Jan 20, 2000

Jan 20, 2000- Michael Skakel, under suspicion from the start in the killing of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, turned himself in Wednesday after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. Because Skakel was 15 at the time of the slaying on Halloween eve 1975, the case is initially being prosecuted as a juvenile crime. He was released on $500,000 bond.

The Moxley case has been the subject of several books, including a best-selling novel, "A Season in Purgatory," by Dominick Dunne, that became a TV movie. Dunne brought the case to the attention of former Los Angeles Police Det. Mark Fuhrman, whom he met while covering the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Fuhrman--plagued by accusations of racism as the lead investigator in the Simpson case--wrote his own book, "Murder in Greenwich," about the Moxley case. Fuhrman posited that Skakel killed Moxley in a jealous rage after seeing his older brother kiss her.

Sharply critical of the initial investigation by Greenwich police, Fuhrman provided the grand jury with evidence of a 1998 book proposal by Skakel to be called "Dead Man Talking" that reportedly made an incriminating reference to the Moxley killing. Skakel also discussed aspects of the crime in therapy sessions in the 1970s at an alcohol rehabilitation center in Maine, according to prosecutors.

Source: Kennedy Kin Surrenders in '75 Killing of Neighbor;... - Related web pages

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