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by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Review by Miriam Stone, Yocum Library's Learning Resource and Access Specialist
Martha Moxley had almost everything a 15 year old girl could want. She was pretty, extremely popular and she lived in the richest community in the country, Greenwich Connecticut. But, she was missing something – her life. Martha was bludgeoned to death in her driveway on October 30, 1975.
Police on the scene reported that Martha had been beaten so badly with a golf club that her head looked like a smashed pumpkin. The gold club broke into three pieces and the murderer used part of the shaft to stab Martha through the neck.
Review by Miriam Stone, Yocum Library's Learning Resource and Access Specialist
Martha Moxley had almost everything a 15 year old girl could want. She was pretty, extremely popular and she lived in the richest community in the country, Greenwich Connecticut. But, she was missing something – her life. Martha was bludgeoned to death in her driveway on October 30, 1975.
Police on the scene reported that Martha had been beaten so badly with a golf club that her head looked like a smashed pumpkin. The gold club broke into three pieces and the murderer used part of the shaft to stab Martha through the neck.
These things never occurred in the affluent society of Belle Haven, Greenwich, CT. Not only were the police ill equipped to handle a crime of this magnitude, the citizens of the town viewed it as an embarrassment, a blight on their perfect existence and one best not discussed with anyone, especially outsiders.
The killer was not found and the unfortunate episode of Martha’s death faded into the past – that is until 2002, thirty-seven years after the murder when Martha’s friend and neighbor, Michael Skakel, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life.
The Skakel’s were related to the Kennedy’s, although the Skakels were much wealthier and Republican and never had much contact with their more famous cousins. Michael had been in prison for over 10 years, when he finally won an appeal for a new trial and Robert Kennedy took up his defense.
This is the story of a man, convicted of committing his friend’s murder when both were 15 years old. It is a story that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants told because he claims that Michael was framed. In declaring Michael’s innocence, Kennedy cuts a sweeping path of condemnation that involves a crooked cop, an inept police force, a famous writer, a treacherous family lawyer, a defense attorney obsessed by the spotlight, a prosecutor gone rogue and an arsenal of perjuring witnesses. He doesn’t stop there. He uncovers a mountain of evidence against two men and he is so sure of their guilt that he names them in his book, urging them to sue him if they are innocent.
Is Michael Skakel an innocent victim of a corrupt system or a cold blooded killer that savagely beat his friend to death when they were 15 years old? Does Kennedy prove that Michael was framed by this very system or is Kennedy using it to frame two men so that his cousin can go free? The reader can’t sit on the fence on this one. By the time they are finished with the book they will most definitely have an opinion.
The Skakel’s were related to the Kennedy’s, although the Skakels were much wealthier and Republican and never had much contact with their more famous cousins. Michael had been in prison for over 10 years, when he finally won an appeal for a new trial and Robert Kennedy took up his defense.
This is the story of a man, convicted of committing his friend’s murder when both were 15 years old. It is a story that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants told because he claims that Michael was framed. In declaring Michael’s innocence, Kennedy cuts a sweeping path of condemnation that involves a crooked cop, an inept police force, a famous writer, a treacherous family lawyer, a defense attorney obsessed by the spotlight, a prosecutor gone rogue and an arsenal of perjuring witnesses. He doesn’t stop there. He uncovers a mountain of evidence against two men and he is so sure of their guilt that he names them in his book, urging them to sue him if they are innocent.
Is Michael Skakel an innocent victim of a corrupt system or a cold blooded killer that savagely beat his friend to death when they were 15 years old? Does Kennedy prove that Michael was framed by this very system or is Kennedy using it to frame two men so that his cousin can go free? The reader can’t sit on the fence on this one. By the time they are finished with the book they will most definitely have an opinion.
[Editor's Note: Skakel has been free on $1.23 million bail since 2013 when he was granted a new trial on the grounds that he received poor representation from his lawyer. However, in late December 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated his murder conviction after determining his lawyer provided adequate representation. Skakel is currently waiting to find out if (and when) he will be returned to prison.]
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