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

The next day, Moxley's body was found underneath a tree in her family's 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 Moxley the night of the murder, and had a weak alibi. Thomas Skakel became the prime suspect, but his father forbade access to his school and mental health records, and the case languished for decades. In the meantime, several books were published about the crime, including Timothy Dumas's A Wealth of Evil, and a novel, A Season In Purgatory, by Dominick Dunne, based on the Moxley case.

Martha Moxley was interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The grave of Martha Moxley

Over the years, both Thomas Skakel and Michael Skakel significantly changed their alibis for the night of Moxley's murder. Michael Skakel 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 Skakel confess to killing Moxley with a golf club after she refused to have sexual intercourse with him. He then bragged, "I'm going to get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy."

The case of Moxley's murder remained "cold" until 2000 after Mark Fuhrman released his book, "Murder in Greenwich," investigating the crime. Following a lengthy grand jury investigation, Michael Skakel was indicted for her murder. On June 7, 2002, a jury in Norwalk, Connecticut, convicted Michael Skakel in the murder of Martha Moxley. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

After trial, Skakel appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, but the Court affirmed his conviction. Subsequently, he sought a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States, which was denied.^[2]

The footstone of Martha Moxley

Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skakel's cousin, wrote an article that was published in The Atlantic Monthly in January of 2003 entitled "A Miscarriage of Justice," arguing that there was more evidence suggesting other suspects were guilty than there was against Skakel. Partly based on Kennedy's new evidence, Skakel has begun the post-conviction relief process, filing a habeas corpus petition and motion for new trial in Connecticut trial court.

However, according to the official "Martha Moxley" website, on October 26, 2007, "a Connecticut state judge rejected ... Skakel's bid for a new criminal trial based on his claim of new evidence, discarding it as a flimsy theory."

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