Will He Admit Guilt?

MacDonald has applied for parole. But there's a catch. His freedom could come at a price he may not be willing to pay.

In exchange for his freedom, MacDonald must be willing to say, "I'm sorry I killed my wife and children."

When I heard that a family had been slaughtered at 544 Castle Drive on Fort Bragg on that February morning in 1970, I and a lot of my Fayetteville neighbors thought: Drug-crazed hippies had struck again.

It had only been six months since Charles Manson's death squad had gone on a murderous rampage in Los Angeles. The idea that people who preached peace and love were capable of such savagery had been planted in the public's mind. That the horror had apparently come to Fayetteville was no big surprise.

Then the story turned strange. One family member had survived the carnage. Though MacDonald's wife and two children had been stabbed and beaten to death, a young, healthy and physically fit doctor assigned to Special Forces was still alive.

It was then that people began to wonder. How and why did four people break into a Fort Bragg apartment and kill a woman and two children without killing the one person who posed the greatest threat to them? It didn't make sense.

As MacDonald would later tell me, "My only crime was not dying with my family."

Maybe. After nine years of investigations, legal maneuvers and a high-profile trial in Raleigh, MacDonald was sentenced Aug. 29, 1979, to three life sentences for the deaths of his family members. Today, he is inmate 00131-177 at the federal prison in Cumberland, Md. His projected release date is April 5, 2071.

Unless, that is, he is granted parole at a hearing scheduled for next month.

MacDonald, now 61, has vehemently and consistently maintained his innocence. That unwavering claim may be what keeps him in prison. Although he has technically been eligible for parole since 1991, this is the first time he has asked. Apparently, MacDonald thinks he must admit guilt and express remorse for the killings before parole can be granted. Parole boards rarely listen to petitioners who won't accept responsibility for their acts.

I couldn't reach MacDonald, but his latest attorney is quoted as saying that given his new marriage, MacDonald has more reason now to apply for parole.

I interviewed MacDonald several times and covered his grand jury appearance and trial in Raleigh. He is persuasive and personable. It is difficult to believe that someone so pleasant could kill anyone.

But then there is the evidence, and it points directly at him. Yes, there were glitches in the investigation. But when the trial was over, I agreed with the jury that said he beat and stabbed his wife and killed his children in cold blood to make it look like the work of a Manson-like gang.

Can he now, after almost 35 years, admit his guilt and possibly go free? Or will he, by continuing to proclaim his innocence, doom himself to a life behind bars?

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