Fatal Vision

  "Then I believe I went home, picked up both the children, and went down to feed the Shetland pony. And we had dinner at home and Colette split for class. So I probably, you know, cleared off the table—normal procedure—and got the kids in their pajamas. And relatively soon Kristy would go to bed. You know, I'd put her to bed.

  "Kimberly stayed up with me. Sometime shortly there after dinner I think I probably—I was probably on the floor with Kimmy and had a nap. We were waiting for Laugh-In. We watched Laugh-In together. She liked the little guy who used to ride a bicycle and hit a telephone pole and fall over."

  He described Colette's return home from class and said, "After Johnny Carson came on, she went to bed. I was still up. I was in the middle of a—reading something. I believe it was a mystery at the time. I read a lot of mysteries. I started reading after Kimmy, you know, went to bed. I had the TV on and I was reading something or something like that. I usually just leaf through something, or was reading while the TV was on. I didn't just sit and watch TV.

  "I think Johnny Carson was a good show that night or something, and I watched it. There was somebody interesting on or something, so I watched most of that. And when that was over, I did the dishes and finished reading, or something. There was something like twenty pages or something in whatever I was reading, and I finished it.

  "And sometime in here Kristy had started crying. So I went in and got her a bottle, which—you know—she didn't cry anymore. This was, you know, the thing the CID thought was so critical that Colette and I disagreed about. So I got her a bottle, and gave her a bottle because we had not yet decided not to give her a bottle if she woke up in the middle of the night. That's all."

  "Did Kristen wake up crying often?"

  "No. No, a couple of times a week."

  "It wasn't a nightly routine?"

  "No."

  "Do you know of any particular reason she woke up crying that night?" "No."

  "As opposed to any other night?" "No."

  "Did you ask her?"

  "No. It didn't seem unusual at all. It just seemed like something kids do sometimes."

  "Did you ask her if she had a bad dream or something like that? What was wrong?"

  "Oh, I probably did. I probably said, 'Everything's okay, Kris.' And she said she wanted a bottle, so I gave her a bottle."

  "But you have no specific recollection?"

  "No. Really what I recollect is she was crying and I went in, and we sort of talked or something and I got her a bottle."

  "Do you remember what you talked about?"

  "No."

  MacDonald resumed his recitation.

  "And then after I finished the dishes and finished reading this book, paperback style, I went in to go to bed. And Kristy was in bed with my wife and she had wet the bed, you know, on my half of the bed.

  "I don't know, really, honestly, if she, you know—or if she did not have a bottle. I presume if she did have a bottle there with her I would keep it with her, and brought her to her own bed and put her in bed.

  "She was two and a half years old. She wasn't diapered. She had, you know—the bed-wetting was a relatively infrequent thing. You know, she didn't wet her bed every night or every other night or even like that.

  "It was kind of an infrequent thing or a weekly thing by now and she didn't wear diapers, and I didn't change her diapers. She had a—you know—wet thing, and she had her bottle and was going to sleep the rest of the night, so I just let her go to sleep.

  "So I pushed back the covers to let the bed dry where she had been and I got a blanket and went to sleep on the couch. Big deal.

  "And the next—you know, there was some lights on in the house. There was a light on in the kitchen and there was a light on in the main bathroom. So the next thing I remembered was I heard my wife screaming, and she said, 'Help, Jeff!' And at the same time I heard Kristy—Kimberly—I'm sorry, it wasn't Kristy, it was Kimberly. She was screaming, 'Daddy!'

  "Colette said, 'Help, Jeff, why are they doing this to me?' And it sounded very loud to me. It still sounds loud. Kimberly said, 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, help!'

  "And I started to sit up, and there was some people at the end of the couch the CID said was never in my house. And they couldn't find any evidence of fourteen investigators and three medics and the CID and MPs and doctors, and because they couldn't find evidence of these people, I'm guilty.

  "The CID can't even fingerprint a phone that an MP has used and get his fingerprints, and they tell me they have no evidence of these people and that's why I'm here today. That's why.

  "It is the most preposterous—they had no evidence that Ron Harrison was in my house, they had no evidence that my mother was in my house, no evidence the Kassabs were there, no evidence my brother was there, no evidence that anyone I ever knew was in my house except me, so I'm guilty.

  "That's crazy! That's like something out of a TV show.

  "I never said I saw hippies," MacDonald said. "I never said that. The provost marshal said I saw hippies. I said I saw people. I saw a person with long blond hair and a floppy hat on, and there was a light on her.

  "And I never said I saw candles either. It was a light on her face, and I had the impression that there was something—you know, a wavering thing of an intermittent light or something, but I still think it was like candlelight—you know, it was an impression.

  "It was in the midst of a dark room and over a period of ten to twenty to thirty seconds, and I never really saw her. I saw hair, I saw a face outline, and a hat, and that was it. That was all I saw, and while this was happening, Colette was screaming and Kimberly was screaming, 'Daddy,' and this guy hit me with something I thought was a baseball bat."

  MacDonald continued his description of the fight, saying, "I couldn't use my hands well, because my pajama top was all around my hands. And I've been asked fifty million times, how did the pajama top get around your hands? I don't remember that. It could have been pulled over my head as I was struggling and let go of the guy's arm. It could have been ripped around my back. I just don't know. I just had—it was around my arms all of a sudden, and I was trying to push and I couldn't get my arms out of my jacket. Like when you see in a hockey fight when a guy pulls a shirt over the other hockey player—you know—I couldn't do anything.

  "And the next thing I remember I was falling and I saw a glimpse of a knee, and that's the extent of all these allegations made by the provost marshal in the newspaper about fringed boots and white boots and black boots and muddy boots.

  "What I saw was a glimpse of a knee in the top of what I thought was a boot and, you know, it seemed—what I really remember, it seemed shiny. So when they asked me was it wet, I said, yeah, it seemed like it was wet or was vinyl leather or shiny leather, that kind of thing.

  "I never said to anyone that I know of that there were muddy boots, or anything like that, and all these things get taken—well, you'll get to that.

  "So the next thing, I was lying on the floor. And I absolutely, distinctly remember I was lying there and my teeth were chattering, and there was absolute silence and I was laying sort of on my stomach with my arms under me, wrapped up in this pajama top.

  "And I remember laying there, and then I remember thinking— Jesus, I heard all these screams, and it's silent, and I got up and walked down the hall to the bedroom."

  He described discovering Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen, then returning to the master bedroom and dialing the operator, only to be told that if he was calling from on post, he would have to contact the military police himself.

  "I don't know if I said anything or not, but I dropped the phone. I couldn't figure out what the hell she was talking about. So I checked Colette again—sometime in here I had covered her with my pajama top that I think was still on my arms as I was coming in the room—coming in—and first—you know—as I was coming in the room the first time, I took it off and Colonel Rock was very interested in whether I dropped it or threw it.

  "Shit, I d
on't know if I dropped it or threw it. I think I threw it away. And then I had picked it up again and I covered Colette with it, covered her chest. And sometime in here I picked it up and looked at the wound again, I guess to see if it really—if I'd really seen what I'd seen. And I put it back on her, and I remember trying to cover her. I think that there was some clothes in the chair across from her, and I reached across and I was pulling things. I remember that.

  "I don't remember a white towel that the CID is so interested in. I don't know if I covered her with a white towel or not. I may have. I may not have. I was covering her. And I checked her pulses. And when I'd come back from the phone I—I—it seemed to me that the back door was open. And I walked over to the back door and looked out. And I didn't see anything. But I remember thinking all this time how silent it was compared to how it had sounded.

  "So I—I went back to Kimberly and I think now that I gave her mouth-to-mouth breathing, and it seemed to me that the air was coming out of her chest. So the CID said, 'Ah-hah! She didn't have any wounds in her chest.' She had wounds in her neck and chest area—the upper—the lower neck and chest, and all I can remember is it was bubbling. I don't specifically remember, you know, thinking to myself it was neck or chest. I remember that the air I was breathing into her mouth was now bubbling. And so I went to check Kristy, and sometime in here—really silly—it really sounds stupid—-one of the times that I was coming out of the kids' rooms, I reached up or something like that and I felt my head and when my hand came away it had some blood on it, and I remember I was thinking to myself, my head really hurts—you know, I thought to myself—I wasn't even really—you know, making any sense to myself.

  "I guess my thought was that it was blood from me, and I went in the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The bathroom is right there. It's like one step. It's not like a long voyage. It's one step.

  "And I stepped into the bathroom, and I—you know, I really can't put that in there. You know, it's put in—in narratives. It's put into testimony.

  "So now, you know, if you really have to pin me down and force me to say so, I think that I went into the bathroom the first time that I came out of Kristy's room before I went in and saw Colette the second time.

  "But if you knew how—you know, what do you say when you mean recollections? What I see is my wife and my kids, and I see bubbles coming out of their chests, and I remember them asking for help.

  "And there's this dumb-ass operator, and I remember that I was talking on the kitchen phone and I was saying this is Captain MacDonald, I need help, I'm at 544 Castle Drive, and she said, 'Is this Captain MacDonald?' and I said, 'You dumb idiot, I just told you that!' Or something like that. I thought I was yelling at her. She testified it was very faint. Seemed to me that I was yelling at her.

  "And then there were some clicks and buzzes and all kinds of sounds on the phone, and then a male voice said this is Sergeant something or other, and I said, 'There are people who are dying here. We need medics and MPs,' and I heard in the background— 'Tell Womack ASAP!' and I don't—really don't remember anything else.

  "In the April 6 interview there—they made all kinds of inferences at the Article 32 that I said I remembered going back down the hallway to my wife. What I recollect—what I really recollect—is I remember the end of the phone conversation. And the next specific recollection I have is I was fighting with an MP and he was saying relax and I was saying, 'Relax?! Shit, will you look at my wife?! Jesus Christ, look at my wife!' And people were running by and shouting and screaming, and I heard, 'Put that down! Don't touch her! Don't move her!' And they were saying, 'Who did it? Who did it?' and people were struggling with me and pushing me and I was looking up, and all I could see was MP helmets, shiny helmets, all around me.

  "And I remember I was fighting with these MPs or medics in the hallway, right between the two bedrooms. I was on a stretcher and they were fighting with me and strapping me down or something like that, and then I remember I was in an ambulance and I said, 'Get my wife and kids to the hospital.' And the next thing I remember is I was arguing with this nurse about my Social Security number. She kept asking me, said, 'What's your Social Security number?' And I said, 'Fuck you!' I said, 'What do you care what my Social Security number is?' I said, ‘I want my wife and my kids,' and she said, 'They're all okay,' and I was sitting up or trying to sit up on the stretcher and I kept looking around and I said, 'Where are they? Bring them in!' And she said, 'They're all okay,' and I said, 'What the hell do you want my Social Security number for?' "

  On the morning of the fifth day, Woerheide asked MacDonald about his wounds. "Now, I've never really said this before," MacDonald said, "because obviously I was the accused and it sounds ridiculous for you to testify about your own medical wounds, but if the exam I had in the emergency room were done anywhere other than in the Army it wouldn't be any good.

  "It was a totally inadequate medical record of an examination from any physician's viewpoint. It's the first time I've ever said that, but it's true. And it's, you know, one of the two or three major reasons this case is still going on and I'm here: because of the medical record.

  "I was never re-examined after the emergency room. No one ever came in and looked at me. And I don't care what anyone thinks anymore. That's shitty. That is inadequate medical care.

  "So when I talk about the wounds I had, a lot of them aren't listed in the medical report. But that medical report is not a routine medical report by any means. There is no doctor that would be proud of that medical report. There were four contusions to the head, there was a much larger contusion to my left shoulder, there were three stab wounds, and then as far as puncture wounds there were roughly three, six, nine, and eight— about seventeen."

  On the afternoon of the fifth day, Woerheide asked MacDonald if he would care to make a statement to the grand jury before concluding his testimony. He said he would.

  "I'm sure it's going to occur to the grand jury," MacDonald began, "that if what I'm saying is true, how did this incredible sort of prosecution ever get going? And I'd just like one sentence to sort of give my theory, if I'm allowed that.

  "It just seemed to me that Mr. Grebner and Mr. Shaw and Ivory made very, very critical errors on the morning of the 17th, never checked them, had the interview with me six weeks later, and from that point on they were set up sort of for a prosecution.

  "It sounds absurd. Sounds absolutely ridiculous. But Mr. Grebner has testified under oath that he walked into the house, made a decision that the living room was staged and we asked him why and he said because of the flowerpot.

  "All he had to do was ask an MP. All he had to do was line the MPs up and say, has anyone seen anyone touch anything? He never did. The first time the MPs were questioned was six months later. Now, that's unbelievable police work. So, you know, to come to a rational theory as to why what I am saying may be true or may not be true, how could the CID—why would the CID do this to Captain MacDonald?

  "It wasn't any malevolent sort of thing with a nasty colonel in the background to ride down Captain MacDonald. It was, initially, stupid mistakes made. But then they acted on those mistakes. They never checked them, and they—they acted on those mistakes.

  "Look, I'm here, obviously, defending myself, so what weight does my word carry? But to say that they found no evidence of other people in that house when they had the back door open and the front door open, and people walking in and out at random, with no guard at Kimmy's room and no guard at Kris's room and no guard at the master bedroom, preserving the crime scene—all you have to do is read the lieutenant's testimony. He had no idea how many men he had under his control. He didn't know their names. He didn't give them any orders except don't touch anything. That's all he said! He didn't station guards at the doors. There were unknown numbers of people walking through that house, including someone in dungarees who sat on the couch.

  "To reconstruct that initial hour after they arrived is going to be impossible. That crime work that morni
ng was destroyed. But I suggest to you, sir, that that doesn't make me guilty of homicide.

  "And it just seems unusual to me that the CID would make a lot out of some bloodstains in the master bedroom which were five to seven in number with the largest being as big as a quarter when my remembrance of the house was that the whole house was covered with blood.

  "And it seems to me when they picked me up and put me on a stretcher and take me down the hall and then bring another stretcher in the hall for the kids and what not, before these critical spots are identified—you know, to incriminate me on that basis is absurd. I find it really insane, actually, at this point of my life.

  "They take a wheeled stretcher with me on it, struggling, and wheel it down the hall and out the living room. Then they take photographs and state to me that I staged the crime scene."

  MacDonald's tone, as he continued, became increasingly aggrieved: what he seemed to want most to communicate to the grand jurors was the unfairness of it all.

  "They also never bothered to ask the doctor if he had moved anyone, because—because to—apparently to them very important fibers wound up under the body of my wife. Fibers that they say belonged to my pajama top. Well, apparently we're never going to know if they could have belonged to my pajama bottoms either. But the fact is they never asked the doctor and the doctor stated he picked her up and looked at her back, and that the cloth could have fallen off her onto the floor at that point. In addition, I moved her. Apparently they failed to take that into consideration.