On the night before Halloween 1975, 15-year-old Martha Moxley celebrated “Mischief Night” with friends and neighbors in her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut. The next day, Martha’s dead body was found in her family’s yard. She had been beaten to death with a golf club which later proved to be part of a set owned by the Skakels, neighbors of the Moxleys. In 2002, 27 years after Moxley’s murder, Michael Skakel, who was also 15 at the time of Martha’s death, was convicted. In 2013, a judge set aside the conviction. The state appealed that decision. The case is now in the hands of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Skakel is the cousin of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who believes Skakel is innocent and claims to know who the real killers are – two male visitors from New York City. He explains why Skakel was allegedly framed in his book Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent Over a Decade In Prison For a Murder He Didn’t Commit. Kennedy dedicated the book to his wife, Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and his mother, Ethel Skakel Kennedy. NBC Matt Lauer’s interviews with Martha’s mother Dorthy Moxley and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will air on Dateline NBC, Friday, July 15 at 10pm.
