The Murder of Martha Moxley
What Happened
On October 30, 1975, 15-year old Martha Moxley left her home to join her friends in her town’s “mischief night”, where neighborhood kids would run around to cause trouble in the posh and seemingly safe suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut. Before her murder, Martha had been seen by friends, engaging in flirtatious behavior with 17-year old Thomas Skakel, the prime suspect Michael Skakel’s brother. She was last seen by her friends near the Skakel family’s pool house, accompanied by Thomas.
Around 12 pm the next day, Moxley’s body had been found in front of her own home by her childhood friend, Sheila McGuire. She saw that Moxley had been bludgeoned with a six-iron golf club and that the killer had used a jagged piece to stab her in the head. The golf club’s head was later found near the driveway. “Martha was laying face down. Her pants had been pulled down around her ankles,” McGuire said. “I panicked and I ran.” Authorities say her pants and underwear were, in fact, pulled down to her knees but forensics confirmed that there was no sign of sexual assault or rape. At the time, the general public assumed that the murder had been done by someone outside of the gated community but evidence that the golf club had been from a set at the Skakel’s home came up immediately.
Authorities questioned both Thomas and Michael Skakel who had both not been consistent in their retelling of what happened the night of the murder. Their alibis had proven to be weak. Thomas claimed to have seen Moxley walk home around 9:30pm after they had hung out and said that he had went home at the same time to watch some of The French Connection with Kenneth Littleton, the Skakel’s live-in tutor. He then preceded to head up to his room to work on school report. Littleton had also been a person of interest in the case though he had confirmed with police that Thomas didn’t join him to watch The French Connection until closer to 10:30PM and noticed Michael Skakel came home within a half hour of that time. Michael’s alibi was that he had been at a cousin’s house watching Monty Python during the time the murder was committed. The cousin never confirmed this leaving Michael to change his alibi multiple times over the years of investigation. He even went so far to claim that he had been window-peeping and admitted to masturbating in a tree beside the Moxley property from 11:30pm to 12:30 a.m before hearing voices that spooked him and caused him to retreat back to his house. Police have theorized that she had been murdered between 9:30 and 10:00pm.
The Aftermath
For years this case had been pulled in and out of the public eye mainly because of the suspect’s connection to the well-known political family, the Kennedys. Being one of the nephews of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Micheal’s case had become nationally known very quickly.
In 1978, according to CNN, Michael Skakel was charged with drunk driving. The Skakel family had worked out a deal with police for Micheal to attend the Elan School, a controversial youth behavior modification treatment center in Maine, in order for him to avoid prosecution. Two former students from the Elan School testified that they heard Michael confess to killing Moxley. One of the students and a key witness to the case, Gregory Coleman testified that Michael had been given special privileges and bragged, “I’m going to get away with murder. I’m a Kennedy.” Coleman later died in 2001 of an apparent drug overdose in his driveway in Rochester, NY. Prior to his death, he later admitted in court that he was under the influence of heroin when he testified. Investigators have said both Michael and his older brother, Thomas, were romantically interested in Moxley. Thomas Skakel, the last person seen with Moxley, was an early suspect in the case. Elizabeth Arnold, another classmate of Skakel’s at Elan testified that Skakel felt his brother “stole his girlfriend.”
A rumor had surfaced that William Kennedy Smith, a former physician and member of the Kennedy family who was tried and acquitted for rape in 1991, might have been present at the Skakel house on the night of the murder, clearly insinuating that he might have been involved. Even though this was proven to be an unfounded accusation, the rumor prompted the reinvestigation of the then-cold case. The Sutton Associates, a private detective agency hired by The Skakel patriarch, Rushton Skakel, conducted its own investigation and revealed that both Thomas and Michael had indeed altered their alibis the night Martha was killed.
At a pretrial hearing in 2000, Michael’s childhood friend Andy Pugh had testified by recounting a phone call he had with Michael in 1991. According to Pugh, he confronted Michael about his suspicions leading Michael to vehemently deny killing her but admitted to his previous claim of masturbating in a tree the night Martha died. According to the The New York Times, the tree Michael had described was not outside Martha’s window but was instead, right above where Martha’s body had been discovered.
Timeline of Trials
On June 7, 2002, Michael Skakel was found guilty of murdering Martha Moxley. He was sentenced to 20 years to life at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newton, Connecticut.
On October 23, 2013, Skakel was granted a new trial by Connecticut judge Thomas A. Bishop, who ruled that Michael Sherman, Skakel’s lawyer, failed to adequately represent his client when he was first convicted.
On November 21, 2013, Skakel was released from prison on a $1.2 million bond in addition to specific conditions he was assigned following his release: He had to be monitored with a GPS device, could have no contact with the Moxley family, must check in periodically with his parole officer over the phone and would not be allowed to leave the state of Connecticut unless granted permission. He was later granted permission to relocate himself and his family to Westchester County, New York.
In 2017, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Micheal’s cousin, had written and published a book in response to trials Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent Over a Decade in Prison for a Murder He Didn’t Commit which became a New York Times Bestseller, detailing how Skakel was wrongfully charged and convicted.
In 2018, Skakel’s murder conviction was vacated by the Connecticut Supreme Court, in which they ruled that because his attorney had failed to call an alibi witness, Skakel was not given a fair trial.
What’s Next
Since the case’s initial reopening, it has been mentioned numerous times in pop culture. The case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries on February 16, 1996. In June 2019, TV network, Oxygen premiered a three-part documentary entitled Murder and Justice: The Case of Martha Moxley. In 1998, two books based on the murder had been released, Greentown by Timothy Dumas and Murder in Greenwich by Mark Fuhrman. The latter being turned into a television movie. Most recently, on August 10, 2020, Crime Junkie released a podcast episode on the murder.
Then, come October 30, 2020, forty five years after the murder had taken place, Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo stated that Skakel would not be retried. In Stamford Superior Court, Colangelo had said, “Looking at the evidence, your honor, looking at the state of the case, it is my belief that the state cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt, therefore the state is going to enter a nolle.” The nolle will exhaust Skakel of the murder charge in 13 months. Colangelo had said that he had “basically reinvestigated the case” and found no additional evidence to present. It is not known whether this case will be reopened again.
