American physician and Army Green Beret whose wife and two kids were murdered, a famous case known as the Green Beret murders. He was acquitted by the army, then tried and convicted in civilian court.
MacDonald grew up on Long Island, NY, the second of three children. He went to Patchogue High School and was absent March of his sophomore year. Having badly injured his older brother in a sibling row, he was sent to Baytown, Texas to stay with friends. Returning to Long Island, he was president of the Student Council, quarterback of the football team, king of the senior prom, voted most likely to succeed and most popular. Blond, 5’11” with a firm handshake, MacDonald is handsome and charismatic. He went to Princeton and finished in three years, going on to Northwestern University Medical School. He spent his intern year at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.
Enlisting in the army, he volunteered to be a Green Beret. At 3:40 AM on 2/17/1970, MacDonald called the operator at Fort Bragg, NC where he was stationed and asked for an ambulance. MP’s were sent and entered the crime scene, disrupting evidence. MacDonald’s story was similar to the Sharon Tate-Manson story, four hippie men and a woman on drugs broke into the house, killed his family and wounded him. Physical and blood evidence did not corroborate his story. Willing to work over 18 hours a day, at the time of the murders, MacDonald had two jobs in addition to his army duties and was taking diet pills to stay awake. These pills are no longer on the market due to the side-effect of paranoia. He was indicted on 5/01/1970, 4:00 PM. A military hearing began on 7/06/1970. The Army Board of Inquiry said there was insufficient proof to convict and he immediately applied for an honorable discharge.
Six months later he moved into a $350,000 southern California condo, purchased a Maserati and a 34 foot yacht and began working at St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach. His father-in-law, Fred Kassab, after believing him innocent, read the 13 volumes of transcripts from the inquiry, changed his mind and finally persuaded civil authorities to take MacDonald to trial.
On 8/19/1979 he was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. This decision was overturned as a result of appeal on 7/31/1980. An eye witness report of the murders caused the conviction to be reinstated on 3/31/1982. In 1982 MacDonald gave interviews to Joe McGinniss who wrote “Fatal Vision,” which became a best seller and a TV mini-series in November 1984. On 12/19/1985 a federal appellate judge upheld his conviction. A civil jury did not find him responsible in 1987. He has tried appeals all the way to the Supreme Court and has had them denied. In late 1990 he engaged Harvey Silverglate as his attorney and Alan Dershowitz as a consultant.
Jeff met his wife Colette when they were kids around age 12. On 8/30/1963 Colette told her aunt she was pregnant and they were married soon after. At the time of the murders, their daughter Kimberly was five and Kristen was two. Colette was four months pregnant.
He received a back injury while playing high school football. On 2/17/1970 he had multiple small contusions and cuts and his right lung was slightly punctured from a small cut between his ribs. MacDonald is imprisoned at Fort Bragg, NC and is still proclaiming after 20 years that a group of drug-crazed hippies entered his apartment and killed his pregnant wife and daughters.
Link to Wikipedia biography