The killings that took place in the early hours of that morning and their protracted aftermath have cast an ever-lengthening shadow over not just America‘s criminal justice system – it is the longest-running criminal case in US history – but also its national media. A small library of books, a TV mini-series, countless documentaries and a forest of newsprint have all tried to explain what happened 43 years ago inside the home of Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, then 26 and a promising surgeon in the Special Forces.