00:00:00
Hey, weirdos. I'm Alaina.
00:00:02
>> I'm Ash.
00:00:03
>> And this is Morbid.
00:00:17
>> Morbidobidou.
00:00:19
>> It certainly is.
00:00:21
>> Period.
00:00:23
I channeled Caleb on that one.
00:00:25
>> I felt it.
00:00:25
>> Yeah, I miss Caleb.
00:00:26
>> I do, too. I need Caleb to come here.
00:00:28
>> Caleb.
00:00:29
>> We miss the Caleb. We do. Um and also,
00:00:32
this is a case um that
00:00:35
peop- I wonder if it's like people of a
00:00:37
certain age are going to see this case
00:00:38
and be like, oh, I remember that.
00:00:40
>> Mhm.
00:00:40
>> And then people of a lesser age are
00:00:43
going to say, what?
00:00:44
>> I know I
00:00:45
I know I've heard of this case and I
00:00:47
think we've discussed it like together
00:00:48
before, but never on the pod.
00:00:51
>> Never on the pod.
00:00:53
>> Never on the microphone, on the ones and
00:00:55
the twos.
00:00:56
>> It's pretty It's a crazy case.
00:00:58
>> Yeah, it's
00:01:00
Uh you know what? I'm just I'm just
00:01:01
going to let you tell it. I'm not even
00:01:02
going to ask things yet.
00:01:03
>> wild one. It's got a lot of scandal
00:01:06
involved in it.
00:01:07
>> Scandal?
00:01:08
>> A lot of very wealthy people.
00:01:10
>> Oh, you know I love a wealthy story.
00:01:12
>> of cover-up uh rumors happening here.
00:01:16
Lots of all that kind of stuff and a lot
00:01:18
of scandals and the and the murder
00:01:20
itself is absolutely horrific. I mean,
00:01:22
it's a horrific story. I mean, Martha's
00:01:25
young. She's like She was an amazing
00:01:29
gal.
00:01:30
>> Aw.
00:01:30
>> And this is a truly horrific story.
00:01:32
Um but before we get into the whole
00:01:34
thing,
00:01:35
>> Yes.
00:01:35
>> uh we just wanted to say something
00:01:37
really quick cuz I think some people
00:01:38
were having trouble with um playback of
00:01:40
a couple of episodes on Apple Podcasts.
00:01:43
They would It was doing like a buffer
00:01:44
thing where it would like start you over
00:01:46
>> Yeah.
00:01:46
>> randomly.
00:01:47
>> Like in the middle of the episode, I
00:01:49
think.
00:01:49
>> Yeah, it's not we we can't really fix
00:01:51
anything on our end cuz it's not like a
00:01:54
a broken thing in the episode. It's more
00:01:56
um you might need to update your app.
00:01:59
Cuz sometimes that can happen if you
00:02:00
don't update it, it just it's like the
00:02:02
iPhone. If you don't get the update, it
00:02:04
just starts [ __ ] itself. So, I think
00:02:06
the app does that as well.
00:02:07
>> Yeah.
00:02:08
>> Um so, give that a shot if you're having
00:02:09
problems with that.
00:02:11
>> And see if it fixes it.
00:02:12
>> I thought that I had all of my apps on
00:02:14
automatic update. Like I thought I did
00:02:15
that when I set my phone, and you might
00:02:17
think that, too.
00:02:18
Maybe you might not, cuz I didn't. Uh it
00:02:21
but see if it works. It I think that
00:02:23
might help. If it doesn't help, let us
00:02:24
know. Yeah. We'll go further.
00:02:27
You think that should be it? Um but
00:02:30
yeah, I think it if you want to come to
00:02:32
our live show in New York City, June
00:02:34
27th
00:02:35
>> City Music Hall.
00:02:37
>> some tickets left. Go grab them.
00:02:38
>> We're literally so excited. They're like
00:02:40
things are moving and shaking.
00:02:42
>> Yeah, we got some
00:02:43
some fun things.
00:02:44
>> Oh my gosh.
00:02:44
>> have a fun guest. It's just it's all
00:02:46
going to be fun.
00:02:47
>> just bought some some dressings. Ellen,
00:02:48
we figured oh, I can't even tell you.
00:02:50
>> Yeah, we can't even tell you.
00:02:52
>> There's one thing in particular, and
00:02:54
it's honestly like a pretty small thing
00:02:55
in the grand scheme of things, that I am
00:02:56
so [ __ ] excited for.
00:02:59
>> I know exactly what you're talking
00:03:00
about, and I, too, am excited for it.
00:03:02
>> Yeah.
00:03:02
>> So, yeah, go get your tickets while you
00:03:04
can.
00:03:05
Uh it's going to be a fun time.
00:03:07
>> Period.
00:03:08
>> So, I think that's all we have for
00:03:09
business. So, look at that. The minute
00:03:11
the minute mark is low this time.
00:03:14
>> Better get going.
00:03:14
>> Don't lie about it.
00:03:15
>> Listen listen Carl. Listen George.
00:03:18
>> Listen George Paul.
00:03:20
>> Yeah.
00:03:20
>> Listen Matthew.
00:03:21
>> I I
00:03:22
what uh
00:03:23
>> Hello.
00:03:25
Oh, that was an apple pod
00:03:26
That was an apple podcast. That was Ash
00:03:29
not updating. So,
00:03:30
let's just go for a second.
00:03:32
>> I was looking out the window and trying
00:03:34
to talk.
00:03:36
>> That's hard.
00:03:37
>> No, no, no. I was also itching my chest.
00:03:39
Oh, there was there was three things,
00:03:42
and I was trying to remember the name of
00:03:44
a book, too. So, There was a lot
00:03:46
happening, and of course, I had to
00:03:48
breathe as well. So, there was that.
00:03:50
>> Oh, man.
00:03:50
>> Yeah, that always trips up.
00:03:52
>> I know, it's crazy.
00:03:56
>> Oh, no. What I'm going to say isn't even
00:03:57
going to be funny. For some reason, when
00:03:59
I said George, I just thought about mice
00:04:00
and men. Bye.
00:04:02
>> I'm tapping out.
00:04:03
>> I'm going to do it to George.
00:04:05
>> Um
00:04:06
>> What just happened?
00:04:07
>> I'm not really sure.
00:04:08
>> I got to go.
00:04:09
All right, here we are. Let's talk about
00:04:12
So, for
00:04:14
I'm going to give you a quick
00:04:15
summary of what's going to happen here
00:04:17
so you know what you're getting into if
00:04:19
you like
00:04:20
>> a two-pod.
00:04:21
>> So,
00:04:22
um and if you and if you're someone
00:04:23
who's like, "Wha- and what is this?
00:04:24
Like, I've I've never heard of this."
00:04:26
You This will be your summary. If you're
00:04:27
someone who thinks you remember this
00:04:29
name and you're a little confused,
00:04:31
here's your confirmation. So, what's
00:04:33
interesting about this is Martha
00:04:35
Moxley's murder was the first murder
00:04:37
case that the detectives in the
00:04:38
Greenwich, Connecticut Police Department
00:04:40
had ever seen.
00:04:41
>> Oh, wow.
00:04:42
>> I say one of the first, I mean, you
00:04:44
could count on a hand in the history of
00:04:47
the department how many murder cases
00:04:49
there were.
00:04:49
>> That's insane.
00:04:50
>> Yeah.
00:04:51
But, because of that, I mean, it almost
00:04:54
immediately it drew a lot of criticism,
00:04:57
the investigation.
00:04:58
The public was kind of perceiving it as
00:05:00
sloppy police work. They said the public
00:05:02
was thinking there was a like a real
00:05:03
failure to make any progress in this
00:05:05
case. And further complicating the
00:05:07
matters was the fact that those that
00:05:09
were closest to the case, like the kids
00:05:11
who were with Martha Moxley the night
00:05:14
she was murdered, they came from some of
00:05:15
the wealthiest and most powerful
00:05:18
families in the nation.
00:05:20
>> Wow.
00:05:21
>> Yeah. Not just in Connecticut, in the
00:05:22
nation.
00:05:23
>> also Greenwich is like a very gorgeous
00:05:25
area.
00:05:25
>> it is. Uh in fact, for decades, the
00:05:28
power, the influence, all that kind of
00:05:31
stuff, like the shadiness that comes
00:05:32
along with all that, that we all see
00:05:34
come along with that, even now,
00:05:35
>> Yep.
00:05:36
>> it kind of stonewalled the investigators
00:05:38
at every turn. And for decades, this
00:05:40
prevented Martha Moxley's killer from
00:05:42
being held accountable.
00:05:43
>> That's so [ __ ] up. Cuz that's the
00:05:44
thing, it's like
00:05:46
in these cases where these rich families
00:05:48
don't want to be a part of it and they
00:05:49
want to keep things hush-hush and yada
00:05:51
yada. It's like, okay, but a woman lost
00:05:54
her life and like a young girl at that.
00:05:56
>> you can still love your child
00:05:59
and admit that they did something wrong.
00:06:01
>> Yeah, exactly. It's like, you know,
00:06:03
there's a
00:06:04
there's a
00:06:05
there's parents who go too far the other
00:06:07
way and say, well, I'm just not going to
00:06:09
cooperate because I'm not going to It's
00:06:11
like, okay, but
00:06:12
somebody else's child was killed. So,
00:06:14
like, you need to
00:06:15
>> You have to look at it like you can
00:06:16
still love your kid.
00:06:17
>> Right.
00:06:17
>> still think that sunshine glows out of
00:06:19
their ass.
00:06:20
>> Probably doesn't, but
00:06:21
>> to admit that they did something wrong
00:06:22
when they did something wrong and have
00:06:24
them face the consequences.
00:06:26
Now, Martha Moxley was born August 16th,
00:06:29
1960 in San Francisco, California.
00:06:32
Uh she was the second of two children
00:06:34
born to Dorothy and David Moxley.
00:06:36
>> Oh, cute.
00:06:37
>> Dorothy's such a cute name. Uh who was a
00:06:39
Dorothy was a teacher, David was an
00:06:41
accountant. Um she had a brother John
00:06:44
and in Piedmont, California for most of
00:06:48
her life, she was just kind of the
00:06:50
quintessential American kid.
00:06:52
>> Yeah.
00:06:53
>> Uh she was outgoing, she was athletic,
00:06:54
she was a good student. Like, she had it
00:06:56
all going for her. Dorothy said Martha
00:06:58
was always a very good child, very easy
00:07:00
to handle.
00:07:01
>> Aw.
00:07:02
>> Um although she never had any trouble
00:07:03
making friends, according to John,
00:07:05
Martha often kind of just liked spending
00:07:08
time with her family or sketching in her
00:07:10
notebook. She was like pretty low-key.
00:07:12
>> Yeah.
00:07:12
>> Uh but everyone liked her.
00:07:14
Uh her brother John said Martha was a
00:07:15
person who had everything in the world
00:07:17
going for her. She was friendly, she was
00:07:19
athletic, she was talented in the arts.
00:07:21
Everything seemed to come very easy to
00:07:23
Martha. She was very easy to get along
00:07:25
with, upbeat, friendly, the kind of kid
00:07:27
you'd like to be around.
00:07:28
>> Aw.
00:07:29
>> Like, that's
00:07:30
who
00:07:30
>> Well, most of us stand for, yeah.
00:07:32
>> Um although the Moxleys had never
00:07:34
struggled financially, they did pretty
00:07:36
well. They weren't exactly like what
00:07:38
would be considered like a wealthy
00:07:39
family at that time, especially by
00:07:41
Southern California
00:07:43
>> Yeah, Southern California.
00:07:44
>> you know.
00:07:45
But that all changed in the summer of
00:07:47
1974 when David Moxley accepted a very
00:07:50
high-profile job. Uh, it was a job as a
00:07:53
managing partner with a global
00:07:54
accounting firm.
00:07:56
But this required them to move 3,000
00:07:58
miles to the other side of the country.
00:07:59
>> Yes.
00:08:00
>> So, you know, David needed to be close
00:08:02
to the New York headquarters.
00:08:03
>> Mhm.
00:08:04
>> Like many who worked in New York's
00:08:05
finance industry at the time, they chose
00:08:08
not to settle in the city itself, but
00:08:10
instead to move to one of the suburbs
00:08:11
that they could like take a train in.
00:08:13
>> Yeah, makes sense.
00:08:13
>> They chose Greenwich, Connecticut. Now,
00:08:15
in his 1997 profile of the Moxley case
00:08:18
for the Hartford Courant, journalist Joe
00:08:21
Lang described Greenwich as, quote, "The
00:08:23
Connecticut suburb of choice for
00:08:25
Manhattan executives."
00:08:26
>> Mhm.
00:08:27
>> Most, if not all of them, lived in the
00:08:29
very exclusive waterfront neighborhood
00:08:31
of Belle Haven.
00:08:32
>> Mhm.
00:08:33
>> Well, all of Greenwich would definitely
00:08:35
be considered a wealthy suburb.
00:08:37
>> Even still.
00:08:37
>> Yeah. Belle Haven existed
00:08:40
basically as its own world. It was like
00:08:42
a a town apart.
00:08:43
>> That's crazy.
00:08:44
>> It was a gated community. It had its own
00:08:46
auxiliary police department, uh, private
00:08:49
roads, its own yacht club on the Long
00:08:52
Island Sound.
00:08:52
>> It's like the it's like Stepford.
00:08:54
>> It literally is.
00:08:55
>> Yeah.
00:08:55
>> It feels like Don't Worry, Darling. Like
00:08:57
it feels like that it's like it's own
00:08:59
thing.
00:09:00
>> Mhm.
00:09:00
>> Now, among those who called Belle Haven
00:09:02
home was the president of Schweppes USA.
00:09:06
The other ginger ale.
00:09:07
>> I was going to say.
00:09:09
That literally
00:09:11
I'm not going I'm not trying to come for
00:09:12
big ginger ale, but
00:09:15
>> I apologize to big ginger ale, but
00:09:19
the Schweppes ginger ale dry family has
00:09:22
always been
00:09:23
>> superior.
00:09:24
>> the ginger ale of choice.
00:09:26
>> If I Drew is a ginger ale al-
00:09:29
I was going to say ginger ale alcohol. A
00:09:31
ginger ale alcoholic. He's a ginger ale
00:09:33
alcoholic, yeah.
00:09:34
>> He actually hides ginger ale in our
00:09:36
house.
00:09:36
>> Good for him.
00:09:37
>> Cuz he doesn't want it all gone.
00:09:38
>> Good for him.
00:09:39
>> But if there if Schweppes enters our
00:09:41
household
00:09:42
>> Oh, [ __ ]
00:09:43
>> growing up my mom. Ma
00:09:46
>> Yep.
00:09:46
>> is a gingerale girl. And she would and
00:09:50
she and we were that family you got
00:09:52
sick, she would stir those bubbles out.
00:09:54
>> best.
00:09:55
>> you that flat ass gingerale and it would
00:09:57
soothe your worries.
00:09:58
>> To this day when I'm sick when I'm sick
00:10:00
I ask Drew to please stir the bubbles
00:10:02
out of my gingerale.
00:10:02
>> My kids have just recently discovered
00:10:06
the joys of a flat gingerale on an upset
00:10:09
stomach.
00:10:09
>> Nothing like it.
00:10:10
>> And I remember when I gave it to my
00:10:11
oldest for the first time I'm like
00:10:13
stirring the bubbles out and she was
00:10:14
like, "That's soda." Cuz they don't
00:10:16
drink soda.
00:10:16
>> And you're like, "Yeah."
00:10:17
>> And
00:10:18
I just haven't let them yet.
00:10:19
>> Yeah, no.
00:10:20
>> This is a this is an emergency, so
00:10:23
>> You we must give her some soda.
00:10:24
>> "That's soda." Like I get soda when I'm
00:10:27
sick and I was like, "Girl, you don't
00:10:29
even know." She took that first sip and
00:10:31
she it was like
00:10:33
I don't know if anybody's seen the Bluey
00:10:34
episode when she like takes the first
00:10:36
lick of ice cream after she's earned it.
00:10:40
>> Is that when she says, "This changes
00:10:41
everything."
00:10:42
>> she literally changes everything.
00:10:44
>> Yep.
00:10:44
>> Like she goes floating through like
00:10:45
clouds and [ __ ] That was what she did.
00:10:48
>> Oh.
00:10:48
>> So
00:10:49
>> So big gingerale.
00:10:50
>> We love Canada Dry here. This place for
00:10:53
Schweppes somewhere else. It's just not
00:10:54
here.
00:10:55
>> It's just It's in Connecticut. It's in
00:10:57
Connecticut.
00:10:58
>> Uh so yeah, the president of Schweppes
00:11:00
is out there.
00:11:00
>> President of big gingerale.
00:11:02
>> Also the president of the National Dairy
00:11:04
Corporation
00:11:05
>> Oh, which seems pretty big.
00:11:06
>> It does.
00:11:07
>> Cuz you know, dairy.
00:11:08
>> National Dairy Corporation, I didn't
00:11:10
even know that was a thing.
00:11:11
>> Also the CEO of Pepsi
00:11:14
Pepsico.
00:11:15
>> Are we going to get into this again?
00:11:16
>> We're a Coke
00:11:17
>> Are we going to get into this again?
00:11:19
[ __ ]
00:11:20
>> Not big soda.
00:11:21
>> Not big soda.
00:11:24
>> You know what though?
00:11:24
>> Not big Not big corporation.
00:11:26
>> We have to be honest here. You went
00:11:28
through a [ __ ] phase with your mans
00:11:31
where you guys were a strictly Pepsi
00:11:33
home.
00:11:34
>> And I remember being like, "Okay."
00:11:36
>> We had a moment.
00:11:37
>> You did. It was like a couple of years,
00:11:39
I would say. Like your first apartment,
00:11:41
Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi.
00:11:43
>> in your first apartment. No, you figured
00:11:45
it out, you know?
00:11:46
>> I guess so, that's true.
00:11:47
>> mistakes and then you move on. Mike,
00:11:49
he's looking at me like he is he's
00:11:51
>> Pepsi?
00:11:51
>> something absolutely horrifying about
00:11:53
me.
00:11:53
>> Yeah.
00:11:54
It was you move into your first
00:11:55
apartment.
00:11:56
>> We weren't even married yet.
00:11:58
We didn't figure it out. We figured it
00:11:59
out.
00:12:00
>> loved Pepsi.
00:12:01
>> Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:02
>> But then now well now you're like a Dr.
00:12:04
Pepper girly and and Coke.
00:12:06
>> a Coke family.
00:12:06
>> A cola.
00:12:07
>> Yeah.
00:12:07
>> Just to make that clear. We're a
00:12:09
Coca-Cola family. God damn. Get your
00:12:11
head out of the gutter.
00:12:12
>> family, okay?
00:12:13
>> We're not Pablo Escobar.
00:12:15
>> But we are Mr. Charisma, all right?
00:12:18
You don't need to say hello to my little
00:12:20
friend.
00:12:21
But
00:12:23
>> Yeah. We are reckless today.
00:12:25
>> We're We're Canada Dry. We're Coca-Cola.
00:12:28
>> And we're We're We like dairy.
00:12:30
>> A lot of us are lactose
00:12:31
>> I was going to say, here's the thing. We
00:12:33
We're big fans of big dairy, in fact,
00:12:35
but we're also into big lactaid.
00:12:42
Big enzyme.
00:12:44
>> Big enzyme.
00:12:45
>> We love big enzyme.
00:12:49
Oh lord.
00:12:50
Uh but there was also a lot of actors,
00:12:53
musicians, filmmakers that lived there.
00:12:55
It was crazy.
00:12:56
And that summer, the Moxleys settled
00:12:58
into what they considered a fixer-upper,
00:13:01
>> but I'm surprised they even existed
00:13:02
there.
00:13:03
>> Well, a fixer-upper by Greenwich
00:13:04
standards was a large, just stunning old
00:13:08
skin colonial house in Beverly.
00:13:10
>> a colonial.
00:13:11
>> Yeah. Now for any teenager, having to
00:13:13
give up their friends and their lives,
00:13:15
move completely, like just ask Max
00:13:16
Dennison
00:13:17
>> Yes.
00:13:18
>> Pocus.
00:13:19
>> It sucks.
00:13:20
>> That's a tough move.
00:13:21
>> It is.
00:13:21
>> be kind of like a a quasi traumatic
00:13:23
experience, I would say. That's a a of
00:13:25
change.
00:13:26
But Martha, she took it all in stride.
00:13:29
>> in it.
00:13:29
>> She Nothing bothered her. Like she was
00:13:31
just an easygoing gal.
00:13:33
>> I love that.
00:13:34
>> awesome.
00:13:36
That first year at Western Junior High,
00:13:37
she adjusted very quickly. She wasted no
00:13:40
time building a brand new social circle.
00:13:42
She was like, "Got it. I'll just make
00:13:43
new friends."
00:13:45
Um one teacher wrote on her report card
00:13:47
that year, "When Martha came in the
00:13:48
room, it was like the sun coming up in
00:13:50
the morning."
00:13:51
>> That's actually crazy because I was just
00:13:54
thinking to myself, you said her
00:13:55
birthday was August 16th.
00:13:56
>> Yes.
00:13:56
>> That makes her a Leo. So she's ruled by
00:13:58
the sun.
00:13:59
>> Oh.
00:14:00
>> Isn't that fancy?
00:14:01
>> That's interesting.
00:14:02
>> Yeah. I'm just making chairs.
00:14:03
>> imagine
00:14:05
we've all seen the "a pleasure to have
00:14:07
in class" on the report card.
00:14:09
>> said No teacher ever said to me, "You
00:14:11
are the sun."
00:14:12
>> to say that when she comes in the room,
00:14:15
it's like the sun coming up in the
00:14:17
morning, I would be like
00:14:19
I've done it.
00:14:20
>> Absolutely.
00:14:21
>> Like Dorothy should feel like I did it.
00:14:24
Like that. And Dorothy and David should
00:14:26
feel like
00:14:27
we've done it.
00:14:28
>> Absolutely.
00:14:29
>> a high compliment for a for a teacher to
00:14:31
feel that way about your child.
00:14:32
>> get better than that?
00:14:33
>> Yeah, that's that's big.
00:14:35
After just 9 months, Martha had
00:14:37
surrounded herself with a huge group of
00:14:39
friends. She was voted the most popular
00:14:41
girl in school.
00:14:42
>> Wow. Imagine that still being a thing.
00:14:44
>> Brand new. I know. Can you imagine?
00:14:46
>> Yeah. That's wild.
00:14:47
>> And uh one of her closest friends,
00:14:49
Christie Callan said Martha was just
00:14:51
incredibly fun.
00:14:52
>> Aw.
00:14:53
>> Now the summer
00:14:54
>> Right?
00:14:56
>> In the summer of 1974, she actually
00:14:59
started dating a boy named Peter Zaluca.
00:15:02
>> Ooh.
00:15:03
>> Um they had like
00:15:04
a pretty teenager-y relationship. In her
00:15:07
diary entries that were later
00:15:09
discovered, uh she kind of describes
00:15:11
their relationship as like a little
00:15:12
stormy.
00:15:13
>> Okay.
00:15:13
>> Nothing crazy Like there's nothing
00:15:15
damning or like wild in there.
00:15:17
>> 15.
00:15:17
>> She would just frequently talk about his
00:15:19
dark moods and that she was frustrated
00:15:21
with him. like, pretty typical stuff. He
00:15:24
was never looked at as a prime suspect
00:15:26
for what came later.
00:15:27
>> Mhm.
00:15:28
>> But, he obviously was spoken to. He had
00:15:30
an alibi, and he was cleared.
00:15:31
>> checked out. Okay.
00:15:33
>> Unfortunately, I believe he passed away
00:15:35
in 2011.
00:15:36
>> Oh, wow. Okay.
00:15:37
>> Yeah.
00:15:38
The summer after completing the eighth
00:15:39
grade, Martha spent much of her time at
00:15:42
the Belle Haven Club, swimming, playing
00:15:44
tennis, laying by the pool.
00:15:45
>> Ugh.
00:15:46
>> It sounds like
00:15:47
>> you can picture like a movie.
00:15:49
>> it.
00:15:49
>> Yeah.
00:15:50
>> Yeah. Um it was there that she met a new
00:15:52
set of friends, the people who lived in
00:15:54
Belle Haven and attended elite private
00:15:56
schools.
00:15:56
>> Ooh.
00:15:57
>> The ones that she wasn't going to school
00:15:58
with.
00:15:58
>> Among that group was Tommy and Michael
00:16:00
Skakel.
00:16:02
Um if you know this case, might sound
00:16:04
familiar. Uh they were two children of
00:16:06
Rushton Skakel, the wealthiest man in
00:16:08
Greenwich.
00:16:09
>> Imagine being known as the wealthiest
00:16:11
man in Greenwich.
00:16:12
>> Rushton, you have to be.
00:16:14
>> His name His first name is Rushton or
00:16:16
the
00:16:16
>> Rushton Skakel.
00:16:17
>> Rushton. I've never heard that name.
00:16:19
>> That's the father. So,
00:16:19
>> Who has such a Rushton?
00:16:21
>> Right? Rushton Skakel's fortune came
00:16:23
from Great Lakes Coal, a company founded
00:16:25
by his father that recycled waste
00:16:27
products from mining operations, but it
00:16:30
wasn't just the money that made Skakel
00:16:32
so influential influential. That's hard
00:16:34
to say. In addition to his wealth,
00:16:36
Skakel's sister, Ethel,
00:16:39
was married to Robert F. Kennedy.
00:16:42
>> Oh, [ __ ]
00:16:44
>> Ethel.
00:16:46
>> Oh.
00:16:47
>> So, he yeah. So, he had direct access
00:16:49
>> I know who we are.
00:16:50
>> Yeah. He had direct access to one of the
00:16:52
most famous families and infamous
00:16:55
families in America.
00:16:56
>> To this day.
00:16:57
>> If not the world, honestly.
00:16:59
>> Honestly, yeah.
00:17:00
>> Um and uh so, Dorothy Moxley later
00:17:03
recalled, "As soon as you moved into
00:17:05
Greenwich, they'd tell you that's where
00:17:06
the Skakels live, and that they were
00:17:08
related to the Kennedys."
00:17:09
>> Mhm.
00:17:10
>> Which obviously that's a big deal.
00:17:11
>> Yeah, of course.
00:17:12
>> Now, despite his economic success, the
00:17:14
Skakel family, like the Kennedys, had
00:17:17
more than their fair share of experience
00:17:19
with tragedy. In 1955, Rushton and
00:17:22
Ethel's parents were killed in a private
00:17:24
plane crash.
00:17:25
>> A few years later, their brother George
00:17:27
Jr. was also killed in a plane crash.
00:17:29
>> Jesus.
00:17:30
>> Not long after, his wife choked to death
00:17:33
during a dinner party.
00:17:34
>> Oh my god.
00:17:35
>> Isn't that horrific?
00:17:36
>> Yes.
00:17:37
>> In 1962, when he was 4 years old, Tommy
00:17:40
Skakel was thrown from a car during a
00:17:42
crash and suffered severe head injuries.
00:17:45
>> Wow.
00:17:45
>> And finally, in 1973, Rushton's wife Ann
00:17:48
died after a particularly agonizing
00:17:50
battle with cancer.
00:17:52
>> Oh.
00:17:53
>> Ann's death not only left Rushton a
00:17:55
widower a lot earlier than anyone would
00:17:57
expect, but it also made him the sole
00:17:59
provider for his seven children.
00:18:01
>> Holy [ __ ]
00:18:02
>> Six boys and one girl.
00:18:05
Now, the Skakel boys, yeah, the Skakel
00:18:07
boys had always had a bit of a
00:18:08
reputation for being an entitled and
00:18:10
often unruly bunch of kids, but for at
00:18:13
least a few of them, their behavior got
00:18:15
significantly worse when their mother
00:18:17
died.
00:18:18
>> I mean, that makes sense.
00:18:19
>> Yeah, trauma.
00:18:21
Michael, in particular, seemed to take
00:18:23
his mother's death harder than the
00:18:24
others and started acting out in very
00:18:26
obvious ways, while also apparently
00:18:28
developing a pretty significant drinking
00:18:30
problem.
00:18:31
>> Oh.
00:18:31
>> In the summer of 1974, before starting
00:18:34
high school, Martha began socializing
00:18:36
with a group of friends at the country
00:18:37
club that occasionally did include Tommy
00:18:40
and Michael Skakel.
00:18:41
>> Okay.
00:18:42
>> Although they weren't very close as
00:18:43
friends go, Martha wrote in a letter to
00:18:45
her friend that summer that Tommy,
00:18:47
quote, had hit on her and she wasn't
00:18:49
interested.
00:18:50
>> Oh, good for her.
00:18:51
>> Good for her.
00:18:51
>> And a year after Martha's death, her
00:18:54
mother Ann Skakel discovered her diary,
00:18:57
which is where they got a lot of
00:18:58
information about what was going on in
00:18:59
her life, and it included a few mentions
00:19:02
of the Skakel brothers.
00:19:04
>> Oh.
00:19:05
>> Now, in a passage from September 12th,
00:19:07
1975, which is
00:19:09
only about a month before she was
00:19:11
killed. Yeah.
00:19:12
Martha
00:19:14
talked about a random evening that she
00:19:16
had spent with Tommy and Michael Skakel.
00:19:19
Uh this is what she wrote. She wrote,
00:19:20
"Dear diary, today was nothing extra
00:19:22
special at school. Peter was being his
00:19:24
usual self. Me, Jackie, Michael, Tom,
00:19:27
Hope, Maureen, and Andre were driving in
00:19:29
Tom's car.
00:19:31
I drove a little and then I was
00:19:32
practically sitting on Tom's lap because
00:19:34
I was only steering and he kept putting
00:19:36
his hand on my knee. I drove some more
00:19:38
and Margie and I kept yelling out the
00:19:40
sunroof and then we went to Friendly's,
00:19:42
which immediately was like, uh.
00:19:44
And Michael treated me and got me a
00:19:46
double, but I only wanted a single, so I
00:19:48
threw the top scoop out the window.
00:19:51
Then I was driving again and Tom put his
00:19:53
arm around me. He kept doing stuff like
00:19:55
that. Jesus, if Peter ever found out I
00:19:58
would be dead.
00:19:59
>> Oh.
00:19:59
>> I think Jackie really likes Michael and
00:20:01
I think maybe he likes her. Maybe
00:20:03
because he was drunk, I don't know.
00:20:05
>> Okay.
00:20:06
>> So that was on September 12th. September
00:20:08
15th, she talked again about hanging out
00:20:12
with them and saying that he she doesn't
00:20:14
think that or that Michael told her he
00:20:16
doesn't like Jackie, but he leads her
00:20:18
on. But she thinks he leads her on, so
00:20:20
it's like very teenager like.
00:20:22
>> like summer of '75, I'm 15.
00:20:24
>> Yeah, and a few days later she journaled
00:20:27
and said, "Michael, meaning Michael
00:20:29
Skakel, uh was so totally out of it that
00:20:32
he was being a real [ __ ] in his
00:20:34
actions and words. He kept telling me
00:20:35
that I was leading Tom on when I don't
00:20:38
like him except as a friend.
00:20:39
>> Mhm.
00:20:40
>> I said, 'Well, how about you and Jackie?
00:20:41
You keep telling me you don't like her
00:20:43
and you're all over
00:20:44
He doesn't understand that he can be
00:20:46
nice to her without hanging all over
00:20:47
her.
00:20:48
Michael jumps to conclusions. I can't be
00:20:50
friends with Tom just because I talked
00:20:52
to him. It doesn't mean I like him. I
00:20:54
really have to stop going over there.
00:20:57
>> Oh my god.
00:20:59
>> That's just like currently very
00:21:00
chilling.
00:21:02
>> Yeah.
00:21:03
>> It's cuz it's just at the very least
00:21:05
here what we're seeing is like she was
00:21:07
just annoyed.
00:21:08
>> Yeah.
00:21:08
>> By Michael kind of like telling her like
00:21:10
accusing her of leading Tommy on and
00:21:13
Tommy being a little too like
00:21:15
>> She wasn't having a good time
00:21:16
>> presumptuous. Yeah, she wasn't having a
00:21:17
good time with that boy.
00:21:18
>> like she wanted to move on from it.
00:21:20
>> Yeah.
00:21:21
>> Oh, wow.
00:21:22
>> I know.
00:21:23
Now, although she had always been a
00:21:25
really good girl, a really easy kid, and
00:21:27
generally got along very well with her
00:21:29
parents, Martha wasn't you know
00:21:31
she wasn't a robot.
00:21:32
>> Yeah.
00:21:33
>> She was a girl.
00:21:33
>> She's a teenage girl.
00:21:34
>> teenage girl in a very wealthy suburb
00:21:37
with a lot of stuff
00:21:38
>> at her disposal.
00:21:40
>> Her brother John said she had a wilder
00:21:42
side as well, occasionally missing her
00:21:44
curfew, drinking a beer, smoking.
00:21:47
In mid-October it was that wilder side
00:21:50
of her personality that had landed her
00:21:52
in a little trouble with her parents,
00:21:53
who grounded her for some teenage
00:21:55
infraction, nothing crazy.
00:21:57
>> Okay.
00:21:57
>> Nobody even remembers what the
00:21:58
infraction was. It was that
00:22:00
>> So obviously it was not little.
00:22:01
>> But when Martha's country club friends
00:22:04
came calling on the for her on the night
00:22:06
of October 30th, which is a lot of times
00:22:09
dubbed Mischief Night.
00:22:10
>> Mhm.
00:22:11
>> Dorothy Moxley took pity on her daughter
00:22:13
and allowed her to go out with her
00:22:14
friends for a little while as long as
00:22:17
she was back at a reasonable hour.
00:22:18
>> Okay.
00:22:19
>> I think because Martha was such a good
00:22:20
kid
00:22:22
>> She's like she probably was like you
00:22:23
learned your lesson.
00:22:23
>> Yeah. Like I'm not too worried about you
00:22:25
doing a lot more.
00:22:26
After leaving the Moxley house that
00:22:28
night, Martha and her friend Helen um X
00:22:31
Fitz-Patrick met up with two other
00:22:33
friends, Jackie Wint Hall and Jeffrey
00:22:35
Byrne. And the two walked over to the
00:22:37
Skakel house.
00:22:39
When they were there, they all just kind
00:22:40
of piled into Tommy's maroon Lincoln,
00:22:42
which the Skakel boys referred to as the
00:22:45
Lust Mobile.
00:22:46
>> Ew. Like what the ew. I don't like it.
00:22:49
>> And they sat parked in the driveway.
00:22:51
Within a few minutes, Tommy, who had
00:22:53
been drinking that night, started
00:22:55
rubbing Martha's leg without her
00:22:57
permission, to which she responded by
00:23:00
pushing his hand away repeatedly. cuz
00:23:02
she was not about that.
00:23:03
>> of times, whoa, boom.
00:23:04
>> Yeah.
00:23:05
Now, a little before 9:30 p.m., Tommy
00:23:07
and Michael's brothers, Rush Jr. and
00:23:09
John, came out of the house with their
00:23:11
cousin, Jimmy Terrien.
00:23:14
And they announced that they were going
00:23:15
to Jimmy's house, the cousin, for the
00:23:17
rest of the night.
00:23:17
>> Okay.
00:23:18
>> So, Michael was kind of feeling like the
00:23:20
Michael Skakel was feeling like the
00:23:22
fifth wheel, so he got out of the car
00:23:23
and decided to go along with them
00:23:25
instead of staying with Martha and her
00:23:26
friends. So, now it's just Is it just
00:23:28
Martha and Helen and Tommy?
00:23:31
And then Jeff?
00:23:32
>> I think so, yeah.
00:23:33
>> Okay.
00:23:34
>> And Jackie.
00:23:35
>> And Jackie.
00:23:36
>> Yeah, okay.
00:23:36
>> Okay. So, later, when they gave their
00:23:38
statements to police, Jeff and Helen
00:23:40
said they remembered seeing Martha and
00:23:42
Tommy play fighting in the Skakels'
00:23:44
driveway not long after the other group
00:23:46
had left.
00:23:47
>> Okay.
00:23:47
>> The report says Martha was pushing
00:23:49
Thomas and Thomas pushing Martha.
00:23:52
>> Was that playful?
00:23:53
>> At one point, Thomas pushed Martha down
00:23:55
and he either fell or got down on her.
00:23:59
I'm here to tell you that that doesn't
00:24:00
sound like play fighting, that sounds
00:24:02
like he was trying to attack her.
00:24:03
>> Yeah.
00:24:04
>> That's just what it sounds like in that
00:24:06
report.
00:24:06
>> Yep.
00:24:07
>> Eventually, when Tommy and Martha began
00:24:09
kissing,
00:24:11
Jeff and Helen decided to leave to give
00:24:13
them some alone time, and it was the
00:24:15
last time they would see Martha alive.
00:24:16
>> But let's all remember that Martha
00:24:18
wasn't interested in Tommy.
00:24:19
>> Yeah.
00:24:20
So, later that night, when Martha still
00:24:22
hadn't come home, Dorothy Martha Moxley
00:24:24
began calling around to her friends to
00:24:26
find out where Martha was.
00:24:28
From Helen, she learned that Martha was
00:24:29
last seen around 9:30 with Tommy Skakel.
00:24:32
>> Mhm.
00:24:33
>> So, Dorothy called the Skakel house and
00:24:34
spoke to Tommy.
00:24:36
According to Tommy, not long after Jeff
00:24:37
and Helen walked off, he went inside the
00:24:39
house and he went up to his bedroom. The
00:24:41
last time he'd seen Martha, she was
00:24:42
walking across the lawn in the direction
00:24:44
of her own house.
00:24:45
>> Now, completely by herself.
00:24:47
>> Yeah. So, Dorothy was concerned, but
00:24:49
Martha hadn't given a specific time that
00:24:50
she was going to come home, so she tried
00:24:52
not to panic.
00:24:54
Dorothy later said Martha was a very
00:24:55
sharp girl. She wasn't stupid about
00:24:57
things.
00:24:57
>> Mhm.
00:24:58
>> But when several more hours went by and
00:25:00
Martha still hadn't returned home by
00:25:02
4:00 a.m.
00:25:03
>> Oh, man.
00:25:03
>> Dorothy finally called the police to
00:25:05
report her missing.
00:25:06
>> Yeah.
00:25:06
>> An officer was dispatched to the Moxley
00:25:08
house and they ran through the usual
00:25:10
questions, so you know, about a missing
00:25:12
teen, especially in the '70s, remember?
00:25:15
>> Had there been an argument? Did Martha
00:25:16
usually stay out this late? Had she run
00:25:18
away before? Had Martha been a younger
00:25:20
child, the police would very likely have
00:25:22
fanned out to search the neighborhood,
00:25:24
but at the time, the common belief among
00:25:26
law enforcement was that when a teenager
00:25:28
disappeared for a short time, they were
00:25:29
probably just blowing off steam and or
00:25:31
had run away and they would eventually
00:25:32
come home.
00:25:33
>> Yeah.
00:25:34
>> Uh we've seen that that is not true most
00:25:36
of the time and you end up wasting a lot
00:25:37
of valuable time.
00:25:39
>> Yeah.
00:25:39
>> So after taking a quick look around the
00:25:40
outside of the house and finding
00:25:42
nothing, cuz what the [ __ ] would they
00:25:43
find on a quick cursory search of the
00:25:45
house
00:25:46
>> when she hasn't returned to the house?
00:25:48
>> The officer logged the report and told
00:25:50
Dorothy to call back if Martha still
00:25:52
hadn't returned home in a few more
00:25:53
hours. Then he returned to the station.
00:25:55
Okay.
00:25:56
Now feeling helpless at this point, cuz
00:25:58
what does she do now?
00:25:59
>> Right.
00:26:00
>> Dorothy called her husband, who was in
00:26:02
in Atlanta on business, and asked him to
00:26:04
come home.
00:26:04
>> Okay.
00:26:05
>> Then when the sun came up, she decided
00:26:07
to go over to the Skakel's house where
00:26:08
Martha was last seen.
00:26:10
>> Good for her.
00:26:11
>> When Dorothy knocked on the door,
00:26:12
Michael Skakel answered and Dorothy
00:26:14
remembered that he was, quote unquote,
00:26:15
disheveled and looked like a mess.
00:26:18
>> Mhm.
00:26:18
>> As though he hadn't got much sleep.
00:26:21
Now Michael explained that he hadn't
00:26:22
seen Martha since he left with his
00:26:24
brothers to go to his cousin's house the
00:26:25
night before and he'd gone straight to
00:26:27
bed when he got home a little before
00:26:29
midnight.
00:26:30
>> Okay.
00:26:31
>> It's like, you look real tired.
00:26:32
>> Yeah.
00:26:33
>> Several more hours passed with no word.
00:26:35
Then a little after 12:30 p.m., one of
00:26:38
the Moxley's neighbors, a girl on her
00:26:39
way to school, made a terrifying
00:26:41
discovery.
00:26:42
>> Oh, god.
00:26:43
>> Lying on the ground beneath a clump of
00:26:45
pine trees
00:26:46
about 200 ft from the Moxley's front
00:26:50
door
00:26:50
>> Stop.
00:26:51
>> was Martha's body.
00:26:53
She was lying on her stomach in a pool
00:26:55
of blood.
00:26:56
Her pants and underwear were pulled down
00:26:58
around her ankles.
00:27:00
She had been severely beaten in the head
00:27:02
and face.
00:27:04
A former detective Steve Carroll said
00:27:05
her face her head was a bloody mess. She
00:27:08
was a blonde, but you could never tell
00:27:09
because her hair was matted down with
00:27:11
blood, very thick and heavy.
00:27:13
>> Oh my god.
00:27:14
>> Martha was lying in a large pool of
00:27:16
blood and near the body investigators
00:27:18
found a Tony Penna six iron golf club
00:27:22
broken into three pieces.
00:27:24
>> Holy [ __ ] an iron golf club?
00:27:26
>> Yeah.
00:27:28
Based on the limited evidence at the
00:27:29
scene, Carroll and the other
00:27:31
investigators theorized that Martha was
00:27:33
first attacked near the Skakel's
00:27:34
driveway. Then after she'd broken free,
00:27:38
the killer chased her through the
00:27:39
backyard and caught up with her not far
00:27:43
from her own home.
00:27:44
>> Oh.
00:27:45
>> Once Martha was on the ground, the
00:27:47
assailant struck her in the head and
00:27:48
face with the six iron as many as eight
00:27:51
or nine times.
00:27:53
According to the coroner's report, this
00:27:55
is very graphic, just to warn you.
00:27:58
The beating was so savage that it tore
00:28:00
pieces of Martha's scalp from her skull,
00:28:03
leaving it dangling over her face.
00:28:05
>> Oh my god.
00:28:06
>> After the eighth or ninth blow to the
00:28:08
head, the shaft of the golf club broke
00:28:10
into multiple pieces, at which point the
00:28:12
killer took up the broken pieces with
00:28:15
the handle
00:28:17
and rammed the jagged end of the club
00:28:19
into Martha's throat.
00:28:21
>> Oh my god.
00:28:24
And she's like 200 ft from her house.
00:28:27
>> Her mom is in the house
00:28:30
and this is happening to her daughter
00:28:32
200 ft away from her house.
00:28:35
>> Oh my god.
00:28:37
>> I
00:28:38
when I read that,
00:28:40
that'll stay with me. I didn't even know
00:28:43
that detail of this or I didn't remember
00:28:45
it at the very least.
00:28:47
I That's unthinkable.
00:28:48
>> Mhm.
00:28:49
>> That is completely
00:28:51
>> And to think that she was running away
00:28:53
from somebody and was so close to home.
00:28:55
It was a matter of feet.
00:28:57
>> Yeah.
00:28:58
I just It like honestly it makes my like
00:29:01
it turns my stomach. It really turns my
00:29:03
stomach. Like oh.
00:29:05
>> That's wild.
00:29:06
>> Now, although the medical examiner found
00:29:08
no concrete evidence of sexual assault,
00:29:10
he did note a quote reddish mark on both
00:29:13
her inner thighs, which he stated were
00:29:15
consistent with bloody hands trying to
00:29:17
push the victim's legs apart.
00:29:19
>> Oh, awful.
00:29:20
>> Now, for investigators at the scene and
00:29:22
those who would later be assigned to the
00:29:24
case, Martha Moxley was the first murder
00:29:27
case any of them had ever seen and it is
00:29:30
one of the most brutal things
00:29:32
>> to ever come across.
00:29:33
>> one of the most brutal murders you can
00:29:34
think of and this is their first murder
00:29:36
case.
00:29:37
>> That's unthinkable.
00:29:38
>> In the history of the Greenwich Police
00:29:39
Department, the number of homicide cases
00:29:41
on record could be counted on one hand.
00:29:44
>> Wow.
00:29:45
>> They were not experienced in the
00:29:47
investigation of homicide, let alone one
00:29:49
so brutal and someone so young.
00:29:52
>> Yeah.
00:29:53
>> Which would prove seriously
00:29:55
consequential for their investigation.
00:29:58
>> And but Steve Carroll and his associates
00:30:01
took up the case determined to find out
00:30:03
who did this.
00:30:04
That afternoon, Chief Thomas Keegan
00:30:06
assigned to the case to detectives Steve
00:30:08
Carroll and James Lunney, who would act
00:30:11
as co-lead investigators. At 3:00 p.m.,
00:30:14
James Lunney and his partner went to the
00:30:16
Skakel house to interview the kids while
00:30:18
Carroll and his partner began
00:30:19
interviewing the Moxleys' neighbors.
00:30:22
At the time, Rushton Skakel was away on
00:30:24
business and the kids' tutor, Ken
00:30:26
Littleton, was left in charge.
00:30:28
According to 18-year-old Julie Skakel,
00:30:31
she and several of her brothers had
00:30:32
dinner at the Belle Haven Beach Club the
00:30:34
previous evening and returned home
00:30:37
around 9:00 p.m.
00:30:38
And at that point, Tommy and Michael met
00:30:40
up with Martha and her friends in the
00:30:41
driveway of the house while the rest of
00:30:43
the kids went inside.
00:30:45
Michael confirmed his sister's story and
00:30:47
added that after hanging out with Martha
00:30:48
and her friends for a short time, he got
00:30:50
bored and went with his brothers to
00:30:52
their cousin's house and didn't come
00:30:53
home until after 11:00 p.m.
00:30:55
>> Okay.
00:30:56
>> Later that afternoon, Tommy was asked to
00:30:58
come down to the station for an
00:30:59
interview.
00:31:00
>> I bet.
00:31:01
>> At which time he repeated the story he
00:31:03
told Dorothy Moxley, but with some added
00:31:05
information now.
00:31:06
>> Mhm.
00:31:07
>> Tommy claimed he and Martha had been
00:31:08
kissing and wrestling on the Skakel's
00:31:10
front lawn, which was corroborated by
00:31:13
Jeff and Helen that they at least saw
00:31:14
play fighting is what they thought it
00:31:16
was. Then he went inside around 9:30
00:31:19
p.m. to work on a homework project which
00:31:21
is about Abraham Lincoln. The last time
00:31:23
he'd seen Martha, she was walking in the
00:31:25
direction of her house. After the
00:31:27
interview, Lonnie checked with Tommy's
00:31:29
teachers and they all denied assigning a
00:31:31
homework project about Abraham Lincoln.
00:31:33
>> Interesting.
00:31:34
>> Which is a wildly stupid lie to make up
00:31:37
cuz it is so easily disproven.
00:31:39
>> Exactly.
00:31:40
>> Now, elsewhere in the neighborhood,
00:31:42
Carol and his partner were canvassing
00:31:44
the area looking for anyone who might
00:31:45
have seen or heard anything out of the
00:31:47
ordinary the night before.
00:31:49
Although no one saw anything, many of
00:31:51
the neighbors closest to the Moxley
00:31:52
house recalled hearing the sound of
00:31:54
several dogs barking wildly around 10:00
00:31:56
p.m.
00:31:57
>> Oh.
00:31:58
>> Dorothy Moxley, too, remembered hearing
00:32:00
the noise and thought someone must have
00:32:02
been having an argument.
00:32:03
>> Oh, okay.
00:32:04
>> Otherwise, the most anyone seemed able
00:32:06
to offer investigators was just like
00:32:08
suspicion and speculation. Some in Belle
00:32:10
Haven told the detectives about a like a
00:32:13
transient man they described him as that
00:32:15
they'd seen hitchhiking in the area the
00:32:17
day that Martha was killed and thought
00:32:19
surely
00:32:20
this man had something to do with the
00:32:22
murder. Could not be one of our own.
00:32:24
>> No, never.
00:32:25
>> It quickly became apparent to
00:32:26
investigators that Tommy Skakel was the
00:32:28
last person to see Martha alive that
00:32:30
night. They also determined based on the
00:32:32
reports of the barking dogs that the
00:32:34
time of the death was most likely
00:32:36
somewhere around 10:00 p.m. Okay. Since
00:32:38
Michael Skakel had been at his cousin's
00:32:40
house when they believed the murder took
00:32:41
place, he was ruled out as Martha's
00:32:43
killer, leaving Tommy as the most likely
00:32:45
suspect.
00:32:46
>> Mhm.
00:32:47
>> Based on what they learned, Carol and
00:32:48
Lenny theorized that Tommy had wanted to
00:32:50
go further than kissing Martha, and when
00:32:53
Martha rejected him and began walking
00:32:54
home, he chased her down and attacked
00:32:56
her.
00:32:57
>> Mhm.
00:32:57
>> That was the theory.
00:32:58
>> Makes sense.
00:32:59
>> The next day, detectives spoke to
00:33:00
Rushton Skakel and explained that they
00:33:02
needed to search the area more
00:33:03
thoroughly, but they didn't mention that
00:33:05
they suspected Tommy.
00:33:07
>> Okay.
00:33:07
>> Like everyone else in the neighborhood,
00:33:09
Skakel wanted to help find Martha's
00:33:10
killer, so he gave his permission for
00:33:12
investigators to search his house and
00:33:14
continue speaking with his children. He
00:33:16
was like, "Absolutely."
00:33:17
>> Okay.
00:33:17
>> Operating on the assumption that
00:33:19
Skakel's verbal permission was good
00:33:20
enough,
00:33:22
>> Mhm.
00:33:22
>> Carol and Lenny never bothered to get a
00:33:24
search warrant.
00:33:25
>> That wasn't smart.
00:33:28
>> I will never get over this fact.
00:33:29
>> That wasn't smart.
00:33:31
>> You just said, "Sounds good to me."
00:33:33
>> Yeah. Verbal agreement isn't
00:33:35
>> is admissible.
00:33:36
>> Nope.
00:33:38
>> You learned that. Wait, before you got
00:33:40
that shiny badge
00:33:42
that you show people,
00:33:44
>> That's such a basic.
00:33:45
>> that. That's such a basic. That's basic
00:33:47
[ __ ]
00:33:47
>> been day two after orientation.
00:33:49
>> Yeah.
00:33:50
>> Oh, man.
00:33:52
>> secured Rushton Skakel's permission,
00:33:54
detectives returned to the Skakel's
00:33:55
house to follow up with Tommy while
00:33:57
additional officers searched the house.
00:34:00
When he was confronted with the lie
00:34:01
about the homework project, Tommy stuck
00:34:03
to his story, insisting that he had gone
00:34:05
up to his bedroom to work on the
00:34:06
project, which the detectives now knew
00:34:08
didn't exist.
00:34:09
>> like, "Okay, show me the project. Where
00:34:11
is it?"
00:34:11
>> Lincoln thing. Meanwhile, officers
00:34:13
searching the house found a set of Tony
00:34:15
Penna golf clubs in the mudroom
00:34:17
with several clubs missing.
00:34:19
>> Mhm.
00:34:20
>> They eventually located most of the
00:34:22
other clubs on the back deck, but
00:34:24
the six iron was nowhere to be found.
00:34:26
>> You got to be [ __ ] kidding me. And
00:34:28
the fact that they found that and it's
00:34:29
not admissible.
00:34:30
>> Yeah.
00:34:31
For reasons that remain unclear,
00:34:34
it appears that the detectives didn't
00:34:35
bother to push back on Tommy Skakel's
00:34:37
claims that he was working on a project
00:34:39
that had literally never been assigned.
00:34:42
Nor did they take the clubs
00:34:45
or anything else into evidence.
00:34:49
>> Interesting.
00:34:51
>> Just
00:34:52
let that let that settle.
00:34:54
They literally found out that he was
00:34:57
lying.
00:34:59
>> They have about his alibi.
00:35:01
>> to back it up, to say he doesn't have
00:35:03
that project.
00:35:04
>> Yep.
00:35:05
>> They didn't say, "Hey, can you show me
00:35:06
the project?"
00:35:07
>> Yep.
00:35:08
>> They found the golf clubs.
00:35:10
>> Missing one that happened to be used in
00:35:12
the murder weapon.
00:35:13
>> Missing the only one that's used as a
00:35:15
murder weapon, and they took
00:35:18
nothing. What did they do?
00:35:21
Talk to a Skakel.
00:35:23
That's it.
00:35:24
>> Oh my god, dude.
00:35:26
>> Now,
00:35:27
in retrospect,
00:35:29
>> Yeah. That's one of the most critical
00:35:30
mistakes.
00:35:31
>> in this investigation were definitely
00:35:33
made in these early days, which is the
00:35:34
worst time to make them.
00:35:35
>> It sure is.
00:35:36
>> While most could be chalked up to
00:35:38
just inexperienced and
00:35:41
doofusy detectives, many believe that
00:35:43
the real underlying problem was the
00:35:45
investigators' unwillingness
00:35:48
to aggressively pursue Tommy Skakel
00:35:50
because of his father's wealth and
00:35:52
power.
00:35:52
>> Mhm.
00:35:53
>> And to me,
00:35:54
that fits the bill.
00:35:55
>> I think so.
00:35:56
>> Because I'm like, which one do you want
00:35:58
to be?
00:35:59
Do you want to be a a a a a shady [ __ ]
00:36:01
who doesn't want to question a wealthy,
00:36:03
powerful family?
00:36:05
Or do you want to be a dumb detective
00:36:07
who didn't do the most basic [ __ ] in the
00:36:09
world?
00:36:09
>> Oh, man.
00:36:10
>> Pick one, I guess.
00:36:12
Pick your poison.
00:36:13
>> to say they're both pretty shitty.
00:36:15
>> They're both pretty bad. They both don't
00:36:17
paint you in a good light.
00:36:18
>> know all the details of this.
00:36:20
>> Yeah, Steve Carroll said in a 2003
00:36:22
interview, "I think it was a case of
00:36:24
circumstances. Did we tread lightly?
00:36:26
Probably. Out of respect or fear? I
00:36:29
don't know. But we thought really that
00:36:30
we were doing a good job.
00:36:32
>> A young girl was murdered and you
00:36:34
decided to tread lightly?
00:36:36
>> I don't know if you want to go with
00:36:37
that.
00:36:37
>> Probably not.
00:36:37
>> And I don't know if you want to say we
00:36:38
thought we were doing a good job. Did
00:36:40
you? So we're going
00:36:41
>> By not collecting evidence?
00:36:43
>> one.
00:36:43
>> Wow.
00:36:45
>> Yeah, I don't know. In fact, everything
00:36:47
seemed to be pointing towards Tommy
00:36:48
Skakel, but Carol and Lenny seemed
00:36:51
completely unwilling to follow the very
00:36:53
obvious evidence that was like
00:36:55
breadcrumbing right to him.
00:36:57
So the next day, Detective Thomas Keegan
00:36:59
gave a statement to the press, though it
00:37:01
didn't do a whole lot to answer any
00:37:02
questions or like help anyone with their
00:37:05
fears.
00:37:06
He told reporters, "We have reason to
00:37:08
believe she was assaulted on the
00:37:09
property and dragged to the tree."
00:37:12
Yep, thanks.
00:37:13
Unfortunately, when it came to any
00:37:15
theories or potential suspects, Keegan
00:37:17
was tight-lipped, saying only, "We don't
00:37:19
have a heck of a lot going to go on."
00:37:21
You actually have You have almost
00:37:23
everything you need.
00:37:24
>> smoking gun.
00:37:26
>> Now a few days later, Deputy Police
00:37:27
Chief Raymond Grant followed up on
00:37:29
Keegan's vague statement, telling
00:37:31
reporters, "It's not that we don't have
00:37:33
leads, but I don't know when we'll break
00:37:35
the case. If I did, I'd tell you."
00:37:39
The most non The most non-sentence
00:37:41
sentence ever. It just includes
00:37:43
absolutely no information.
00:37:45
>> Wow.
00:37:46
>> So the silence and very poor
00:37:47
communication from investigators would
00:37:49
prove to be another problem for local
00:37:51
police. Not only did it do nothing to
00:37:53
make locals feel any safer, but it also
00:37:56
suggested investigators weren't making
00:37:58
any progress on the case.
00:38:00
And if it felt to the public that
00:38:01
detectives weren't making any progress,
00:38:03
that's probably because they weren't.
00:38:05
>> Probably.
00:38:07
>> Now within a few days of the murder, the
00:38:08
investigation began to run into several
00:38:11
roadblocks, many having to do with the
00:38:13
social status of the primary suspect.
00:38:16
>> I think so.
00:38:17
>> One of Tommy's teachers refused to go on
00:38:19
the record refuting the claim about the
00:38:21
homework assignment and became generally
00:38:24
uncooperative.
00:38:26
From that point forward, it seemed as
00:38:28
though every lead Carolyn and Lonnie had
00:38:30
managed to come up with started falling
00:38:32
apart.
00:38:33
Within a few weeks, when it became clear
00:38:35
detectives were focusing on his son,
00:38:37
Rushton Skakel rescinded his permission
00:38:39
to speak to his children and routed
00:38:41
everything through the family's lawyer.
00:38:43
>> I'm sure.
00:38:44
>> By then, Tommy had taken two polygraph
00:38:46
tests with the first showing
00:38:47
inconclusive results and the second
00:38:49
showing no deception.
00:38:51
>> Interesting.
00:38:51
>> Which is very interesting.
00:38:52
>> I mean, he had a practice run.
00:38:55
>> Within a few months, investigators found
00:38:56
themselves in a very difficult position.
00:38:59
They no longer had access to their
00:39:00
suspect and no one seemed willing to
00:39:02
speak out against the Skakels. But at
00:39:05
the same time, the public pressure to
00:39:06
find Martha's killer had only grown
00:39:08
louder and more demanding.
00:39:11
In late March, Connecticut State
00:39:12
Attorney Thomas Brown responded to the
00:39:14
growing criticism by publicly accusing
00:39:16
the Skakels of stonewalling detectives
00:39:19
and impeding the investigation.
00:39:21
>> Wow. Brief.
00:39:21
>> According to Brown, the local police
00:39:23
were, quote, "apparently being
00:39:24
frustrated by the refusal of a
00:39:26
particular family, which could supply
00:39:28
pertinent information to assist or
00:39:30
cooperate in the police investigation."
00:39:33
Although Brown didn't call out the
00:39:34
Skakels by name, Tommy Skakel had been
00:39:37
associated with the case in the press
00:39:39
from day one. So, there was little doubt
00:39:42
who he was referring to.
00:39:43
>> Mhm.
00:39:44
>> Also, Brown made it clear in no
00:39:46
uncertain terms that the Greenwich
00:39:47
police were equipped to investigate the
00:39:49
case. He said, "I'm personally satisfied
00:39:51
with the manner in which the police
00:39:53
investigation has progressed over the
00:39:54
months, despite the unfortunate refusal
00:39:57
of cooperation by the particular family,
00:39:59
which has clearly impeded the
00:40:00
investigation."
00:40:02
Now, under the gun to solve the case
00:40:03
with or without the Skakels' help at
00:40:05
this point, investigators or detectives
00:40:07
began casting a much wider net and
00:40:10
started looking at anyone who could have
00:40:12
any reason or want to harm Martha, which
00:40:15
I said, "Why?"
00:40:16
>> You're wasting your [ __ ] time." Like
00:40:18
you have everything.
00:40:20
>> Including her parents and her brother,
00:40:22
too.
00:40:22
>> You got to be [ __ ] kidding me. Are
00:40:24
they missing golf clubs?
00:40:25
>> on. In the end, the larger suspect pool
00:40:28
did nothing to help the investigation
00:40:30
and actually probably did a lot more
00:40:32
harm than it did anything else.
00:40:34
Now, at first, detectives focused their
00:40:37
attention on the Skakel children's
00:40:38
tutor,
00:40:40
uh Ken Littleton, who failed his
00:40:42
polygraph exam.
00:40:43
>> Yeah, because he probably had something
00:40:45
that he was hiding.
00:40:46
>> But when he passed his second polygraph,
00:40:48
I love how they're like, "Let's just do
00:40:50
it until you pass."
00:40:51
>> Like what?
00:40:52
>> They determined he knew more than he was
00:40:54
saying, but he wasn't Martha's killer.
00:40:56
>> Yeah.
00:40:56
>> Which seems likely.
00:40:57
>> Yeah.
00:40:58
>> After moving on from Littleton,
00:40:59
investigators shifted their attention to
00:41:01
one of the Moxleys' neighbors, Edward
00:41:03
Hammond.
00:41:04
According to journalist Leonard Levitt,
00:41:06
it was never clear, {quote} what had
00:41:08
piqued their interest in Hammond,
00:41:10
although the police file did state he
00:41:12
had blood on his clothing from a
00:41:14
household accident.
00:41:15
>> Okay.
00:41:16
>> Regardless of what got them to spend so
00:41:18
much time on Hammond, he was like very
00:41:21
cooperative with detectives and provided
00:41:23
extensive biological samples to rule
00:41:27
himself out.
00:41:27
>> Yeah, so anybody who's willing to do
00:41:29
that, it's not them.
00:41:30
>> He cooperated completely. Now, with
00:41:32
Tommy Skakel being beyond their reach
00:41:35
and every other suspect ruled out
00:41:36
because they weren't even real suspects
00:41:37
to begin with, I feel like,
00:41:39
investigators went back to the earliest
00:41:41
case notes, particularly the neighbor's
00:41:43
note about the mysterious and suspicious
00:41:45
hitchhiker seen in town.
00:41:47
>> Okay.
00:41:47
>> Because you got to That That seems like
00:41:49
at least a lead that you
00:41:51
I mean, you got so much evidence on one
00:41:52
on other side, but like you might as
00:41:54
well chase this one down.
00:41:55
>> Yeah, it's out of the ordinary, you
00:41:56
know.
00:41:56
>> Now, despite not knowing whether the man
00:41:58
even existed or where he could be found,
00:42:00
the investigative team would spend an
00:42:02
unreasonable
00:42:03
amount of time pursuing the hitchhiker
00:42:05
lead,
00:42:06
which would literally come to nothing in
00:42:08
the end.
00:42:09
>> Great.
00:42:09
>> Nothing. Like nothing.
00:42:11
>> Did they find out
00:42:12
>> anybody.
00:42:13
>> If they had like, "Hey, he was on this
00:42:16
corner and this is where I saw him
00:42:18
going." Even that is hard to chase cuz
00:42:20
like where did he go?
00:42:21
>> Yeah, anywhere.
00:42:22
>> even know what he looks like.
00:42:23
>> Right.
00:42:24
Now, by the end of the 1970s,
00:42:26
investigators had exhausted every lead
00:42:28
they had and were no closer to actually
00:42:30
nailing down Martha's killer.
00:42:32
>> And her poor family is just having to
00:42:33
continue living in this community.
00:42:35
>> With everybody.
00:42:37
>> Yeah.
00:42:37
>> Now, in the meantime, several of the
00:42:39
Skakel kids had grown up and moved away,
00:42:42
including Michael, who after being
00:42:44
arrested on a charge of drunk driving in
00:42:46
late 1978
00:42:47
was sent to the Elan School, a private
00:42:49
institution in Maine for troubled
00:42:51
teenagers.
00:42:52
>> Mhm.
00:42:53
>> With so many people having come and gone
00:42:54
and so many mistakes having been made in
00:42:56
the investigation, it seemed like the
00:42:58
case might never be solved.
00:43:00
>> Yeah.
00:43:01
>> Now, throughout the first half of the
00:43:02
20th century, a lot of Americans had a
00:43:05
fascination and respect for the last of
00:43:07
the nation's really like aristocratic
00:43:10
families, like the Vanderbilts, you
00:43:12
know, the Rockefellers, the Astors.
00:43:16
>> By the later part of the century though,
00:43:18
that fascination and respect had like
00:43:20
kind of turned into resentment and
00:43:23
disdain.
00:43:23
>> Yes.
00:43:24
>> Because the social consequences of
00:43:26
wealth inequality were becoming more and
00:43:28
more apparent around the country. Others
00:43:30
meanwhile took a kind of like perverse
00:43:32
pleasure in watching as many in what
00:43:35
remained of high society were taken down
00:43:37
by scandals or otherwise fell from
00:43:39
grace.
00:43:40
>> It is It is interesting
00:43:42
>> It's fascinating.
00:43:43
>> of these like wealthy families do end up
00:43:46
like just falling apart.
00:43:48
>> Because you have to think, rarely do you
00:43:50
just get there.
00:43:51
>> Mhm.
00:43:52
>> Rarely is there a glistening golden path
00:43:56
leading to where you get
00:43:58
>> Yeah.
00:43:59
>> in those situations.
00:44:00
>> Yeah.
00:44:01
>> Somebody got kicked in the teeth along
00:44:02
the way. Like you know what I mean? And
00:44:04
eventually, that person who gets kicked
00:44:06
in the teeth is going to come back to
00:44:08
bite you with a brand new set of
00:44:09
chompers,
00:44:09
>> Mhm. you know?
00:44:11
It's
00:44:12
It when you see these like and I'm not
00:44:14
saying every like you know aristocratic
00:44:16
family, of course I'm not saying that.
00:44:17
I'm not generalizing.
00:44:19
I'm just saying a lot of the times when
00:44:20
you see them being absolutely taken down
00:44:23
by just like
00:44:24
scandal after scandal, you're like,
00:44:26
well, it was going to bite you. You
00:44:28
didn't get there purely. The people who
00:44:31
get there with like just the regular
00:44:34
stuff.
00:44:35
Usually aren't the ones taken down cuz
00:44:37
there's nothing to take down.
00:44:42
But the like ones with like high society
00:44:44
involved.
00:44:45
Cuz it is it's fascinating. It really
00:44:48
is.
00:44:49
Now, in 1991, 30-year-old William
00:44:52
Kennedy Smith, son of Jean Kennedy and
00:44:54
Steven Smith, and prominent member of
00:44:56
the Kennedy family, was accused of
00:44:58
violently sexually assaulting a woman
00:45:00
he'd met on Florida beach on a Florida
00:45:02
beach in March. The charges and
00:45:04
subsequent trial received a lot of media
00:45:07
coverage and prompted many journalists
00:45:08
to dredge up the family's past scandals
00:45:11
and conspiracy theories.
00:45:12
Smith would ultimately be acquitted of
00:45:14
the charges.
00:45:15
But that didn't stop the speculation and
00:45:17
rumors from continuing long after the
00:45:19
case was closed. Among them, there was a
00:45:22
curious rumor that had circulated about
00:45:24
William Kennedy Smith staying at the
00:45:26
Skakel house on or around the time of
00:45:29
the Moxley murder.
00:45:31
>> Interesting.
00:45:32
>> he had been at the house on the night of
00:45:33
the murder, was it not possible that he
00:45:36
could be involved or know something
00:45:37
about Martha's death?
00:45:39
>> Okay.
00:45:40
>> There was no truth
00:45:42
whatsoever that he was staying there.
00:45:44
>> Okay, I was going to say. I was like, I
00:45:46
feel like we really have the perfect
00:45:47
case to begin with.
00:45:48
>> Yeah, about William Kennedy Smith being
00:45:50
at the Skakel house that night, and
00:45:52
speculation faded.
00:45:55
I know.
00:45:57
But for high-profile journalist Dominick
00:46:00
Dunne, who we have talked about,
00:46:03
>> It inspired an interest in the case and
00:46:05
in the scandalous history of the
00:46:06
Kennedys more broadly.
00:46:08
Dunne had spent a lot of his career
00:46:09
writing about the crimes and cover-ups
00:46:12
committed by the wealthiest people in
00:46:13
America. And based on what he learned in
00:46:15
his very cursory research, the Martha
00:46:18
Moxley murder seemed like exactly the
00:46:20
kind of crime he was accustomed to
00:46:22
covering.
00:46:22
>> Mhm.
00:46:23
>> He later said in 2003, "The fact that
00:46:25
there was no search warrant is one of
00:46:27
the most outrageous things when they
00:46:29
knew that the golf club came from the
00:46:31
set of golf clubs that belonged to the
00:46:33
late mother in the Skakel household."
00:46:36
>> Wow.
00:46:37
>> I want you to hold that one, too. That
00:46:39
is such a liar.
00:46:41
The golf club that's missing is part of
00:46:43
a set that belonged to their late
00:46:45
mother.
00:46:47
Yeah.
00:46:48
>> Wow.
00:46:49
>> He said later, Dominick Dunne said later
00:46:51
in 2003, "There had to be intimidation
00:46:53
of the police. This was a very, very
00:46:55
rich family."
00:46:56
>> Interesting. That's a quote.
00:46:58
>> That's a quote. From Dominick Dunne in
00:47:00
2003. Well,
00:47:03
it's in the show notes.
00:47:03
>> Stay away from us, big soda.
00:47:05
>> No,
00:47:05
big carbonation, you stay away.
00:47:07
>> Get out.
00:47:07
>> Now, in the early winter of 1991,
00:47:10
Dominick Dunne reached out to Dorothy
00:47:12
Moxley to express his interest in
00:47:14
writing a book about the case.
00:47:16
Um he later recalled she was very
00:47:18
hesitant about it. I'm sure.
00:47:20
>> Totally understand.
00:47:21
>> Yeah.
00:47:21
>> But when I told her that I, too, was the
00:47:23
parent of a murdered daughter. Cuz
00:47:24
>> That story is tragic.
00:47:26
>> His daughter
00:47:27
>> Dominique.
00:47:28
>> is Dominique Dunne, who we have covered.
00:47:30
>> Mhm. Yeah.
00:47:31
>> Um It's such a sad story.
00:47:33
>> It is.
00:47:33
>> Um so he said, "When I said that I, too,
00:47:36
was the parent of a murdered daughter,
00:47:37
she said, 'Okay.'"
00:47:39
>> Yeah. And he knew what it was like to
00:47:40
know who killed his daughter and get
00:47:42
away with it.
00:47:42
>> do anything about it. Now,
00:47:44
I'm just to give you a quick In case
00:47:46
you're like, "Wait, what? You covered
00:47:47
what?"
00:47:47
>> Yeah.
00:47:48
>> Um Dominick Dunne's daughter, Dominique,
00:47:50
had been steadily building a name for
00:47:52
herself in Hollywood when in 1982 she
00:47:55
was murdered by her ex-boyfriend who
00:47:58
only served a few years in prison for
00:48:00
her murder. Um it was this fact and the
00:48:03
obvious failure on the part of the
00:48:04
system in that case that motivated
00:48:06
Dunn's career in true crime and inspired
00:48:08
him to dig deeper into the Martha Moxley
00:48:10
case.
00:48:11
Now, so glad he came.
00:48:13
>> Yeah, absolutely.
00:48:14
>> Now, after their first meeting, Dunn and
00:48:16
Dorothy Moxley agreed the best approach
00:48:18
would be for him to write a fictional
00:48:20
account of the case which would
00:48:21
eventually be released in 1993 as A
00:48:24
Season in Purgatory.
00:48:26
>> Oh, okay. I didn't know that.
00:48:27
>> Yeah, along with the rumors about
00:48:29
William Kennedy Smith, Dominick Dunne's
00:48:31
interest in the case resulted in the
00:48:33
state's attorney John Solomon reopening
00:48:35
the investigation into Martha's murder
00:48:38
which had been labeled inactive in 1982.
00:48:41
Um Solomon later said, "As we talked
00:48:43
about the case, we realized that since
00:48:45
1975, many new techniques for examining
00:48:48
evidence had been developed.
00:48:50
And we hope that some of the witnesses
00:48:52
who were teenagers then would come
00:48:54
forward with information that they may
00:48:56
have previously withheld.
00:48:57
>> And you never know, they might be living
00:48:58
with a lot of guilt.
00:48:59
>> You never know. Now, at the same time,
00:49:01
Solomon did acknowledge how difficult
00:49:03
the case had been up to that point with
00:49:05
many different roadblocks and so that
00:49:07
set the expectations low from the
00:49:09
outset. Like let's not think we're going
00:49:10
to just plow forward here.
00:49:12
The news that the case was being
00:49:14
reopened was very encouraging for the
00:49:15
Moxley family who had spent a decade and
00:49:18
a half advocating for victims of violent
00:49:20
crime, by the way.
00:49:21
>> Good for them.
00:49:22
>> But the tone and attitude around the
00:49:23
wealth and power of those involved
00:49:25
remained much the same as it had been in
00:49:27
1975.
00:49:30
One anonymous local told a reporter from
00:49:32
the Boston Globe, "Money can buy
00:49:34
anything in this town. A lot of people
00:49:36
feel like that."
00:49:36
>> Mhm.
00:49:37
>> Others echoed that sentiment. Kristy
00:49:39
Calahan, one of Martha's closest
00:49:40
friends, said, "Whenever you get around
00:49:42
the Kennedy name, people start to tiptoe
00:49:44
and do things they wouldn't normally
00:49:46
do." Which
00:49:47
we're from New England.
00:49:48
>> I was going to say, we are from New
00:49:50
England.
00:49:51
>> Can confirm.
00:49:51
>> Yep. And just look at
00:49:53
>> Yeah.
00:49:54
>> Just look.
00:49:55
>> Look at it.
00:49:55
>> Just look at it.
00:49:56
>> Yeah.
00:49:56
>> Uh she said it's not necessarily
00:49:58
intentional, but the family has this
00:49:59
mystique and it can be intimidating.
00:50:01
>> It's actually very fascinating.
00:50:05
>> And you're born into the idea here
00:50:08
that that's just untouchable.
00:50:09
>> Yeah, and that they're royalty.
00:50:11
>> You just don't you don't go
00:50:13
>> Much like you don't touch the Morgans,
00:50:15
let us.
00:50:15
>> Exactly.
00:50:16
>> touch the Kennedy family.
00:50:17
>> touch the Kennedys. You don't want to do
00:50:19
that. It turned out that locals were
00:50:21
right to expect the wealth and power of
00:50:23
Rushton Skakel to remain a significant
00:50:25
impediment to this case. Since the day
00:50:28
that Martha was discovered, the most
00:50:29
viable suspect had been Tommy Skakel.
00:50:32
>> Mhm.
00:50:32
>> Which meant it was inevitable that
00:50:34
detectives would start the new
00:50:35
investigation with the Skakel family
00:50:37
when the case was reopened.
00:50:39
Hoping to get ahead of the police
00:50:40
though, Rushton hired Sutton Associates,
00:50:43
a prestigious Long Island private
00:50:45
investigation firm.
00:50:46
>> That just sounds like a very prestigious
00:50:48
firm.
00:50:48
>> He wanted to investigate the case and
00:50:50
any connection between it and his
00:50:52
family.
00:50:53
Over the course of several years and at
00:50:55
the cost of more than 1 million dollars,
00:50:57
the agency would dig deeper into the
00:50:58
case than anyone had ever before,
00:51:01
ultimately producing a document referred
00:51:03
to as the Sutton Report.
00:51:05
>> Okay.
00:51:06
>> Yep.
00:51:07
The report has never been made public.
00:51:10
>> Stop it.
00:51:11
>> But excerpts from it have been presented
00:51:14
as evidence in various court cases,
00:51:16
>> Okay.
00:51:16
>> allowing some of the contents to come to
00:51:18
light.
00:51:18
>> Okay.
00:51:19
>> Among other things, the report confirms
00:51:22
what many people had already suspected.
00:51:24
Tommy Skakel lied to police about his
00:51:26
actions and whereabouts on the night of
00:51:28
the murder.
00:51:29
>> Great.
00:51:30
>> What was less expected was what the
00:51:32
Sutton investigators and soon many
00:51:34
others would learn about Michael Skakel.
00:51:37
>> Oh, you just gave me chills.
00:51:39
>> And we're going to stop there in part
00:51:40
one.
00:51:41
>> [ __ ]
00:51:42
>> Because
00:51:44
hold on, strap in everybody, and there's
00:51:48
more to come, let me tell you.
00:51:50
>> Oh my, oh me, oh my. I don't I knew I
00:51:53
knew of this case, but you're unlocking
00:51:55
things that I did not know.
00:51:56
>> It's a very
00:51:58
brutal, tragic,
00:52:01
horrifying, and fascinating in the worst
00:52:04
way kind of case.
00:52:05
>> Let me grab a fun fact.
00:52:06
>> Yeah, good call.
00:52:07
>> Well, this is actually insane.
00:52:10
The longest wedding veil was longer than
00:52:12
63 football fields.
00:52:15
>> What the [ __ ]
00:52:15
>> That's insane.
00:52:18
>> That's
00:52:19
that's too much.
00:52:20
>> Her veil was nearly 23,000
00:52:23
ft, which is the same length as about 63
00:52:26
and 1/2 football fields.
00:52:29
>> Damn. How do you even like how does that
00:52:30
fit in the building?
00:52:31
>> How do you move?
00:52:32
>> Oh my.
00:52:33
>> How do you move?
00:52:34
>> That's inconceivable, really.
00:52:36
>> Damn.
00:52:37
>> Well, there's that for you.
00:52:38
>> There's that.
00:52:40
>> I love that. Wait, here's another one.
00:52:41
This one's funny. Some cats are allergic
00:52:43
to people.
00:52:45
>> That's actually
00:52:47
that makes more sense than anything I've
00:52:49
ever heard.
00:52:49
>> It's actually my most favorite thing
00:52:51
that I ever heard.
00:52:52
>> that makes so much sense.
00:52:53
>> Because everyone is always like, "I'm
00:52:55
allergic to cat." No, he's allergic to
00:52:57
you, actually.
00:52:58
>> Sorry.
00:52:59
>> you could leave my house.
00:53:00
>> you Maybe he needs his medicine from
00:53:02
you, okay? Maybe get out.
00:53:04
>> Apparently, it's very uncommon, but it
00:53:06
happens,
00:53:07
okay?
00:53:08
>> I'm saying.
00:53:08
>> I think that's hilarious.
00:53:10
>> Damn. Wow.
00:53:12
>> Well, with all that being said, we hope
00:53:14
you keep
00:53:15
>> Oh, damn. I don't know why I said it.
00:53:16
>> Uh do it.
00:53:17
>> Do you say it?
00:53:18
>> No, you say it.
00:53:19
>> I say it, yeah.
00:53:20
>> Well, with all that being said, we hope
00:53:21
you keep listening.
00:53:22
>> And we hope you keep it
00:53:24
>> weird.
00:53:26
>> Not so weird, that you forgot the ending
00:53:28
to your own show 8 years in.
00:53:30
>> I'm tired, man.
00:53:31
>> That's okay.
00:53:32
I usually do I I'm usually the one that
00:53:34
forgets it.
00:55:05
>> Mhm.