Martha Moxley

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Martha Elizabeth Moxley (August 16, 1960 – October 30, 1975) was a fifteen-year-old murder victim in a case that attracted worldwide publicity. ^[1]

Born in San Francisco, California, Martha and her family moved to Belle Haven, an exclusive section of Greenwich, Connecticut, in the summer of 1974.

Just 15 months later, on the evening of October 30, 1975, Martha left with friends to attend a Halloween party at the Skakel home, one block away. She reportedly had crushes on both Michael and Thomas Skakel (nephews of Ethel Skakel Kennedy), and both boys often fought over the girl. According to friends, Martha began flirting with and eventually kissing Thomas Skakel. Martha was last seen "falling together behind the fence" near the pool in the Skakel backyard at around 9:30 p.m.

The next day, Martha's body was found underneath a tree in the Moxley backyard. Her pants and underwear were pulled down, but she had not been sexually assaulted. Pieces of a broken six-iron golf club were found near the body. An autopsy indicated she had been both bludgeoned and stabbed with the club, which was traced back to the Skakel home. Thomas Skakel was the last person to be seen with Martha the night of the murder, and had a weak alibi. Thomas became the prime suspect, but his father forbade access to Thomas' school and mental health records, and the case languished for decades. In the meantime, several books were published about the crime, including Timothy Dumas' A Wealth of Evil, and a novel, A Season In Purgatory, by Dominick Dunne, based on the Moxley case.

Over the years, both Thomas and Michael significantly changed their alibis for the night of Martha'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 of a drug rehab center, which Michael Skakel attended in 1978, testified that they heard Michael confess to killing Martha with a golf club after she refused to have sex, then bragged, "I'm going to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy."

Martha's murder remained unsolved until 2000 when, after a lengthy grand jury investigation, Michael Skakel was charged with her murder. On June 7, 2002, a jury in Norwalk, Connecticut, convicted Michael Skakel in the murder of Martha Moxley.

Michael Skakel is currently serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. His appeals to the Connecticut Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court were rejected.^[2]

Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skakel's cousin, wrote an article that was published in The Atlantic Monthly in January 2003 entitled "A Miscarriage of Justice," arguing that there was more evidence suggesting other suspects were guilty than there was against Skakel.

Actress Maggie Grace played Moxley in the made-for-TV movie Murder in Greenwich.