New Trial Sought in ‘Fatal Vision’ Case

Jeffrey MacDonald, the Green Beret doctor convicted more than 10 years ago of killing his wife and two daughters, deserves a new trial because of suppressed government evidence, his attorneys said Friday.

Lawyer Harvey Silverglate said in court papers that private investigators turned up forensic notes and testimony about an alleged confession by a one-time suspect that could clear MacDonald.

“This evidence was in the government files and not disclosed to the judge, nor to the jury, nor to MacDonald,” he said.

Silverglate said the evidence was found in Army records. Notes by forensic investigators refer to long blond hairs found in a hairbrush and black wool fibers found in the mouth and hand of MacDonald’s wife, he said.

MacDonald, a Princeton-educated Army doctor, was convicted in 1979 of the bludgeoning and stabbing deaths of his pregnant wife, Colette, and two small daughters, Kimberly and Kristen, at their Ft. Bragg, N.C., apartment in February, 1970.

The trial drew widespread attention. Author Joe McGinniss wrote a best-selling book, “Fatal Vision,” about the case in 1983. The book was made into a television movie.

MacDonald has maintained that he and his family were attacked by three men accompanied by a woman with a floppy hat, blond hair and boots. He said the woman chanted: “Acid is groovy, kill the pigs.”

MacDonald, 47, is serving three consecutive life sentences at the Terminal Island Federal Corrections Institution in San Pedro, Calif.