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Suspect:
Ed Hammond
26 year old Columbia University student, Ed Hammond lived with his mother, next door to the Moxley residence. Ed's father had died a few years earlier and Ed was said to have taken the death very hard. He was described as quiet and staying pretty much to himself. At some point Ed began drinking heavily. There were a few neighbors that reported strange Ed Hammond stories to the police in the months following Martha's murder.
One neighbor related to police that Ed had come to her door, attempted to get in, then
walked away. The next day she saw him and he did not mention the events of the previous
day. He did tell her that he wanted to see her dog. He mentioned to her that she sunbathed
in her back yard. Apparently this caused her such concern she felt the need to relate this
to the police. In another conversation with the police she tells of this mysterious sweet
smelling liquid she found at the bottom of her stairs the morning after Martha's death.
Apparently the killer was in her house as well. Her husband had the embarrassing
responsibility of informing the police that the mysterious sweet smelling liquid was water
leaked from their toilet. In fairness to her, there was a killer running loose in
her neighborhood, and suspicion is often cast upon the least likely of people.
Hours after Martha's body was found, detectives Steve Carroll and Joe Mcglynn arrived at
the Hammond home. They questioned Ed and asked to see his room. While searching through
it, the detectives came across a box of condoms and in it, one that had been used. From
the window of Ed's room, they noted he had a view of the site in which Martha had been
attacked. According to detective Steve Carroll "they thought they had found their
man". In this obvious rush to judgment, Hammond was taken to the police station and
although his rights were not read to him, he fully cooperated with police questioning.
Another team of detectives, Pendergast and Powell, were dispatched to the Hammond home for
evidence collection. By the time they were through they had managed to fill (5) trash bags
of "evidence". Included in this evidence collection were:
an empty box of Colgate toothpaste
a tissue that was lipsticked stained
empty Marlboro cigarette packs
a lightbulb
Back at the police station, Hammond was asked to surrender the clothing that he had worn
the previous evening. The police noticed stains and believed them to be blood. They also
saw hairs on his sweater and told him that they could match them to hairs from Martha
Moxley. Hammond realized he was being considered a suspect, yet,cooperated fully and
handed over his clothing. He gave hair and fingernail samples as well.
The results from the tests concluded that the "blood stains" were actually food
stains and the hairs, those of a dog. He agreed to take a polygraph test, and his first
test results were inconclusive. Apparently, Ed was taking the medication Antibuse to
combat his problem with alcohol. It was the opinion of the polygraph administrators that,
the drug may have interfered in the testing. Another test was scheduled for November 1975,
which Mr Hammond took and passed.
Ed had met Martha only once, the week before at a cocktail party hosted by the Moxley's.
He did not match the profile of Martha's killer created by FBI experts and seasoned
homicide detectives. He was too old, did not know Martha, other than a brief
introduction, had several dating relationships and was not the sexually immature male the
killer was thought to be. Ed was not under the influence of alcohol and or drugs at the
time of Martha's death as the profilers also believed her killer to be.
Today, Ed Hammond is a successful attorney and wishes that he had seen or heard something
the night of Martha's murder to help police convict her killer.
