Everyone believes what they want to believe. Facts are curious things and establishing them is seldom as straightforward an exercise as we would wish on the whole. Personally I take no position on the case as an outsider [i.e. not being American], though I did find the following remarks on Ken Adachi's site in an article defending Ted Gunderson:
http://educate-yourself.org/tg/nwogundersonsmear1may0.shtml
" "Irregularities" committed by the government in the McDonald case are simply staggering. While under government control, evidence had been altered, destroyed, disappeared, and hidden from the defense. Recently, the Judge ruled that DNA testing could be done on the remaining artifacts, but did not allow the defense to be present when the court opened the envelopes which were supposed to contain 15 items of evidence. Only U.S. Department of Justice and FBI representatives were allowed to be present during the court proceedings. Five of the 15 items scheduled for examination of DNA were missing from those envelopes. That's barely the tip of the iceberg in the McDonald case. Anyone who carefully examines the voluminous evidence gathered by Gunderson and others, can clearly see that Dr. Jeffrey McDonald was framed. The evidence fairly shouts at you."
And again in response to those implying MacDonald's injuries were of a suspiciously minor nature, this from 2005:
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/fataljustice3chaphelenastoeckley05not05.shtml [I recommend people read this article in its entirety]
" MacDonald was discovered unconscious and seriously injured, as he had been stabbed multiple times with an ice pick, a knife, and repeatedly clubbed with a baseball bat. When he was taken to the hospital, doctors discovered that one of his lungs had collapsed due to puncture wounds....
....While his lung was being repaired, an Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) investigator by the name of William F. Ivory was gathering evidence at the MacDonald home. The story of what happened to much of the forensic evidence at the murder scene and the decisive role that William Ivory played in the pernicious prosecution and railroading of Jeffrey MacDonald will be explored in a separate series of articles, but for the purpose of this writing, it's important to note that the CBS TV program that I was now watching, 48 Hours Mystery, hosted by Bill Lagattuta, was repeatedly referring back to the explanations and crime scene assessments offered by the very same "Bill" Ivory , who was being portarayed on this television program as a heroic, tenacious, and stalwart bulldog investigator (along with Peter Kearns, another former CID investigator), explaining to the viewer what really happened that night (we are told) and MacDonald's true role (we are told) as crafty psychotic killer and cunning deceptionist."
As to Helena Stoeckley's instability and confession:
" About two weeks before the discovery of her body, Helena had placed frantic phone calls with both Ted Gunderson and Prince Beasley. She had been recently interviewed by the FBI and...could see two men in black suits were running surveillance on her every move, 24 hours a day, parked across from her apartment in Seneca, South Carolina. She told Beasley and Gunderson that she was scared and needed protection. She told Prince Beasley that she was prepared to finally tell the whole story about the MacDonald murders - without demanding immunity for herself - and wanted to "blow the lid" off Fort Bragg. Ted Gunderson called Beasley and urged him to get down to Helena's place as fast as he could, but before Beasley could arrange to take the trip, local newspapers announced that Helena Stoeckley was found dead."
Bragg was all but lawless. Drug use was out of control as was armed robbery and assault. Many soldiers carried guns openly around the base. Meanwhile the stockade overflowed to such an extent that cots had to be installed in corridors to take the swelling number of prisoners. The root of the problem was that Fort Bragg and the nearby city of Fayetteville were integral to the Air America narcotics operation being run out of South-East Asia. Fayetteville was also known as 'Fayettnenam' according to the book 'Fatal Justice' quoted in the article. The book also adds witness testimony: "Aviator James Milne, a MacDonald neighbor, had seen robed, candle-carrying figures headed for MacDonald's house the night of the murders. Milne said someone had broken into his car not long before the murders. Drug users had been caught after breaking into the police car of Fayetteville police detective Sergeant Prince Beasley. They had been looking for narcotics."
I'm afraid we all believe what we want to believe in the end. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Dependant as we are on external, controlled and probably unreliable sources of information for our understanding of the world I'm not sure we have an alternative.
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