Murder of Martha Moxley

Martha Elizabeth Moxley (August 16, 1960 – October 30, 1975) was a 15-year-old American high school student from Greenwich, Connecticut, who was murdered in 1975.

Moxley was last seen alive spending time at the home of the Skakel family, across the street from her home in Belle Haven.

On the evening of October 30, 1975, Martha Moxley left with friends to participate in "mischief night", in which neighborhood youths would ring bells and pull pranks such as toilet papering houses.

According to friends, Moxley began flirting with, and eventually kissed, Thomas Skakel, the older brother of Michael Skakel.

Moxley was last seen "falling together behind the fence" with Thomas, near the pool in the Skakel backyard, at around 9:30 p.m.

The next day, Moxley's body was found beneath a tree in her family's backyard.

Her pants and underwear were pulled down, but there was no evidence of sexual assault.

Pieces of a broken six-iron golf club were found near the body.

An autopsy indicated that she had been both bludgeoned and stabbed with the club, which was traced back to the Skakel residence.

Thomas Skakel was the last person seen with Moxley on the night of the murder.

He became the prime suspect, but his father forbade access to his school and mental health records.

Kenneth Littleton, who had started working as a live-in tutor for the Skakel family only hours before the murder, also became a prime suspect.

However, no one was charged, and the case languished for decades.

When William Kennedy Smith was tried (and acquitted) for rape in 1991, a rumor surfaced that he had been present at the Skakel house on the night of Moxley's death, with the clear insinuation that he might have been involved.

Although this proved to be unfounded, it resulted in a new investigation of the then-cold case.

The Sutton Associates, a private detective agency hired by Rushton Skakel in 1991, conducted its own investigation of the killing.

The Sutton report, later leaked to the media, revealed that both Thomas and Michael altered their stories about their activities the night of the murder.

In the meantime, several books were published about the murder, including Dominick Dunne's fictional account of the case, A Season in Purgatory (1993), Mark Fuhrman's nonfiction Murder in Greenwich (1998), and Timothy Dumas's nonfiction A Wealth of Evil (1999).

Over the years, both Thomas and Michael Skakel significantly changed their alibis for the night of Moxley's murder.

Michael claimed that he had been window-peeping and masturbating in a tree beside the Moxley property from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Two former students from Élan School, a treatment center for troubled youths, testified they heard Michael confess to killing Moxley with a golf club.

One of the former students, Gregory Coleman, testified that Michael was given special privileges and had bragged, "I'm going to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy."

In 1993, author Dominick Dunne, father of murdered actress Dominique Dunne, published A Season in Purgatory, a fictional story closely resembling the Moxley case.

Mark Fuhrman's 1998 book Murder in Greenwich named Michael Skakel as the murderer and pointed out numerous mistakes made during the original police investigation.

Even in the years before the Dunne and Fuhrman books, Greenwich police detectives Steve Carroll and Frank Garr, as well as police reporter Leonard Levitt, had become convinced that Skakel was the killer.

In June 1998, a rarely invoked one-man grand jury was convened to review the evidence of the case.

After an eighteen-month investigation, it was decided there was enough evidence to charge Michael Skakel with murder.

On January 9, 2000, an arrest warrant was issued for an unnamed juvenile for Moxley's murder.

Michael Skakel surrendered to authorities later that day.

He was released shortly thereafter on $500,000 bail.

On March 14, Skakel was arraigned for murder in a juvenile court, since he was 15 years old at the time of Moxley's murder.

On January 31, 2001, a judge ruled that Skakel would be tried as an adult.

Michael Skakel, also aged 15 at the time, was convicted in 2002 of murdering Moxley and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Skakel's trial began on May 7, 2002, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

He was represented by attorney Michael Sherman.

Skakel's alibi was that at the time of the murder he was at his cousin's house.

In 2013, Skakel was granted a new trial by a Connecticut judge who ruled that his counsel had been inadequate, and he was released on $1.2 million bail.

On December 30, 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4–3 to reinstate Skakel's conviction.

The Connecticut Supreme Court reversed itself on May 4, 2018, and ordered a new trial.

On October 30, 2020, the 45th anniversary of Moxley's murder, the state of Connecticut announced it would not retry Skakel for Moxley's murder.

The case attracted worldwide publicity, as Skakel is a nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.