How a 15-year-old's Halloween killing in Connecticut exposed the limits of justice for the wealthy and connected
On Halloween Eve 1975, Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old Connecticut student, was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her family's Belle Haven backyard. Nearly five decades later, the case remains a tangled web of wealth, power, and allegations involving the Kennedy family.
Martha Elizabeth Moxley was 15 years old when she died on October 30, 1975—Halloween Eve, a night locals called "Mischief Night." The high school student was found the next morning beneath a tree in her family's backyard on their Belle Haven estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, her body bearing evidence of brutal violence: she had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a broken six-iron Toney Penna golf club. Pieces of the shattered club lay near her remains, and a blood trail showed her body had been dragged from near the driveway to its final resting place.
The estimated time of death fell between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. Police determined that Martha's jeans and underwear had been pulled down to her knees, though the Chief of Police confirmed no evidence of sexual assault was found.
**A Prime Suspect Lives Across the Street**
The murder weapon proved crucial: it matched a set of golf clubs in the Skakel family home, located directly across the street from the Moxley residence. The Skakels were no ordinary neighbors. Michael Skakel, 15 years old at the time of the murder, was a cousin of the Kennedy family through his aunt, Ethel Skakel Kennedy. His older brother Thomas, 17, had been one of the last people seen with Martha that evening—witnesses reported seeing them "falling together behind the fence" near the Skakel pool around 9:30 p.m. Martha's diary revealed a pattern of flirtation with Thomas, including an entry from September 19 describing a ride in his car with his hand on her knee.
Thomas initially claimed to have been at home working on a report about Abraham Lincoln. Michael said he was giving a cousin a ride home with his brothers John and Rush Jr.—an alibi that was later disputed, particularly after hypnosis sessions conducted as part of the Sutton investigation.
**A Conviction, Then a Dismissal**
In January 2000, more than two decades after the murder, Michael Skakel was arrested. The prosecution's theory centered on jealous rage: Michael had become enraged when Martha flirted with his older brother Thomas. In June 2002, Skakel was convicted of murder.
