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. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. And she told him she had been there, at the MacDonald home, the night of the murders. No one ever knew what it was Helena told him because of attorney-client privilege. Since 1979, the MacDonald case has continued to trouble those who delve beneath the surface of the media narrative. At the moment, the five Haddaras are similarly constrained, with only one of them free, two dead and two in prison. Silverglate believes that Jeffrey MacDonald has been railroaded, and that this railroading exposes disturbing trends in our federal criminal justice system. But an unfortunate thing happened in the following years. As if they had seen it with their own eyes. That same year, seven drug-linked executions were reported in 10 months. Freddy was not going to quit. Some said he should never have taken the case because his former son-in-law was the prosecutor in the original army hearing. But for every Khayre, a case most people have heard of with a clear link to the north-west, there are dozens more that barely make a ripple. 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. Despite a lack of motive and no history of violence, MacDonald was convicted of the second-degree murders of Colette and Kimberly, and the first-degree murder of Kristen. He theorized that diet pills caused MacDonald to fly into a fit of rage. There is no finality in injustice. It is hard not to be shocked by the footage of Oueida's shooting. Rep. Allard Lowenstein supporting MacDonalds claim that the Army wrongfully accused him and were trying to cover up their mistake. Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. The defendant has no obligation to prove anything whatsoever. 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. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. McGinniss' publisher settled with MacDonald out of court, after the judge called the author a conman. (This story, in its own right, became a famous book about journalistic ethics by Janet Malcolm.). WebIn 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of the case. The cost to Melbourne's north-west is huge. The military hearing found that the charges against MacDonald were not true. There was a re-examination of the fibers found on the bodies of Collette and the children. MacDonald at Los Angeles Terminal Island prison where Charles Manson had spent much of his youth. It sickened me and it enraged me.. Ive had many cases in court. In 1978, MacDonalds case went to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, who rejected it. We would frequently meet at the crime scene and brainstorm the whole scenario. He tried to take his case to the Supreme Court in 1979, but they declined to review the lower courts decision. These victims include Rachad Adra, who was killed and his four-year-old son injured, when a gunman with a high-powered weapon shot the wrong house in Thomastown in October 2015, and Khaled Abouhasna, who was killed in a shooting ambush six months earlier when he was mistaken for a ruthless standover man. Wherever you see the label psychopath," you could almost substitute monster or vampire youre talking about an unnatural person who does not behave according to normal human rules, and with that label, you can believe anything of them. 1,169 Birth, Marriage & Death. One is titled Memoirs by Wadea Kassab; it is 210 pages and was written in 1954. The walls will tell you what happened if you keep it pristine. They dont know the truth any more than I do. 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. Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. You trust him. It appeared to investigators that MacDonald had staged the scene, inspired by the recent Manson Family murders to blame hippies for his crime. Pennsylvania had the highest population of Kassab families in 1920. Now, it appears the Tibas are at war with everybody. The popular story says there was no evidence of intruders. Theres a note attached. Colettes grieving parents grew suspicious after a November 1970 phone call in which MacDonald claimed he found and killed one of the intruders. But it wasnt until Kassab revisited the crime scene himself in 1972 that he finally believed that his son-in-law had been the killer. The bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. This collection contains an undated photograph of Wadea and Aelyas Kassab and scans of two typed manuscripts. Kassab a one-time Canadian Army intelligence operator who had once lost his own wife and daughter in a bombing of London during World War II initially believed MacDonalds account of the night and became a staunch and vocal supporter of his son-in-law, the Washington Post reported in 1984. LP: Did anything new come out in the Wilmington hearing in September? We decided we needed Freddie and Mildred Kassab on our sides, lead investigator Peter Kearns said in a December 1986 lecture on the case, according to the docuseries. When the show was over, I retired to the security of my bed, safe from unpredictable evils. Dupree would not admit overwhelming psychiatric testimony in MacDonalds favor, nor the testminony of witnesses to whom Helena Stoeckley had confessed her involvement. Its a case that if you were telling scary stories around the dining room table and you had all your family gathered, people could hardly believe it. The one hardly anyone sees, but that rages, nonetheless. And police officers knowing how to take care of a crime scene and preserve it. In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. What do you recall of the in-laws in the trial? In 1970 America was gripped by the horror of the Manson murders a fact used against MacDonald because he subscribed to Esquire magazine, which had run a story about the dark side of hippie culture. 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. WS: They were a very normal-looking mama and daddy. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. Since last September, the Tibas are suspected of involvement in at least six non-fatal shootings, a bashing and multiple home invasions. That, in turn, drives a burgeoning black market for firearms, and has made the north-west the centre of the gun trade in this state. Kassab wanted to find justice and began writing letters to the Army and congressmen slamming the investigators for their errors and urging authorities to continue the investigation. 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. I think that one of the problems MacDonald had was that they expected him to undertake to find these killers, to go on a mission to find them. 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. He adamantly denied all charges but was at a loss for words during cross-examination by the prosecution. MacDonald was tried in a civilian court in 1979. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. Oueida amassed a fortune before he was imprisoned in 2011, and had done so through dealing drugs, and doing it more rapaciously than anyone in recent history: hence the $6 million in a Swiss bank account, light plane, Ferrari and $2.8 million mansion he had when he was arrested. So MacDonald was the logical choice. You sure Errol Morris wrote the book? She was sure. A military hearing found charges against him untrue, but he was convicted nine years later in a civilian trial. The shootings can be over particularly petty reasons, not just the drug trade: women, a perceived slight, or, increasingly, a prison feud. They introduced a 1970 issue of Esquire found in MacDonalds house containing a detailed account of the Sharon Tate murders to suggest that he had created a copycat story based on the Manson familys crimes. Kill the pigs.. 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. At the time, Kassab still believed the real perpetrators of the crime had been the four hippies that MacDonald said had broken into the home. MacDonald now waits to see if the federal judge will vacate his 33-year-old conviction. Desperate to save his family, he said he fought back until they stabbed him and beat him unconscious. Thereafter their lives ran close and parallel courses. Waters rubbished that explanation. The one thing that sticks in my craw above anything else is this: There were lab results. 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. 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. After completing high school in Chester, he too went to dental school and set up practice in Wadeas office. Jeffrey MacDonald behind bars in Terminal Island federal penitentiary. 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 Judge Fox is also a good man. Detective Inspector Wayne Newman, from the North-West Metro region, says there has been an increase in higher ranking organised crime figures in the area insulating themselves from possible harm by using youth networks to do the grunt work. or click here to become a subscriber. While both Detective Inspectors want to reiterate this is rare, it is also their worst fear, and what they are working to stop. A judge later awarded MacDonald $50,000 of the proceeds but gave the remainder of his $325,000 share to attorneys, MacDonalds mother and the Kassabs. Although the family started out as his benefactors, he ultimately became their caregivers as their positions reversed. That was my closing argument. The crime scene was so messed up that you couldnt depend on it. He did interviews. "I wish it was as simple as saying all our non-fatal shootings went back to five families, because if it did, we would target those five families and we'd kick it in the guts, but it's actually not that simple.". The idea that people that were so certain who dont know any more than I do -- I dont believe Ill ever understand how they could be so sure. As revealed in footage obtained by The Saturday Age, the latest chapter involves the shooting of the mercurial Mohammed Oueida, a man once described as the new Tony Mokbel, who was only two metres away when a gunman shot at him four times from a car, blasting him in the stomach on April 17. Make a one-time contribution to Alternet All Access, Allard Lowenstein supporting MacDonalds claim that the Army wrongfully accused him and were trying to cover up their mistake. 1,169 Birth, Marriage & Death. While none of the hairs found at the scene matched Stoeckleys DNA or that of any of her known associates, MacDonald maintains they prove something more essential to his freedom that someone else was there that night. 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. He continued to work as a doctor and moved to California. And as is believed to have been the case when a large drug shipment made its way to the region in the past five years, and the Kassab/Kheir family made temporary peace with the Tibas that can sometimes mean forming a truce to distribute the product, and ensure its security. Despite the young familys financial burdens, the important things seemed secure. Another page in another chapter in the new gangland war. An arm extends out of the passenger side window of a car. LP: What has this case revealed about the flaws in our judicial system? The social justice movement is now involved; the Innocence Project, a prestigious nationwide network dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted, has worked strenuously to overturn MacDonalds conviction. Like Wade Smith, Ive been struck by how many people speak of absolute certainty about what happened that February night over 40 years ago. Not only did victims of drug addiction build that fortune, but there are the consequences of maintaining this empire. Additionally, much of what Morris introduces as new evidence was already including in the trial that convicted MacDonald. 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. Sadly, the family wouldnt survive the next year. 959 Census & Voter Lists. No attempt was made to locate the woman that night. He told authorities that hetried to fight off the attackers but was wounded and eventually collapsed in the hallwaylater regaining consciousness and discovering his family had been killed, according to the new FX docuseries A Wilderness of Error.. The loving husband and father. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. You think you know what youre seeing, but then you arent so sure. But it is also hard to feel any empathy, or concern as Victorians do about other crimes against more innocent victims that it could happen to them. 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 The couple sued MacDonald in 1987 to try to prevent him from profiting from Joe McGinniss book Fatal Vision, which served as the inspiration for the mini-series. 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. On Sept. 17, 2012, in Wilmington, N.C., a crowd of familiar faces assembled for a new hearing. Melbourne's north-west has become a hotbed for armed crime. Whats your sense of this? And yet there are thousands of people in North Carolina who do not believe he did it. Its hard to imagine now, but in the late 1960s and early '70s there were spooky, weird people on acidback then it was believable. Stevenson told reporters in 2005 that he had promised Freddy Kassab on his death bed that he would continue the familys quest to keep MacDonald behind bars, according to The Raleigh News & Observer. It would take six more months before Mildred Kassab reached the same conclusion. It doesnt make sense that this man, with no history of violence, went crazy like that. The family claims his body has never been found. After traveling a months-long journey that has led me from certainty to doubt to horror at a grave injustice, Im going to turn in this article and then go run some errands and make myself a bite to eat. WebWe found 33,440 records for Kassab last name. Every time we pursued a lead it just turned us around and directed us back toward Jeffrey MacDonald. The chanting blonde, meanwhile, had not been found. @2022 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. 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). Picture #1. But his story crumbled under scrutiny and he was charged with killing his family. LP: Then why did MacDonald, the emblem of law-and-order, the Green Beret, become a suspect? MacDonald said there had been a stabbing and begged for an ambulance. He worries that we are moving into a period in which the finality of verdicts is so zealously protected (a legacy, in part, of 9/11) that new evidence offers little hope of challenging them. And the physical evidence, the circumstantial evidence, just kept mounting against him and contradicting his story for events from that evening.. Both brothers married women in Syria and brought them back to the United States. In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. I dont have that magic. His most significant injury was a puncture wound and deflated lung. Segal took up nearly all the time in the critical period for closing remarks and left only a few minutes for co-counsel Wade Smith, an eloquent native North Carolinian who understood the jury. 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. Investigating Officer Warren Rock ultimately recommended the charges be dismissed at the conclusion of the hearing and MacDonald began to move forward with his life, leaving the Army, selling most of the familys possessions in a yard sale, and moving to California. MacDonalds relationship with his father-in-law, who had been a staunch supporter, became strained. Helena Stoeckley confessed many times that MacDonalds willingness to turn heroin addicts in to the police infuriated local drug dealers. 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