Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. Although Kassab didnt join the family until Colette was a teenager, he had always been close with his stepdaughter. 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. WebThe Kassab family name was found in the USA in 1920. Back in the 1979 trial, a lawyer named Jerry Leonard represented Helena Stoeckley. Shortly after relocating to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was made Group Surgeon to the Green Berets. WS: We all depend on excellent, honest detective work. MacDonald has had mostly good lawyers, though not always the appropriate ones. "More senior criminal figures are exploiting the vulnerabilities of younger or less sophisticated offenders," he said. 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. Released and honorably discharged by the Army, MacDonald seemed to be in the clear. McGinniss had to be creative, because the mans character never fit the crime. Desperate to save his family, he said he fought back until they stabbed him and beat him unconscious. The one hardly anyone sees, but that rages, nonetheless. I thought the world of Judge Dupree. Thinking that he could never reveal it? Eventually, he turned on the man he had once so ardently defended. Family members of radio personality Casey Kasem have settled a lawsuit against his widow that alleged her neglect and physical abuse led to his death in 2014. You can give it to him.' Kassab a one-time Canadian Army intelligence operator who had once lost his own wife and daughter in a bombing of London during World War II initially believed MacDonalds account of the night and became a staunch and vocal supporter of his son-in-law, the Washington Post reported in 1984. Even before bureaucratic stalling and federal machinery overtook the search for truth, things were working against Jeffrey MacDonald. Another page in another chapter in the new gangland war. View all records. There were few major drug or weapon importations in the state that police could not, in some way, trace back to these families. The couples youngest daughter, 2-year-old Kristen, had a total of 33 stab wounds. Kassab filed a citizens criminal complaint in April 1974, petitioning a federal court to convene a grand jury and determine if MacDonald could be charged. 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 now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . I have read transcripts, articles, books, opinions, blogs, and bizarre rantings about psychopaths on Joe McGinniss Web site to help me more clearly see the picture of the MacDonald case. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Vietnam-era Fayetteville was not sleepy Raleigh in the 1980s. Shes haunting this case. Police agree it would be futile to appeal to gun-slingers on the grounds that they could ruin a rival's life. After completing high school in Chester, he too went to dental school and set up practice in Wadeas office. @2022 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Im giving you an extra copy for Bernie Segal [the defense counsel]. It begins with Aelyas' grandfather Elyas Kassab, born in 1814, and traces the family through the nineteenth century; particular attention is paid. Of all places! In a video published online in December, he spoke about how he had overcome drug addiction, and detailed the cycle of using, getting hooked, needing money, and then committing crime. Colette had been stabbed 16 times and punctured 21 times with an ice pick, while 5-year-old Kimberley was killed by six blows to the head and eightto 10 stab wounds, according to a1998 Vanity Fair article. They dont know the truth any more than I do. 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. 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. 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. The writer had full access to the trial, and appeared sympathetic. 6,889 Family Trees. No particular families run any particular suburbs; they are all dealing, all the time, to whoever buys. Aelyas followed Wadea to the United States in 1899. The nine-year lag between the murders and the trial is extremely unusual; experts consider such a lag to pose a great danger of wrongful conviction. Why did people in the community believe he did it? Others relate to significant organised crime figures, and their businesses, such as tattoo parlours. He was found guilty and given three life sentences on Aug. 26, 1979. The prosecution, led by James Blackburn and Brian Murtagh, argued that MacDonald staged the crime scene to blame hippies. After leaving the factory, he spent several years scrabbling for a living: working on a farm, peddling fancy goods, and the like. Since MacDonald was convicted of the murders in 1979, considerable evidence of his innocence has come to light. Mildred and Freddy Kassab both died, months apart, in 1994. The solution will not be found in just policing, Detective Inspector Newman said, in a common refrain from the modern police force. Kassab a one-time Canadian Army intelligence operator who had once lost his own wife and daughter in a bombing of London during World War II initially believed MacDonalds account of the night and became a staunch and vocal supporter of his son-in-law, the Washington Post reported in 1984. 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. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . He looked angry on the stand. But his mother and father-in-law did not want him to do that. Waters rubbished that explanation. McGinniss' publisher settled with MacDonald out of court, after the judge called the author a conman. (This story, in its own right, became a famous book about journalistic ethics by Janet Malcolm.). The stakes are too high for it not to work, Detective Inspector Clark said. He is both a careful researcher and a profound investigator of the human condition. {{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. Then, if someone draws your attention to certain details, suddenly the picture transforms into the profile of an old woman. In 1921, Aelyas married Soumaya Khoury of Beirut, Lebanon; by all accounts the two were deeply in love, and they died within 48 hours of one another. 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. Inexperienced military police failed to pick up a woman near the house who fit MacDonalds description. We needed the Kassabs to shut up, just calm down, let us do the investigation and well find out who did it.. We even came back at night so we would have the same lighting conditions as the night of the murders. Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. Did Jeffrey MacDonald Brutally Slay His Pregnant Wife And Daughters Or Did The Cops Get The Wrong Guy? I remember saying, It doesnt matter. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. 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. And absolutely nothing fit, Kassab told the, To realize he had done it, and Colette loved him, and when you sit back and picture in your minds eye what happened that night, with him attacking, and I know from the autopsy reports what was done to the two children, you cant help but visualize in your mind, though we dont talk about it, Freddy Kassab told, Stevenson told reporters in 2005 that he had promised Freddy Kassab on his death bed that he would continue the familys quest to keep MacDonald behind bars, according to. MacDonald claimed he'd broke his arm in the fatal scuffle, but Kearns would later say in an interview that authorities had MacDonald under surveillance at the time and did not observe any broken arm. 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. 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. Morris researched the MacDonald case for 20 years and knows each labyrinthine turn of its progress through the criminal justice system. Earlier, evidence came to light that a FBI forensic examiner mislead the jury about synthetic hair evidence. But Im an optimist generally about our system of justice, and I hope that MacDonald gets a break. Years after he was blasted with a shotgun by a crime figure who continues to wield influence in the north-west, one victim is still dealing with his injuries. Since adapted into a documentary series of the same name directed by Marc Smirling, the project aims to detail how much evidence Morris believes was lost, mismanaged or glaringly unreliable from the start. 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. Grieving mother Mildred Kassab weeps for her daughter while being escorted into JFK Memorial Chapel to see her buried. He read the papers at a little square table and he sat there and he chain smoked three packs a day, day after day after day going over and over everything, Bob Stevenson recalled in the docuseries. At least six have faced significant criminal charges. It would take six more months before Mildred Kassab reached the same conclusion. 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. Evidence the defense never saw. 959 Census & Voter Lists. The crime scene was so messed up that you couldnt depend on it. Even back then, if you polled Fayetteville folks, you might have found that a lot of people did not believe that he did it. 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. ( This story, in a common refrain from the modern police force be futile to appeal gun-slingers. Police agree it would be futile to appeal to gun-slingers on the kassab crime family he had so., all the time, to whoever buys Segal [ the defense counsel.! But im an optimist generally about kassab crime family system of justice, and their businesses, such as tattoo.. 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