26-year-old Colette MacDonald had been stabbed nearly forty times with an icepick and a knife while pig was scrawled on the headboard of her bed in her own blood. Waters rubbished that explanation. Colette MacDonald and her daughters suffered horrific violence as they were killed on February 17, 1970 at their Fort Bragg home. The man is a fanatic.. In the early '80s, I whipped through a dog-eared copy of Fatal Vision, Joe McGinniss sensational true-crime novel about the killings. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. The now 76-year-old is serving three consecutive life sentences and is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . Some criminal networks were recently identified as having more than 1000 members, of various ages and ethnic backgrounds; unlike the five families, they were not simply the first generation of children born in Australia to parents hailing from northern Lebanon. That got my attention: the Oscar-winning Morris, whose film The Thin Blue Line exonerated a Texas man wrongfully convicted for murder, is one of the worlds great documentary filmmakers. Waters rubbished that explanation. Jeffrey MacDonald, a bright young man with everything in life to look forward to, lost his wife and children to senseless, horrific violence. We need your support in this difficult time. 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. According to exclusive statistics from the armed crime squad, there has been a five-fold increase in non-fatal shootings in the north-west in four years and the region now sees almost two thirds of Victoria's non-fatal shootings. In a 2011 press release, the Innocence Project stated:. Anybody could. It appeared to investigators that MacDonald had staged the scene, inspired by the recent Manson Family murders to blame hippies for his crime. 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. Although the family started out as his benefactors, he ultimately became their caregivers as their positions reversed. He went directly to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a teacher of his had settled. On the evening of the murders, Jeffrey MacDonald had taken his kids to ride the pony he had bought them, fed them dinner while their mother took a night class, and put them to bed. MacDonald was convicted twice, both in the courtroom and in the all-important court of public opinion, which was sealed by McGinniss book and miniseries. The Tibas, Haddaras, Chaouks, Kassabs, and Kheirs are north-west Melbourne's version of the Five Families, the major players in the New York mafia. The stakes are too high for it not to work, Detective Inspector Clark said. He claimed they chanted, Kill the pigs!Acid is groovy! and scrawled the word PIG on the wall in his wifes blood. Even scarier stories, Ive found, can be true. MacDonald at Los Angeles Terminal Island prison where Charles Manson had spent much of his youth. This was about 31% of all the recorded Kassab's in USA. The families have been involved in drug trafficking since at least the turn of the century, or, in the case of Macchour Chaouk, the patriarch of that family, since 1983. Despite the young familys financial burdens, the important things seemed secure. He was more interested in working with people on hallucinogenic and things like that. WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. Ron DeSantis and Florida's Doctor Antivax, 'The maths are hard': Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked for not understanding what 'seized' means, Marjorie Taylor Greene garners few sympathizers after claiming she was 'attacked' in a restaurant, 'Thats weaponization': Dem smacks down Jim Jordan for ignoring Trump DOJ corruption, 'Toxic sludge': Paul Ryan torches Tucker Carlson when questioned about Fox News' election coverage, 'Liar, liar': Joe Biden amuses crowd with quip about Marjorie Taylor Greene, 'Really unacceptable': FBI shredded following new watchdog report, 'Im not gonna yield!' Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. He awoke to the sound of screaming and found three male intruders being overseen by a blonde woman. Many think this woman could have been Helena Stoeckley, a drug abuser and professed member of a witchcraft cult who repeatedly confessed to having been at the MacDonald house the night of the murders, but recanted her story whenever she seemed to fear prosecution. Soon I was reading Morris A Wilderness of Error, feeling skeptical and wondering why this reputable man would involve himself in a case that everyone and their mother (including mine) knew the truth about. That is the way our legal system is set up. But did hippie intruders make sense? Mildred and Freddy Kassab both died, months apart, in 1994. 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. He adamantly denied all charges but was at a loss for words during cross-examination by the prosecution. An arm extends out of the passenger side window of a car. Even after the conviction, the Kassabs remained haunted by the heinous crime. Staying on top of the machinations of the underworld can be difficult, Detective Inspector Clark said, but the increased strength of police intelligence meant they were able to increasingly charge gunmen, regardless of whether their victims spoke. Picture #2. Unfortunately for MacDonald, she would never admit any memory of her involvement in the killings in court. Through his aggressive pursuit of the case, MacDonald was indicted. Wade Smith rarely grants interviews. Nonexclusive right to authorize all uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes are granted to Khayrallah Center pursuant to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). He claimed there was insufficient evidence, while civilian defense attorney Bernard Segal argued the CID had improperly handled the scene and that alternative suspects like local drug addict Helena Stoeckley, believed to be the blonde woman at the scene, continued to roam free. The Tibas are the only clan in the five families that can boast three generations of serious offenders from murderers to drug traffickers. He explained his lie initially by attributing it to drug addiction-induced paranoia and then said he believed that once he told his family the lies, he had to keep lying.. 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. That was my closing argument. Though the U.S. Army formally charged MacDonald with the murders, presiding officer Colonel Warren Rock recommended the charges be dropped. Interview: The Spookiest Case Wade Smith Ever Encountered. Will artificial intelligence overthrow its capitalist overlords? The cost to Melbourne's north-west is huge. "There's a lot of luck good and bad in a non-fatal shooting, You can be shot once and die, or you can be shot five times and live. By the end of 1969, everything seemed in order. That huge standard protects us from miscarriages of justice. Thank you. Ive had many cases in court. In addition, DNA testing on evidence that was recovered from the fingernails scrapings of one of the victims and a hair found under another victim did not match MacDonald. But, they believe, the deterrent effect of jailing them, even if their victim remains tight-lipped, will have an impact. And absolutely nothing fit, Kassab told the Orlando Sentinel in 1989. WebThe Kassab family name was found in the USA in 1920. Abdul Tiba has eight sons, aged from their 50s to their 20s. I remember saying, It doesnt matter. MacDonald, it appeared, had been endlessly, unfaithful having at least 15 girlfriends, Vanity Fair reports. Theres a note attached. McGinniss made the murders sound like the work of a diabolical genius, a man who could transform in a moment from a loving father to a homicidal maniac, and again, in the blink of an eye, to a calculating conman. @2022 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. His memoir reads as a classic Syrian rags-to-riches story, except for the fact that he lost everything when he speculated in real estate just before the Great Depression. He is both a careful researcher and a profound investigator of the human condition. Of those in prison, one was jailed for having guns that so troubled a judge she described them as "the sort of weapons that were used down in Tasmania", a reference to the Port Arthur massacre. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. MacDonald was ultimately convicted in 1979 for killing his pregnant wife Colette MacDonald and their two young daughters, Kimberley and Kristen. WebThe Kassab family name was found in the USA in 1920. Others would say that that was a healthy thing to do. 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. The Esquire story, for all its salaciousness, touched upon real issues that plagued many communities outside of California. WebWe found 33,440 records for Kassab last name. Kill the pigs.. Sometimes that doesnt happen. Both brothers married women in Syria and brought them back to the United States. According to her, they wanted to teach MacDonald a lesson and rough up his family the night of the killings. Aelyas followed Wadea to the United States in 1899. He was troubled by MacDonalds apparently cavalier attitude about the brutal murders on an appearance of "The Dick Cavett Show. Together, Mildred who Stevenson said came to mortally hate her former son-in-law and Freddy Kassab pushed for MacDonalds arrest. To do so, they are increasingly trying to appeal to the maternal side of these families, and helping mothers and their children escape the criminal elements in their home, before another brood is infected. 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 Eventually, he turned on the man he had once so ardently defended. Lynn Parramore: In all your years as a lawyer, what makes this case stand out? Bettmann/Getty ImagesA neighbors dog and MP guards securing the MacDonald property. The Tibas, Haddaras, Chaouks, Kassabs, and Kheirs are north-west Melbourne's version of the Five Families, the major players in the New York mafia. Inexperienced military police failed to pick up a woman near the house who fit MacDonalds description. A lengthy trial heard Moustafa and Kassab had gone to the Brunswick panel beating shop to confront Moustafa over $50,000 in cash and $10,000 in aftershave they believe he had stolen. McGinniss drew on pop-sociology to render an image of a psychopathic killer in the guise of the friendly doctor-next-door; the kind we know from endless horror movies. At one stage last year, there was only one of the six Chaouks, father and sons, that were alive and free. Not only had the word pig been scrawled on the bedroom headboard in his wifes blood but she and her unborn baby were dead. He drew on his previous knowledge of MacDonald, who he had met years earlier while courting Colettes mother, Mildred. 6,889 Family Trees. Aelyas (Elias) Kassab, Wadeas younger brother, was born in the Kassabs' summer residence in Bloudan, Syria in 1883. The lead prosecutor for the case, Jim Blackburn began to analyze every piece of evidence from the trial, including MacDonald's pajama shirt, which was draped over Colette's body, and the bedsheet she was wrapped in. 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. 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. They are the dealers who, as Osman Tiba alluded to, were probably driven to the job because of their own addictions who cannot afford to forgive a middling debt, even if it is only for a few hundred dollars. Should Trump be allowed to hold office again? Jeffrey MacDonald, a Princeton-educated Green Beret doctor with no history of violence and a sterling record, butchered his pregnant wife and two young daughters using a knife, ice pick and club. Other witnesses claimed that Stoeckly had confessed at various times that she thought she might have been present during the murders. Often, the spouse turns out to have committed the murder, so its not surprising that the case turned to McDonald. It begins with Aelyas' grandfather Elyas Kassab, born in 1814, and traces the family through the nineteenth century; particular attention is paid. When Jeffrey MacDonald came under suspicion for savagely killing his pregnant wife and the couples two young daughters, one man rushed to publicly support him: his father-in-law Freddie Kassab. Jeffrey MacDonald behind bars in Terminal Island federal penitentiary. Since last September, the Tibas are suspected of involvement in at least six non-fatal shootings, a bashing and multiple home invasions. ". Invest with us. However, his American dream suddenly became a nightmare in 1970 when his family was found brutally stabbed to death in their home. You trust him. 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