A True Crime Classic, Close to Home
For most of my life, until Ft. Bragg (now Ft. Liberty) was finally closed to civilian traffic, I have driven by the scene of one of the 20th century's most notorious murders on a regular basis. Around the time of my fifth birthday in 1970, the wife and two children of a Special Forces doctor, Captain Jeffery McDonald were killed in the officer's quarters off of Bragg Boulevard, a four-lane highway that runs through the base and the neighboring towns of Spring Lake and Fayetteville. McDonald was the only member of the family alive when the MPs arrived, although he had been stabbed and had a collapsed lung. He claimed that a band of hippie home invaders had barged into his home and attacked his family. The military conducted an investigation and didn't charge the Ivy League educated doctor. He remained free, eventually leaving the service and settling down in California.
Back in North Carolina, the case was brought to a grand jury five years after the murders. McDonald was indicted and in 1979 stood trial for killing his wife and daughters. The trial took place during the summer before I started high school and was on the front page of the local paper every day. At its conclusion, McDonald was convicted and sentenced to three life terms. He has been in prison ever since but has continued to claim innocence and to fight the charges in every way possible.
A bestselling book by Joe McGinnis, entitled Fatal Vision, was written about the case. the author was recruited by McDonald but came to believe in his guilt, referring to him as a narcissistic sociopath, The book was made into a widely watched TV mini-series in 1984.
Jeffrey R. MacDonald - Wikipedia
NACDL - Reflections on the Jeffrey MacDonald Case
This is Exactly How Jeffrey MacDonald Murdered His Family | A Real Cold Case Detective's Opinion (youtube.com)
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