It was the spring of 1979, more than nine years since Colette, Kimberly and Kristen MacDonald had been brutally murdered in their home at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, in the early morning hours of February 17, 1970.

Now, in a few short months, in mid-July, Brian Murtagh, an attorney with the United States Justice Department in Washington, D.C, and I were going to prosecute Jeffrey MacDonald, Colette's husband and the father of Kimberly and Kristen, for their murder.

It was a circumstantial evidence case. We were going to rely a great deal on forensic evidence, such as blood, fibers from clothing, fingerprints, or the lack thereof, a footprint, photographs from the crime scene, an analysis of the murder weapons, medical records of the family and much more to prove our case.

Jeffrey MacDonald had spent much of the time since the murders telling anyone, including the media, his story. He said his family was killed by hippy intruders, at least four, and that he had almost been killed himself, having been seriously wounded. He may have talked too much.

We did not believe him or his story. We believed a careful examination of the physical evidence at their home, totally contradicted all that he said had happened.

But this was 1979, not 2023. He was a young doctor, claiming he was innocent and wrongfully accused. He was presumed innocent. Really. He had great lawyers. Wade and Bernie were two of the best.

Perhaps born out of necessity, due in part to our youth and the fact this was our first murder trial, we adopted the KISS strategy...keep it simple stupid! We didn't know that was what we were doing...we just did it.

This podcast tells how we planned to prove our case, and how we hoped to beat the odds and beliefs of so many who thought we had no chance.

This was the spring and summer of 1979, when what we really wanted was to catch lightning in a bottle.