THE MOXLEY MURDER

	MICHAEL SKAKEL
	AP	Skakel grew up in Belle Haven, an exclusive gated shoreline community in the rich New York suburb of Greenwich, Conn. His aunt, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, is the widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The Skakel money came from Great Lakes Carbon, a processor of industrial coke and other minerals. Skakel was convicted on June 7, 2002 for bludgeoning 15-year-old Martha Moxley to death with a golf club in 1975 when he also was 15. At the time of the murder, he lived with his family across the street from the Moxley household in Belle Haven. Moxley's body was found in her family's back yard. He was a suspect during the initial investigation but was not charged with the murder for another 24 years. He was arrested in January 2000 and pleaded innocent. In 1978, after leading police on a high-speed chase in Windham, N.Y., Michael Skakel was sent to the Elan School in Poland Spring, Maine, a private school for teens with drug and alcohol problems. It was during his stay at Elan until 1980 that Skakel admitted killing Moxley to fellow students, prosecutors claim. After a decade drifting in and out of rehabilitation centers, Skakel graduated from Curry College in Milton, Mass., in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in English. He quit drinking. He worked as an aide on Sen. Edward Kennedy's 1994 re-election campaign and later married and moved to Cohasset, Mass. He lived for a while in Hobe Sound, Fla., before moving to Windham, N.Y., where he was living at the start of his trial. Skakel also has worked on the political campaign of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and worked for Joseph Kennedy's Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit company that delivers heating oil to poor people. Skakel reached a divorce settlement with his wife in 2001. The couple share custody of their 3-year-old son.