"My commitment was to the book and the truth." "I knew he would break off contact if he knew what the book was really for," McGinniss testified. On cross-examination, defense lawyers questioned McGinniss about why he wrote letters to MacDonald and said "total strangers could see that you did not get a fair trial." MacDonald eventually sued him for breach of contract, and the two reached a $325,000 settlement. "Psychopaths are very charming people, but it was a tough fight between my head and my heart," McGinniss said Friday. McGinniss, who originally thought MacDonald was innocent, changed his mind and wrote that he thought MacDonald had committed the crimes. McGinniss was given special access to MacDonald and his defense team in order to write the book, which MacDonald had hoped would show his innocence. "I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but to stand before the judge and make up stuff, this is ridiculous," he said. McGinniss appeared shocked by that revelation Friday and said if he had known that Segal "stood there before the judge and lied," that he would have included that in his book. That contradicts what MacDonald's then-attorney, Bernie Segal, told the judge during a bench conference at the 1979 trial – that Stoeckley had confessed to being inside the house. Instead, she told them no, "I can't help you," McGinniss recalled. McGinniss says he watched defense attorneys try for three hours to coax Stoeckley into saying that she was involved in the murders.
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