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The Sutton Investigation
In 1993, the state of Connecticut asked world reknowned forensics expert, Dr Henry Lee, to look over the evidence in the Moxley case. Mr Lee was supplied with the reports, autopsy and Martha's clothing. He went about compiling a six inch thick file of his findings in which he submitted to those in charge with the Moxley investigation.
With the resurfacing of the Moxley homicide, Rushton Skakel, with the help of long time
friend and attorney, Tom Sheridan, hired The Sutton Associates, a private
investigative firm, led by a former FBI investigator, to look into this case. Skakel
agreed to share his findings with the Greenwich police and the Moxley family. It was very
generous of Mr Skakel to hire an outside firm to look into a case where his own son was
the prime suspect, then agree to hand over the results to the people that could make
arrests in this case. In the end, the police would not hear about the findings of this
firm, through their arrangement anyway. Greenwich reporter Len Levitt, would be the one
that would be given the documents through an arrangement that he made with the Skakel
attorney's and Sutton.
Sutton investigators interviewed family members, and those close to the case. Dorthy
Moxley was also approached by members of the Sutton team, however, during her interview,
they failed to ask Dorthy one question about Martha. Strange, considering they were hired
to look into her death. One might assume, asking the murder victim's mother for
information in regards to her slain daughter, might help them to have a better
understanding of what happened to her. None the less, they did not ask and the
investigation continued for almost four years at Rush Skakel's expense.
Through the interviews, it became clear that both Tommy and Mike Skakel had changed their
stories from what they had previously reported to police in 1975. Thomas had stated that
he had left Martha at his back door at 9:30, went inside to complete a homework assignment
(which was proven to be false as the police spoke with Thomas' teachers and no such
assignment had been given). He states he did not see her after that.
In his new story, Tommy places himself with Martha until 9:50, and oddly enough, engaging
in some form of sexual encounter with her. It is strange that his revised story puts him
in direct contact with Martha just moments before she is believed to have been killed.
According to his revised story, Tommy and Martha got involved in some heavy petting where
they both masturbated each other to orgasm. After the encounter, Martha got up and rushed
across the Skakel back lawn, heading for home. Tommy claims to have gone inside his own
home and remained there the rest of the evening. Ken Littleton stated that Tommy was in
his room in the Skakel home between 10:05 until about 10:30, watching the chase scene of
the "French Connection" movie.
Michael's revised story is even more incredible. In his new account, after returning from
the Terrien's home, he went to bed, could not sleep and got up, deciding to go outside. He
ran down the street and peeped in on a woman that he frequently peeped on, this particular
evening she was fully clothed, so he must have lost interest and headed over to the Moxley
property. He alleges to have climbed a tree where he had been calling Martha's name. He
tossed some pebbles at the window and not arousing anyone, he decided to masturbate
himself to orgasm.
This totally bizarre story is questionable. The temperature that night was at the freezing
mark. One can argue that teenage boys do not care nor consider these things when the urge
strikes them, but hanging onto a tree in freezing weather, looking in at nothing while
masturbating is quite a tall one! It makes one wonder if it was Dorthy Moxley that he was
peeping in on, if this happened at all. Mark Fuhrman, in his book "Murder in
Greenwich" makes the observation that Dorthy was sleeping in her window seat that
night waiting for Martha to arrive home.
Other disturbing things were uncovered by the Sutton people. They hired an ex FBI
colleague, who owned Academy Group, to compile a profile of Martha's killer. That profile
is as follows:
* the offender was between the age of 14 -18 years of age
* he resided within easy walking distance to the victim
* he was in the same socioeconomic status as the victim
* he had regular interaction with the victim
* he would have experienced strong sibling rivalries
* he would have experienced behavioral problems at school and at home
* he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime
Clearly, this profile proved troublesome for Rushton Skakel's sons. Both boys fit this
profile, but there were other factors to consider that made Michael a much more viable
suspect than Tommy. One of these factors is the psychological work up done on Michael by
Dr Sue Wallingford-Quinlan which Mark Fuhrman details in his book "Murder in
Greenwich".
When the information Sutton gathered appeared to point not only to Tommy Skakel, as
previously thought, but also included Michael Skakel to the list of probable suspects,
Rush Skakel must have been taken aback. It was clearly their intention to make any
possible connection between the murder and their former tutor, Ken Littleton. When this
did not appear likely, and his own sons looked more responsible for Martha's death, the
investigation was shut down. The Sutton Associates were told that a report of their
findings was not necessary. No big surprise considering what that report would have
contained. So, like Littleton, they were released of their obligations to the Skakel
family. No information was ever passed from Rush Skakel to either the police or to the
Moxley family, as Skakel had earlier promised.
Somehow, a copy of this explosive work managed to get into the hands of best selling
novelist Dominick Dunne, who had written a novel of his own about this case, "A
Season in Purgatory", published in 1993. Dunne made a copy of the report and
handed it over to the head investigator of the Moxley case, Frank Garr, and waited for
some action. Still nothing happened.
During the course of the CA vs Orenthal James Simpson case, Dunne became friendly with
former Los Angles detective, Mark Fuhrman, who had already authored a book, "Murder
in Brentwood" about the Simpson case. Fuhrman told Dunne that he was looking for
another murder case to write about. Dunne thought immediately about the 25 year old
Greenwich case and filled him in on the story. Among the information Dunne provided
Fuhrman with, the fact that one of Rushton Skakel's sons, Tommy, was long believed to be
the prime suspect in the killing. Dunne sent Fuhrman the Sutton findings, which resulted
in Fuhrman starting his own personal investigation into the Moxley murder. He met the
victim's mother Dorthy Moxley who gave him her blessing to write about the case. After an
extensive look into Martha's murder, Fuhrman concluded that Michael Skakel was more likely
Martha's killer.
Timothy Dumas, a life long Greenwich resident, had also written a book about the infamous
Moxley case. Between the two books, public attention was quickly drawn back to the case
that "just won't go away". Within months of the publishing of these books, Don
Browne stepped down from the Moxley case, stating that he was in a no win situation in
regards to the Moxley case. He was replaced by Jonathan Benedict, who immediately
called for a Grand Jury inquiry into Martha Moxley's death.
The Grand Jurist, Judge Thim, was given the task of delving into the this quarter century
old crime. Thim, known for his thoroughness and fairness, conducted an 18 month long
inquiry, which resulted in hearing from 53 witnesses, ranging from those present the night
of the murder, to witnesses that had come forward from the Elan school, where Michael
Skakel was sent after an arrest in 1978. After watching a segment of the television show
"Unsolved Mysteries" which contained a piece on the Moxley murder, several of
them phoned in to the viewer tip line relating the same story, that they heard Michael
Skakel confess to Martha's murder while in his residence at Elan.
After hearing all of the testimony of these 53 witnesses, Thim concluded, there was
probable cause to arrest Michael Skakel. Jonathan Benedict signed the arrest warrant, and
on January 19th, 2000, twenty five years after the death of this once vivacious young
girl, Skakel was charged with her murder.
Read....excerpts from the Sutton Files...
PLEASE NOTE... these are ONLY what have been released and not the complete Sutton files. Because of the ongoing court case with Michael Skakel, most of the released information references his brother Tommy.
