An NBC podcast on the grisly death of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in 1975 features new interviews with Michael Skakel, a relative of the Kennedy family, whose murder conviction in the case was overturned in 2013.
Skakel, speaking for the first time since then, said his life was hell before he was branded a murderer. His father beat him, and his mother was cold and left most of the child-rearing to the household help.
He recalled that when his mother became ill with cancer, his father blamed him.
"If you only did better in school, your mother wouldn't have to be in the hospital," Skakel recalled his father telling him.
"And I remember just going, 'Oh, my God.' I wanted to die. I just wanted to die."
Hosted by journalist Andrew Goldman, the 12-episode series, titled "Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder," also features interviews with close friends of Moxley, retired FBI agent Jim Murphy, Skakel's brother Stephen, and former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman.
The podcast debuts Tuesday and will explore "decades of legal battles, media frenzy, and lingering doubts that continue to surround the case as it marks 50 years," according to NBC.
Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club on Oct. 30, 1975, in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich, Connecticut. Her pants and underwear had been pulled down, though police found no evidence of sexual assault.
The golf club used as the murder weapon belonged to a set owned by the Skakel family, and Michael Skakel's older brother Thomas had been the last to see Moxley alive.
Michael Skakel, who lived across the street and was also 15 at the time, was charged with her death in 2000, 25 years later. He was convicted in 2002 and subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In 2013, a judge granted him a new trial, and his conviction was overturned.
In 2020, the state dropped the case because it said it would not be able to prove the case against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
Goldman, the host of the podcast, said Michael Skakel was "very much different than the character portrayed in the media."
"He's funny, and he's a little off the wall. He's, ultimately, a little damaged. But Michael is somebody who I think has desperately wanted to tell his story and has become somewhat distrustful of the media in general, so it took a great deal of time to earn his trust."
Goldman added, "He is one of the most unvarnished, unrehearsed, honest subjects that I've dealt with before — honest to a fault. And I think that you'll probably see that his honesty plays a part in the story as well."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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