03/25/2023
Fayetteville Observer article from July 29, 1979, during the trial of Jeffrey MacDonald. Note the article’s summary of the testimony of Dr. Severt H. Jacobson, who examined MacDonald on the morning of the murders: “Jacobson … testified that while MacDonald might have stabbed himself as part of a scheme to cover up the alleged murders, there is no medical evidence that he did. MacDonald could have controlled the depth of those self-inflicted wounds, but also could have just as easily hit his liver or caused a lung to collapse, possibly causing death.”
Another of the doctors who treated MacDonald for his injuries was Merrill Bronstein, who had worked with MacDonald prior to the murders. Bronstein would later tell the filmmaker Christopher Olgiati that MacDonald “cared about his family.” He elaborated: “He was constantly showing me pictures of his children, of a Christmas gift he had purchased, of a pony, for one of the girls … he seemed to care about his family.” Olgiati asked Bronstein if he thought MacDonald could have inflicted upon himself the wound that partially collapsed his lung.
Bronstein replied: “I don’t think that I, personally, could have done it. But I think that someone of strong will and reasonable medical knowledge could have done that.”
Olgiati: “Somebody with an incentive to do it?”
Bronstein: “Possibly.”
Olgiati: “And he would be certain, that person, that he would not administer a fatal wound?”
Bronstein: “Not with the appropriate instrument.”
Regarding the morning of the murders, Bronstein told Olgiati: “I heard [MacDonald’s] story several times from his own lips, in my presence, during that day.”
Olgiati: “And did you tend to believe him?”
Bronstein: “Absolutely.”
