50 Years Later, the Martha Moxley Murder Still Haunts Greenwich

Half a century after 15-year-old Martha Moxley was found beaten to death beneath a tree in her upscale Greenwich neighborhood, her killing remains one of America’s most notorious unsolved crimes. Now, Michael Skakel — whose overturned conviction once tied him to the murder — is speaking publicly for the first time in years through a new NBC News Studios podcast, Dead Certain.

Skakel, a Kennedy family relative, spent over 11 years in prison after a 2002 conviction that was ultimately vacated in 2013 for ineffective legal representation. The state dropped charges in 2020, saying it could no longer meet the burden of proof.

The podcast revisits the case’s complex history: the Skakels’ immense wealth, turbulent family life, an autopsy revealing Moxley was killed with a golf club traced to the Skakel home, and decades of shifting theories involving Skakel, his brother Thomas, and even the family’s tutor.

Investigators revived the cold case in the 1990s after unrelated scandals involving other Kennedy relatives reignited public interest. Testimony from former classmates at Skakel’s reform school — including claims he confessed — ultimately led to his arrest.

Skakel, now sober for decades and living quietly with his brother, describes a troubled upbringing marked by abuse, alcoholism, and profound instability after his mother’s death. He denies killing Moxley and says the case destroyed his family.

The first five podcast episodes explore how wealth, privilege, rumor, and media pressure shaped one of America’s most enduring murder mysteries — a case that, after 50 years, still has no definitive answer to who killed Martha Moxley.