Use census records and voter lists to see where families with the Kassab surname lived. Dupree would not admit overwhelming psychiatric testimony in MacDonalds favor, nor the testminony of witnesses to whom Helena Stoeckley had confessed her involvement. However, his American dream suddenly became a nightmare in 1970 when his family was found brutally stabbed to death in their home. The family claims his body has never been found. In 1905, Wadea married Sara Hajjar, who had been educated at an English boarding school and was teaching at a mission school for Jewish children in Damascus prior to her marriage. MacDonald had only one stab wound, which the hospital surgeon later described as a clean, small, sharp incision that made his left lung partially collapse. Donor retains full ownership of any and all copyright currently controlled in agreement with Khayrallah Center. 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. Grieving mother Mildred Kassab weeps for her daughter while being escorted into JFK Memorial Chapel to see her buried. Colettes grieving parents grew suspicious after a November 1970 phone call in which MacDonald claimed he found and killed one of the intruders. Two members of the Tiba family have been charged in relation to the shooting. 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. or click here to become a subscriber. WS: They were a very normal-looking mama and daddy. As I read Morris meticulous examination the evidence, the picture in my mind became less clear. 1,169 Birth, Marriage & Death. But in the years that followed the gruesome murders, Kassab drastically changed his opinion of his surgeon son-in-law and became one of MacDonalds fiercest adversariesleading the charge to have MacDonald tried for three counts of murder in the case. When Victor Worheide, who was a federal prosecutor, later became interested in the case at the urging of the parents of Colette MacDonald, the case was gone. 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. When we were walking out of the house, I was warned that convicting MacDonald wasnt going to be that simple, Kassab said. The veneer of the MacDonalds perfect marriage had also began to crack. He was a nice, presentable young man. These shootings rarely involve significant figures, such as Oueida, or Nabil Maghnie, who was shot in the head last September but survived, or George Marrogi, who was charged with a shooting murder that same month. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. The persistence paid off and in 1974, a grand jury indicted Jeffrey MacDonald on three counts of murder after seven months of testimony and evidence, according to Vanity Fair. He continued to work as a doctor and moved to California. 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. Ive got the patience of Job.. 959 Census & Voter Lists. No one ever knew what it was Helena told him because of attorney-client privilege. 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. Though the U.S. Army formally charged MacDonald with the murders, presiding officer Colonel Warren Rock recommended the charges be dropped. {{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}. The popular story says there was no evidence of intruders. Yet, the new gangland war fails to capture the imagination. Like Wade Smith, Ive been struck by how many people speak of absolute certainty about what happened that February night over 40 years ago. 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. Four military police (MP) officers arrived at 4 a.m. to find an unspeakable crime scene. The irony not lost on police, community members and other underworld figures is that while Osman may be a victim of that cycle, his family have survived from perpetuating it. Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. Most notably, the holes in the shirt MacDonald had been wearing appeared too smooth and clear cut to indicate self-defense. He is, of course, one of many ensnared in that cycle, particularly in the north-west, which consistently ranks among the worst in the state for employment, education and substance dependence. 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. Take a guy like MacDonald. But just what changed Kassabs mind about the man he once called a nice, presentable young man?". MacDonald had been just a teenager at the time and was dating Colette, his high school sweetheart. I wasnt there that night. I personally delivered a copy by hand to every congressman and every senator in the country.. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. Interview: The Spookiest Case Wade Smith Ever Encountered. And were very fortunate. MacDonald later admitted the claim had been a lie. The writer had full access to the trial, and appeared sympathetic. MacDonald, bloody but alive, was next to his wife, who had been pregnant with their third child when she was stabbed 16 times with a kitchen knife and 21 times with an icepick. But while Kassab saw MacDonald as an engaged and loving father and husband, Army investigators grew suspicious of MacDonalds account of the killings and ordered him to appear for an Article 32 hearinga military process used to determine whether there was enough evidence to pursue formal charges against MacDonald. Wadea died in February, 1972; Aelyas in October, 1987. Worse still, Judge Franklin Dupree seemed to have his mind made up before the trial began. Should Trump be allowed to hold office again? And absolutely nothing fit, Kassab told the Orlando Sentinel in 1989. 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. Ill be seeing him. Well, Bernie Segal told me that he never saw it.. After completing high school in Chester, he too went to dental school and set up practice in Wadeas office. Some said he should never have taken the case because his former son-in-law was the prosecutor in the original army hearing. Now, it appears the Tibas are at war with everybody. Good potential for the future, so therefore we saw nothing wrong with them getting married, Kassab once said of his son-in-law, according to the docuseries. They were successful, and a grand jury indicted MacDonald for murder the following year. 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.). In 1920 there were 5 Kassab families living in Pennsylvania. 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. Who else is going to fight this thing if not me? Freddy Kassab said of his years-long quest to put his son-in-law Jeffrey MacDonald behind bars for killing his stepdaughter and two young granddaughters. It is a misconception that the battles are over territory. Mica remembered seeing a woman who fit this description while en route to the scene but said the Armys Criminal Investigation Division (CID) omitted this during their subsequent inquest. Brighton terrorist Yacqub Khayre allegedly was only a phone call to a north-west contact away from being able to obtain the shotgun he used to kill a man, take a woman hostage and shoot three police last month. ", Bob Stevenson, Colettes brother, described his stepfathers reaction to the television appearance as visceral and said it had wrenched his guts., Things werent being said right, inflections of the voice, he said. But his story crumbled under scrutiny and he was charged with killing his family. The crime scene was so messed up that you couldnt depend on it. 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. Official trailer for FX documentary series. So MacDonald was the logical choice. To dislodge an idea reinforced by a popular book and TV phenomenon would be hard enough, but to add the sickening sense that the wrong man has been paying is nearly unthinkable. Ive had many cases in court. All rights reserved. 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 that he had been asleep on the couch when at least four drug-crazed hippies broke into the home and savagely killed the family. 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In a video published online in December, he spoke about how he had overcome drug addiction, and detailed the cycle of using, getting hooked, needing money, and then committing crime. The couples youngest daughter, 2-year-old Kristen, had a total of 33 stab wounds. These fibers on the bodies didnt match any fibers found in the MacDonald house. One is titled Memoirs by Wadea Kassab; it is 210 pages and was written in 1954. View all records. That huge standard protects us from miscarriages of justice. Smerling is the director of the documentary series A Wilderness of Error, which examines the MacDonald case. This can drive a surge in shootings, and then be forgotten again just as quickly, said Detective Inspector Stephen Clark of the armed crime squad. But things got out of hand. Currently serving three life sentences for their murders, MacDonald continues to maintain his innocence even as a new documentary series digs into his case. 2015 NC State University. 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