Popular podcast examines Jeffrey MacDonald case from historical true-crime perspective

The historical true-crime podcast “Buried Bones” — known for delving into tricky crimes from the late 1800s and early 1900s — is tackling a relatively modern case this week, and one pretty familiar to those in North Carolina: the Jeffrey MacDonald murders.

Kate Winkler Dawson, a journalism professor and author, hosts the popular podcast with Paul Holes, a retired forensic investigator and author who helped solve the Golden State Killer case in California.

Winkler Dawson also hosts the podcasts “Tenfold More Wicked,” which devotes an entire season to one historical true-crime case, and “Wicked Words,” in which she interviews authors about true-crime works. Holes co-hosted the now-defunct podcast “Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad” and stars in the Oxygen TV series “The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes.”

In an interview earlier this month with The News & Observer, Winkler Dawson conceded that the 1970 MacDonald case, in which a Green Beret doctor was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters at their home on the Fort Bragg Army base near Fayetteville, is more current than those they typically tackle. But she said the case was tangled enough to make their list.

“I like to do serious cases with this show, and there’s a pretty high bar for those,” Winkler Dawson said. “Paul needs a complicated storyline with lots of forensics and a little bit of a messy ending.”

The MacDonald case certainly checks off those boxes.

The “Buried Bones” format offers a fascinating twist in the crowded true-crime podcast genre. Winkler Dawson researches a case and presents it to Holes, who doesn’t know which case they’re going to discuss before they start recording. Winkler Dawson leads Holes through the case, detailing what is known about various aspects of the crime (usually with a focus on forensics) and the trial, if there was one.

Holes gives a modern-day analysis of the investigative methods and conclusions from a time when the science wasn’t as advanced as it is now, and forms an opinion about what he thinks happened in the case.

The MacDonald case will be a two-parter, Winkler Dawson said. The first episode lands on Wednesday, Nov. 30, and the second episode the following Wednesday.

Winkler Dawson didn’t reveal too much about what she and Holes discussed on the MacDonald episodes, but said she wasn’t too familiar with the case before diving in to do her research. She had assumed it was “another family annihilator murderer,” she said.

She did note that Holes was on board with many of the investigative findings from the case, but has a lot to say about the procedures for gathering evidence — and that he was intrigued by the fact that there were four victims from the same family with four different blood types, which is not common.

“It’s not as much of a question as to whether he did it,” but more about how the evidence was handled, Winkler Dawson said. “There was an incredible lack of security within the crime scene, which can lead to reasonable doubt.”

To hear Winkler Dawson and Holes’ deep dive on the MacDonald case, tune in to this week’s episode of “Buried Bones.”

How to listen to ‘Buried Bones’ podcast

The “Buried Bones” podcast, from Exactly Right Media, is available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Wondery+ and online at exactlyrightmedia.com/buried-bones. The first Jeffrey MacDonald episode premieres Nov. 30.

Books by Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes

▪ “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” by Paul Holes was published this year by Celedon Books. Info: celadonbooks.com/book/unmasked-paul-holes

▪ “Evil Has a Name: The Untold Story of the Golden State Killer Investigation” by Paul Holes is a 2018 Audible Original book. Info: audible.com

▪ “American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI” by Kate Winkler Dawson published by GP Putnam’s Sons in 2020. Info: katewinklerdawson.com/american-sherlock-book

▪ “Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog and the Strangling of a City” was published by Hachette Books in 2017. Info: katewinklerdawson.com/death-in-the-air