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123-513: Fatal Vision focuses on Captain Jeffrey R. MacDonald , M.D. and the February 17, 1970 murders of his wife and their two children at their home on Fort Bragg , North Carolina . In 1979, MacDonald was convicted of all three murders and sentenced to life in prison. McGinniss was hired by MacDonald, prior to the start of the criminal trial, but he later became convinced that MacDonald was guilty, and

246-454: A Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of an animal trainer , a topiary gardener, a robot scientist, and a naked mole-rat specialist. Morris was born on February 5, 1948, into a Jewish family in Hewlett , New York . His father died when he

369-547: A disciplinarian father who, although nonviolent towards his wife and children, demanded obedience and achievement from his family. MacDonald attended Patchogue-Medford High School , where he became president of the student council. He was voted both "most popular" and "most likely to succeed" by his fellow students, and was king of the senior prom. Towards the end of his eighth grade year, MacDonald became acquainted with Colette Kathryn Stevenson (b. May 10, 1943). He would later recollect he had first observed Colette "walking down

492-409: A polygraph test to verify his accounts, he readily agreed, although within ten minutes of the conclusion of the interview, he called investigators to state he had changed his mind, and would not submit to any polygraph testing. On the evening of April 6, MacDonald was relieved of his duties and placed under restriction, pending further inquiries. The following day, he was assigned an army lawyer. At

615-539: A balcony while watching the movie A Summer Place at the Rialto Theater in Patchogue. He would later reminisce that whenever he or Colette heard the song " Theme from A Summer Place " across the airwaves, "either of us would turn up the radio". The following summer, while visiting a friend on Fire Island , Colette announced to MacDonald their relationship was over. MacDonald later formed a relationship with

738-442: A construction supervisor before he moved with his wife and child to Chicago in the summer of 1965, where he had been accepted at Northwestern University Medical School . The couple moved into a small one-bedroom apartment, with Colette committed to maintaining the household and raising their daughter as MacDonald focused on his studies, while also working a series of part-time jobs to assist with family finances. The following year,

861-529: A crime for which he had been convicted. This suit was also settled, with the Kassabs receiving a percentage of the book's profit, but also paying for MacDonald's legal expenses. In 1990, The New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm published an article, " The Journalist and the Murderer ", with the thesis that journalism inevitably conflicts with morality as it is usually conceived; she considered Fatal Vision as

984-476: A doctoral student in philosophy. At Berkeley, he once again found that he was not well-suited to his subject. "Berkeley was just a world of pedants. It was truly shocking. I spent two or three years in the philosophy program. I have very bad feelings about it", he later said. After leaving UC Berkeley, he became a regular at the Pacific Film Archive . As Tom Luddy , the director of the archive at

1107-467: A documentary adaptation of it, having studied the philosophy of science at Princeton. Morris's film A Brief History of Time is less an adaptation of Hawking's book than a portrait of the scientist. It combines interviews with Hawking, his colleagues and his family with computer animations and clips from movies like Disney's The Black Hole . Morris said he was "very moved by Hawking as a man", calling him "immensely likable, perverse, funny...and yes, he's

1230-899: A documentary filmmaker, he is also an accomplished director of television commercials . In 2002, Morris directed a series of television ads for Apple Computer as part of a popular "Switch" campaign. The commercials featured ex- Windows users discussing their various bad experiences that motivated their own personal switches to Macintosh. One commercial in the series, starring Ellen Feiss, a high-schooler friend of his son Hamilton Morris , became an Internet meme. Morris has directed hundreds of commercials for various companies and products, including Adidas , AIG , Cisco Systems , Citibank , Kimberly-Clark 's Depend brand , Levi's , Miller High Life , Nike , PBS , The Quaker Oats Company , Southern Comfort , EA Sports , Toyota and Volkswagen . Many of these commercials are available on his website. In July 2004, Morris directed another series of commercials in

1353-415: A genius." Morris's Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves interviews with a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist and a naked mole rat specialist with stock footage, cartoons and clips from film serials. Roger Ebert said of it, "If I had to describe it, I'd say it's about people who are trying to control things - to take upon themselves the mantle of God." Morris agreed there

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1476-496: A girl named Penny Wells. MacDonald's high school grades were sufficient for him to earn a three-year scholarship at Princeton University , where he enrolled as a premedical student in 1962. By the second year of his studies, MacDonald and Wells had separated. He soon resumed his romantic relationship with Colette, then a freshman at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs . He would later recollect Colette had grown into

1599-485: A happy camper." He now states that he does not believe that Macdonald is guilty, but thinks it possible that Macdonald is guilty. To conduct interviews, Morris invented a machine, called the Interrotron, which allows the interviewer and his subject to make eye-contact with each other while both staring through the camera lens itself. He explains the device as follows: Teleprompters are used to project an image on

1722-419: A house in town and conducting interviews with the town's citizens. Vernon, Florida premiered at the 1981 New York Film Festival . Newsweek called it, "a film as odd and mysterious as its subjects, and quite unforgettable." The film, like Gates of Heaven , suffered from poor distribution. It was released on video in 1987, and DVD in 2005. After finishing Vernon, Florida , Morris tried to get funding for

1845-433: A later date. Why leave you there alive?" Investigator Franz Grebner, questioning MacDonald as to the minor nature of the wounds inflicted to himself by comparison to his wife and daughters. April 6, 1970. Investigator Robert Shaw then questioned MacDonald as to the lack of disorder and damage within the household, and the lack of any motive , stating that in the investigators' experience, had four intruders embarked on

1968-401: A life sentence that had been commuted from a death sentence on a legal technicality for the 1976 murder of Robert Wood, a Dallas police officer. Adams told Morris that he had been framed, and that David Harris, who was present at the time of the murder and was the principal witness for the prosecution, had in fact killed Wood. Morris began researching the case because it related to Dr. Grigson. He

2091-554: A mild concussion . He had also received a single stab wound between two ribs on his right torso. This wound was described by a staff surgeon as a "clean, small, sharp" incision measuring five-eighths of an inch in depth, and had caused his lung to partially collapse . MacDonald was released from the hospital after nine days. Questioned by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), MacDonald claimed that at about 2:00 a.m. on February 17, he had washed

2214-439: A movie about Ed Gein." In the fall of 1976, Herzog visited Plainfield again, this time to shoot part of his film Stroszek . Morris accepted $ 2,000 from Herzog and used it to take a trip to Vernon, Florida . Vernon was nicknamed "Nub City" because its residents participated in a particularly gruesome form of insurance fraud in which they deliberately amputated a limb to collect the insurance money. Morris's second documentary

2337-406: A murderous frenzy within a small household, they would expect to encounter evidence such as "busted furniture and broken mirrors and bashed-in walls", but the only signs of the struggle were the top-heavy living room coffee table, which had not flipped over all the way in the midst of his struggle, and a flower pot beside the table with the plant upon the carpet and the pot standing upright. MacDonald

2460-732: A new Morris documentary was submitted to several film festivals, including Toronto International Film Festival , Cannes Film Festival , and Telluride Film Festival . The film, Tabloid , features interviews with Joyce McKinney , a former Miss Wyoming , who was convicted in absentia for the kidnap and indecent assault of a Mormon missionary in England during 1977. Subsequently, Morris has made documentaries such as The Unknown Known (2013), American Dharma (2018), and The Pigeon Tunnel (2023), revolving around interviews conducted with Donald Rumsfeld , Steve Bannon , and John le Carré , respectively. Although Morris has achieved fame as

2583-463: A pair of ill-fated Stephen King adaptations. In 1984, Morris married Julia Sheehan, whom he had met in Wisconsin while researching Ed Gein and other serial killers. He would later recall an early conversation with Julia: "I was talking to a mass murderer but I was thinking of you," he said, and instantly regretted it, afraid that it might not have sounded as affectionate as he had wished. But Julia

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2706-431: A piece of lumber, Kimberley, whose blood and brain serum were found in the doorway, may have walked in after hearing the commotion and was struck at least once on the head, possibly by accident. Believing Colette dead, MacDonald carried the mortally wounded Kimberley back to her bedroom. After stabbing her, MacDonald then proceeded to Kristen's room, carrying the club he had used to bludgeon Kimberley, intent on disposing of

2829-475: A script for a work of fiction that he called Nub City. After a few unproductive months, he happened upon a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that read, "450 Dead Pets Going to Napa Valley." Morris left for Napa Valley and began working on the film that would become his first feature, Gates of Heaven , which premiered in 1978. Herzog had said he would eat his shoe if Morris completed

2952-448: A shy young woman with a "slight fear of the world in general" who would rely on his own self-confidence. MacDonald found her timidity touching, and gradually viewed himself as her protector in addition to her boyfriend. The two regularly exchanged letters, and he would frequently hitchhike to Skidmore College to be in her company at weekends. Although MacDonald was dating other women at the time, he resolved to marry Colette upon learning she

3075-567: A single layer of skin found beneath one of Colette's fingernails. Segal elicited several examples of incompetence from military police and responding personnel, including testimony revealing that an ambulance driver had stolen MacDonald's wallet from the living room, and a pathologist who testified to having failed to obtain the children's fingerprints for comparison at the crime scene. The first witness to testify in MacDonald's defense, responding military policeman Kenneth Mica, testified that on

3198-430: A spur-of-the-moment, fit of psychotic rage as a result of taking amphetamines. Around the time of the murders Fort Bragg had been experiencing problems and crime associated with drug-addicted soldiers returning from Vietnam. MacDonald expected that the book would show his innocence; however, like other authors MacDonald had contacted, McGinniss insisted on a signed release from MacDonald, allowing him to write freely, and

3321-575: A survey by The Washington Post , the film made dozens of critics' top ten lists for 1988, more than any other film that year. It won the documentary of the year award from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics . Despite its widespread acclaim, it was not nominated for an Oscar , which created a small scandal regarding the nomination practices of the academy. The academy cited

3444-507: A term-paper writer. His unorthodox approach to applying for graduate school included "trying to get accepted at different graduate schools just by showing up on their doorstep." Having unsuccessfully approached both the University of Oxford and Harvard University , Morris was able to talk his way into Princeton University , where he began studying the history of science, a topic in which he had "absolutely no background." His concentration

3567-514: A time when something is going wrong in the country. Bonnie and Clyde were apolitical, but it's impossible to imagine them without the Depression as a backdrop. The Pardue brothers were apolitical, but it's impossible to imagine them without Vietnam." Morris wanted Tom Waits and Mickey Rourke to play the brothers, and he wrote the script, but the project eventually failed. Morris worked on writing scripts for various other projects, including

3690-460: A two-way mirror. Politicians and newscasters use them so that they can read text and look into the lens of the camera at the same time. What interests me is that nobody thought of using them for anything other than to display text: read a speech or read the news and look into the lens of the camera. I changed that. I put my face on the Teleprompter or, strictly speaking, my live video image. For

3813-654: A variety of projects. The Road story was about an interstate highway in Minnesota; one project was about Robert Golka, the creator of laser-induced fireballs in Utah; and another story was about Centralia, Pennsylvania , the coal town in which an inextinguishable subterranean fire ignited in 1962. He eventually got funding in 1983 to write a script about John and Jim Pardue, Missouri bank robbers who had killed their father and grandmother and robbed five banks. Morris's pitch went, "The great bank-robbery sprees always take place at

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3936-602: A visionary. In a 2019 New Yorker interview, Morris reflected, "To me, what really is interesting about Elizabeth [Holmes] ... did she really see herself as a fraud? Was it calculation? I have a hard time squaring that with my own experience. Could I have been self-deceived, delusional? You betcha. I'm no different than the next guy. I'd like to think I'm a little different. But I'm still fascinated by her." Morris has also written long-form journalism, exploring different areas of interest and published on The New York Times website. A collection of these essays, titled Believing

4059-588: Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, was published by Penguin Press on September 1, 2011. In November 2011, Morris premiered a documentary short titled "The Umbrella Man"—featuring Josiah "Tink" Thompson —about the Kennedy assassination on The New York Times website. In 2012, Morris published his second book, A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald , about Jeffrey MacDonald ,

4182-715: Is an American former medical doctor and United States Army captain who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician . MacDonald has always proclaimed his innocence of the murders, which he claims were committed by four intruders—three male and one female—who had entered the unlocked rear door of his apartment at Fort Bragg , North Carolina , and attacked him, his wife, and his children with instruments such as knives, clubs and ice picks . Prosecutors and appellate courts have pointed to strong physical evidence attesting to his guilt. He

4305-657: Is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland . The MacDonald murder case remains one of the most litigated murder cases in American criminal history. Jeffrey MacDonald was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York , the second of three children born to Robert and Dorothy ( née Perry) MacDonald. He was raised in a poor household on Long Island , with

4428-414: Is groovy, kill the pigs!" MacDonald claimed the three males then attacked him with a club and ice pick, with the female intruder shouting "Hit 'em again!" During the struggle, his pajama top was pulled over his head to his wrists and he had used this bound garment to ward off thrusts from the ice pick although eventually, he was overcome by his assailants and knocked unconscious in the living room end of

4551-497: Is the question, Did he do it, or didn't he? And on another level, The Thin Blue Line , properly considered, is an essay on false history. A whole group of people, literally everyone, believed a version of the world that was entirely wrong, and my accidental investigation of the story provided a different version of what happened." The Thin Blue Line ranks among the most critically acclaimed documentaries ever made. According to

4674-471: The 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Liberty (then known as Fort Bragg ), North Carolina to serve as the group's surgeon. He was joined by his wife and children, and the MacDonald family resided at 544 Castle Drive, in a section of the base reserved for married officers and afforded security by military police. The couple quickly became popular among their neighbors, although MacDonald and Colette are known to have argued occasionally. By

4797-437: The 75th Academy Awards . He was hired based on his advertising resume, not his career as a director of feature-length documentaries. Those interviewed ranged from Laura Bush to Iggy Pop to Kenneth Arrow to Morris's 15-year-old son Hamilton. Morris was nominated for an Emmy for this short film. He considered editing this footage into a feature-length film, focusing on Donald Trump discussing Citizen Kane (this segment

4920-505: The Green Beret physician convicted of killing his wife and two daughters on February 17, 1970. Morris first became interested in the case in the early 1990s and believes that MacDonald is not guilty after undertaking extensive research. Morris explained in a July 2013 interview, prior to the reopening of the case: "What happened here is wrong. It's wrong to convict a man under these circumstances. And if I can help correct that, I will be

5043-460: The cello , spending a summer in France studying music under the acclaimed Nadia Boulanger , who also taught Morris's future collaborator Philip Glass . Describing Morris as a teenager, Mark Singer wrote that he "read with a passion the 14-odd Oz books , watched a lot of television, and on a regular basis went with a doting but not quite right maiden aunt ('I guess you'd have to say that Aunt Roz

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5166-448: The habeas corpus hearing officially stated that, "much could be said about those videotape interviews, but nothing that would have any bearing on the matter before this court." Regardless, The Thin Blue Line , as Morris's film would be called, was popularly accepted as the main force behind getting its subject, Randall Adams, out of prison. As Morris said of the film, " The Thin Blue Line is two movies grafted together. On one simple level

5289-482: The physical evidence , the Army CID quickly came to disbelieve MacDonald's account, as they found very little evidence to support his version of events. Although MacDonald was trained in unarmed combat , the living room where he had supposedly fought for his life against three armed assailants showed few signs of a struggle apart from a coffee table that had been knocked onto its side with a pile of magazines beneath

5412-480: The 2006 NFL season. In 2013, Morris stated that he has made around 1,000 commercials during his career. Since then he has continued in the field, including a 2019 campaign for Chipotle. In 2015, Morris made commercials for medical technology firm Theranos , and interviewed its founder, Elizabeth Holmes . After the company fell in disgrace, Morris was criticized by The Telegraph for seeming "captivated" by Holmes, and for contributing to Holmes' mythical persona as

5535-413: The 3rd Special Forces Group was deactivated, and MacDonald was transferred on base to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces , to serve as a preventive medical officer. Shortly before Christmas 1969, with his wife approximately three months pregnant with their third child and first son, MacDonald bought his daughters a Shetland pony , anticipating

5658-409: The Army CID, stating that they had clumsily and unprofessionally "trampled all over" the crime scene during their examination of the house, obliterating any traces of evidence the perpetrators might have left and losing vital pieces of evidence including a single thread found beneath Kimberley's nail, MacDonald's pajama trousers, four torn tips of rubber surgical gloves found in the master bedroom, and

5781-551: The Army's Special Forces ("Green Berets") to become a Special Forces physician. He was then assigned to Fort Moore , Georgia (then known as Fort Benning), where he completed their paratrooper training course. Although MacDonald had joined the Army knowing he might be deployed to serve in the Vietnam War , he later learned that, as a Green Beret doctor, he was unlikely to serve overseas. In late August, MacDonald reported to

5904-487: The MacDonald case, including discussions of McGinniss's book and Malcolm's study. In 2012 (after McGinniss's diagnosis with terminal prostate cancer ), McGinniss published an essay-length e-book , Final Vision: The Last Word on Jeffrey MacDonald , rebutting MacDonald's assertions in his multiple post-1983 appeals. In 2017 (after McGinniss's death in 2014), the book was adapted into a film. Jeffrey R. MacDonald Jeffrey Robert MacDonald (born October 12, 1943)

6027-478: The MacDonalds' marital bed, the word "PIG" was written in eight inch capital letters. The blood used to write this word was later determined to belong to Colette. Having received impromptu resuscitation , MacDonald sat upright, then exclaimed: "Jesus Christ! Look at my wife! I'm gonna kill those goddamned acid heads!" He was immediately taken to nearby Womack Hospital, shouting, "Let me see my kids!" as he

6150-448: The accusation before referencing his puncture wound and his having to persuade hospital doctors to insert a chest tube into his body as he was sure his lung was punctured. Questioning then focused upon the crime scene and results of the forensic testing. MacDonald denied any of the murder weapons had originated from his household, despite the fact the section of lumber matched wood from Kimberley's closet. He also claimed to be unaware of how

6273-538: The adjacent bathroom, and stabbed himself once in the chest while standing beside the sink before disposing of the surgical gloves. He had then used the family telephone to summon an ambulance before lying down beside Colette's body as he waited for the military police to arrive. On April 6, 1970, Army investigators formally cautioned, then interrogated MacDonald. He was first offered the chance to recount his version of events, and recounted his claims of being attacked by four intruders, with whom he grappled before falling to

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6396-402: The apartment, but not the room where MacDonald claimed to have been attacked. No blood or fingerprints were found on either telephone MacDonald claimed he had used to call for help after checking each member of his family and attempting to resuscitate them. Furthermore, the bloodstained tip of a surgical glove was also found beneath the headboard where the blood inscription was written; this glove

6519-405: The assumption the four individuals discovered by responding military police were the only four people in the house in the early hours of February 17, investigators were able to reconstruct a likely scenario of the chain of events that had unfolded via blood typing and the nature and severity of the wounds discovered upon each individual. An argument or fight between MacDonald and Colette began in

6642-575: The back door wide open. Upon entering, the sergeant walked into the master bedroom before running to the front of the house, shouting, "Tell them to get Womack , ASAP!" Colette MacDonald was discovered sprawled on the floor of the master bedroom. She lay on her back, with one eye open and one breast exposed. She had been repeatedly clubbed about her body, with both her forearms later found to be broken. The pathologist would note these wounds had likely been inflicted as Colette had raised her arms to protect her face. In addition, she had been stabbed 21 times in

6765-510: The book supported MacDonald's conviction. The book sold well, and gave rise to a miniseries of the same name on NBC the next year. The book led to MacDonald suing McGinniss, a case that was settled out of court. The book and its conclusions were challenged by several subsequent publications. In the early morning hours of February 17, 1970, at their home on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Green Beret Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, M.D.,

6888-462: The case in earnest. Unedited interviews in which the prosecution's witnesses systematically contradicted themselves were used as testimony in Adams's 1986 habeas corpus hearing to determine if he would receive a new trial. David Harris famously confessed, in a roundabout manner, to killing Wood. Although Adams was finally found innocent after years of being processed by the legal system, the judge in

7011-543: The case. In July 1974, a Federal judge acted on a citizen's criminal complaint by Kassab and others, by putting the case before a grand jury. MacDonald was indicted for all three murders in January 1975, and after two rounds of appeals to Appeal and Supreme Courts , went to trial on July 16, 1979. After a six-week criminal trial, MacDonald was convicted of second-degree murder of his wife and older daughter and of first-degree murder of his younger daughter on August 29, 1979 and

7134-474: The chest with an ice pick and 16 times about the neck and chest with a knife, with her trachea severed in two places. A bloodied and torn pajama top was draped upon her chest, and a paring knife lay beside her body. Beside her, Jeffrey MacDonald was found lying face-down, alive but wounded, with his head on Colette's chest and one arm around her neck. As military personnel approached, he whispered: "Check my kids! I heard my kids crying!" Five-year-old Kimberley

7257-411: The commercials and Kerry's losing campaign. In late 2004, Morris directed a series of noteworthy commercials for Sharp Electronics . The commercials enigmatically depicted various scenes from what appeared to be a short narrative that climaxed with a car crashing into a swimming pool. Each commercial showed a slightly different perspective on the events, and each ended with a cryptic weblink. The weblink

7380-432: The couch to go to their aid, he was attacked by three male intruders, one black and two white. The shorter of the two white men had worn lightweight, possibly surgical , gloves. A fourth intruder he described as a white female with long blonde hair (possibly a wig) and wearing high heeled, knee-high boots and a white floppy hat partially covering her face. This individual stood nearby holding a lighted candle, chanting, "Acid

7503-526: The couple sat on the couch watching television together before Colette decided to go to bed midway through The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . MacDonald had himself fallen asleep in the living room in the early hours of the following day. At 3:42 a.m. on February 17, 1970, dispatchers at Fort Bragg received an emergency phone call from MacDonald, who faintly spoke into the receiver: "Help! Five forty-four Castle Drive! Stabbing! ... Five forty-four Castle Drive! Stabbing! Hurry!" The operator then heard

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7626-411: The crime scene. Colonel Rock also testified that he himself went to the scene of the crime and tipped the coffee table over, with it striking the side of a rocking chair and coming to rest on its edge. Rock also noted the fact that if no wet footprints and mud were found at the crime scene belonging to the alleged intruders, that meant the crime scene investigators had also failed to find any evidence of

7749-533: The crime scene. MacDonald was unable to offer a plausible explanation to this questioning before abruptly accusing Grebner of having "run out of ideas" and attempting to frame him to maintain a 100% solved homicide rate. In response, Grebner stated, "We have all this business here that would tend to indicate that you were involved in this rather than people who came in from the outside and picked 544 Castle Drive and went up there and were lucky enough to find your door open." When investigators asked MacDonald to submit to

7872-516: The direction of the doorway. By mid-March, the CID had obtained the results of forensic testing of the blood, hair, and fiber samples within 544 Castle Drive that contradicted MacDonald's accounts of his movements and further convinced investigators of his guilt. For example, Kimberley's blood was also found on his pajama top, even though MacDonald had claimed he was not wearing this garment while in her room attempting resuscitation. MacDonald's own blood

7995-410: The discoveries at Castle Drive, military police were instructed to check the occupants of all vehicles in and around Fort Bragg, seeking two white men, one black man, and a white woman with blonde hair and a floppy hat in an effort to apprehend the four intruders MacDonald alleged had attacked him and his family. Despite these efforts, military police failed to locate the four intruders, and the initiative

8118-457: The documentary. After the film premiered, Herzog publicly followed through on the bet by cooking and eating his shoe, which was documented in the short film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe by Les Blank . Gates of Heaven was given a limited release in the spring of 1981. Roger Ebert was a champion of the film, including it on his ballot in the 1992 Sight & Sound critics' poll. Morris returned to Vernon in 1979 and again in 1980, renting

8241-430: The edge, and a flower plant that had fallen to the floor. Questioning of the MacDonalds' neighbors revealed they had heard no sounds of a struggle or disturbance within the household in the early hours, but had heard Colette shouting in a loud and angry voice. The 16-year-old daughter of these neighbors—who occasionally babysat for the family—informed investigators the two had seemed taciturn and indifferent to each other in

8364-486: The evening's dinner dishes before deciding to go to bed, although because his younger daughter, Kristen, had wet his side of the bed, he had taken her to her own bed. Not wishing to wake his wife to change the sheets, he had then taken a blanket from Kristen's room and fallen asleep on the living room couch. According to MacDonald, he was later awakened by Colette and Kimberley's screams, and Colette shouting: "Jeff! Jeff! Help! Why are they doing this to me?" As he rose from

8487-589: The family ate supper, Colette left the household to attend an evening teaching class at Fort Bragg's North Carolina University extension. According to MacDonald, he then played "horsey": allowing his daughters to ride upon his back as if he was their Shetland pony for a short while before he had put Kristen to bed at approximately 7 p.m. as Kimberley played a game on the coffee table. He then slept for an hour before watching Kimberley's favorite television show, Laugh-In , with her before his older daughter also went to bed. Colette returned home at 9:40 p.m., and

8610-711: The family relocated to a middle-class neighborhood. Their second child, Kristen Jean, was born on May 8, 1967. Shortly after MacDonald graduated from medical school in 1968, he and his family relocated to Bergenfield, New Jersey as he completed a one-year internship at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, specializing in thoracic surgery. MacDonald later described his internship year as "a horrendous year" for both himself and Colette, adding he frequently worked 36 hours with only 12 hours at home. Consequently, when at home, he

8733-531: The family would soon relocate to a farm in Connecticut . He kept this purchase a secret from his wife and children, and he and his stepfather-in-law drove them to the stable as a surprise on Christmas Day. His daughters chose to name the pony "Trooper". The same month, Colette is known to have penned a letter to college acquaintances in which she described her life as "never [being] so normal or happy", adding she and her husband were content, that their baby son

8856-460: The fiber and blood evidence contradicted his accounts of his movements and actions. "This weapon was used on Colette and Kim. It's a brutal weapon. We had three people that were over-killed, almost. And yet... they leave you alive. While you were laying there in the hallway, why not give you a good [blow] or two from behind the head with that club and finish you off? You saw them eye to eye. They don't know that you wouldn't be able to identify them at

8979-529: The film's genre of "non-fiction", arguing that it was not actually a documentary. It was the first of Morris's films to be scored by Philip Glass . Morris wanted to make a film about Albert Einstein's brain and approached Amblin Entertainment about it. Gordon Freeman had acquired the rights to Stephen Hawking 's bestseller A Brief History of Time and Steven Spielberg suggested Morris direct it. After reading Hawking's book, Morris agreed to direct

9102-514: The final version was precisely the opposite of what MacDonald had expected. In 1984, MacDonald sued McGinniss for fraud and breach of contract, claiming he had breached an agreement to write a book about his innocence. In August 1987, the jury hearing the case deadlocked, and the case was settled out of court in November with MacDonald receiving $ 325,000. The Kassabs, MacDonald's in-laws, then sued MacDonald to try to prevent him from profiting from

9225-556: The first time, I could be talking to someone, and they could be talking to me and at the same time looking directly into the lens of the camera. Now, there was no looking off slightly to the side. No more faux first person. This was the true first person. Author Marsha McCreadie, in her book Documentary Superstars: How Today's Filmmakers Are Reinventing the Form , had paired Morris with Werner Herzog as practitioners and visionaries in their approach in documentary filmmaking. Morris employs

9348-405: The future if he is not put to death. Grigson had spent 15 years testifying for such cases, and he almost invariably gave the same damning testimony, often saying that it is "one hundred per cent certain" that the defendant would kill again. This led to Grigson being nicknamed "Dr. Death." Through Grigson, Morris met the subject of his next film, 36-year-old Randall Dale Adams . Adams was serving

9471-485: The grave. Morris later returned to Plainfield, this time staying for almost a year, conducting hundreds of hours of interviews. Despite this, his plans to either write a book or make a film (which he would call Digging up the Past ) were left unfinished at the time. In an October 2023 interview with Letterboxd , Morris mentioned that he has since returned to the project, saying "I started rewatching Psycho , because I’m making

9594-450: The ground, observing "the top of some boots" and being rendered unconscious before regaining consciousness, experiencing symptoms of pneumothorax , in the hallway after the intruders had left. Investigators were unconvinced of MacDonald's accounts. Midway through questioning, MacDonald was asked the question about his stab wounds by CID Investigator William Ivory: "You didn't do it yourself, did you?" This question prompted MacDonald to deny

9717-412: The hallway (of Patchogue High School) with her best friend" and that, although he was attracted to both girls, he found Colette more attractive. Approximately two weeks later, they began talking and formed a friendship, with MacDonald soon "asking her out to the movies". The two formed a brief romantic relationship in the ninth grade, with MacDonald later recollecting they fell in love while holding hands on

9840-485: The hallway leading to the bedrooms. When he had regained consciousness, the intruders had left the house. He had then stumbled from room to room, attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation upon each of his daughters, to no avail, before discovering his wife. He had pulled a small paring knife from Colette's chest which he then tossed onto the floor, attempted in vain to find her pulse , then draped his pajama jacket over her body. Then he had phoned for help. Within minutes of

9963-412: The hallway, two-year-old Kristen was found in her own bed, also lying on her left side, with a baby bottle close to her mouth. She had been stabbed 33 times across the chest, neck, hands, and back with a knife and 15 times with an ice pick. Two knife wounds had penetrated her heart, and the ice pick wounds were noted to be shallow. The injuries to her hands were likely defense wounds . On the headboard of

10086-604: The haunting opening about McNamara's relationship with U.S. General Curtis LeMay during World War II, Morris brings out complexities in the character of McNamara, which shaped McNamara's positions in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. Like his earlier documentary, The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War included extensive use of re-enactments, a technique which many had believed was inappropriate for documentaries prior to his Oscar win. In early 2010,

10209-476: The infamous body snatcher who resided at Mendota State Hospital in Madison. He later made plans with German film director Werner Herzog , whom Tom Luddy had introduced to Morris, to return in the summer of 1975 to secretly open the grave of Gein's mother to test their theory that Gein himself had already dug her up. Herzog arrived on schedule, but Morris had second thoughts and was not there. Herzog did not open

10332-422: The kitchen closet, he went to the master bedroom, where he used Colette's blood to write the word "PIG" on the headboard. MacDonald then laid his torn pajama top over her dead body and repeatedly stabbed her in the chest with an ice pick, then discarded the weapons close to the back door of the property after wiping them clean of fingerprints. Finally, MacDonald took a scalpel blade from the supply closet, entered

10455-665: The large numbers of military police and civilians who also walked around the house. Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of their subjects, and the invention of the Interrotron . In 2003, his The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature . His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on

10578-399: The last remaining potential witness. Before he could do so, Colette, whose blood was found on Kristen's bed covers and on one wall of her room, apparently regained consciousness, stumbled into her younger daughter's bedroom and threw her own body over Kristen in a desperate effort to protect her. After killing both of them, MacDonald then wrapped Colette's body in a sheet and carried her body to

10701-405: The master bedroom, investigators questioned why home intruders would bother to carry her back to her bedroom to continue their attack. The four members of the MacDonald family had different blood types : a statistical anomaly that assisted investigators in determining the movements of each member of the household and their subsequent theory as to a likely scenario of the unfolding events. Upon

10824-514: The master bedroom, leaving a smudged footprint matching her blood type as he exited Kristen's bedroom. CID investigators then theorized that MacDonald attempted to cover up the murders, using articles on the Manson Family murders that he had recently read in the March 1970 issue of Esquire investigators had found in the living room. Putting on surgical gloves from a medical supply in

10947-411: The master bedroom, possibly over the issue of Kristen's repeatedly wetting his side of the bed while sleeping there, or his adultery. Investigators speculated that the argument turned physical and she had probably hit him on the forehead with a hairbrush, which resulted in a mark on his forehead which failed to break his skin. As he retaliated by hitting her, first with his fists and then beating her with

11070-536: The month prior to the murders. By February 23, Colonel Robert Kriwanek, the Fort Bragg provost marshal , had advised the FBI to discontinue their search for the four intruders. In addition to the lack of damage to the inside of the house, no fibers from MacDonald's torn pajama top were found in the living room, where he claimed the garment had been when torn in his struggle with the intruders. However, fibers from

11193-542: The older-era filmmakers, his style has been embraced by the younger generations of filmmakers, as the use of re-enactment is present in many contemporary documentary films. Morris advocates the reflexive style of documentary filmmaking. In Bill Nichols 's book Introduction to Documentary he states that reflexive documentary "[speaks] not only about the historical world but about the problems and issues of representing it as well." Morris uses his films not only to portray social issues and non-fiction events but also to comment on

11316-450: The pajama top were found beneath Colette's body and in the bedrooms of both of his daughters, and one fiber from this garment was also found under Kristen's fingernail. A single fragment of skin was recovered from beneath one of Colette's fingernails, although this evidence was later lost. Bloodstained splinters likely sourcing from the section of lumber recovered close to the back door of the apartment were recovered from all three bedrooms of

11439-475: The rain. You know that this garden is not going to last much longer than the gardener's lifetime." The film was scored by Caleb Sampson of the Alloy Orchestra and photographed by Robert Richardson . Morris dedicated the film to his mother and stepfather, who had recently died. It was named by several critics as one of the best films of 1997. In 2002, Morris was commissioned to make a short film for

11562-836: The recommendation of his mother, on April 10, he instead hired a flamboyant civilian defense attorney, Bernard Segal, to defend him. Less than a month later, on May 1, the Army formally charged MacDonald with three counts of murder. That same day, MacDonald penned a letter to Colette's mother and stepfather professing his innocence, emphasizing the Army would "never admit" their error, and speculating his wife's soul may hold "infinite patience and understanding" of his current legal predicament. An initial Army Article 32 hearing into MacDonald's possible guilt, overseen by Colonel Warren Rock, convened on July 6, 1970. This hearing lasted until September. MacDonald's lawyer, Bernard Segal, adopted an offensive strategy on behalf of his client at this hearing, citing numerous examples of incompetence on behalf of

11685-416: The reliability of documentary making itself. His style has been spoofed in the mockumentary series Documentary Now . Even when interviewing controversial figures, Morris does not generally believe in adversarial interviews: I don't really believe in adversarial interviews. I don't think you learn very much. You create a theater, a gladiatorial theater, which may be satisfying to an audience, but if

11808-429: The sound of the receiver clatter against a wall or floor. Within ten minutes, responding military police had arrived at the address, initially believing they were responding to a domestic disturbance . They found the front door closed and locked and the house dark inside. When no one answered the door, they circled to the back of the house, where a police sergeant discovered the back screen door closed and unlocked and

11931-503: The specific case leading her to this conclusion, and said that McGinniss committed a "morally indefensible" act in pretending that he believed MacDonald was innocent, even after he became convinced of his guilt. In 1995, Jerry Allen Potter and Fred Bost published Fatal Justice: Reinvestigating the MacDonald Murders , attacking the murder jury's conclusions. In 2012, Errol Morris published A Wilderness of Error reviewing

12054-424: The style of the "Switch" ads. This campaign featured Republicans who voted for Bush in the 2000 election giving their personal reasons for voting for Kerry in 2004. Upon completing more than 50 commercials, Morris had difficulty getting them on the air. Eventually, the liberal advocacy group MoveOn PAC paid to air a few of the commercials. Morris also wrote an editorial for The New York Times discussing

12177-528: The time the MacDonalds moved into their new apartment at Fort Bragg, Colette had accrued two years of studies, with aspirations to obtain a bachelor's degree in English literature and teach part-time. Both daughters had developed distinctive personalities: Kimberley being markedly feminine , intelligent, and shy; Kristen a boisterous tomboy who would "run over and crack someone" if she observed her older sister being bullied by other children. On December 10,

12300-462: The time, later remembered: "He was a film noir nut. He claimed we weren't showing the real film noir. So I challenged him to write the program notes. Then, there was his habit of sneaking into the films and denying that he was sneaking in. I told him if he was sneaking in he should at least admit he was doing it." Inspired by Hitchcock 's Psycho , Morris visited Plainfield, Wisconsin in 1975, where he conducted multiple interviews with Ed Gein ,

12423-436: The trial, and write a book about the case. But McGinniss later became convinced that MacDonald was guilty of murdering his family. In the spring of 1983, McGinniss published Fatal Vision , saying that he had become convinced of MacDonald's guilt early in his research due to MacDonald's behavior and the court evidence, and presenting detailed arguments for guilt. As a motive, McGinniss suggests that MacDonald killed his family in

12546-404: The use of narrative elements within his films. These include but are not limited to: stylized lighting, musical score, and re-enactment. The use of these elements is rejected by many documentary filmmakers who followed the cinema vérité style of the previous generations. Cinema vérité is characterized by its rejection of artistic additions to documentary film. While Morris faced backlash from many of

12669-410: The way to answering MacDonald's emergency call on the night of the murders, he had observed a blonde woman with a wide-brimmed hat standing on a street corner approximately half a mile from the MacDonald home. He noted that this sighting was unusual, given the late hour and the weather. Mica also testified that, contrary to instruction, an ambulance driver had placed the tilted flower pot upright while at

12792-599: Was pregnant with his child in August 1963. She in turn left college to raise their child. With the consent of Colette's family, the two married on September 14 in New York City . One hundred people attended the service, with the reception held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The couple then honeymooned at Cape Cod . Their first daughter, Kimberley Kathryn, was born on April 18, 1964. After his undergraduate work at Princeton, MacDonald briefly worked as

12915-408: Was a "Frankenstein element", adding "They're all involved in some very odd inquiry about life. It sounds horribly pretentious laid out that way, but there's something mysterious in each of the stories, something melancholy as well as funny. And there's an edge of mortality. For the end of the movie I showed the gardener clipping the top of his camel, clipping in a heavenly light, and then walking away in

13038-509: Was abandoned by 6:00 a.m. Shortly after daylight on February 17, investigators recovered the murder weapons just outside the back door. These instruments were an Old Hickory kitchen knife, an ice pick, and a 31-inch long piece of lumber with two blue threads attached with blood; all three were quickly determined to have come from the MacDonald house, and all had been wiped clean of fingerprints . MacDonald later claimed to have never seen these items before. As Army investigators studied

13161-452: Was about the town and bore its name, although it made no mention of Vernon as "Nub City", but instead explored other idiosyncrasies of the town's residents. Morris made this omission because he received death threats while doing research; the town's residents were afraid that Morris would reveal their secret. After spending two weeks in Vernon, Morris returned to Berkeley and began working on

13284-505: Was actually flattered: "I thought, really, that was one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me. It was hard to go out with other guys after that." In 1985, Morris became interested in Dr. James Grigson , a psychiatrist in Dallas . Under Texas law, the death penalty can only be issued if the jury is convinced that the defendant is not only guilty, but will commit further violent crimes in

13407-513: Was at first unconvinced of Adams's innocence. After reading the transcripts of the trial and meeting David Harris at a bar, however, Morris was no longer so sure. At the time, Morris had been making a living as a private investigator for a well-known private detective agency that specialized in Wall Street cases. Bringing together his talents as an investigator and his obsessions with murder, narration, and epistemology, Morris went to work on

13530-496: Was carried out of his home on a stretcher. Taken to the Womack Army Medical Center, medical staff discovered the wounds MacDonald had suffered were much less numerous and severe than those inflicted upon his wife and children. He had suffered cuts, bruises, and fingernail scratches to his face and chest, although none of these wounds were life-threatening or required stitches. MacDonald was also found to have

13653-608: Was due to be born in July, and her family would be complete. By 1970, MacDonald had earned the rank of captain . He was planning to study advanced medical training at Yale University upon completion of his tour of duty as a Green Beret doctor. On the afternoon of February 16, MacDonald took his daughters to feed and ride the Christmas pony he had bought them. The trio then returned home at about 5:45 p.m. MacDonald then showered, and changed into an old pair of blue pajamas. After

13776-506: Was found in her bed, having been repeatedly bludgeoned about the head and body and stabbed in the neck with a knife between eight and ten times. She lay on her left side. Her skull had been fractured from at least two blows to the right side of her head, and one wound to her face had caused her cheekbone to protrude through her skin. The wounds inflicted to Kimberley's head were sufficiently severe in nature to have caused bruising to her brain, coma , and death soon after infliction. Across

13899-549: Was frequently exhausted and had limited interaction with his wife and daughters. At the completion of his internship, MacDonald and Colette vacationed in Aruba before MacDonald joined the Army. MacDonald was commissioned in the United States Army on June 28, 1969, and sent to Fort Sam Houston , Texas to undergo a six-week physician's basic training course. While at Fort Sam Houston, he volunteered to be assigned to

14022-466: Was identical in composition to a medical supply MacDonald invariably kept in the family kitchen. Although it had rained on the night of February 16–17 and MacDonald also specifically claimed the female intruder's boots were "all wet", with rainwater "just dripping off them", the sole footprint observed at the scene was a bloody bare footprint located in Kristen's bedroom, leading from the child's bed in

14145-534: Was immediately sentenced to three consecutive life terms (equivalent to life imprisonment). Afterwards, MacDonald raised further appeals, one of which set him free on bail for about 15 months before yet another reversal by the Supreme Court in March 1982. In June 1979, MacDonald had hired McGinniss to write a book about MacDonald's innocence. Between the Supreme Court's denial of review and the trial date, MacDonald arranged with McGinniss to interview him, attend

14268-428: Was in the history of physics, and he was bored and unsuccessful in the prerequisite physics classes he had to take. This, together with his antagonistic relationship with his advisor Thomas Kuhn ('You won't even look through my telescope.' And his response was 'Errol, it's not a telescope, it's a kaleidoscope.') ensured that his stay at Princeton would be short. Morris left Princeton in 1972, enrolling at Berkeley as

14391-559: Was injured, and his pregnant wife and two young daughters were murdered. MacDonald told Army investigators that they had been attacked by multiple assailants; the details were reminiscent of the sensational Tate-LaBianca murders of the preceding year. After several months of investigation, Army lawyers charged MacDonald with the three murders, leading to a three-months-plus adversarial hearing that recommended he not be prosecuted. In 1971, his father-in-law, Freddy Kassab, became progressively suspicious of MacDonald and sought formal reopening of

14514-575: Was later released on the second issue of Wholphin ). Morris went on to make a second short for the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, this time interviewing the various nominees and asking them about their Oscar experiences. In 2003, Morris won the Oscar for Best Documentary for The Fog of War , a film about the career of Robert S. McNamara , the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson . In

14637-442: Was located in significant quantities in only two locations: in front of the kitchen cabinet containing rubber gloves, and upon the right side of a hallway bathroom sink. Investigators also questioned why Colette's blood was found in Kristen's room, although all three victims were found in separate rooms, suggesting they had been attacked separately. Moreover, although blood evidence indicated Kimberley had been attacked as she entered

14760-474: Was somewhat demented') to Saturday matinées, where he saw such films as This Island Earth and Creature from the Black Lagoon —horror movies that, viewed again 30 years later, still seem scary to him." Morris attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison , graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. For a brief time, Morris held small jobs, first as a cable-television salesman, and then as

14883-399: Was to a fake webpage advertising a prize offered to anyone who could discover the secret location of some valuable urns. It was in fact an alternate reality game . The original commercials can be found on Morris's website. Morris directed a series of commercials for Reebok that featured six prominent National Football League (NFL) players. The 30-second promotional videos were aired during

15006-459: Was two and he was raised by his mother, a piano teacher. He had one older brother, Noel, who was a computer programmer. After being treated for strabismus in childhood, Morris refused to wear an eye patch. As a consequence, he has limited sight in one eye and lacks normal stereoscopic vision. In the 10th grade, Morris attended The Putney School , a boarding school in Vermont. He began playing

15129-426: Was unable to offer a plausible explanation for this observation, and also claimed to be unaware how Kimberley's blood and brain serum were recovered from the master bedroom. Following a short break, questioning resumed the same afternoon. Investigator Franz Grebner listed further physical discrepancies between MacDonald's account and the forensic evidence , repeatedly stating all the facts pointed to his having staged

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