Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald

Enter Joel McGinniss

Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald is a man with miserable luck.  One of the more unlucky days of his life, aside from the day his family was murdered, was the day he met author Joe McGinniss.

McGinniss happened to be in California in June of 1979 and saw an article in the newspaper about a dinner dance that the Long Beach Police Officers Association was giving to raise money for MacDonald's legal defense.  McGinniss recalled the original case some nine years earlier and contacted MacDonald.

MacDonald offered an interesting proposition.  Janet Malcolm in her witty book The Journalist and the Murderer describes it:   "MacDonald asked McGinniss if he would like to attend the murder trial — in Raleigh, North Carolina — and write a book about the case from the perspective of the defense team, with whom he would live, and to all of whose plans, strategies, and deliberations he would be privy." 

McGinniss agreed to this proposal and to share a portion of the book's proceeds to pay MacDonald's legal expenses:  26.5% of the publisher's $300,000 advance and 33% of the royalties.  As part of this deal, MacDonald agreed that regardless of what McGinniss wrote, he would not sue him for libel.

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1. The Fairy Tale
2. The Horror Story
3. MacDonald's Story
4. Crime Scene Fiasco
5. Investigative Incompetence
6. Helena Stoeckley
7. Segal Defends MacDonald
8. The Army Plans Revenge
9. Starting Over
10. The Army Doesn't Forget
11. Deck Stacked Against MacDonald
12. The Physical Evidence, Part 1
13. The Physical Evidence, Part 2
14. The FBI Laboratories
15. The pajama Folding Experiment
16. The Physical Evidence, Part 3
17. Helena Stoeckley Reemerges
18. The Issue of MacDonald's Character
19. What Really Happened
20. Greg Mitchell
21. Enter Joel McGinniss
22. Betrayal
23. The Mother of Invention
24. The Civil Suit
25. Appeals
26. New Evidence of Innocence
27. New Chapter — DNA Evidence
28. New Chapter — Hope of a New Trial
29. Bibliography