Case Snapshot

Case ID: 410

Classification: Mutilation/Torture

Animal: cat, dog (non pit-bull), squirrel

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Killing or maiming dogs, a cat, chipmunks and squirrels
Greenwich, CT (US)

Incident Date: Thursday, Oct 30, 1975
County: Fairfield

Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 2 files available

Defendant/Suspect: Michael Skakel

Michael Skakel age 41, who was found guilty of killing Martha Moxley also had a history of animal abuse. He admitted he got a kick out of killing animals. He described how he put fireworks up dog's behinds, blowing them up or leaving them maimed. He killed a squirrel and then crucified it over a golf hole during a round of golf, and another time admitted to burying a cat alive with just the head sticking out then running over it with a lawnmower, decapitating it. He along with his brothers also killed chipmunks and squirrels by beating them with golf clubs or shooting them with guns.

Skakel (DOB 9/19/60) was 15 years old at the time of Martha Moxley's death on October 15, 1975. She was beaten to death with a golf club owned by Skakels' mother. The Skakels' and the Moxleys' were neighbors in Belle Haven, a suburb of Greenwich, which is a peninsula that juts into Long Island Sound.

It was 24 years later before he was arrested. Originally the case (F01-00DD-01028-0) was to be heard in juvenile court because he was 15 at the time of the murder but the state Supreme Court dismissed Skakels' appeal from a Juvenile Court decision to transfer the case to adult court. As a juvenile the maximum penalty Skakel could receive under the law in effect in 1975 was 4 years. As an adult he could face 10 years to life.

Skakel is related to the Kennedy family through his aunt Ethel Skakel Kennedy, wife of the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

References

• The Hartford Advocate
• Connecticut Superior Court Records
• CNN
• The Boston Herald
• Court TV
• The Manchester Union Leader
• The National Enquirer
• Book "A Season in Purgatory" by Dominick Dunne
• Book "Murder in Greenwich" by Mark Fuhrman

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