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E104: Martha Moxley
1.5k Plays4 years ago
As Halloween approaches we often wonder if those haunted houses we walk through and scary movies we watch could turn into a reality. On October 30, 1975, a fun night spent with friends turned into the plot of a scary movie as one teen is left bludgeoned to death in her backyard.
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Transcript
Getting Started with Buzzsprout
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuthounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own? Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are?
00:00:19
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends.
00:00:46
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and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So what are you waiting for?
Support and Referral Benefits
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Speaker
Fulfill that dream of yours and start today.
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Speaker
If you use our Coffee and Cases referral code, 709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now,
00:01:31
Speaker
It's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Podcast Recommendations
00:01:36
Speaker
For our podcast recommendation this week, I want to urge you to check out our friend Nicole and her podcast called True Crime South Africa. Just like the cases Maggie and I cover, her stories draw you in and have you biting your nails. She covers cases with care, with a focus on detail. And as a bonus,
00:02:00
Speaker
You'll love her accent. Please check out True Crime South Africa and leave her a five star review. Tell her that Maggie and Alison sent you. Here's a little about her show. South Africa, a country whose spectacular beauty and dynamic people are known the world over.
00:02:28
Speaker
But there's another side to our country, and one that is rarely discussed in the detail it deserves. Join me, Nicole Engelbrecht, on True Crime South Africa, South Africa's first victim-focused true crime podcast.
00:02:46
Speaker
As we go beyond the headlines, focus on the victims and explore some of South Africa's most heinous violent crimes. True Crime South Africa is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Autumn and Halloween Traditions
00:03:15
Speaker
I don't know about you sleuth hounds, but the time between October to December is my favorite time because all of the best holidays are crammed into those three short months. But honestly, I haven't always been this way. My mom had a way of making the ordinary extraordinary for me as a kid. When I was little, I literally dreaded
00:03:38
Speaker
the arrival of autumn or fall as we call it back home when all the leaves would start to fall off the trees. But my mom always told me that if you catch a falling leaf before it hits the ground you would get to make a wish. I have no clue where she got that idea from.
00:03:56
Speaker
But did I believe it as a kid? Of course I did. I would spend hours running around our yard chasing leaves as they fell from the tree limbs. That turned autumn into a beautiful time.
Introduction to Martha Moxley Case
00:04:08
Speaker
Now, as an adult, I love when the leaves change colors and we get to live inside a world saturated in reds and oranges and yellows. I love when we get to plan day spin at a pumpkin patch looking for just the right pumpkin or four, if you're me, to take home to carve.
00:04:25
Speaker
I love putting on a spooky movie and removing pumpkin guts with my hands to carve faces into the pumpkins we bring home. I love turning my yard into a creepy graveyard for trick or treaters to walk through on Halloween. For many, the Halloween season is a time to let your imagination run wild.
00:04:42
Speaker
We plan elaborate costumes, decorate our yards and houses, we eat copious amounts of candy. Halloween brings out the kid in all of us. No matter your age, you can always find joy in the spooky season. But even though I love candy and the pumpkin patches and the leaves falling, Halloween is still a little bit scary for a scaredy cat like me.
00:05:06
Speaker
If you're a long time listener, you know, if I forget something in my car, I will run to and from the car. If it's dark outside, if I'm home alone for any period of time, I'll lock the door that goes downstairs to our basement. I don't go downstairs alone. Basically I'm scared of my own shadow. The scary movies I watched during the Halloween season don't help, but I can tell myself that these are make believe these aren't real.
00:05:33
Speaker
but they could be. A fun night spent with friends could turn into a plot of a scary movie. And that, Sleuthounds, is just what happened on October 30th, 1975.
Podcast's Mission and Listener Engagement
00:05:45
Speaker
This is the story of Martha Moxley.
00:06:24
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:06:33
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page.
00:06:49
Speaker
Coffee and cases podcast and to follow us on Instagram at coffee cases podcast and on tick-tock at coffee and cases podcast Because as these families know conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness Helping to keep their memories alive.
Moxley and Skakel Family Background
00:07:07
Speaker
So sit back sip your coffee and listen to what's brewing this week
00:07:12
Speaker
So Alison, our story takes place today in Greenwich, Connecticut, which Anthony, I don't know. Greenwich. I think it's Greenwich. Yeah, it's Greenwich. Yeah. Why did I say the W? Like I don't know what I'm doing in my life. It's been a day, people. It's been a day. It's okay.
00:07:35
Speaker
But that's Anthony's new kick of where he wants to move for a while. It was Colorado now. That was Connecticut. Yeah. Mainly because I think he thinks he can convince me to live there because I love the Gilmore Girls and that takes place in Connecticut. He's not he's not going to convince me.
00:07:58
Speaker
But the Moxley family did move to Connecticut from California only about eight months before this case takes place.
00:08:10
Speaker
And from what I read, they moved into like this very like prominent community. They moved into a gated community, which is fancy, called Bell Haven. And it actually had earned the reputation of being the wealthiest community in town. And it earned that name, basically. So Martha's family actually were next door neighbors with like
00:08:39
Speaker
a relative of the Kennedy family, like a Kennedy cousin. Yeah. Okay. So like the Kennedys. The Kennedys. Yeah. So Bell Haven seemed like the perfect place to settle down. You're in a gated community. You live beside a Kennedy. Like what else could you want with life? Yeah. I can only imagine though myself as a 15 year old and my parents telling me we're literally moving across the country.
00:09:09
Speaker
Like, imagine you're a little sleuth hound if you're like, we're moving to Washington state. Oh my gosh. I could be like, I'm changing dinner plans and like the world is coming to an end.
00:09:23
Speaker
full-blown tears probably some yelling involved like I would have been not a happy person to be around but Martha was not obviously the drama queen like I am because she just kind of like rolled with the punches she was voted best personality in middle school
00:09:45
Speaker
And so she was sure she would be able to fit in and she was able to fit in. She used like that winning and fun personality to make a rather large set of new friends at her Connecticut home. Good. Because I know that's hard. Yeah. Like Anthony's family moved from Pikeville
Skakel Family Dynamics
00:10:07
Speaker
to Central Kentucky when we were
00:10:11
Speaker
Like, I think the summer before a senior year and he was like, yeah, I'm not going. And he stayed with his grandma because like, I mean, I wish I really can't blame him because you have one year left. But I mean, his sister was like, you know, right at that age where it's like starting to be kind of harder to make friends and like, you're just like really awkward. And so I'm sure that was really hard for her to just pick up and move. Right.
00:10:39
Speaker
I would have hated it as a kid, but Martha, she did fine. Good. So we are going to meet like briefly.
00:10:48
Speaker
like an extensive group of friends. So some of the names can kind of I think kind of run together because even I got confused like as I was typing to make sure that I wasn't kind of messing up people's names. But the like main group of friends that we're going to talk a lot about are Michael and Thomas. Some articles called him Tommy. Most of them call him Tommy. Some called him Tom Skakel.
00:11:15
Speaker
And these were the relatives of the Kennedys. Okay. So the next door neighbors. Yeah. So they're next door neighbors. Yep. And it's like, just their houses are like closer than like your house to your neighbor's house type. Okay. So in an article called the tragedy of Martha Moxley, the 15 year old who may have been bludgeoned to death. So there's a little preview. We have a little preview.
00:11:44
Speaker
The author states that Ethel Skakel, the brother of the father and his wife, Anne had seven children. So Michael and Tommy were one of seven. Oh. And because remember the Kennedys, aren't they Catholic? Yes. Yeah. And like Tommy, no, not Tommy. Michael actually talks about that like later on.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, they have a lot of children and I think predominantly I mean maybe they wanted I mean I'm sure they wanted all seven kids that came out bad But like I think no religious reasons, you know, yeah, no birth control and all that stuff So Tom and Michael are like same age as Martha Yeah, so Martha's 15 Tommy is 17 and Michael is 15. Okay, I
00:12:34
Speaker
Yeah, so like I said, Michael has some anger issues and some like other issues that kind of played his young adult life. And he would later tell reporters that
Martha's Social Circle and Tensions
00:12:51
Speaker
it was chronic illness, alcoholism, and a repressive Catholic moral and sexual outlook that would cause a household filled with turmoil as he grew up.
00:13:05
Speaker
So they didn't have. This is stemming from Michael. Yeah, so like the.
00:13:12
Speaker
Grass, I guess, is not always greener on the other side. They did not have this perfect life that you would picture that they would have had. He's saying their house was plagued with chronic illness, there was alcoholism, they had a repressive Catholic moral and sexual outlook, and that it just created a lot of angst and turmoil in their home.
00:13:36
Speaker
And that really wasn't made any better when in 1973, their mom would die of brain cancer. She was actually relatively young from what I read. So we have the illness of the mom with brain cancer. The dad rushed in.
00:13:56
Speaker
Is an alcoholic after mom dies his alcoholism worsens And the kids were all seven of them were regularly left at home alone With no supervision and obviously unlimited funds So that's not a good combo. Yeah a recipe for disaster
00:14:20
Speaker
And Michael would actually say that an even more intense level of chaos came to rule on their household after his mom died because again they are just left alone. Yeah. So the Moxley's only lived just about 150 yards away from Michael and Tommy's family.
00:14:42
Speaker
And as you can imagine, the Skake Will Home had a constant stream of teenagers coming and going thanks to that lack of parental supervision. Oh, yeah. I mean, you could party it up like nobody's there. Nobody's going to stop you from doing anything. And like I read that they had like an RV on their property and that was like the place where the kids like to hang out. And I can only imagine the horrific things I would have been traumatized by that probably went on in that RV. Right. Right.
00:15:11
Speaker
since we're rule followers and I'm sure there wasn't a lot of following of rules happening. But Martha spent many days and nights with all these scenes that frequented that home and like you'll kind of see here in a little bit like um
00:15:30
Speaker
we kind of get a glimpse into how Martha's parents kind of feel about this new crowd of people that she's hanging out with because she did kind of find herself in trouble. Some, I mean, it's not like she was like, you know, like a horrible kid and was like doing lines of cocaine on the kitchen table, but she was just a regular teenager. But she kind of did find herself in trouble from time to time as a result of the rambunctious things that this group would do.
00:16:00
Speaker
So as I was writing this, and I know that I even texted you, like I kind of struggled with how to start, which I feel like I kind of always do, but mainly because I first wanted to start with Martha's diary entries, but it just didn't like make sense that way because her diary entries are like literally like you feel like you're just like chatting with your friend.
00:16:30
Speaker
They're like, like you can hear her in these. And I was never like a diary person. Were you a diary person? Yeah, I mean, it was bigger for some older than you are, but it was, it was kind of big to have a diary. And I know I had one and I made sure I wanted one with a lock on it. Yeah. Like somebody's gonna care enough to read my diary.
00:16:59
Speaker
And it was like this plastic lock. So I could have just broke it off. But yeah, and it was big to be like, dear diary, today I did this or this boy looked at me and whatever.
00:17:18
Speaker
but I tried several times like I even had like I can remember this like tiny purple like electronic journal like thing that I had and it was like literally the size of like a little calculator it wasn't like anything super fancy but like I've really tried to get into it but I just never
00:17:41
Speaker
Like it just never stuck with me. And like, I even know like a lot of adults that like journal, but I just never got into that either. I mean, I write down things and I write a lot, but like never just like, dear diary today, the school served taco salad with corn. Who does that? Like I really did that. Yeah, mine was mostly whatever boy I thought was cute at the time. And now, now I just make to-do lists.
00:18:07
Speaker
Yeah, that we never get done. So it is like a continuing journal. Yeah. Yes. There you go. But Martha, like I said, she did keep a diary. She documented so much about her life that I felt like I knew her a little bit by the time I got done reading the portions of the diary that I found online. I mean, you know, she is 15. So as you can imagine, her diary is filled with boy drama, friend drama, a lot of insights to the things happening around her.
00:18:37
Speaker
So when Martha was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the wee morning hours of October 31, 1975, investigators turned to her diary for clues. And these pages of her diary, so the ones that we're getting ready to read, would eventually be read at the trial of her neighbor, Michael Skakel. And it is, like I said, within these pages that we are getting ready to dive today.
00:19:08
Speaker
So we we do have a suspect and it is that neighbor.
Events Leading to Martha's Disappearance
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah. So her case isn't a traditional case that we would normally talk about because they're I guess we've actually covered a few like this. There are many who believe that this case is already solved and there was a trial and there was a conviction. But the case is now listed as unsolved.
00:19:39
Speaker
OK. We'll talk about all that. So that case could have easily been like a two parter because there's just so much information. So I tried to condense it all so we could do just a one a one or so within the pages of Martha's diary. We meet obviously several of her closest friends. And I told you all at the beginning that
00:20:02
Speaker
there's a lot of people that we briefly meet through the pages of this diary. So we're gonna kind of meet a lot of people.
00:20:12
Speaker
and kind of talk about them in and out throughout the episode. But over the next several minutes, you're going to be introduced to people she spent the summer with, those she got in trouble with, and those that she was kind of crushing on. And we're gonna pick up in her diary as summer is coming to a close and school is starting. Okay, let's dive in. Okay, on September 4th, 1975, because remember school started later,
00:20:41
Speaker
Back in the day, the good old days. And in the Northeast, it still does. What is this? Yeah, you didn't know this, but it goes through the end of June. Oh, no thanks. Yeah, no. It starts later, but it also ends later. I'm literally April tired and it's not even November. I don't know that I can make it through the end of June.
00:21:09
Speaker
So on September 4th, 1975, she wrote, Dear Diary, today was the first day of school. It was pretty good. I have all my opens with Peter and Christy. Tonight I went pool hopping with Jackie, Michael, David, and Tom Skakel and Andy Pugh. When I got home, my mom was really ticked at me. She might not let me go to the Allen Brothers concert with Peter.
00:21:34
Speaker
Like just typical yeah, here's what I did Yeah, oxygen would side several entries in the weeks leading up to her death that kind of captured like how she felt about her friends her neighbors and some like a vise for her attention Yes Yes
00:21:59
Speaker
So in a passage on September 12th, Martha reflects on an evening she spent with her friends and with Michael and Tommy. So she said, dear diary, today was nothing extra special at school. Peter was being his usual self. Oh, by the way, pause my quote. Somewhere in some of these is like one or two bad words. So parents, if you're listening, just know there may be a few.
00:22:29
Speaker
wordy-dirds in here. Okay.
00:22:32
Speaker
Okay, so Peter was being his usual self. Me, Jackie, Michael, Tom, Hope, Marine and Andrea went driving in Tom's car. I drove a little then and I was practically sitting on Tom's lap because I was only steering. He kept putting his hand on my knee. I drove some more and Margie and I kept yelling out the sunroof and then we went to Friendly's and Michael treated me and got me a double, but I only wanted a single. So I threw the top scoop out of the window.
00:23:00
Speaker
wasteful bit. Yes. Don't get rid of ice cream. Yeah. Mistake number one. Yeah. Then I was driving again and Tom put his arm around me. He kept doing stuff like that. Jesus. If Peter ever found out I would be dead. I think Jackie really likes Michael and I think maybe he likes her. Maybe because he was drunk but I don't know.
Martha's Disappearance and Discovery
00:23:23
Speaker
Oh.
00:23:25
Speaker
So he's 15, drinking. Also, how many people are in this car? Like, what kind of car does he have? It's a clown car. Yeah. Like everybody piles out. Yeah. So it sounds to me, because she was talking about like, mom might not let her go to the concert with Peter. And then she says like, she's in trouble if Peter ever found out that Tom is flirting with her. So she must be in a somewhat kind of relationship with Peter, but Tom
00:23:55
Speaker
is flirting with her. Yeah and see this is where I too like got confused in my research so it does sound like she's in a relationship with Peter and that Tommy likes her but then later on you kind of also get the impression that Michael does but she kind of never led really led on to that that I got from it maybe you can read more into it than what I well now I mean
00:24:24
Speaker
He did buy her ice cream. That's true. That's the sign of love right there. It really is. Buying somebody's sweets. I mean it would win me over. Me too. On September 15th Martha recalls hanging out in this RV that's on Michael and Tommy's family property.
00:24:49
Speaker
with Jackie and Michael. So like remember Jackie likes Michael and Martha thanks Michael may like Jackie. She wrote that Michael told her quote he doesn't like Jackie but he leads her on so much I believe I can't believe it. So he says I don't like her but then he like flirts with her. Yes. But then based on what you said is he telling
00:25:16
Speaker
Martha that he doesn't like Jackie because he also likes Martha. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah.
00:25:23
Speaker
Later on, she recalls, Michael was so totally out of it that he was being a real asshole in his actions and words. He kept telling me that I was leading Tom on when I don't like him except as a friend. I said, well, how about you and Jackie? You keep telling me that you don't like her and you're all over her. He doesn't understand that he can be nice to her without hanging all over her. Michael jumps to conclusions. I can't be friends with Tom just because I talked to him. It doesn't mean I'll like him. I really have to stop going over there.
00:25:53
Speaker
Oh. So she's pulling frustrated. Yeah, she's done. Yeah. And it would be just a little over a month after that diary entry that Martha would be found dead in her backyard. So she's, oh, she's in her backyard. Now, I recently took a quiz on Facebook because that's what I do when I'm procrastinating other things that I need to be doing.
00:26:20
Speaker
And it wanted to know what accent I had. Obviously I know what accent I have. But I wanted to know if Facebook could tell that based on the way that I say things. It can. But it asked what we call the day, like October 30th, the day before Halloween, like I put that I have no name for this day. It's October 30th. Yeah.
00:26:45
Speaker
That mischief night was an option. So I guess that must be like a Northeastern thing because I had never heard of it until that Facebook quiz and then like a few days later in Martha's case. So maybe that's like a Northeastern thing.
00:27:01
Speaker
Miss Just Night. Yeah and like from what I could tell the name is like basically what happens you just are mischievous you do like ding dong ditch you throw toilet paper into trees like you know harmless pranks that I would never do because I would be scared but Martha on October 30th
00:27:24
Speaker
Um, like her and her little friend group have plans, but on that night in 1975, something changed. Hmm. So it's not so harmless. No, it is not harmless. And according to chilling crimes on mischief night, Martha went to a party with her friends, Sheila and Helen around six 30. So we have two more friends. Mm-hmm.
00:27:50
Speaker
And it was reported that that night was very cold. You know, it's Connecticut and it's almost November. So that makes sense. And Martha supposedly left her house wearing like a blue parka jacket and her mom, Dorothy, like tells her to be safe. Mom is home alone because dad John is on a business trip. So just like a typical day or night, I guess.
00:28:18
Speaker
So according to Chilling Crimes Dorothy would spend the majority of the night painting but around like 10 p.m. She heard a lot of ruckus and kind of stopped painting for the night almost as if she was like holy crap I've been painting all day. It's 10 p.m. Like I need to go to bed Ruckus as in like hearing kids in the neighborhood or yeah, okay like mischief I guess
00:28:43
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So she showers I'm getting like I don't know bad vibes about like The purge or something yeah Doors because it's mischief night. Yes same and like or like maybe like Michael Myers type Yeah, this is creeping me out. Mm-hmm
00:29:07
Speaker
So she goes to bed, like she showers, she turns on the 11 o'clock news to wait for her husband to get home. And when John got home, the two started a movie, but you know, being a typical mom, Dorothy like fell asleep mid movie.
00:29:22
Speaker
I'd have been asleep before I got home. Yeah, I would have been asleep by the 11 o'clock news. Literally, Alison said today, what time do you wanna record? And I was like, well, can we do it earlier? Cause I'm trying to get eight hours of sleep tonight. So, you know, Dorothy woke from her sleep a little bit later on that night slash like early Halloween morning and kind of felt like something was amiss, like, you know, a mom thing.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah. So she goes into check on Martha and her bed is empty. It was around like two o'clock in the morning and she's like, my kid should be home by now. Where the heck is my kid? So in a panic, which I feel again, any parent would do, she wakes up her husband and asks him to go look for Martha. Mm-hmm.
00:30:13
Speaker
So he couldn't find her and naturally and sensibly, the two began calling her friends. And I'm sure Dorothy's like, surely Sheila knows where the heck Martha is. Like maybe Martha just decided to stay with her. She didn't call and let us know. She's rationalizing all of this. I'm sure that they were just trying to kind of like convince themselves that
00:30:40
Speaker
You know, everything's fine. Right. When Dorothy reaches Sheila, you know, I'm sure that she's in her mind. Like Sheila is going to be like, Oh, she's right here. Here you go. And like, she's going to get to hear Martha's voice and like the two had scold her and then say like, you need to come home right now or we're coming to get you. But Sheila didn't know where Martha was. No idea.
00:31:05
Speaker
But she did have a valuable piece of information for these panicked parents. Were they at the party together? So Sheila told Dorothy that after the party, because they go to the party together, she and Martha go to the Skakel house to hang out for a bit. Which is right next door. Yes. And so I'm sure the mom's like, oh, thank God. Like she's just next door.
00:31:32
Speaker
So she stated that she, Helen, and Martha were actually at Tommy and Michael's house for a while and like she even told the the parents that she had last seen Martha with Tommy. She reported to Dorothy that the two were making out and I read in one article that the two were reported to have been like kissing so hard that they fell behind a fence
00:31:59
Speaker
And this was around like nine 30 at night. That seems a weird detail to tell parents though like your friends parents. Yeah they were making out like I feel like that's something if you're good friends you take it to the grave.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah, take it to the fly. Like, I just, yeah, I don't know. I don't know, but just be like, I smell Martha with Tommy and just like, end it there. Yeah. Around 9.30. Yeah, that seems an odd detail. Yeah. To me. But you know, I'm sure Dorothy was relieved knowing that while Martha wasn't at Sheila's house, she was at least at the Skakel house. And so, of course, she's been like, I'm going to call
00:32:44
Speaker
like Michael and Tommy. So she calls several times apparently in one article and each time 18 year old Julie tells Dorothy to call this man this friend named Jimmy. So another friend in their friend group because a lot of the people left the Skakel house and went to Jimmy's house. So I'm guessing this Julie is Tom and Michael's sister.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, so she's basically sending them in another direction. Yeah, and like how frustrating is that? Yeah, that would be frustrating. One, you're already mad because your kid isn't home when they're supposed to be. You're panicked because you can't find your kid. And now you're frustrated because you've called a friend who told you to call a friend who told you to call a friend. It's like just a big like goose chase.
00:33:44
Speaker
Dorothy does call Jimmy's house. Jimmy's mom was the one who answered the phone to give disappointing news yet again. She told Dorothy that Martha wasn't home, wasn't at her house. In fact, neither was Jimmy. She had no idea where he was. And like at this point, all avenues have been exhausted and Dorothy calls 911 to report Martha as missing.
00:34:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean she's really tried to find her. Yeah. And so while she's waiting on police to arrive, she does what I would have done. And I feel like what any decent parent would have done, she walks over to the Skakel house because she's like, Hey, my kid was seen over here. Maybe it's like, yeah, it's right next door. Maybe she's in like this RV that they hang out in. They probably live in a mansion. So maybe she's in a bedroom that like was overlooked or something like that.
00:34:44
Speaker
So when she knocks on the door, a hungover barefoot Michael answered the door still in his jeans and t-shirt. And he told Dorothy the same thing as everyone else that Martha wasn't there and he had no idea where she was.
00:35:00
Speaker
So, Dorothy's like, can you search the RV that you guys hang out in? Can, like, can I come, like, go into your yard and look to make sure she's just not, like, maybe asleep on a chair. She's not asleep in this RV. But her request was denied. Oh, I'd be busting up through there. I'd be like, go into the RV. I don't care. Yeah, I wouldn't even been asking. I would have just been going.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah. Um, but they're like, um, you know, you don't need to do that. We'll send out like one of the employees that like them, I'm sure like their Butler or something, um, out there to check for you. And so this employee goes out, comes back a few moments later and says that Martha wasn't in the RV and that he saw no
Initial Investigation and Suspicions
00:35:49
Speaker
signs of her. So Dorothy leaves the house empty handed.
00:35:54
Speaker
Again, I don't know if I'd take somebody else's word. I think I'd have to see it with my own eyes. Yeah, exactly. And I would probably say that, like, okay, well, if there's nothing back there that you're trying to hide from me, like, why can't I go back there? Exactly. So a broken hearted Dorothy returns home. And like, as you can imagine, friends of the family flock to their home as news of Martha's disappearance spreads, because we're now like early morning
00:36:23
Speaker
like you know this is October 31st yes on Halloween because like she wakes up at 2 a.m. on Halloween Martha isn't there and all the phone calls take place so we're like in the morning of Halloween mm-hmm so I'm sure you know they're there to offer comfort maybe to help look for her
00:36:42
Speaker
you know, walk around the neighborhood, that kind of thing. Sadly, Allison, though, later on that day of October 31st, around 2.30 in that afternoon, Martha's friend Sheila made a horrific discovery.
00:36:55
Speaker
Oh no. Yeah, she found Martha's body under a large pine tree when she cut through the wooded portion of the Moxley backyard. Martha was lying face down with her pants and panties pulled down around her knees.
00:37:13
Speaker
Now I did read that there was no sign of any like sexual assault. Yeah. But she had been beaten to death. Her face was littered with cruel bruises and her hair matted with blood.
00:37:28
Speaker
And oddly there were pieces of a broken golf club beside her body. What? Like was that used on her? So the autopsy report indicated that she had been bludgeoned and she'd been hit so hard with a golf club that the golf club actually broke and that part of that golf club was stabbed through her neck.
00:37:58
Speaker
Now, this golf club was traced back to the Skakel residence. Oh, yes, actually.
00:38:14
Speaker
Well, we'll get there. So police basically theorize that Martha has been hit in the head from behind as she walked up the driveway to get to her house. So I'm assuming that she is on her way home, somebody comes up and hits her in the head and then drags her body to her backyard and leaves it behind a pine tree. That's what most reports that I read seem to agree on.
00:38:42
Speaker
Why would they have drug her to her backyard? I'm wondering if it was like kind of more secluded and they for some reason maybe thought that they wouldn't look there, which makes no sense. But that's really the only way I could rationalize it. Right. Now, like I said, the club was proven to belong to the Skakel family, particularly the late Mother Anne. Like her initials were even engraved in the handle.
00:39:12
Speaker
So whoever did this and left the club there is either trying to frame someone or is not very smart and forgets that there's an engraving. Right. Like, I mean, it's a six iron club that's missing from and set. And then it also has the initial engraved. So like you said, you're either an inexperienced criminal or you're like trying to set somebody up.
Renewed Interest and Michael Skakel
00:39:36
Speaker
Right. Exactly.
00:39:37
Speaker
crazy oddly though a search warrant was never served on the home uh and why you know i didn't read but i think we can guess why so is it like wealth like yeah yeah
00:39:57
Speaker
Um, but you know, Tommy was the last person to be seen with Martha per the people that were at the house. And so police, of course, you know, go to speak with him and he's honest. He tells police that he was with Martha until around nine 30 that night when he went back inside to watch a movie with like their friend slash tutor, which I thought was weird and work on a report over Abraham Lincoln, one that his teachers never claimed was like ever assigned to him.
00:40:26
Speaker
Oh, which is also weird. So he says Martha was last seen by him walking towards her house. Okay. And like police attempt to pull school records for both the Skakel boys, Tommy and Michael and those attempts to pull the school and mental health records like fail.
00:40:45
Speaker
They never get access to those. Kenneth, the tutor slash friend that Tommy was supposedly watching the movie with, obviously was also investigated, like later on in the fall of 1976. He said he had no idea where Martha was. The night that she was murdered was his first night at the Scapel home. He would fail several lie detector tests, which
00:41:12
Speaker
what does that mean again i know yeah um but he was never charged in connection to the case like ever
00:41:21
Speaker
When questioned about his whereabouts that night though, Michael told detectives that he left his house around 9.15 p.m. and drove to his cousin's house, returning around 11. And we know those types of alibis are kind of tricky because how long were you at the cousin's house? How much time were you by yourself? No one can really verify that type of stuff.
00:41:49
Speaker
And listen, there's sometimes I'm sitting there in 10 minutes past like it's one and there's times I'm sitting there in 10 minutes past like they're 30. So preach. Yeah. And like really Martha Moxley's case sat cold for years until 1991. So 1975 to 1991. Wow. Yeah, that's a span.
00:42:13
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And remember that I said earlier that The Monksley's neighbors were related to the Kennedys. Yeah Well in 1991 William Kennedy Smith was tried and acquitted of rape and it was then So that's like another cousin I think is what I read So it was then that rumor serviced that he was present at the Skakel house the night that Martha was brutally murdered and like
00:42:41
Speaker
This rumor would dry up and fizzle out. It died, but it did lead to renewed energy in Martha's case. Yeah, new interest in it. Yeah. So the Sutton Associates, which was a private detective agency hired by the dad in 1991, conducted its own interviews of the killing, which to me, if you're hiring a private investigator, it seems a little fishy, but
00:43:11
Speaker
I've never been rumored to murder anybody, so. Right, so yeah, I don't know what you do. I really have no experience there. Right, yeah. But the Sun Report later leaked to the media that both Tommy and Michael altered their stories about their activities the night of the murder. And Michael, again, comes into view, but this time, as the main suspect. Oh.
Trial and Conviction of Michael Skakel
00:43:36
Speaker
So in an article published on all that's interesting, I read the following, quote, there were two private investigators, Jimmy Murphy, a former FBI agent and his assistant Willis Billy Krebs, a former New York police department lieutenant. When the two interviewed Tom and Michael, skakel about their activities on the night of the Moxley murders, it turned out both boys had lied to the police.
00:44:01
Speaker
So Tommy doesn't know, no. Tommy would disclose that it wasn't nine 30 when he last saw Martha outside his home, but actually closer to 10. And before Tom went back inside, he and Martha engaged in mutual masturbation outside his home. Oh,
00:44:31
Speaker
I don't really understand again, you know, we didn't know what devil's lettuce was so right again, I'm always like the Let me believe the best in people. Yeah, and I feel like with her diary entry where she said like when Tommy was just putting his hand on her knee and Around her shoulder when she's like, oh my gosh, what would Peter think if he found out? like this mutual action
00:45:01
Speaker
It doesn't fit to me. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe like, you know, making out a masturbate, you know, maybe he was just really drunk and like he thought things happened that maybe didn't happen. I don't know.
00:45:18
Speaker
But Krebs says that like Tommy actually began to cry as he was talking about this to his lawyer before the lawyer like you can't say anymore like you said enough. Meanwhile Michael told investigators that he didn't go to bed when he arrived home from his cousin's house around 11. He says that he actually climbed a tree outside Martha's bedroom window and masturbated to what he saw inside her window.
00:45:49
Speaker
What? These boys. Yeah, lots of hormones right there. Oh my goodness. But you know why that still doesn't make any sense to me either? Because then that would seem to assume that Martha is home at 11. Because what else would he be looking at? Unless he's like, has a really good imagination.
00:46:14
Speaker
Which I guess it could be. Yeah. So author and journalist Dominic Dunn got a hold of the investigators report and passed it on to the state inspector Frank Gore who'd previously been a detective on the case. He had always kind of been suspicious of Michael but his suspicions were like
00:46:35
Speaker
Kind of dismissed like this one like, you know at the beginning like everybody's like Michael is not it but this report kind of gave his theory new momentum So now I'm like we're kind of seriously looking into Michael and in a strange literary turn of events It was actually a fictional story published in 1993 that would push police to look further into the case well
00:47:00
Speaker
Literature in action. In this quote unquote fictional story air quotes the plot seemed to resemble Martha's case and this caused like a lot of suspicion and rumors again began to circulate in Martha's small town. Then again in 1998 another book is published and it names Michael as the murderer and points out numerous mistakes made by the original police investigation.
00:47:30
Speaker
Hmm, so I read that even in the years before these two books came out police detectives Stephen Carroll and Frank Gar as well as police reporter Leonard Levitt had become convinced that Michael was the killer So like they're kind of working that towards that and then these books come out and it like kind of puts things I guess into a new perspective that angle. Yeah, I
00:47:54
Speaker
Yeah. And in 1998, a one man grand jury and an investigator were assigned to review the case of Martha and upon examining the evidence, Judge George in them ruled that there was enough to charge Michael with her murder. All right.
00:48:15
Speaker
So we're getting somewhere. We have several former schoolmates of Michael's that come forward and they are like, I want to testify because while Michael was attending like a school specially aimed at rehabilitating troubled youth because he had like, I think had a DUI and like something else. So like he was at this like specialty school. They say Michael had confessed to them that he killed Martha. In fact,
00:48:46
Speaker
this one particular schoolmate, Gregory Coleman, testified in a pretrial hearing in June of 2000 that Michael told him, quote, I'm going to get away with this murder, I'm a Kennedy. And Coleman went on to say that quote, he, meaning Michael, had made a comment that he was trying to make advances towards this girl and that this girl was not complying with those advances and thus he drove her school in, end quote.
00:49:17
Speaker
And that drove to me seems important because you drive a golf ball. Yeah. But Coleman would never get the chance to testify in Michael's trial in 2002 because he actually overdosed in August of 2001.
00:49:37
Speaker
That's sad. It was reported when Dorothy came to the door that morning, right, that Martha is missing, that Michael was panicked. He said on a recording, quote, I was still high from the night before a little drunk. And then he goes on to say that he thought to himself, did they see me last night? Like he says this out loud. And he says, like, oh, no, no, no, no, you took that wrong. Like I meant,
00:50:06
Speaker
Did they see me masturbating in the tree outside Martha's window? But prosecutors are like, no, no, no. We think he means did someone see him beating Martha with a golf club? Right. And it could be either.
00:50:22
Speaker
Right. And Michael really had no solid alibi. Why would he want to kill Martha? There was really no physical evidence leaking him to the crime. We just had like that one golf club, but like, you know, anybody in that household could have had access to this.
00:50:39
Speaker
But the prosecution is able to paint a picture of a jealous teen infuriated after being rejected by his crush Martha. He's under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He has like he has the ability to get this murder weapon. And on June 7th, 2002, the jury came back with a guilty verdict and he was sentenced with 20 years to life in prison. Wow. And I will admit, I mean, all of those things are circumstantial.
00:51:08
Speaker
And you may be wondering why we're talking about Martha's case today since it's not really unsolved.
Overturned Conviction and Unresolved Case
00:51:17
Speaker
Michael was in prison, his lawyers and supporters fought for his conviction to be overturned because like you said, a lot of this evidence is circumstantial. You're saying a lot of things you can't really prove, like can't prove he was jealous. So four appeals were filed, all of them were denied, but then on October 23rd, 2013, Michael was granted a new trial on the basis that his defense attorney
00:51:42
Speaker
provided him with constitutionally deficient representation. As a result, he's actually released on a $1.2 million bill in 2013. That's a big bail. It's a big family. Right.
00:52:02
Speaker
So he is granted this new trial by Connecticut judge Thomas Bishop. And he, this judge ruled that Michael was attorney, failed to adequately represent his client when he was first convicted. And on November 21st, 2013, Michael was released on that bill. Um, he was monitored with a GPS device. He could have no contact with the Moxley family, which why would he want to have contact with him? Right.
00:52:28
Speaker
He had to check in periodically with his parole officer over the phone. He wasn't allowed to leave the state of Connecticut unless granted permission. He was later granted permission to relocate him and his family to New York, which I cannot blame him because I'm sure
00:52:44
Speaker
A lot of rumors were going around town. In 2018, Michael's murder conviction was vacated by the Connecticut Supreme Court, in which they ruled that his attorney had failed to call an alibi witness. They are saying that Michael wasn't given a fair trial.
00:53:04
Speaker
Then, according to Medium.com, on October 30th, 2020, 45 years after the murder of Martha, Connecticut Chief States Attorney Richard, however you say his last name, I will butcher that. Colangelo. Colangelo. There you go. Stated that Michael would not be retried.
00:53:27
Speaker
So he says they're looking at evidence. He said in a quote that looking at the evidence, your honor, looking at the state of the case, it is my belief that the state cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, the state is going to enter a null. So the null will exhaust Michael of murder charges in 13 months. So like next month. So basically a month from now. Yeah.
00:53:56
Speaker
murder charges will no longer exist on his record. Right and it's not known whether this case will reopen again so that is why we're covering Martha's case today because she truly has yet to be served justice. Wow. This year as you hang up your Halloween decorations and put out your jack-o'-lanterns I urge you to remember Martha
00:54:20
Speaker
Through the trick-or-treating and candy eating, I urge you to remember Martha because she deserves to be remembered. While we laugh at silly costumes and enjoy time with friends, Martha's family grieves. So this spooky season, don't take for granted the moments you have with your family and the memories you're building. Her brother was interviewed by Fox News and told the reporter that his family bears no hatred in their hearts.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:54:43
Speaker
Only a desire for justice to be served.
00:54:46
Speaker
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00:55:08
Speaker
Please tell your friends about our podcast so that more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to write our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon. Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.