He told authorities that hetried to fight off the attackers but was wounded and eventually collapsed in the hallwaylater regaining consciousness and discovering his family had been killed, according to the new FX docuseries A Wilderness of Error.. LP: One of the things that struck me in reading Errol Morris book was the use of the psychopath diagnosis in court and how problematic that is. And so there are going to be cases where there is a reasonable doubt as to what actually happened. MacDonald said there had been a stabbing and begged for an ambulance. WebWe found 33,440 records for Kassab last name. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. My friend and I sat around in her backyard, tossing up what facts about the case we could recall. I wasnt there that night. Additionally, much of what Morris introduces as new evidence was already including in the trial that convicted 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. The family claims his body has never been found. Now deceased, she remains a pivotal figure in the case. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. He was the lawyer she was talking to one-on-one who had been appointed to advise her of her rights. WS: Yes. I thought the world of Judge Dupree. Similar to the Chaouks and Haddaras, the Kassabs and the Kheirs who are related clans remain a factor, although their involvement is more peripheral than before. A portrait photograph of Wadea (left) and Aelyas (right) Kassab. Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. Which leaves one of the five families the Tibas. He moved to California to become the director of emergency medicine at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach. He didnt do that. 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. I even laughed at the idea of hippie murderers in North Carolina. WebIn July 1974, a Federal judge acted on a citizen's criminal complaint by Kassab and others, by putting the case before a grand jury. Ive had many cases in court. MacDonald sued McGinniss for fraud in 1987, with a mistrial leading them to settle out of court for $325,000. Then he injured himself and set up the scene to make the crimes appear to be the work of intruders. Thank you. The prosecution, led by James Blackburn and Brian Murtagh, argued that MacDonald staged the crime scene to blame hippies. In other words, an FBI lab technician trusted exculpatory evidence to a member of the prosecution team. Next, his trial in Raleigh, North Carolina presided over by Judge Franklin Dupree began on July 16, 1979. Friends since grade school, he and Colette Stevens began dating as teenagers, and grew serious during college. He was troubled by MacDonalds apparently cavalier attitude about the brutal murders on an appearance of "The Dick Cavett Show. 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. Whats your sense of this? Both brothers married women in Syria and brought them back to the United States. 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.. The veneer of the MacDonalds perfect marriage had also began to crack. Shes haunting this case. The family lost its large house in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and was forced to live in small quarters in a building they still owned. Grieving mother Mildred Kassab weeps for her daughter while being escorted into JFK Memorial Chapel to see her buried. Almost all the of shootings in the north-west, one underworld source said, relate to those at the bottom of the criminal food chain. 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. 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. Were working to restore it. The second is "Kassab Family History by Aelyas Kassab; it is 125 pages and was composed circa 1958. His relentless persistence prompted the government to open a second investigation. WebIn July 1974, a Federal judge acted on a citizen's criminal complaint by Kassab and others, by putting the case before a grand jury. It has Charles Manson written all over it. It doesnt make sense that this man, with no history of violence, went crazy like that. And yet there are thousands of people in North Carolina who do not believe he did 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. Soon I was reading Morris A Wilderness of Error, feeling skeptical and wondering why this reputable man would involve himself in a case that everyone and their mother (including mine) knew the truth about. At the moment, the five Haddaras are similarly constrained, with only one of them free, two dead and two in prison. 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. We would frequently meet at the crime scene and brainstorm the whole scenario. Kassabs unwavering support of his son-in-law also began to crumble as Kassabwho worked in telephone sales for the Quality Egg Co.began to question MacDonalds account of what happened. The story many of us think we know tells that MacDonald's wounds were superficial. Earlier, evidence came to light that a FBI forensic examiner mislead the jury about synthetic hair evidence. His most significant injury was a puncture wound and deflated lung. Melbourne's north-west has become a hotbed for armed crime. 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. 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. Why the MacDonald Case Matters to Everyone. It frustrates police that low-level gangsters without a shred of integrity jut their chins out and shake their heads in a misplaced attempt at honour when asked who shot them, despite, in many instances, being maimed for life. Thereafter their lives ran close and parallel courses. 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. During this time, he met and became friendly with a number of Americans, including the ONeill family of Chester, Pennsylvania. 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. "There was a young kid that was shot, and he's paralysed from the chest down for the rest of his life. 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. 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. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! He wanted his son-in-law to stay on the east coast and pursue the killers. Pennsylvania had the highest population of Kassab families in 1920. Recently, the Fourth District Court of Appeals ordered Fox to consider new evidence, and to examine all the evidence as a whole. That, in turn, drives a burgeoning black market for firearms, and has made the north-west the centre of the gun trade in this state. MacDonald, it appeared, had been endlessly, unfaithful having at least 15 girlfriends, Vanity Fair reports. Wadea left Syria in 1889 with two companions and arrived in the United States that same year. When you accept Picture #1, youre deciding that Jeffrey MacDonald is the Person Who Must Pay. Their second child Kristen was born in May 1967. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. And absolutely nothing fit, Kassab told the Orlando Sentinel in 1989. A neighbors dog and MP guards securing the MacDonald property. 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. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. I accused the Army of every blunder that they made in the original investigation, he once said, according to the docuseries. All rights reserved. For all of us independent news organizations, its no exception. It all was intruders. MacDonald has had mostly good lawyers, though not always the appropriate ones. On the evening of the murders, Jeffrey MacDonald had taken his kids to ride the pony he had bought them, fed them dinner while their mother took a night class, and put them to bed. 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. WebWe found 33,440 records for Kassab last name. Another page in another chapter in the new gangland war. Lynn Parramore: In all your years as a lawyer, what makes this case stand out? They were hardly as connected as the mob in Manhattan, but they had serious clout. 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. 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. The family moved to Chicago after MacDonald was accepted into Northwestern University Medical School. We reconstructed the murders using what McDonald said. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . Mundane things that Jeffrey MacDonald has not been able to do for over 30 years. Back in the 1979 trial, a lawyer named Jerry Leonard represented Helena Stoeckley. 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. Make a one-time contribution to Alternet All Access, Scott Adams and why American capitalism kneels before a bigger God. McGinniss had to be creative, because the mans character never fit the crime. Investigating Officer Warren Rock ultimately recommended the charges be dismissed at the conclusion of the hearing and MacDonald began to move forward with his life, leaving the Army, selling most of the familys possessions in a yard sale, and moving to California. 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. The past year has been the most arduous of our lives. The Jeffrey MacDonald murder case is one of the most disturbing in living memory. And police officers knowing how to take care of a crime scene and preserve it. Through his aggressive pursuit of the case, MacDonald was indicted. Wade Smith: Its a very spooky case. Even his in-laws Mildred and Freddie Kassab believed him and testified at his hearing. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. And the physical evidence, the circumstantial evidence, just kept mounting against him and contradicting his story for events from that evening.. Police agree it would be futile to appeal to gun-slingers on the grounds that they could ruin a rival's life. I used to joke with him when I saw him around Hey Jerry, isnt there something you want to tell us? But he couldnt, and he likely would have gone to his grave carrying the secret of what Helena told him had it not been for that hearing. Detective Inspector Wayne Newman, from the North-West Metro region, says there has been an increase in higher ranking organised crime figures in the area insulating themselves from possible harm by using youth networks to do the grunt work. After 3 a.m. on Feb. 17, 1970, dispatchers at Fort Bragg received an emergency call from the MacDonalds 544 Castle Drive address. Two possibilities: MacDonald is a monster, or he is a victim of terrible injustice. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. But just what changed Kassabs mind about the man he once called . There was violence. 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. 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. They were successful, and a grand jury indicted MacDonald for murder the following year. 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. Jeffrey MacDonald had it all. In October 1970, following an investigation and hearing, the military dropped its case against MacDonald, and he was honorably discharged from the army. Until recently, most people saw Picture #1. Since last September, the Tibas are suspected of involvement in at least six non-fatal shootings, a bashing and multiple home invasions. Since MacDonald was convicted of the murders in 1979, considerable evidence of his innocence has come to light. In the end, MacDonald himself took the stand. Some people would say that was the wrong thing to do. 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. That same year, seven drug-linked executions were reported in 10 months. Invest with us. 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. It didnt make sense. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. The family claims his body has never been found. 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