Bost critiques the CID reinactment tape and my comments
Note from Christina Masewicz: Translation of the above page as I read it to be
No corrections have been made to grammar, spelling or punctuation
MacDonald HAS STATED that when he regained consciousness in the living room at the end of the hallway, HIS PAJAMA SHIRT WAS TORN FROM HIS BODY and was wrapped around his wrists.
COMMENT: This is untrue. Dr. MacDonald maintained then, and still maintains, that he does not know when his pajama top became torn. He has never denied that it might have been torn in the struggle, but he has never stated that it was. His recollections are on record in the interrogation by the CID on April 6, 1970, as well as in MacDonald's testimony.
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He also ADMITTED placing the white towel across her abdomen.
COMMENT: Another untruth. Dr. MacDonald does not recall placing the bath mat on his wife's body. All evidence (statements by MPs) indicates that it was placed on her body by a military policeman. SP4 Morris, for example, says when he arrived it was not on her body; later, when he was standing guard in the yard, he looked inside and noticed it there for the first time.
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It is quite evident that WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN IN THIS FILM clearly shows that Jeffrey MacDonald HAS NOT BEEN TRUTHFUL in his rendition of the events during the early morning hours of seventeen February, nineteen seventy.
COMMENT: No argument, what was allowed to be shown in the film certainly accomplished the purpose named; but what was left out of the film is shameful. Anyone having access to the evidence of the case can easily recognize that the CID, when making the film, was itself not truthful.
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MY COMMENTS
If one wants to do research and report true and factual evidence, they should make sure that all their ducks are in a row and that they know what they are talking about and have information to back up what they are saying. That is not the case with the Fred Bost's critique of the CID tape about the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case. One comes away after reading it with the impression that Bost did no research and mostly likely took what MacDonald said as gospel and ran with it.
According to Bost, "Jeffrey MacDonald's reputation was being shredded behind his back by government propaganda designed for distribution, and the destruction was accomplished with statements known by the producing agency to be wrong."
That is far from being true. You cannot conduct and be in charge of an investigation and be constantly called back to Washington, D. C. to give a report to every new Lieutenant Colonel, JAG officer, or civilian counsel. Every time there was a new higher-up/new personal, they all wanted to know about the MacDonald case, what the evidence was, where it was found and how it was linked to MacDonald. Since the late Peter Kearns was in charge of the reinvestigation, it fell to him to travel to D. C. and do what he called a "dog and pony show."
After several such trips, Colonel Pruett told Kearns to check with the pictorial agency at Fort Bragg and see about putting together a tape that would explain it to new personal, as well as become a training tape for new investigators. It would also prevent Kearns from having to go to D. C.
Kearns put together the material and wrote the dialog for the tape and took it to the pictorial agency. They arranged for a narrator and the process of making the tape started. The person chosen to narrate the tape had a deep voice and appeared as he was doing a good job. Kearns thought his part of making the tape was done. However, two days later, he was notified that the narrator was as Kearns called it, "a funny bunny". At that time no homosexuals were allowed in the service, and if it was found out that one was in, he got kicked out. The agency had no one else available to narrate and that is how Kearns came to be the narrator. The CID tape was made in 1971. It was used within the Army and was not distributed to the public.
The second issue I will address is Bost's comments re: None of the valuable items located in the residence were stolen.
COMMENT: This statement, sounding stupid, certainly had a purpose (obviously, anything that remained in the house had of course not been stolen). The CID included it apparently to suggest, without actually saying it, that nothing of value was stolen. The narrator fails to mention in the film that two rings turned up missing from Colette MacDonald's jewelry box, for which the government later reimbursed Dr. MacDonald.
But, Bost fails to mention that MacDonald did not even recognize his wife's wedding ring, how he was found trying to collect for items that had already been returned to him or Colette's coat; he reported missing when in fact it had been lost at the cleaners, and they were reimbursed for it before her murder, and he was seeking to get reimbursed from the Army again.
Let us discuss the items of valuable that was not missing from the residence. Guns, expensive stereo, television, money, an assortment of drugs that they could have been sold on the street, and the large supply of syringes that was going for $1.50 each on the street at that time.
I could respond to each and everyone of Bost's accusations re: the tape, but those familiar with the case knows Bost is just nit-picking, nothing more and that there is no truth in what he is implying. The only other issue I will address is the following -
. . . consider the following--although it had rained heavily on the evening in question, EXAMINATION OF THE CRIME SCENE AREA IMMEDIATELY OUTSIDE THE RESIDENCE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF DISTURBANCE to support the presence of intruders.
COMMENT: Intruders would have no more reason to disturb the outside area than would military policemen or neighbors. We know that at least sixteen MPs moved through that outside area prior to the arrival of the CID, as well as four medics, in addition to Mr. Kalin, Chaplain Edwards, Mrs. Pendlyshok (who was in the area of the backyard where the weapons were found), and Captain Williams (who also entered that area. The statement in the film is childish persuasion when compared with the facts.
Bost, how, in the name of what is right, can you makeup such lies? Donald Kalin was asked to identify the remains. He entered through the front door, escorted by CID agent Bill Ivory to the rooms of each of the victims. He left through the front door.
Kalin entered the house a few days later again to inform an FBI agent that there was a telephone call for him on his (Kalin's) phone. That is last time, he was to enter the residence.
Kenneth Edwards in a sworn and signed declaration stated he entered the front door of the MacDonald home.
Mrs. Pendlyshok never left her residence that night.
Captain Williams, this is Captain James Williams, his letter below explains his movements at the crime scene. He was there, but entered through the front door. Some of the other things he alleges in the letter remain questionable.
March 31, 1988 Letter from James Williams
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