Errol Morris tackles Jeffrey MacDonald case

Really interested in reading this book. The Jeffrey MacDonald murder case haunted me for a bit as a kid after I saw the miniseries Fatal Vision, which was of course based on the (in)famous book. We lived next door to some shady characters who had trouble with the law and the mom of the family reminded me of the woman who MacDonald said was one of the people who slaughtered his family. Kept waiting for Hilda to appear while re-creating Helena's actions.

Anyway, famed filmmaker Errol Morris has a new book coming out and he believes MacDonald is innocent, although there's not a smoking gun piece of evidence that proves it. David Carr has a piece on Morris.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/books/errol-morris-takes-on-macdonald-murder-case.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

He wanted to make it into a film but couldn't get it made.

In the book he apparently rips Joe McGinniss but also takes Janet Malcolm to task for her piece on the McGinniss-MacDonald relationship (which many journalists are aware of even if they haven't read it, for the first line: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.”

I always thought MacDonald did it but that's based on the miniseries and Gary Cole's portrayal, along with the original book. Here's an excerpt:

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/153445700/a-wilderness-of-error-the-trials-of-jeffrey-macdonald#excerpt

What have other people thought of the case?

 

Read Fatal Vision in junior high, and have also been long fascinated with the book.

Saw the Times article yesterday. Interesting, but would be really hard for me to believe he didn't do it.

 

Have read the book many times.

No question in my mind he did it. Gutless, self absorbed, egotistical prick has lived 40+ years longer than he deserved.

One of the overlooked points of the crime scene that McGinnis mentioned was a suitcase in the master bedroom. All around and all under that suitcase blood is splattered everywhere. The suitcase, though, is pristine--no blood at all on it. Young doctor gutless was thinking about bolting for a while until he decided to self inflict a few superficial wounds and essentially rip from the Esquire Manson story.