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. That didnt happen here. Two possibilities: MacDonald is a monster, or he is a victim of terrible injustice. When Victor Worheide, who was a federal prosecutor, later became interested in the case at the urging of the parents of Colette MacDonald, the case was gone. He had biblical levels of persistence, Bob Keeler, a reporter for Newsday, recalled in A Wilderness of Error.. According to exclusive statistics from the armed crime squad, there has been a five-fold increase in non-fatal shootings in the north-west in four years and the region now sees almost two thirds of Victoria's non-fatal shootings. Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. 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. Make a one-time contribution to Alternet All Access, Jeffrey MacDonald, Joe McGinnis, prosecutor James Blackburn (who went to prison himself for defrauding his clients), Wade Smith and others newer to the case gathered once again to testify. In 1905, Wadea married Sara Hajjar, who had been educated at an English boarding school and was teaching at a mission school for Jewish children in Damascus prior to her marriage. 6,889 Family Trees. The Esquire story, for all its salaciousness, touched upon real issues that plagued many communities outside of California. There were fibers from a blonde wig that matched the description of Helena Stoeckley. Wadea died in February, 1972; Aelyas in October, 1987. Worse still, Judge Franklin Dupree seemed to have his mind made up before the trial began. And were very fortunate. 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.. Two years into MacDonalds undergraduate studies at Princeton, Stevens became pregnant. He went directly to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a teacher of his had settled. Bettmann/Getty ImagesMacDonald in late 1970 after the Army acquitted him of all charges. Tragically, the comparisons to the Sharon Tate killing were striking. She was a pretty girl, not beautiful, but pretty, and she was down to earth and she hated to see anybody hurt.. 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. Morris researched the MacDonald case for 20 years and knows each labyrinthine turn of its progress through the criminal justice system. However, his American dream suddenly became a nightmare in 1970 when his family was found brutally stabbed to death in their home. The popular story says there was no evidence of intruders. View all records. 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. Aelyas followed Wadea to the United States in 1899. LP: Judge Fox is a close friend of Judge Dupree, who presided over the 1979 trial. A crime scene was left open to bystander traffic. 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. 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. 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. 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. He has been imprisoned for three decades for a crime he did not commit. As revealed in footage obtained by The Saturday Age, the latest chapter involves the shooting of the mercurial Mohammed Oueida, a man once described as the new Tony Mokbel, who was only two metres away when a gunman shot at him four times from a car, blasting him in the stomach on April 17. To do so, they are increasingly trying to appeal to the maternal side of these families, and helping mothers and their children escape the criminal elements in their home, before another brood is infected. I wasnt there that night. Tonight when I retire to my bed, I will not feel as safe from unpredictable evils as I did when I was a teenager reading scary stories. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. MacDonald had only one stab wound, which the hospital surgeon later described as a clean, small, sharp incision that made his left lung partially collapse. I began to see that Joe McGinniss creation of Picture #1 might be just that: a creation. While both Detective Inspectors want to reiterate this is rare, it is also their worst fear, and what they are working to stop. Make a one-time contribution to Alternet All Access, Scott Adams and why American capitalism kneels before a bigger God. Wadea left Syria in 1889 with two companions and arrived in the United States that same year. 6,889 Family Trees. Silverglate predicts that even after examining the new evidence, Judge Fox will not grant Jeffrey MacDonald a new trial. Then, if someone draws your attention to certain details, suddenly the picture transforms into the profile of an old woman. 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. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. Many felt that his acquittal would be a cinch, but much more was to go wrong. She knew this world, and was herself a police informant. Now, it appears the Tibas are at war with everybody. And the physical evidence, the circumstantial evidence, just kept mounting against him and contradicting his story for events from that evening.. Although Kassab didnt join the family until Colette was a teenager, he had always been close with his stepdaughter. The CIDs five-month-long interrogation (referred to as an Article 32 hearing) began in April, with officials intent on using only physical evidence and MacDonalds own statements to form their view. Finally, in Wilmington, Jerry Leonard was ordered to tell what she had said to him 30 years ago. Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. But then I felt uneasy. 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. They hoped to get a confession, but she stated firmly that she had never been inside MacDonalds home contrary to previous claims she purportedly made to defense attorneys during witness hearings. 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 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. Shes haunting this case. But just what changed Kassabs mind about the man he once called a nice, presentable young man?". 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. I dont know what the odds are. The cost to Melbourne's north-west is huge. Every time we pursued a lead it just turned us around and directed us back toward Jeffrey MacDonald. Not only had the word pig been scrawled on the bedroom headboard in his wifes blood but she and her unborn baby were dead. But it wasnt until Kassab revisited the crime scene himself in 1972 that he finally believed that his son-in-law had been the killer. MacDonald said there had been a stabbing and begged for an ambulance. Another page in another chapter in the new gangland war. Although the family started out as his benefactors, he ultimately became their caregivers as their positions reversed. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. For all of us independent news organizations, its no exception. We reconstructed the murders using what McDonald said. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! I contacted his office, and to my surprise, he was willing to talk to me. 1,169 Birth, Marriage & Death. Its a disorienting trick. No particular families run any particular suburbs; they are all dealing, all the time, to whoever buys. The social justice movement is now involved; the Innocence Project, a prestigious nationwide network dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted, has worked strenuously to overturn MacDonalds conviction. In the early '80s, I whipped through a dog-eared copy of Fatal Vision, Joe McGinniss sensational true-crime novel about the killings. WS: In every murder of a spouse, the remaining spouse is the number-one suspect and is almost always charged. That huge standard protects us from miscarriages of justice. These fibers on the bodies didnt match any fibers found in the MacDonald house. He wanted his son-in-law to stay on the east coast and pursue the killers. Colettes grieving parents grew suspicious after a November 1970 phone call in which MacDonald claimed he found and killed one of the intruders. Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesRep. Even scarier stories, Ive found, can be true. Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. 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