In a child psychology class on the evening of February 16, 1970, Colette MacDonald raised her hand and described what was really happening inside 544 Castle Drive. Her husband Jeffrey, she told the room, had decided that their two-year-old would sleep in the marital bed. Colette would sleep on the couch. The class offered advice. She smiled and nodded. She was killed that night.

In this episode, James McGinniss and Billy Glidden continue reading Part Three of Fatal Vision and land on the passage that reframes the entire murder night. They trace Jeffrey's fabricated trip to Russia (the boxing coach said it never existed), his six-week pattern with women and girls on and around the base, and the amphetamine use Joe McGinniss embedded in the text like a time bomb.

MacDonald charmed everyone he met at Fort Sam Houston. The army nurse who dated him for two weeks before she even asked if he had a wife. The stewardess with the "outstanding body" who was ready to pack up and follow him back to Fort Bragg. The Swedish exchange student. The blonde named Mary. The motel manager's party crew.

Jeff McDonald told the world his wife was proud of the Green Berets. That they were both pro-war. That she was happy. In this episode, the people who actually knew Collette speak. Not one of them backs him up.

Collette's sister-in-law describes a woman whose father killed himself when she was eleven. Anti-war. Against violence. So private about her marriage that she'd never let anyone see a crack. Bobby Stevenson, Collette's brother, remembers Jeff's temperament as "controlled." Sit with that word for a second.

Then there's the CID report. In May 1970, Jeff's own sister Judy told an agent she believed her brother was capable of killing if provoked. A year later she tried to walk it back. The original agent said her answer had been specific. In a 1986 deposition, Jeff was confronted with it. His lawyer called a five-minute break.

Part 3, Chapter 3 of our full read-through of Joe McGinniss's Fatal Vision. This is where Collette stops being Jeff's version of Collette.

New episodes every Thursday at 10:30 PM ET. What do you make of Judy's original statement to the CID? Drop it in the comments.

Billy and James break from their usual programming to update you on developments in the past week, where a MacDonald Defender presented the Pardon Czar with a farcical request for a compassionate release of the triple murderer. Featuring a reading, in full, of Bob Stevenson's (Colette's brother) powerful letter to the 2005 parole board on the continuous damage MacDonald reaped and will reap upon the survivors.

Jeffrey MacDonald was sent to Baytown Texas, abruptly and mysteriously when he was a sophomore in high school. Sex and brutal violence abounded in his young life, through his own admissions and his brother's.

James and Billy break down how Helena Stokely learned to stop worrying and love issuing false, vague confession-like statements and then immediately retracting them.

Billy and James journey onward through the text, engaging with the biography of Helena Stokely, the suspect revisionist accounts of Prince Edward Beasley, and talk candidly about the MacDonald Defenders lurking in the wings. Listener questions are asked and answered in the final segment.

Billy and James throw on a livestream to start Chapter 2, in which Jeff begins his brief flirtation with the New York City jet set before the reinvestigation snares him into two depositions with Pruitt and Kearns. Live Q and A follows.

In this episode, we see Jeff's Dick Cavett appearance again...this time, through Freddy Kassab's eyes.

James and Billy are back after a holiday break! In this section, Jeff tries to get Freddy off his back and names a possible suspect: Willie the Witch.