http://lifeloom.com/II2Mroch.htmA member of Mystery Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society, Courtney Mroch’s award-winning short stories have appeared in numerous zines. Her short story “Skin Ish Ca” (published by Orchard Press Mysteries in 2003) ranked #2 in the 2003 Preditors & Editors Reader Poll. Her e-book, Cellfish Ways, published by Echelon Press, is the publisher’s year-to-date #2 best-selling dollar download. Her first novel, Beneath the Morvan Moon, a romantic suspense with paranormal overtones, was recently released in trade paperback by PublishAmerica and as an ebook from Writers Exchange Electronic Publishing.
Ms. Mroch lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband, Wayne Pryor, their cat, Mr. Meow, and dog, Murphy. To learn more, visit her website: courtneymroch.com. Direct correspondence to Courtney Mroch or to
editor@lifeloom.comDefrosting a Cold Case:
How Author Dominick Dunne Helped Catch a Killer
Sometimes murders go unsolved. Sometimes there are no suspects. Sometimes there is a suspect, but not enough evidence to pin a charge on him or her. Sometimes loved ones never get answers, comfort, or see justice delivered to the killers who robbed them of their husbands, wives, sons, or daughters.
In Greenwich, Connecticut, on October 30, 1975, Dorothy and David Moxley lost their daughter, Martha, when she was brutally beaten to death with a golf club. The murder weapon came from a set of clubs belonging to the Moxley's neighbors, the Skakels. One of the Skakel boys, Tommy, was the last person seen with Martha the night she died. He became a prime suspect, but no charges were ever filed against him. No charges were ever filed against anyone. It seemed the Moxleys would be damned to the horrible fate of never seeing their daughter's killer brought to justice.
On the night of October 30, 1975, known as Mischief Night in Martha's Greenwich neighborhood of Belle Haven, Martha's mom became suspicious when her daughter failed to come in at a decent time. It was a Thursday night, there was no school the next day, a perfect evening for kids to cut loose on the first night of a three-day weekend. Though Martha didn't have a specific curfew, she rarely abused the privilege by staying out until all hours. It wasn't until Martha's mom had exhausted all the neighbors' houses that she called police to report Martha missing at around 3:30 a.m.
What could be worse for parents than not knowing where their child is? The anxiety, the worry, the anger. Martha's mother quickly found out there were many things worse than not knowing where her child was. Shortly after noon on October 31, 1975, one of Martha's friends was cutting through Martha's backyard to check to see if there was any word yet. That's when she saw Martha's body under a tree, her jeans pulled down, a piece of the golf club used to kill her sticking out of her neck. (The attack had been so vicious the golf club had broken into four pieces, the handle of which was never found.)
Upon finding her daughter's body, Dorothy Moxley's nightmare escalated into something even worse – a living hell. Who would kill Martha? Why?
As in all homicide cases, an investigation was immediately underway. But this was more than a homicide case. This was a case of murder in a place where the wealthiest lived, a place where evil deeds like murder were not supposed to happen. Especially not to fifteen-year-old girls. Belle Haven was an exclusive, gated community, where people belonged to country clubs and yacht clubs. In murder mystery books it might make an intriguing setting for a murder, but in real life murder just was not supposed to happen here. And when it did, it went unsolved for nearly twenty-five years.
This horror trumps all others Dorothy Moxley felt – knowing her child had been slain, suspecting that either someone in her neighbor's house was the culprit or knew who was, and not having any way to prove it. Not being able to see justice done was hell on earth. .
Why couldn't police solve the case? They were more than capable of doing it, but did privilege, power, and money have a hand in it? Tommy Skakel, the prime suspect, was the son of Rushton Skakel, a Kennedy relative. Rushton, a widower whose wife had died in 1972, lived with his children, five boys and a daughter, across from the Moxleys. The Skakels were third generation Belle Haven residents. Old money. Staying power. The Moxleys had moved to Belle Haven only a year before, from California. It shouldn't have mattered who lived there longer, who was related to who, who had more money. Yet, somehow it did. (Even though to this day Greenwich police would deny otherwise.)
Having to look at the house where her daughter's killer might be living freely finally caused the Moxleys to relocate to New York. When her husband died, Dorothy Moxley moved to Annapolis, Maryland. It was there, in 1991, after sixteen years of learning to cope with the reality that finding Martha's killer was not meant to be, that she received a call from a man who had also had a daughter murdered. Though his case was no connection to hers, he felt he could help her. His name was Dominick Dunne, a writer who, at that time, had just had three best-selling novels made into successful television miniseries. After talking with Mrs. Moxley, he felt he could renew interest in her case by writing a book about it. Perhaps they could see justice done after all.
It was that chance meeting, Mr. Dunne taking the initiative to contact Mrs. Moxley, and her finally agreeing to meet with him, that set the ball in motion for a series of events that finally brought answers, a conviction, and justice.
Dominick Dunne's A Season of Purgatory was released in 1993. It was a work of fiction, but it was based on the events that happened in Greenwich, Connecticut on October 30, 1975. He changed the names, the characteristics of the Skakel family, and used a different murder weapon so as to avoid a lawsuit, but it was the Moxley murder. The CBS Evening News gave it a lot of exposure. Interest in the Martha Moxley cold case was rekindled.
During a book tour, Mr. Dunne was approached by an African American woman in the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, Colorado. She had crime scene photos of Martha's body, as she had once worked on the Greenwich Police force. She didn't want Dunne to use her name, so in his book, Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments, he doesn't. However, she did assert upon the conclusion of their meeting that Tommy Skakel, the prime suspect, didn't do it. This stunned Dunne, because he was positive, based on the facts he knew then, that Tommy must have done it. .
In 1996, A Season of Purgatory, the television miniseries, aired. Seven months later, Dominick Dunne received crucial information from another informant, who also asked to remain anonymous. This information has since become known as the Sutton Report, a report compiled by a private detective Rushton Skakel hired to look into Martha Moxley's murder and his son's possible involvement. The report agreed with what the African American woman had told Dunne: Tommy Skakel most likely had not killed Martha Moxley. In all probability, his younger brother, Michael, age fifteen at the time of the murder, had.
Frank Garr, a Greenwich detective who had worked on the case since the beginning, attained a copy of the report, but nothing came of it. No charges were filed against Michael. The matter might have stayed closed if not for one more chance encounter.
Lucianne Goldberg, the literary agent for Mark Fuhrman (yes, from the infamous O.J. Simpson trial), called Dunne to ask if he had any leads on anything where Fuhrman could turn his detective skills. Fuhrman's first book, Murder in Brentwood, had turned out to be a success. Dunne knew just the topic and case for Fuhrman – the Moxley cold case.
Released in 1999, Fuhrman's Murder in Greenwich cast even more exposure on the case. Dunne asserts that it was Fuhrman's book that led to the grand jury indictment of Michael Skakel twenty-five years after Martha's murder. (And ultimately to Michael's conviction twenty-seven years later, on June 7, 2002, when he was sentenced to twenty years behind bars.) But would Fuhrman still have ended up being guided to the case if Dunne hadn't directed him there? It was Dunne's interest, after all, that had truly taken the Moxley cold case out of the freezer and laid it on the counter to thaw.
Dorothy Moxley's husband hadn't lived to see the day his daughter's killer was tried and convicted, but she had. There's no telling if her heart found peace afterwards or not, but at least the wondering was over. She hadn't been powerful enough on her own to bring Martha's killer to justice, but she certainly ended up having a lot of help. Starting with Dominick Dunne. Thanks to him, brave people, who were also variously connected to the case and wanted to see justice done, took the initiative to step forward with information they had. The combined effects caught a killer, and provided some measure of comfort to Martha's mother.
Copyright 2004 by Courtney Mr
