Merged Jeffrey MacDonald did it. He really did.

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My critical thinking skills are quite adequate than you very much. The problem is that the drunken Irish son of a bitch Joe McGinniss wrote some silly book about the MacDonald case about an amphetamine psychosis which was proved later not to be true in court, and he made some naff TV movie about the MacDonald case which was no more to do with the pure unadulterated historical truth than a James Bond book, or a Star Wars movie. The American public are simpletons and they only understand straight lines, and rising house prices.

I could quite easily say that JTF murdered JonBenet Ramsey because his hairs and fibers and blood was found there and that he moved bodies in a sheet. That's because of the presumption of guilt in America. The point of the matter is that in law what the soldier said is not evidence. You must be experienced at weighing evidence.

I have been blocked from posting on Topix, I think because the White House wants to cover-up their bugging and bumping off, and imprisonment, of journalists because they don't like political embarrassment, and the media doesn't like controversy. Officialdom never admits a mistake.

The only reason Dr. MacDonald was prosecuted after he had been cleared during the comprehensive investigation at the Article 32 proceeding in 1970 was because the totally inexperienced homicide detective Kearns told Fred Kassab in New York that Dr. MacDonald had been seeing another woman after the death of his wife Colette. Judge Dupree's son in law North Carolina lawyer Proctor then moved to the CIA and he wanted to cover-up the drug smuggling by the CIA with the murderous Mafia at Fort Bragg by blaming it all on Dr. MacDonald.

For JTF to say that all the evidence was not in at the Article 32 is simply not true. The controversial Stombaugh of the FBI, whose forensic work has come into criticism for his work on the Warren Commission, then made up some theory without facts that Dr MacDonald had supposedly stabbed Colette through the pajama top with an ice pick, and he had supposedly hit Colette with a hairbrush. The Army CID agent Shaw still falsely believed that Colette had murdered the two little girls. It's quite ludicrously unsatisfactory evidence. The Grand Jury were fooled and conned. Doctors are not detectives.

There was a hair in Colette's left hand which miraculously became Dr. MacDonald's hair in 2006 after being unidentified since 1970. That was after the FBI had promised not to tamper with the forensic evidence in their possession. Malone of the FBI then pontificated later on that blonde synthetic hair-like fibers found at the crime scene came from a MacDonald doll with no proof to back that opinion up. Those fibers almost certainly came from Helena Stoeckley's wig. Malone is another controversial FBI lab figure who has been in trouble in other murder cases for his false testimony in the past.

The North Carolina judges have been more like novitiate judges than the elite and best judges needed for a difficult murder. I don't think they fully understand forensics and they are far too gullible about forensic fraud. Stombaugh was never qualified to render an opinion about fabric damage or blood in court. He was supposed to be a hair and fiber man after starting off as an insurance salesman.

Helena Stoeckley gave hints and clues as to exactly what happened in the MacDonald case. She might have made mistakes, or even lied, as to part, but that doesn't mean her story should have been rejected by Judge Dupree. She was never granted immunity and she was mainly interested in saving her own skin. You have got to place yourself in her place in that situation.

I believe that there have been over 100000 unsolved murders in America since the second world war. What is quite transparent to me is that these difficult murders should not be put in charge of totally inexperienced homicide detectives. That just only means the guilty go free and the innocent are convicted. Even many of the FBI are not professional criminal investigators. They are no more capable of solving a difficult murder than the cops at my local police station. This can then lead to gross miscarriages of justice like in the MacDonald case. It's faulty organisation.
 
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This led to severe financial anxiety for him with things like legal fees, and other worry and anxiety.
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Well, he should have considered that possibility before he slaughtered his family.

The case was a slam dunk based on the blood evidence.
 
Well, he should have considered that possibility before he slaughtered his family.

The case was a slam dunk based on the blood evidence.

The blood evidence in the MacDonald case is ludicrously unsatisfactory and it boils down to guesswork that bodies were supposedly carried around in a sheet by Dr. MacDonald. It's guesswork and pure speculation. The trouble is blood is an emotive subject with any jury. There often is blood at any murder scene.

It's not true to say the MacDonald defense attorneys never disputed the blood evidence. The matter was decided by so-called experts who were not experts in blood impressions anyway.

This matter of Hoover of the FBI disregarding a warning about Pearl Harbor is not a conspiracy. It was mentioned in a British TV documentary about the British double agent Popov a few days ago, but Americans will probably never be told about it by their mainstream media. I suppose you think that American computers are never bugged by the NSA?

Judge Fox was a pal of the now deceased Judge Dupree and Judge Fox attended Dupree's funeral. There seems to be a cosy relationship between the judges in North Carolina. The MacDonald case needs some impartial judges.

This blood evidence matter in the MacDonald case was mentioned in the CID agent Shaw testimony at the Article 32 in 1970:

A Most of the bloodstains on that towel, and there was other types of blood on it also, appeared to be wipe marks, which I conjecture to be the weapons used in this case, indicating that the weapons were wiped off on that towel. I do not know that the towel or have an opinion as to whether the towel actually came in contact with Kimberly MacDonald. I think that the weapon that killed Kimberly did come in contact with the towel.
Q And that is based on your information and knowledge about this case?
A That is correct.
Q And your experience; there is no expert opinion as to how those stains got on that particular bath mat, is there?
A No.

QUESTIONS BY CAPTAIN DOUTHAT:
Q Mr. Shaw, you said a few minutes ago that you were of the opinion that Kimberly did not, in fact, receive fatal injuries in her own bedroom, but that in fact they were inflicted someplace else and she was then returned to her own bedroom. Am I correct in saying that you said that?
A Yes.
Q And I thought I heard you also say that that was for the purpose of making the investigators believe that she had been killed in her own bedroom. Am I correct in stating that?
A That is correct.
Q Would you tell me on what you base your opinion that someone did either of those things, if in fact they happened at all, for the purpose of misleading investigators?
A I am not sure what you mean when you say that.
Q You stated in your answer before that you pieced together just what you called the sequence here of an injury inflicted on the child other than in her bedroom?
A Yes.
Q That she was then, in your opinion, returned to her own bedroom?
A (Affirmative nod.)
Q Is that right?
A Yes.
Q And that that was done to make it appear--I believe those were your words--that she had in fact been fatally injured in her own bedroom rather than fatally injured in the master bedroom, is that what you have concluded?
A Yes.
Q What I want to know is, what is the basis for your opinion that someone was trying to lead investigators to believing that she was killed in her own bedroom, if you think there is evidence to the contrary?
A Well, I think the killer was trying to set up a false set of circumstances to be reconstructed by the investigators in this case, and just that.

QUESTIONS CONTINUED BY ATTORNEY EISMAN:
Q What possible motive would Jeffrey MacDonald--assuming your theory is that he did it--that is your theory, isn't it? I assume that is why we are here. Assuming that Jeffrey MacDonald did it, what possible motive would he have for removing the child from the master bedroom and placing her back in her own bed and making it appear like she was killed in her own bed? Do you have any possible motive for that?
A Well, I know that he has told us and others, that during the time he was being attacked he heard his oldest daughter, Kimberly, screaming or calling, yelling in her bedroom.
Q He said he heard her yelling in the bedroom and he said he knew where she was yelling from?
A That was the impression I received from what he said. You have copies of his statement.
So in my opinion that places her in her own bedroom, according to his statement, and under some kind of stress. As to why he would stage this scene, specifically this way, I do not know. I have no opinion about
 
Oh, poor, poor Jeff MacDonald. First he slaughters his family and now he's being "defended" by a "critical thinker" like Henri.

A soul just doesn't get any lower. Bleeding hearts, violins, and all that.
 
The blood evidence in the MacDonald case is ludicrously unsatisfactory and it boils down to guesswork that bodies were supposedly carried around in a sheet by Dr. MacDonald. It's guesswork and pure speculation.

Every member of the family had a different blood type. Somehow the various bloodstains ended up where they did. If you think the prosecution theory is wrong, give us an alternative that explains the evidence with the same degree of detail.
 
Open And Shut

In the past 43 years, not one MacDonald advocate (e.g., Bernie Segal, John Thornton, Jeffrey Elliott, Harvey Silverglate, Fred Bost, Cyril Wecht, Barry Scheck, Ray Shedlick, and Errol Morris) has made an attempt to produce a forensic timeline that bolsters MacDonald's hippie home invader tale.

For those who believe in MacDonald's guilt, presenting a murder timeline based on the physical evidence collected at the crime scene has been an easy task. Paul Stombaugh, Victor Woerheide, Brian Murtagh, and Joe McGinniss have all produced timelines that rely on documented fact.

IMO, the physical evidence tells one tale and one tale only.

http://www.macdonaldcasefacts.com/html/timeline.html

As the 4th Circuit Court pointed out, the Government presented over 1,000 evidentiary items at the 1979 trial, and Brian Murtagh told Robert Sam Anson that this encompassed about 60 percent of their case file. Once you include the inculpatory DNA test results, this becomes an open and shut case. Jeffrey MacDonald is a serial liar, coward, psychopath, and mass murderer.
 
Helena Stoeckley provided a story and timeline as to exactly what happened and she named names. There were other witnesses who backed up her story. Unfortunately there were mistakes and lies in her story, and the genius detectives in the Army CID and FBI just disregarded her, as did Judge Dupree. It was stupidness if you get my meaning.

I fully appreciate that the MacDonald family had different blood types and there is nothing suspicious about that as far as I know. The blood evidence was hotly disputed by MacDonald defense lawyer Segal. The Army CID blood man Craig Chamberlain was cross-examined at the 1979 trial and it became so heated and acrimonious that Judge Dupree called the lawyers to the bench to ask for cooler tempers.

Craig Chamberlain was very inexperienced at the time and it was his first visit to a crime scene. Mistakes and contamination can be made in blood typing if it is not done or collected properly.

Even if you accept that the blood typing was accurate there were other irregularities. None of the prosecution theories about supposed pajama cuff impressions on the sheet and bedding were presented by a qualified blood expert. Janice Glisson at the Army CID was qualified as a blood expert but she was never asked for her opinions about the blood evidence in court and she just obeyed orders. Stombaugh of the FBI was a supposed hair and fiber man and he was not qualified to render an opinion about fabric impressions.

The mystery of the blood is that some blood spots of the different victims was supposed to have been found in different bedrooms, and I think the hallway. To my mind a perfectly reasonable explanation came from MacDonald attorney Eisman who suggested that the wooden murder club was used on all of the victims and it might easily have been dripping with blood of those different victims, which then dripped into different bedrooms.

It was unfair to ask Dr. MacDonald to explain all that or to assume that he was lying about not moving bodies in a sheet. I suppose the bodies could have been posed, or even moved, for horrific effect by the murderers but I think Allen Patrick Mazerolle has some explaining to do about that.
 
There are 1000 evidentiary items in every murder case. It's not necessarily proof of anything, or of guilt. What is needed is conclusive evidence, not just opinions by people who are not experts.

There was a lot of legal waffle about the blood evidence at the Article 32 proceeding There seems to be a lack of expert opinion in CID agent Shaw's opinions about the blood evidence:

Q But due to the fact that you found type AB blood, which is Kimberly's blood, on that towel, that also led you to conclude, or one of the factors that led you to conclude that she was killed in that room, is that correct?
A No, not correct. I do not think she was killed in that room and in fact her blood was found at the door where she was injured.
Q Where do you think she was injured?
A In the master bedroom.
Q That fact that she was some way injured in the doorway, does that [in] any way conflict with Captain MacDonald's version of this killing? Has Captain MacDonald ever told you he knew where his daughter was killed?
A No, he hasn't.
Q Of what significance do you think the fact that type AB blood was found in the master bedroom entrance, has to do with your opinion that Captain MacDonald was responsible for this?
A Would you repeat that, please?

ATTORNEY EISMAN: Read it back.

(Reporter complies.)

Q In other words, what is the significance, in regard to your opinion of the case, that there was, her blood was found in this bedroom and that she subsequently expired in her own bed?
A Yes, there is significance, because as one looks at Kimberly MacDonald, lying in her bed, dead, it would appear that she was killed in her sleep, and I think this is what we were supposed to believe, when in fact I believe she was injured in the master bedroom. So it would appear to me that she was injured in the master bedroom and moved to the south bedroom, injured there fatally and made to appear as though she had never left her bed.
Q Any expert opinion--when I say experts from Fort Gordon or Fort Bragg, I mean any qualified hematologist or other type of trained experts who you have in your files, which says that this blood found in the master bedroom was not contamination and was in fact occasioned when she was injured there? In other words, you have said that you have spoken to people or you have gotten some expert opinion, what I am asking you, the direct question as to who, if anyone, or who are these individuals who have said that, other than yourself?
A There is no way, to the best of my knowledge, to determine whether a piece of blood--in a contamination, of course, what we are talking about--I elicited the opinions of other Criminal Investigators, for instance [the] pathologist and laboratory technicians at Fort Gordon and asked them their opinion.
Q Is that contained at all in your reports from the laboratory or was this just your discussion with them?
A My discussion with them, because it is strictly a matter of opinion, as far as I know; it can't be technically determined.
Q Is that recorded anywhere in the laboratory reports from Fort Gordon or any report from the forensic pathologists whom you have discussed the matter with?
A My conversation with them about this?
Q Your conversation or any report that they might have made about it?
A I do not think so.
Q Because of the fact that type AB blood was found on this bath towel, did you reach any conclusion as to whether the person who placed this bath towel had also touched Kimberly MacDonald?
A Most of the bloodstains on that towel, and there was other types of blood on it also, appeared to be wipe marks, which I conjecture to be the weapons used in this case, indicating that the weapons were wiped off on that towel. I do not know that the towel or have an opinion as to whether the towel actually came in contact with Kimberly MacDonald. I think that the weapon that killed Kimberly did come in contact with the towel.
Q And that is based on your information and knowledge about this case?
A That is correct.
Q And your experience; there is no expert opinion as to how those stains got on that particular bath mat, is there?
A No.
 
Burden Of Proof

HENRIBOY: For almost a decade, you've posted this same rambling/disjointed cognitive concoction on several discussion boards. Not only can't you keep your talking points straight, but your posts usually rely on dated material that you don't place in its proper context.

You have yet to comment on the Government's presentation at the September 2012 evidentiary hearing nor have you provided your own special brand of distortion to the Government's 200 page response memo.

As Joe McGinniss once said, "Facts are facts, and when they cut this deep, they cannot be overcome by hype." If you want to create a fantasy about MacDonald advocates creating timelines, be my guest, but don't try to pawn that CLAIM off as reality.

Time is running out on your boy. His lawyers know it. His wife knows it. Inmate knows it. You know it. Since 1982, the burden of proof is on inmate and so far, he hasn't come close to meeting that burden.

http://www.macdonaldcasefacts.com
 
I admire the time and effort JTF has put into his MacDonald case website. The trouble is it's a load of bull.

Just making up evidence about a supposed violent argument in the early hours of the morning with Colette supposedly hitting Dr. MacDonald with a hairbrush is not academically satisfactory. You decide on the evidence.

Dr. MacDonald has spoken publicly and in court on numerous occasions about his time line and how he was attacked and knocked unconscious when he was asleep on the couch. He has never changed his story. The time the 911 call was made is official public knowledge.

I have not read the latest prosecution or defense replies. They seem to be the same old legal waffle and rehash of what has been said for the past thirty years. There seems to be nothing new. Where are the thorough interviews with the members of the Helena Stoeckley gang still living, like Greg Mitchell's pal Daniels, or the drug addicted daughter of the Head of Army CID at Fort Bragg Colonel Kriwanek, or even Mazerolle, though I suppose he would categorically and vehemently deny everything?

Dr. MacDonald has had bad luck with his appeals. His best chance seemed to be with the Supreme Court in about 1980/81 when there were several judges who were in disagreement with the majority decision to send him back to prison. The 1985 Judge Dupree appeal was a farce

That was when Judge Dupree made the silly remark that Helena Stoeckley and Greg Mitchell had probably been courting on a bridge on the night of the murder! It was shortly after the McGinniss Fatal Vision and TV movie had come out, and that was not good for MacDonald's court of public opinion.

The next appeal somewhere around 1991. Harvey Silverglate had done some excellent legal work with regard to the fibers and he had presented evidence about Helena's blonde synthetic hair like fibers at the crime scene and unsourced black fibers on the arm and biceps of Colette and on the wooden club murder weapon. The North Carolina judges just told him the black fibers probably came from a dress Colette was seen in a photo in but that dress was never identified! Murtagh just rejected and ignored Silverglate's criticism.

Then in about 1997 there was a legal tangle in an appeal about the DNA. The trouble is there was no DNA in 1970 and by 1997 things like the wooden club and knives had become hopelessly contaminated by handling. The biased Judge Fox only allowed a few items to be tested and any incriminating DNA evidence was then tampered with by the FBI after a ten year delay. The fingerprint collection at the crime scene was a complete shambles, which was discussed at the 1979 trial. In any case they would have been wearing gloves like surgical gloves.

Part of the trouble is that appeals bristle with technicalities and time limits. Some other suspects need to be arrested to get him out of prison. He can no longer afford private detectives. If there are any rich people around who are interested in the MacDonald case, and private detectives for him, the defense fund can be contacted at the Jeffrey MacDonald website. I think MacDonald's doctor friend Shea is in charge of that and I believe contributions can be tax deductible.
 
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So...still zero physical evidence of the hippies who managed to incapacitate a Green Beret using only weapons found in the MacDonald household, all while chanting like Hollywood central casting, and leaving zero forensic evidence.

Gotcha....
 
Empty Claims

KB: Exactly. If you believe MacDonald's fictional narrative, there were a minimum of 6 hippie home invaders inside the cramped residence at 544 Castle Drive. If you have 6 people attacking a family of 4 in a shared residence (e.g., upstairs neighbors), there is going to be evidence of intruders present at the crime scene.

In the past 43 years, not one piece of evidence has been SOURCED to a KNOWN intruder suspect. No evidence of any member of the Stoeckley Group was found at the crime scene. No DNA, no hairs, no fibers, no bloody footprints, no fingerprints, nothing. As I stated in my prior post, the burden is on the Defense to prove that hippie home invaders murdered Colette, Kimmie, and Kristen. They had their chance to do that at the September evidentiary hearing and they came up empty.

http://www.macdonaldcasefacts.com
 
You folks always come up with the spurious argument that there was no evidence of intruders. The thing is in these difficult murders there is often no forensics at all of the real culprits and intruders. This is admitted by the police, at least by the police in the UK, and it was particularly true before the days of DNA. It's just the same in the Ramsey case where the real culprits have been disregarded because of no footprints in the snow when there was no snow on the walkways.

There was an interesting murder case in the UK a few years ago of a serial killer of homosexuals. There were no forensics at all of an intruder until by chance the murderer got careless and left his fingerprint on the window of the house of one of his victims when he went to investigate a disturbance outside of the bedroom window.

In the MacDonald case there was no ice pick in the MacDonald house. This was stated to the police in the initial investigation by the babysitter Kalin and by Colette's mother. It's just that later on the prosecutor Murtagh coached those two ladies to lie about the ice pick in court. That was mentioned by a judge at the Supreme Court MacDonald case hearing in about 1980.

There has never been any firm evidence that the knives in the MacDonald case like the Geneva knife or Hickory knife were ever in the MacDonald apartment before the MacDonald murders.

I have also never seen the hard evidence or scientific certainty that the wooden club murder weapon came from a MacDonald bed as was suggested by the Army CID. I suppose it's possible, but most unlikely. I suppose the killer gang may have picked it up as they entered the apartment.

There used to be chanting drug addicted hippies in those days and strange religious cults like the Mormons. They were often doing drug dealing for the Mafia and the CIA. I think Dr. MacDonald may have rubbed somebody up the wrong way when he went to New York to help out his drug addict brother and some bad character might then have decided to get even with him and his family.

Both Helena Stoeckley and Cathy Perry confessed to being there at the MacDonald murders. Greg Mitchell confessed in conversation later on about something that had happened at Fort Bragg. I think Morris has said that Cathy Perry is now dead. She was certainly a strange one and her testimony was confused. The point is that just because somebody has been in a mental hospital doesn't mean they are unable to witness a crime. They were not educationally subnormal. There were others in the gang who might not have been directly involved but who heard gossip as to exactly what happened. What about Bruce Fowler and Dwight Smith?

I still think the blonde synthetic hair-like fibers, and the black fibers around Colette's mouth and on the wooden club murder weapon is firm evidence, and it should never have been denied by the Army CID and FBI. To just say those fibers came from a doll or Colette was once seen in black dress in a photo is ludicrously unsatisfactory evidence with nothing to back it up. I suppose that might not sway a jury and the foreman of the jury had told at least three people before the trial that he was going to convict Dr. MacDonald whatever was said in court.

I think it's all corrupt bias, although I suppose in theory I should not say that. It was never a complete investigation. The police usually just decide who did it and then they make up the forensic evidence, and other so-called evidence, and 'find' evidence. The police are apt to jump to conclusions. The police and FBI need to get it right.

It is only necessary to read the public comments occasionally made by one judge upon what another has done to realize that mistakes are made, and serious ones.

A great weakness of the jury system is the way in which they can be, and are, influenced by the tricks and emotional appeals of advocates. Juries are affected not only by the great oratorical appeals of counsel. These have their effect mainly by providing an apparently reasoned theory which a jury can adopt to save the trouble of independent thinking. It is the nods and smiles and subtle changes of tone during examination and cross-examination which win verdicts.
 
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Hype And Circumstance

HENRIBOY: I realize that the endgame of your psychotic rants is to annoy those who adhere to documented fact, but it's important to remember that a pregnant woman and two small children were needlessly butchered by the same person who hasn't provided a single piece of exculpatory evidence.

Your focus on red herrings, half-truths, assumptions, and b.s. defines you as a troll and an advocate for a convicted child killer. I know that you don't care how others define you, but if you are going to post on this thread, please stick to the documented record when presenting your arguments.

http://www.macdonaldcasefacts.com
 
What a huge pile of Special Pleading.

I am going to assume the UK case you reference is Colin Ireland

Ireland took care to clean up the murder sites. He was very careful in his killings and chose victims who were willing to be tied up.

You know who I rather doubt would be so careful in their killings? Half a dozen drugged out hippies who needed to forcefully overcome a trained Green Beret and others in the house. Oh, and then left words on the mirror in blood, etc. Apples and Oranges as far as cases go. No wonder you didn't dare name the case.

As for the chanting. Yes hippies would chant. But the whole "Acid is Groovy, Kill the Pigs" is laughable.

The rest of your post is more Special Pleading and more conspiracy nonsense.
 
Helena Stoeckley provided a story and timeline as to exactly what happened and she named names. There were other witnesses who backed up her story. Unfortunately there were mistakes and lies in her story, and the genius detectives in the Army CID and FBI just disregarded her, as did Judge Dupree. It was stupidness if you get my meaning.

Saying that a story is fraught with mistakes and lies is not exactly a compelling reason to believe it. If she were telling the truth, why sully it with mistakes and lies? If you were a detective, why would you put any credence into a story fraught with mistakes and lies?

Michael
 
Fairy Tales And Red Herrings

Let's see, MacDonald's ridiculous story includes a band of hippies who partake in a home invasion and once they are inside the residence, they go looking for weapons which magically appear in two rooms at once. They also look for surgeon's gloves and one of the mythical home invaders decides to write the word PIG on the master bed headboard in Colette's blood.

They also slaughter a pregnant woman, a 5 year old child, and a 2 year old child, while leaving the focus of their home invasion alive and well. These drug-crazed hippies also leave a closet full of drugs and syringes alone. They also manage to avoid leaving any bloody shoe prints or bloody fingerprints at the crime scene.

Helena Stoeckley is the John Mark Karr of the MacDonald case. There is not a shred of evidence linking Stoeckley to the crime scene, she confessed and recanted several times over, and she testified under oath that she was not involved in these murders.

http://www.macdonaldcasefacts.com
 
I think anyone who accepts anything Helena Stoeckley ever said beyond her own damn name as the gospel truth isn't worth the time and effort to debate with. The woman's brain was fried by the time she was 19. What was it, as I recall? Mescaline, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, LSD, pot, Seconal, any prescription drug she could get her hands on, and peyote. She was a barely walking, incoherent guide to the worst case scenario of recreational drug abuse gone awry.

But you keep on believin' there, Henri. You're a chip off the MacDonald block. (Oh, and hey, let's not forget how much Jeffy liked Eskatrol. Henri, the champion of drug abusers.)
 
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Saying that a story is fraught with mistakes and lies is not exactly a compelling reason to believe it. If she were telling the truth, why sully it with mistakes and lies? If you were a detective, why would you put any credence into a story fraught with mistakes and lies?

Michael

The commonest mistake made by those inexperienced in weighing evidence is to reject the whole of a story because the witness who told it has made mistakes, or even lied, as to part.

Great care has to be taken that the court whatever its nature, is not in any way personally interested in the matter before it. It is regarded by our law as of the greatest importance that the administration of justice should be above any possible suspicion of bias. As the Lord Chief Justice said in R v Hurst (1924), "Justice should not only be done, but be manifestly seen to be done". It has even been laid down by high authority that it is as important that justice should seem to be done as that it should be done.

The point about Helena Stoeckley was that she was Detective Beasley's most reliable informant. When she said drugs would be found there they were found there. The Nashville cop Gaddis testified at the MacDonald trial in 1979 that he would have had Helena indicted for what she had told him about the MacDonald murders. It's foolish to reject and ignore that kind of information.

I fully appreciate that Helena had been in a mental hospital and that she was a drug addict. Her confessions seldom told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For example, she never mentioned Greg Mitchell until her relationship with him broke up.

I think Helena was bumped off after she had spoken on TV that she was going to blow the lid off of Fort Bragg. Shortly before her death she had complained to Detective Beasley that there were strange men in dark glasses around her apartment. It's also a bit suspicious to me that Greg Mitchell died around the same time, although I admit that his health was not good.

There is also something a bit odd about the murder of MacDonald attorney Eisman in about 1991, I think in Philadelphia, when he became involved in a nasty drugs case as a defense lawyer. The authorities tried to make out it was a suicide, which I find difficult to believe. The case has never been solved.

I don't mean to just carp at the American justice system, or the American security services. The British Secret Service has always taken the political credit for information provided to them in the last war by German defectors in secret, or traitors if you like, often at an extremely high level. Not much publicity has been given to their failures, or their often ruthless sacrifice of agents to protect informants. They now seem mostly interested in the imprisonment of whistleblowers in order to keep the public ill-informed. They hate political embarrassment.

People have been hanged in error in the UK in the past, though I don't want to suggest that every case is a miscarriage of justice. I think there has been a want of judgement and lack of political foresight by these people in recent years. Why support Al-Qaeda in Syria? They must be half-mad.
 
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