becky Lewis Claborn)
Dana Fry, he could have written a best seller with his experiences, and famous people he had met.
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020(Tamara O’Connor)
Wow, Erik — that’s crazy and creepy and chilling, all at one!! Especially that he held 1-month-old you!!
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020Sally Brown)
Wow. What a story. *shiver* I’ve read Fatal Vision multiple times and done a lot of reading on the case. There is no way in hell Helena Stoeckley killed Colette and the girls.
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I’ve read “Fatal Vision” at least three times and I have my father’s annotated copy of “Fatal Justice” sitting right next to me where he wrote his notes in the margins of various pages which is far more than he ever actually told me when he was alive. I’ve not read “Wilderness of Error” (which trashes “Fatal Vision”) or “Final Vision” (which is Joe McGinniss’ response to the criticisms of him in “Wilderness”) though I probably ought to for the sake of completeness.
With the case now fifty years old and most of the principal witnesses having passed away, I can’t imagine how Jeff MacDonald will ever be released from prison except by some divine intervention. And that hasn’t been forthcoming for many decades now…
One last little tidbit from the pictures in the linked article comes from the one where you see the three caskets being carried into JFK Chapel by members of the 6th Special Operations Group. According to the Article 32 transcript (that testimony was taken exactly 36 years to the day before my daughter was born…will the ironies never cease?), my father helped the family pick those caskets for the funeral as well as make the other arrangements for the service.
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(Sally Brown)
These connections are crazy. I haven’t read the additional books either. I totally get the criticism of McGinnis but I always looked at it differently… like he went into it wanting NOT to believe he did it. He assumed innocence when he started. Unfortunately while I LOVE reading it’s hard for me to get through books now (I was a voracious book reader but adhd has made it harder to get through books. I read tons of periodicals.) Maybe I’ll give them a shot again when I get my new library card.
What you said about the witnesses is true and this happened the year I was born. It’s an old case! Freddy made this case his life’s mission (and he loved Jeffrey at first!) And he’s passed on now.
Jeffrey’s story just never made sense to be and it seemed straight outta Manson and the creepy crawlies. If we read the other books will have to discuss.
He’s 76 now so tick tock
And because of the movie Gary Cole is always Jeffrey MacDonald to me just like powers booth is always Jim Jones
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020(David Falwell)
Wikipedia says he up for parole in May. I wasn’t familiar, and was surprised how much Wikipedia had about the case.
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(Sally Brown)
David Falwell, he’s in his 70s now and lost another appeal two years ago. You’ll still see WRAL covering any activity on the case even today. The problem with parole is they want to hear his remorse and he won’t admit he did anything wrong. I’ll be shocked if he ever gets out.
Erik Williams
17 Feb 2020(Becky Lewis Claborn)
A family member of church friends just disappeared at Fort Bragg about that time. Jim said there was a lot of crime due to drugs. They never found any clues.