Thanks for the response, so how do you see this attack happening?
You have clearly studied the case in great deal. I haven't and my questions are genuine. It seems like you must have thought about what was the nature of an attack that is consistent with the kind of wounds that MacDonald had and with what he said about the attack and the attackers?
The MacDonald case is a bit like the Ramsey case or the Darlie Routier case in that it is a difficult murder. I can understand that an average person or average juror is not likely to make a profound study of the case. Probably they are being much more interested in beer football, and house price inflation. When I first became interested in the case I made some glaring errors.
I am dubious about all this so-called hair and fiber evidence in any case. The trouble is it can be the only evidence there is. That was particularly the case before the time of DNA evidence. If there is going to be blood evidence used to convict then it should be presented to the court by a qualified blood expert who can give his expert opinion.
In the Ramsey case the Ramseys were asked for the clothes they wore at the time of the murder about a year after the murder and then magically and miraculously similar and consistent fibers were 'found' in incriminating and entwined places by Dr. Henry Lee. It could be forensic fraud.
Dr. MacDonald never really changed his story. This is an example from his April 1970 interview with the Army CID. He mentions here a blade but I have always understood his injuries were consistent with an ice pick:
"And I went to sleep on the couch.
And then the next thing I know I heard some screaming, at least my wife; but I thought I heard Kimmie, my older daughter, screaming also. And I sat up. The kitchen light was on, and I saw some people at the foot of the bed.
So, I don't know if I really said anything or I was getting ready to say something. This happened real fast. You know, when you talk about it, it sounds like it took forever; but it didn't take forever.
And so, I sat up; and at first I thought it was--I just could see three people, and I don't know if I--If I heard the girl first--or I think I saw her first. I think two of the men separated sort of at the end of my couch, and I keep--all I saw was some people really.
And this guy started walking down between the coffee table and the couch, and he raised something over his head and just sort of then--sort of all together--I just got a glance of this girl with kind of a light on her face. I don't know if it was a flashlight or a candle, but it looked to me like she was holding something. And I just remember that my instinctive thought was that "she's holding a candle. What the hell is she holding a candle for?"
But she said, before I was hit the first time, "Kill the pigs. Acid's groovy."
Now, that's all--that's all I think I heard before I was hit the first time, and the guy hit me in the head. So I was knocked back on the couch, and then I started struggling to get up, and I could hear it all then--Now I could--Maybe it's really, you know--I don't know if I was repeating to myself what she just said or if I kept hearing it, but I kept--I heard, you know, "Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs."
And I started to struggle up; and I noticed three men now; and I think the girl was kind of behind them, either on the stairs or at the foot of the couch behind them. And the guy on my left was a colored man, and he hit me again; but at the same time, you know, I was kind of struggling. And these two men, I thought, were punching me at the same time. Then I--I remember thinking to myself that--see, I work out with the boxing gloves sometimes. I was then--and I kept--"Geeze, that guy throws a hell of a punch," because he punched me in the chest, and I got this terrible pain in my chest.
And so, I was struggling, and I got hit on the shoulder or the side of the head again, and so I turned and I--and I grabbed this guy's whatever it was. I thought it was a baseball bat at the time. And I had--I was holding it. I was kind of working up it to hold onto it.
Meanwhile, both these guys were kind of hitting me, and all this time I was hearing screams. That's what I can't figure out, so--let's see, I was holding--so, I saw the--and all I got a glimpse was, was some stripes. I told you, I think, they were E6 stripes. There was one bottom rocker and it was an army jacket, and that man was a colored man, and the two men, other men, were white.
And I didn't really notice too much about them. And so I kind of struggled, and I was kind of off balance, 'cause I was still halfway on the couch and half off, and I was holding onto this thing. And I kept getting this pain, either in--you know, like sort of in my stomach, and he kept hitting me in the chest.
And so, I let go of the club; and I was grappling with him and I was holding his hand in my hand. And I saw, you know, a blade. I didn't know what it was; I just saw something that looked like a blade at the time.
And so, then I concentrated on him. We were kind of struggling in the hallway right there at the end of the couch; and then really the next distinctive thing, I thought that--I thought that I noticed that--I saw some legs, you know, that--not covered--like I'd saw the top of some boots. And I thought that I saw knees as I was falling.
But it wasn't what was in the papers that I saw white boots. I never saw white, muddy boots. I saw--saw some knees on the top of boots, and I told, I think, the investigators, I thought they were brown, as a matter of fact.
And the next thing I remember, though, was lying on the hallway floor, and I was freezing cold and it was very quiet. And my teeth were chattering, and I went down and--to the bedroom."
