kassab crime family
Years after he was blasted with a shotgun by a crime figure who continues to wield influence in the north-west, one victim is still dealing with his injuries. Judge James Fox, a close friend of Dupree's and quite elderly himself, has taken over and has dismissed appeals. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Shortly after relocating to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was made Group Surgeon to the Green Berets. I would have said to the jury: they were not there, and neither was I. Furthermore, an FBI lab technician reenacted how MacDonald claimed he defended against the intruders attacks and proved his testimony contradicted the evidence. The Tibas are the only clan in the five families that can boast three generations of serious offenders from murderers to drug traffickers. {{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}. 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. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! While both Detective Inspectors want to reiterate this is rare, it is also their worst fear, and what they are working to stop. You sure Errol Morris wrote the book? She was sure. 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. It is a misconception that the battles are over territory. He was troubled by MacDonalds apparently cavalier attitude about the brutal murders on an appearance of "The Dick Cavett Show. The bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. One thing about this case is never in doubt no matter whos talking: If Wade Smith had been able to lead and give his closing remarks, MacDonald would be a free man today. His memoir first describes the family history, especially the career of his uncle Salim Kassab. And she told him she had been there, at the MacDonald home, the night of the murders. 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 Kassab filed a citizens criminal complaint in April 1974, petitioning a federal court to convene a grand jury and determine if MacDonald could be charged. Jeffrey MacDonald had it all. He is both a careful researcher and a profound investigator of the human condition. Wade Smith rarely grants interviews. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Most recently, retired US Marshall Jimmy Britt came forward with information that another suspect in the case, Helena Stoeckley, admitted to the prosecutor that she was in the house on the night of MacDonalds murder and that he threatened to indict her for first-degree murder if she admitted that in court. Take a guy like MacDonald. Desperate to save his family, he said he fought back until they stabbed him and beat him unconscious. Jeffrey MacDonald was arraigned in May 1975 and pleaded not guilty. Colette MacDonald and her daughters suffered horrific violence as they were killed on February 17, 1970 at their Fort Bragg home. 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). Now deceased, she remains a pivotal figure in the case. Why the MacDonald Case Matters to Everyone. 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. I held out to the last ditch. Were working to restore it. The defendant has no obligation to prove anything whatsoever. It was almost as scary as Helter Skelter the story of the Charles Manson murders in Californa that are said to have inspired Jeffrey MacDonald in the coverup for his homicidal rampage. They grew to become serious forces, in part, because of failures by police to respond to the problem. He claimed that he had been asleep on the couch when at least, 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, We reconstructed the murders using what McDonald said. WS: We all depend on excellent, honest detective work. These fibers on the bodies didnt match any fibers found in the MacDonald house. But an unfortunate thing happened in the following years. He moved to California to become the director of emergency medicine at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach. 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. Marc Smerling thinks he has some idea. The Jeffrey MacDonald murder case is one of the most disturbing in living memory. Evidence the defense never saw. But did hippie intruders make sense? It sickened me and it enraged me.. Two-year-old Kristen had 33 knife- and 15 icepick wounds in her torso, while five-year-old Kimberly was bludgeoned to death. Jeffrey MacDonald, Joe McGinnis, prosecutor James Blackburn (who went to prison himself for defrauding his clients), Wade Smith and others newer to the case gathered once again to testify. The one hardly anyone sees, but that rages, nonetheless. Colette had been stabbed 16 times and punctured 21 times with an ice pick, while 5-year-old Kimberley was killed by six blows to the head and eightto 10 stab wounds, according to a1998 Vanity Fair article. Other witnesses claimed that Stoeckly had confessed at various times that she thought she might have been present during the murders. After leaving the factory, he spent several years scrabbling for a living: working on a farm, peddling fancy goods, and the like. I was born in May of that year, and would thus be the same age as the child Colette MacDonald was carrying when her life was snuffed out. Sadly, the family wouldnt survive the next year. Young woman; old woman. MacDonald said there had been a stabbing and begged for an ambulance. A lengthy trial heard Moustafa and Kassab had gone to the Brunswick panel beating shop to confront Moustafa over $50,000 in cash and $10,000 in aftershave they believe he had stolen. Freddie Kassab and CID investigators returned to the crime scene in 1971 to contrast MacDonalds claims with the evidence and found his narrative implausible. 1,169 Birth, Marriage & Death. The family lost its large house in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and was forced to live in small quarters in a building they still owned. Together, the manuscripts provide a detailed look into nearly a century of one familys history in Syria and the United States, as well as a rich insight into the social fabric and workplace challenges faced by early immigrants. Eventually, after pressure from Colettes family, MacDonald was indicted and found guilty of the three murders on August 29, 1979. It ultimately concluded that MacDonalds wounds were self-inflicted, and his story entirely fabricated. It appeared to investigators that MacDonald had staged the scene, inspired by the recent Manson Family murders to blame hippies for his crime. On Sept. 17, 2012, in Wilmington, N.C., a crowd of familiar faces assembled for a new hearing. Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe bedroom of Kristen and Kimberly MacDonald, mere hours after they were murdered. WebIt is reported Ms Kassab entered Syria last year and that her husband, known as Sam, died on the border of Turkey in 2013. When the initial military hearing was conducted in 1970, no one in his life could be found who had a bad thing to say about him. It has Helena Stoeckley, the dominant person who continues to play a remarkable role. Oh, yes. Two members of the Tiba family have been charged in relation to the shooting. She was a pretty girl, not beautiful, but pretty, and she was down to earth and she hated to see anybody hurt.. And were very fortunate. That is why, police say, it is important to consider what the shooting represents, rather than the act itself. She was the type of girlthe best way I can explain it, I never met a girl that did not like Colette, he once told the Washington Post. McGinniss had to be creative, because the mans character never fit the crime. 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. Kassab filed a citizens criminal complaint in April 1974, petitioning a federal court to convene a grand jury and determine if MacDonald could be charged. 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. They dont know the truth any more than I do. Maybe more than I would have thought as a teen. Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, Collection description written by Linda Jacobs. Stories about the innocent caught in a machine that perverts every possibility of justice. That kind of story never ends. 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. It has Charles Manson written all over it. His memoir reads as a classic Syrian rags-to-riches story, except for the fact that he lost everything when he speculated in real estate just before the Great Depression. In addition, DNA testing on evidence that was recovered from the fingernails scrapings of one of the victims and a hair found under another victim did not match MacDonald. Their hold on the region no longer remains absolute. The veneer of the MacDonalds perfect marriage had also began to crack. The CIDs five-month-long interrogation (referred to as an Article 32 hearing) began in April, with officials intent on using only physical evidence and MacDonalds own statements to form their view. 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. He could have gone on with his life, and he should have. Its a scary, spooky story that sounds made up. MacDonald has had mostly good lawyers, though not always the appropriate ones. "More senior criminal figures are exploiting the vulnerabilities of younger or less sophisticated offenders," he said. Jeffrey MacDonald had also been at the home at the time, but he suffered only minor injuries compared to what his family endured. However, critics of the book say that while it paints an emotional picture of a man wrongfully tried by the media, it cherrypicks evidence and largely ignores the physical evidence that led to MacDonalds 1979 conviction. The military hearing found that the charges against MacDonald were not true. Others would say that that was a healthy thing to do. MacDonald in late 1970 after the Army acquitted him of all charges. We need your support in this difficult time. LP: She said that to her lawyer at the time of the 1979 trial? MacDonald was ultimately convicted in 1979 for killing his pregnant wife Colette MacDonald and their two young daughters, Kimberley and Kristen. He survived. He could get an answer by the end of this year. 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