Lawyers still battling over evidence in Moxley murder case Teenager Thomas Skakel, son of a wealthy and well-connected Greenwich family, figures prominently in the unsolved murder of his neighbor, Martha Moxley. Evaristos constituents represent a well-kept secret of Greenwichnot everyone is rich. Tori Holland: and I could see Mrs. Moxley at the front door and she's going [waves hands] she didn't want me to come any further. A life, that in Martha's own words, was full of hope. It will be good to get away, he adds, for he is leaving Greenwich to attend a private school in Vermont. "Dear Diary, today is the last day of '74. For nearly forty years, the Skakel clan has included major figures in Greenwich society. Hes a good boy, a lovely boy. All Rights Reserved. Officials have reopened the case. The teenager was probably out partying with a boyfriend or sleeping it off or possibly even running away from the big, beautiful home her parents thought she loved. Part of the answer, eventually, came from Thomas Skakel himself, whom Connecticut was finally able to reach and question despite the turndowns from his father and his lawyer. There was also the subsequent late-night trip to take a state police lie-detector test and then a second polygraph, which he says he passed. Hannah Vair is the associate producer. In November 2020, Kennedy insisted to "48 Hours" that Tony Bryant has no reason whatsoever to lie about Al Hasbrouck and Burton Tinsley. Like many of the more than fifty people Connecticut approached to discuss the Moxley murder and its after- math, this Belle Haven woman was reluctant to talk and would do so only if she were not named. For 20 years, investigators seemed stymied in their effort to find Martha's killer, but all that changed in 1995 when someone leaked the Sutton Report to the press. . Nov. 19, 2013. "October 4: Dear diary - tonight was a Sacred Heart dance When we walked in, some guy asked me to dance some other guy asked me, it turned out to be a slow dance. They were a tightknit foursome, the Moxleys, playing doubles at the Belle Haven Beach Club, going out on the town, or on vacation together. Its the first day of the rest of his life.. On April 16, 2013, Skakel was back in court with his attorney, Hubert Santos and a new argument that that media savvy defense attorney Mickey Sherman hired to defend Michael at his 2002 trial had botched the case. They had tents. Dorthy Moxley: I was getting more worried and more worried. And hell tap on our door and say I want to tell you what really happened.". It was in the same family for a very very long time. It was Stairway to Heaven. You've lost it all," Martha's childhood friend Tori Holland told "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty in "The Diary of Martha Moxley". She was murdered in 1975. I mean, it was everywhere. His plane went down in Riggins, Idaho, while on an elk-hunting expedition. The Skakels, relatives of the Kennedys, were one of the wealthiest families in the country. Like the pall that hangs over the Moxley home, a cloud settled on the Skakels that Halloween and has not lifted. It was now almost noon on Halloween. You have no peace. He accused his former lawyer of being too chummy with the press. Slaying: Rumors that William Kennedy Smith knew something about teens death led nowhere. She was still just a girl, after all, with braces on her teeth and baby fat stubbornly clinging to her body. its a one-armed battle we cant win against gossip. Angry and frightened townspeople say that family influence has put Thomas Skakel beyond the reach of the system that hounded Peter Reilly. So Many Twists: The Unrelenting Saga of the Murder of Martha Moxley - E There are two homes built on the old Moxley property: one that was built on the old site and one that was built west of it. He kept putting his hand on my knee. Martha was not robbed, nor raped, although it is still thought that her killing may have resulted from her resistance to sexual overtures, the captain says. With lush green lawns underfoot and giant shade trees arching overhead, the private grounds of Belle Haven are like lovely, verdant living rooms. Larry Shoenbach: I am as certain as certain can be that neither had anything to do with this. It's the Black guy Let's blame him why not. The property, with a large tree-sheltered swimming pool, abuts the Ixes and is only a few hundred feet from the Moxley home. TONY BRYANT: and I'm going to go grab somebody and pull them by the hair and do what cavemans do.". Martha Moxley had been beaten and stabbed with a Toney Penna golf club. The murderer apparently used the time well, for police indicate that they have virtually no material evidence in the case. When the sun came up and Martha still hadn't returned home, Dorthy walked over to the Skakel house. On August 30, 2002, Michael Skakel, 41, was sentenced to 20 years-to-life for killing Martha Moxley when they were teenagers in 1975. A lot of people think whoever did it is still walking around, says former Greenwich First Selectman William Lewis, and it worries people. A friend of the Moxleys, Mrs. Thomas McGuire, says that underneath all the layers of time is the fear that the killer could live nearby and strike again. In December, 1966, Kathleen Skakel, his daughter, drove a convertible over a bump in a Greenwich road and a seven-year- old girl was thrown out of the back seat and killed. At one point Tommy pushes Martha down and falls on top of her. I know that boy. Judy Tygard is the executive producer, First published on November 6, 2021 / 10:59 PM. In addition to a lot of old- fashioned hard work and the wearing out of shoe leather, as Police Chief Stephen Baran, Jr. describes it, investigators tried other avenues. State's attorney [2020 hearing] Looking at the evidence your honor, looking at the the state of the case, it is my belief that the state cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. They get little amenities, like having their streets plowed first in winter; they get the new school with the fancy drapes in their part of town, while Chick- ahominy residents get the town incinerator and gas storage tanks; they use tax loopholes and in some cases pay less per square foot in local property tax than Chickahominy people, says Evaristo. Eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly initially confessed to the 1973 killing of his mother in Canaan. Like others in Belle Haven, she feels the need to defend him. "48 Hours:" Friends of murder victim speak out after 46 years - Yahoo! News Around midnight, he's drunk and he goes out and he climbs the tree outside Martha's window and he masturbates in the tree. Like those fancy drapes, the unsolved Moxley murder to some represents just another privilege of wealththe privilege of avoiding the law. Lynne Tuohy: This case has been a long and winding road, a very painful case emotionally for many people. Although Tommy Skakel became a suspect as the last person known to have seen Martha alive, he had an alibi and Greenwich Police Department didn't have enough evidence to arrest him. Also missing in the Moxley case is a motive, says Keegan. My heart goes out to the Moxleys. Yes, he says, he appreciates Connecticuts effort to tell his side of a sad story, but his lawyer has said he should not talk, as has a second attorney, Emanuel Margolis, a Stamfordite whom he has retained for his son, Thomas. Martha was no run-around and certainly not a runaway. She was then dragged more than a hundred feet to beneath the spreading pine tree. The Moxley case has joined an ever-growing number of unsolved murders and a young suspect may carry an unfair and unearned burden for the rest of his life. The beasts lived on the tennis court and dined on fish in a stocked pond.) Ethel Kennedy, wife of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was originally Ethel Skakel, Rushtons sister, and a Greenwich girl. Using Natural Predators The next day Moxley was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death, and a broken golf club was found near her body. Santos went on to say evidence presented during an older petition for a new trial "leads to the inescapable . Rushtons brother, George, took over the company. "It was devastating. Anyone can read what you share. For one thing, crime statistics show that between 75 and 90 percent of the nations homicide victims were acquainted with their slayers; random killings by strangers are rare. Larry Shoenbach: Al Hasbrouck is innocent. Robert Kennedy Jr: There is plenty. At the center of the investigation into the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley are two families ripped apart by a brutal tragedy. she was very um an extrovert. I hope to God nobody saw me j----- off.". Holland and Burns share their thoughts on the Skakel family, who have been at the heart of the investigation since the start. Says Lapcevic: Either he was misquoted or he is a fool. Browne never said he was misquoted and today he refuses to discuss his statement. Martha Moxley's murder however was unusual, and in their attempts to uncover the murderer, the police would face some very unusual problems. He was doing 20 to 25 bags of heroin a day. Weve also followed a few you could never think of. For instance, Keegan recalls, police looked back several years into the unsolved New Canaan murder of a young girl named Mary Mount. "Thats where our loyalty lies. But a number of people in Greenwich think the allegiance of the police lies elsewhere and that their steadfast silence is part of a cover-up. TONY BRYANT: Well, that night We decided to go up to Greenwich and hang out . Martha Moxley was initially assaulted in the area to the left of this photo (inside the arc of the original driveway), and was then dragged across the gravel driveway to a site beyond the tree on the right of the photo, where she was fatally assaulted with a golf club. The Skakels were cousins of the Kennedys. Lynne Tuohy: It was huge. Burton Tinsley and Al Hasbrouck don't deny that they had been to belle haven on several occasions. This time, in an effort to clear his family name, Rushton Skakel hired his own team of investigators. A lot with Dicky ". Lynne Tuohy: all the national media was there. The officers never searched beneath the long, low bough of a majestic pine tree that stood little more than a hundred feet from the house. On one side are the Moxleys, a tight-knit family of four who moved from Northern California to Connecticut's prestigious enclave of Belle Haven just a year before Martha's slaying. Tori Holland: Somebody would have seen strangers and recognized that they were strangers. Were the Skakels the mystery family? If so, what did that prove? Jonathan Benedict: No, I don't think so. The judge denied the request. I think she would have been a great mother. As one of the regulars at Augies Bar in downtown Greenwich puts it, If you have money, you can get away with murder here. This suspicion is not confined to Chickahominy, says a writer who has lived in town eight years. The grip half, which might carry fingerprints, was missing. And on October 4, a little over three weeks before her murder, Martha wrote: "I went to a party! Erin Moriarty: Do you have any regrets of pointing the finger at two people who have never been suspects? No, Martha was not there.and he looked, he didn't look healthy. The Skakel family business, founded in 1919, controlled a large enough share of the coke market that the Federal Trade Commission charged in 1969 that the firm had too much market power in the field. So, when Tommy's brother Michael Skakel was arrested for Martha's murder in 2000 after reports circulated that he had allegedly confessed to the killing, the story grabbed headlines worldwide. Len Levitt (2003): Tommy's story is that he last sees her at 9:30 and he goes inside home to write a paper on Abraham Lincoln. Larry Shoenbach: To coin a phrase, it's Black versus White. I tutored a Kennedy relative and wound up accused of murder, How the Skakel-Moxley Murder Case Unfolded Over Four Decades, Murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel overturned again, Court vacates Kennedy cousin Skakels murder conviction, Michael Skakel free: Supreme Court wont hear case, The Unrelenting Martha Moxley Murder Saga: Old Money, Cold Justice, the Kennedy Connection and Endless Twists, American Justice A&E A Murder In Greenwich, Michael Skakel vs. Commissioner of Correction (2016, behind LexisNexis paywall). It is many of these same people who are most bitter about the Moxley case and use it as a chance to vent longstanding frustrations about their better-off neighbors. That very security, in fact, was one of the main reasons that David Moxley had chosen Belle Haven. Gregory McLaughlin, Phil Tangel and Jud Johnston are the editors. Martha Moxley's body had been dragged through the high grass in her family's backyard and left under a tree. AP There they discovered a piece of the murder weapon: the shaft of a golf club. When we pressed him about it, he got up from the interview chair. Like Martha, many had curfews, so by the time the youngsters reached the Skakel home at about 9 p.m., their number had dwindled to just threeHelen lx, twelve-year-old Geoff, and Martha. Bryant has a criminal history that includes a 1993 conviction for armed robbery in California. UNSOLVED: Teenager Peter Reilly, a poor Canaan resident, was railroaded for the murder of his mother, Barbara Gibbons. He also fired Ken Littleton whose life unraveled shortly after. Martha Moxley had been beaten and stabbed with a Toney Penna golf club. Lynne Tuohy: He puts Michael Skakel at that house and has no motive to lie, he's not related to Michael Skakel. the two of them were fierce rivals for anything you know, from sports to affection. I really have to stop going over there.". Bizarre tragedies would strike twice more in the year following George, Jr. s death. TONY BRYANT: "We did it. New '48 Hours' Episode Investigates The Death Of Martha Moxley The house built on the old building site is much larger. Officials have reopened the case. But in the end, it wouldn't be the words of Tony Bryant that changed everything for Michael Skakel. Circumstance put Thomas Skakel on the lawn with Martha that night; there was nothing else to link him to the crime. Murder of Martha Moxley - Wikipedia The tree in the backyard where the murder took place is apparently still there. MICKEY SHERMAN [to reporters outside courthouse]: Michael's defense and his only defense is that he did not commit this crime. "I know I talked to Tommy once or twice, Martha wasn't there," Dorthy said. Tori Holland: My backyard sort of melded into her front yard. After Michael Skakel was sent off to prison in August 2002, his cousin Robert Kennedy Jr. became his staunchest supporter. Her body was discovered the next day. The Murder of Martha Moxley - Medium Literally, it means beautiful shelter and Belle Haven is exactly that, a mile-square chunk of suburban paradise jutting out into Long Island Sound, graced by ninety-four of some of the largest, most beautiful homes in the state. The golf club she was struck with. MattC September 18, 2017 at 8:04 AM. Links: en.wikipedia.org, www.tapatalk.com 47,727 views 7.4 ( 14 votes) Categories Events > Murder Sites Comments Father Richard Manus eulogized her as a bubbly girl who made more friends than most people make in a lifetime. Just recently, he noted, Martha Moxley had mused to a girlfriend that when she died she wanted her funeral to be happy, with friends remembering all the good times. Instead, as nine friends approached Marthas coffin with yellow roses, they burst into tears. On September 12, Martha wrote in her diary about going for ice cream with Michael and Tommy: "Went driving in Tom's car I was practically sitting on Tom's lap He kept putting his hand on my knee.". He looks pained as he begins, I would do anything I could to solve that case, because until it is solved its just a bitter thing. Says Evaristo, If it happened in Chickahominy, theyd have taken the kid in and held him on suspicion. Their findings became known as The Sutton Report. Lynne Tuohy: Tommy told the Sutton investigators that he did not go into his house at 9:30, he stayed outside making out with Martha for 20 minutes mutual petting. The police were stymied because members of a family who certainly have information that could assist the investigation have apparently been advised not to assist in the probe, he announced. And one portion of the shaft was driven through her neck. Her body is found bludgeoned and stabbed, half-hidden beneath pine trees. 2023 Cable News Network. Richard Burns: basically you would throw toilet paper into the trees . Remember, Michael told police that around 9:30 p.m., he had left to go to his cousin Jimmy Terrien's home and Martha had stayed behind with Tommy. Michael was 41 years old when his trial began. Len Levitt (2003): How does Tommy do this? While Browne did not name the family or say who advised them to remain silent, he might as well have, judging from public reaction. Addressing the Stamford Superior Court on Friday, States Attorney Richard Colangelo said the state would no longer pursue charges against Skakel. The state's case hinged on the theory that enraged with jealousy over Martha's relationship with Tommy, Michael had killed her in a drunken rage. The golf club she was struck with shattered from the force of the blows. He was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Or was there a link to a 1972 case at a nearby Westchester, New York golf course where a girl was beaten severely with a golf club? The police later find out that no teacher at Tommy's school ever assigned this paper. Now, for the first time since Martha Moxley was murdered, her childhood friends Richard Burns and Tori Holland are speaking together to "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty. Martha kept a diary which became evidence after her murder. / CBS News. and I remember just having a feeling of panic. Skakel would like to speak out, he says, but feels it would not put rumors to rest. No commoners, these children; rather they are heirs to Whos Who in the world of American business. It had been broken in half by the repeated impact. Larry Shoenbach: With no facts and no evidence, he continues to put forth this lie as a way of trying to clear his cousin and, I guess, by extension, the Kennedy name. By the way, the one you posted is my favorite, it's the one I plan to buy. Mickey is no amateur when it comes to television. Kennedy says Bryant wouldn't testify without immunity, so Skakel's attorneys played his video statement. While Keegan will not name any names, he says that nobody refused lie-detector tests and that at the beginning of our investigation, we were not denied access, to anybody. The captain adds, however, Later on, we did run into some uncooperativeness when trying to question someone.. '74 has been one of the best years of my life. HUBERT SANTOS [to reporters outside courthouse] An innocent man now goes free . Skakel was convicted in 2002 but was released from prison in 2013 when courts ordered a new trial. Tori Holland: She was not a wallflower she wanted to meet everybody. He told them on the night of the murder, he had taken two friends - Adolf Hasbrouck, also known as Al, and Burton Tinsley-to Belle Haven. Had the official silence surrounding the case not been broken in spectacular fashion last March, such gossip may have waned.