A parole board will rule Thursday on whether Jeffrey MacDonald, the former Army doctor who is serving three life sentences for killing his pregnant wife and two young children in 1970 and blaming it “drug-crazed hippies” should be released over COVID-19 concerns. MacDonald has applied for compassionate release due to his age and failing health. The former surgeon claimed that three men and one woman broke into the family’s Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home and attacked them with knives and ice picks. His story has been the topic of numerous books, including Fatal Vision, which he wrote with a journalist he later sued for lying to him about the nature of the book they were both paid for. MacDonald’s case is considered one of the most litigated in history due to appeals and new evidence bolstered by advancements in forensics. His late wife’s brother says he will attend the parole hearing. “He wants to get out. I want to keep him in. It’s that simple,” Bob Stevenson said. “He destroyed my family.”