Chapter 25 second quarter

Jing took Xina's hand and walked down the slope in the backyard.After not going far, Xina stopped, saying nothing and not going any further.Jing boldly came to the big pine tree in the direction indicated by Xina. Masha was face down, lying sideways on the grass covered with fallen leaves, her body was covered with dried blood, and her hair was clotted with blood.The lower body is bare, with jeans and panties pulled down to the ankles.Jing lightly touched Martha's lower back with her hand, it was cold to the bone. Back in the house, Du Lisi asked again: "How is she?" Jing spent a lot of effort to describe Martha's situation.Du Lisi sat down slumped, tears streaming down silently.For the next few hours, she remained rigid and motionless.

Minutes later, two officers, Dan Heckman and Miller Jones, arrived on the scene.They determined that Martha Mockley was dead and decided to report it to the police immediately. There were no cell phones in the 70s.The more sophisticated Miller Jones didn't want to use the police radio system because he didn't want to alert the reporters too early.But when he was on the phone at Mockley's house, Dan Heckman, who was on the scene, activated the walkie-talkie.Sure enough, the media caught this information through a scanner.Before the police set up the cordon, countless reporters had gathered around the scene, and the arrival of the reporters attracted more onlookers, and the confusion can be imagined.

At this time, Jon Mockley was participating in the football team training at school.The coach called him off the field and told him to hurry home.Jon saw that the coach's face was wrong, and asked if something happened to Martha.The coach said, go back quickly, you will know when you get home. Jon drove the car like crazy on the not-so-wide streets of Belheven.At the door of the house, Louville Robinson, his father's colleague, was waiting for him by the front drive.Louville was planning to go to Mockley's house to accompany Duris and his wife Marilyn. Because Mrs. Mockley had completely collapsed, the police asked Louvel to formally identify the deceased on behalf of the victim's family.Now he was waiting here, trying to tell Jon the sad news himself.After listening to Louville's words, Jon threw a punch at him, and Louville dodged vigilantly. He fully understood the young man's anger and despair.Jon allowed himself to calm down for a moment, immediately apologized to Mr. Robinson, and then rushed into the house like crazy.Jon came to his mother, and Du Lisi hugged her son tightly.Now, she has only one child left.

David Mockley left for the Atlanta airport immediately after receiving Marilyn's phone message.Before boarding the plane, he made a phone call home in the terminal hall and heard the bad news from Marilyn. At about the same time, the investigation into the Martha Mockley murder began in earnest.Detectives fanned out and went door to door visiting the Mockleys' neighbors. It is unbelievable to say that the first difficulty encountered in this case turned out to be that the Greenwich Police Department did not have the experience and manpower and material resources to deal with violent crimes.None of the police personnel who were on the scene at the time had any experience with such cases.Sergeant Steven Barry, who has worked in the Greenwich Police Department for more than 20 years, told the "New York Times" reporter who rushed to the scene: "In my memory, we have never encountered such a thing. ’” Prior to that, the last homicide in Greenwich was in 1949.Therefore, the police station had to ask the higher authorities for help.Around 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, the Connecticut State Police's mobile crime scene laboratory—a large van equipped with various instruments—arrived at Belhaven.

The residents of Greenwich were devastated by the tragic death of Martha Mockley, especially since it took place on Belhaven Island.People immediately turned their suspicions to the outside world, and they—including the family of the victim Martha Mockley—none of them wanted to believe that the murderer would be a member of this upper-class circle, and it must be someone sneaking outside Sneaked in and did it.This kind of "public opinion" influenced the initial investigation of this case to a large extent. Shortly after police arrived at the crime scene, part of the murder weapon was found on the lawn of the Mockley estate—three broken-off golf clubs, including the head and two 8-inch and 11-inch lengths.The reason why it was only "part of the murder weapon" was because the handle of the club and a small piece of stick connected to it disappeared.The missing part is what the police think is the most critical, because the handle is very likely to have fingerprints and palm prints left by the perpetrator.

Beginning the next day, November 1, Greenwich Police Department mobilized a large number of personnel to search for the golf club handle.They poked through all the trees on the Mockley estate with cherry-picking poles and scanned the surrounding ground with metal detectors.They drained all the ponds and swimming pools on Belhaven Island, and searched every unoccupied house, shed, warehouse, basement where the sundries were stored, as well as the nearby beaches and the Atlantic Ocean. Hewen combed it like he was combing his hair, but in the end he found nothing. Based on the information provided by the households around the scene, the police determined that the murder occurred between 9:30 and 10 p.m. based on the strange quarrel and dog barking on the night of October 30.

The crime scene is divided into three parts, in the order of discovery, the first is the location of Martha's body, which is about 200 feet southwest of Mokley's house.Martha was lying face down on the ground, her body slightly on the left side, her head facing east, her left arm pressed under her body, and her hair was so soaked in blood that detectives initially couldn't tell the color of her hair.When the face was turned over, Martha's forehead, nose, and chin could be seen to have longitudinal scratches. These bloody wounds and the front of the clothes were covered with dirt, grass clippings, small stone balls, and pine needles.It seems that the perpetrator dragged her face down under the big pine tree.Martha's trousers were stripped down to the knees, but this part of the body, the waist and thighs, was cleaner.It can be inferred that the murderer took off Martha's pants after dragging her here.

About 100 feet north of Big Pine, on the west side of the Mockley family's residence, under a small Japanese elm there were two large blood pools, each 3 to 4 feet in diameter.The 11-inch blood-stained golf club shaft was also found here. 42 feet northeast of here, in the middle of the lawn in the circular driveway of the front yard of the Mockley home, police found a small amount of blood and the head of a golf club and the 8-inch section of the stick.There was also some blood on the stick. According to police analysis, the process of committing the crime was just the opposite.The lawn within the circular driveway is likely to be the first scene.Here the perpetrators knocked out Martha and dragged her to the Japanese elm.The police found traces of someone being dragged on the road between the two crime spots: blood and cut human flesh.According to the two blood pools under the Japanese elm tree, this place should be the main crime spot, and Martha was fatally attacked here.At the same time, judging from the amount of blood in the two pools, Martha lay down under the Japanese elm tree for at least half an hour after she stopped breathing, and almost all the blood on her body was drained.From the Japanese elm to the large pine where Martha's body was found, there was a distinct zigzag, bloodstained drag in the grass and fallen leaves.

Later, with the assistance of the victim's father, Mr. David Mockley, Greenwich police brought in two detectives from the Detroit City Police Department. In the 1970s, Detroit had the highest homicide rate in the United States, and its homicide detectives were considered the most experienced.Later, in the late 1990s, Mark Fuhrman, a crime literature writer who worked for the Los Angeles Police Department, also specialized in the case.According to the analysis of these experts, the murderer moved Martha's body to a place far away from Mokley's house and the street and hid it, indicating that this person lived nearby and he hoped that the body would be discovered as late as possible.There wasn't much blood at the first scene, indicating that the perpetrator didn't intend to harm Martha, at least at the beginning.Moreover, this place is very close to the street, and there is a street lamp next to it, if someone intends to kill someone, he would never choose this place.It can also be inferred from this that Martha and the perpetrator probably knew each other.There were no traces of fighting left by struggling and resisting at the scene, indicating that the victim did not realize that she would be murdered in this way.The case took place in the garden of the Mockley family, which to a large extent ruled out the possibility of outsiders entering Belhaven Island to commit crimes.The murderer knew that Martha would come here, and he most likely followed Martha, or even walked here with Martha.The simple conclusion to be drawn from this was that the perpetrator knew Martha and lived in Belheven.

Based on this assumption, the golf club is not a pre-prepared murder weapon, but a guy picked up by the perpetrator.It was more likely that the man had always carried it with him before, so the golf club in his hand did not arouse Martha's alertness. Police quickly determined that the golf clubs belonged to a six-piece set of iron Tonny Binners, an older brand that was rare at the time.The missing part of the stick, the handle and the shaft attached to it, is approximately 20 inches in total. On the first afternoon after the homicide, on October 31, two detectives, Ted Brucco and Kim Looney, came to the Skakel home and were greeted by Julie.As the second child of seven siblings and the only girl in the family, Julie has unwittingly assumed many of the duties and responsibilities of a mother after her mother passed away.She told the police that her father was out this weekend and that the elder Scarker had arranged for the new governess, Ken Littleton, to move in yesterday in order to take care of the children who usually ran amok during All Souls' Day.Jolie also said they went to the beach club for dinner the night before and didn't get home until just before 9pm.

In response to questions from the detectives, Mike Skakel said that the victim, Martha, had been here with Helen Ickes and Jeffrey Byron at about 9 o'clock last night.The four of them listened to music together in the Lincoln, and soon Tony squeezed in. Tony Skakel was not home that afternoon.Because Mike had told the two police detectives during the conversation that Tony was the last person seen with Miss Mockley, so after the investigation of the people in the Scarker family, Ted Bruco and Kim Looney decides to stay and wait for Tony.Tony didn't come back until around 5:30, just before dinner.According to the records at the time, Tony said that he went to get the cassette in the Lincoln car at 9:15 the night before, saw Martha and the other four, and squeezed into the car to play with them for a while.About 10 minutes later, Roston Jr. came over and asked everyone to get off.As the Lincoln drove away, Helen Ickes and Geoffrey Byron also said goodbye and went home.Tony and Martha chatted for a few more minutes before saying goodbye to each other because he had to go back to his homework, which was about 9:30.The last time Tony saw Martha, she was leaving the driveway and heading for the Scarkers' backyard.Shortly after Tony entered the house, he heard someone ring the doorbell. It was Andia Sharkbill.Andia said that Julie was going to take her home and asked her to come and pick up the keys to the other car.Tony handed Andia the key and went upstairs. When it comes down to it, based on the testimony of the four people in the Lincoln, Mike, Rolston Jr., John, and Jem Tellion, and Helen Ickes and Jeffrey Byron, plus Tony's own words, the police have It is certain that Tony Skackle was indeed the last person to see Miss Mockley alive.From this moment on, Tony became a natural suspect in the murder of Martha Mockley, and he was taken to the Greenwich Police Station for formal questioning.Tony's statement was consistent with that of several other witnesses, according to police records. Tony Skakel was not the only suspect at the time.Another name on the list of suspects is Ed Hanman, 26, an MBA graduate student at Columbia Business School.The Hanmans lived on the southeast corner of the intersection of Otoro Road and Welsh Street, and the northeast corner of the intersection was the Skackle family's large garden.The Hanmans were also close neighbors to the Mockleys.Ed Hanman was listed as a suspect because some people reported that he was perverse and behaved strangely. At 3 pm on October 31, Ed was taken to the police station for questioning.Meanwhile, police had his mother sign a "Warrant to Search" and searched Hanman's home.Although Ed later passed a polygraph test and the police were unable to prove any connection between him and Martha Mockley's murder, Ed Hanman was listed as a suspect in the case for several months. On the second day after the homicide, on Saturday, November 1, forensic doctor Dr. Elio Gross, together with the police, prosecutors and other relevant parties, inspected and tested Martha Mockley's body.The post-mortem took place for six hours from 12.40pm to 6.45pm.As the police expected, the cause of Martha's death was indeed caused by a golf club. The first scar was an indentation from above the left ear to the left temple, shaped to fit the shaft of a golf club.Many people think that This injury was the first blow that knocked Martha unconscious.But it was later found that there was no damage to the skull here, so some people infer that it was formed when Martha's head rested on the 11-inch stick when she died. On the right side of the back of Martha's head, there were four obvious wounds caused by the head of a golf club. There was a lot of blood around the wound, and the skull was sunken. Experts believe that this was the first blow that occurred in the middle of the circular drive lawn.Due to bruising, there wasn't much blood at the scene. The fatal wound was on Martha's neck.The murderer stabbed the shaft of a broken golf club without a head through the right side of Martha's neck, the weapon passed through the entire neck, and then came out from the left side of the neck.The deceased's lungs were severely congested, indicating that after receiving the fatal blow, Martha did not die immediately, she was still breathing, and her heart was still beating, which sucked blood into the lungs. The results of the poison test showed that Martha did not drink alcohol or use drugs the night she was killed.The reason why this is important is that she was clear-headed at the time of the crime and still had normal judgment. Martha did not have sex before she died, such as being raped, so how to explain that the murderer took off her jeans and underwear?One speculation is that the perpetrator tried to rape her, but failed for some reason, either due to some kind of psychological barrier, or due to external interference, such as someone passing by, or hearing people barking and so on.Another theory is that the perpetrator was trying to humiliate the victim in this way.If so, it means that the murderer knew Martha. The most reliable way to infer the time of death is by observing the degree of stiffness and the color of the skin, especially the skin around the wound. These chemical changes usually occur within a few hours to more than ten hours after death.It is a pity that there was no forensic doctor at the scene after the discovery of the body. When Dr. Elio Gross began the autopsy, Martha Mokley had been dead for at least 30 hours, and it was almost impossible to infer a more accurate time of death.Dr. Gross can only draw a rough conclusion: the time of death was from 9:30 pm on October 30 to 5:00 am the next day. Several years later, when the case was reopened for investigation, many people questioned the police's initial determination of the incident time based on the suspicious quarrel and dog barking, that is, from 9:30pm to 10:00pm on October 30th. Trying to find evidence from the autopsy report.The only clue left is the contents of the deceased's stomach.Generally speaking, within 2 to 3 hours from the ingestion of food, the food will be digested but remain in the stomach, and it will take about 4 to 6 hours to empty the stomach contents.Dr. Gross' autopsy report stated that Martha Mockley had approximately 3 ounces, or 85 grams, of digested semi-liquid food in her stomach.According to the information provided by Martha's mother, Mrs. Mockley, Martha had a cheese sandwich for dinner that day at around 6:30.Martha's friends Helen, Geoffrey and Kitty confirmed they had ice cream at a neighbor's house around 8pm.Therefore, some experts believe that the time of Martha's death should be estimated more accurately from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. that night. On the afternoon of October 31, when Ted Brucco and Kim Looney were at the Skakels' house to check on the situation, they glimpsed an assorted pile of golf clubs in the corner of the breakfast room, several of which were The other was also a Tony Binner card, and looked very similar to the one found at the scene.Julie told them that it was used as a cane when everyone walked on weekdays.The detectives could not take the golf clubs away because Roston Skakel was not at home.The next day, November 1, after Skaker Sr. had signed the "Warrant to Search," the police seized the Tonny Binner golf clubs.Mr Scarkel said the set of clubs belonged to his late wife Anne, and each stick had her name engraved near the handle.After Anne died, the set was given to Julie for safekeeping, but she just piled them with other golf clubs.The detectives asked Roston and Julie to try to find a complete set of six clubs to rule out the connection between the Scarkers and the murder weapon. The police learned in subsequent investigations that only the Scarker family owned Tonny Binner golf clubs on Belhaven Island.Not only that, but none of the shops in Greenwich carry this brand of golf clubs.After contacting the manufacturer, it was confirmed that the production of the Tony Binna brand has been discontinued for many years.Later identification by the FBI's metallurgical laboratory showed that the clubs found at the scene were indeed the same set of five found at the Scarker home. Police have also heard that people in Belheven often saw Roston Scarkel leaning on a golf club on his evening walks.According to a neighbor: "Walking with a golf club is the Skakel family style." Even so, the police dare not jump to conclusions. In an interview with the Greenwich Times on Sunday, November 2, Sheriff Steven Barry told reporters: "After playing outside, children often throw bicycles, tennis rackets, golf clubs, etc. On the lawn by the door." So it is entirely possible that the perpetrator picked up the murder weapon casually. In the initial stages of the investigation, the police focused on The Outsiders, Ed Hanman and Tony Skakel.But as the investigation deepened, Tony Scarker became the prime suspect. On November 3, 1975, the first Monday after the long black weekend, with the consent of his father Roston Scarker (because Tony was not yet 18), and at Mr. Scarkel's Accompanied, Tony was taken to the polygraph laboratory of the Verfield Regional Police Station in Bethany.Since the incident, the young man has not been able to sleep well.He looked so tired, tense, distracted, and agitated that three consecutive experiments failed to yield reliable results. On November 9, Tony was again taken to Bethany.It is said that this time he passed the polygraph test, but the police have not released the results of the test, nor have Tony Skakel been removed from the list of suspects. Many years later, reporter Lin Levitt discovered that there was no polygraph record of this time in the documents about the murder of Martha Mockley released by the Greenwich Police Station, but there were many others.Later, Lin Levitt obtained the tapes of the polygraph test.After listening to it, he felt that the whole experiment process was very incomplete.Tony only answered simple questions such as: "Are you Tony Skackle?" "Did you kill Martha Mockley?" , there is no answer from Tony on the tape. On December 11, 1975, the case took a dramatic turn.When the police asked Helen Ickes and Jeffrey Byron again about the last time they saw Miss Mockley, the two young men finally confessed the things they were ashamed of.The explicit flirting and teasing between Tony Skackle and Martha seems to make it easy for the police to deduce the motive of the murder: Martha did not meet Tony's further sexual demands, and the wealthy young man who had never been rejected was furious and killed Martha. On December 13, Tony Skakel was arraigned again.Police did not disclose the contents of the conversation, but Tony was asked to cut several hairs as samples. If Tony Skackle was the real murderer in this case, how could he pass the lie detector?In fact, before this, the Greenwich police only heard from Bethany's people that Tony passed the experiment, and did not ask the laboratory for the records at that time.Now the case investigators look back and check, and they also have the same doubts as the reporter Lin Levitt many years later.According to the district police technician who conducted Tony's polygraph test, whenever he was asked about the details of the case, Tony seemed to have a memory vacuum.In the polygraph test, all the questions are specially designed, and the subjects only need to answer "yes" and "no".The polygraph technician said that sometimes Tony couldn't even answer simple "yes" and "no", and he seemed to be stupid. On January 16, 1976, Roston Skakel signed a written release allowing police access to Tony's medical records.Investigators learned during the investigation that, like the other Skackle brothers, neighbors reported that Tony had erratic behavior and a violent temper.Now what the police are trying to figure out is whether he might have killed himself out of control in a fit of rage and had no idea what he was doing when he was in a state of insanity, especially drunk or drugged, like some people Same as sleepwalking.Police learned that Tony drank a lot that night. The Greenwich Police Department sent Tony's medical records to Dr. Hall of Yale University School of Medicine, asking him to make an independent judgment based on his medical history without seeing the patient.According to medical records, when Tony was four years old, he jumped from a moving car and landed on his head. The skull fractured on the top of his head and caused a concussion. He was in a coma for 10 hours and was hospitalized for two weeks.Since then, Tony has become eccentric, restless, noisy, and loses his temper at every turn.Once he punched the door through a hole, and another time he broke the phone off the wall.When he lost control, the Skackles had to get a big boxer neighbor to bring him down.Dr. Hall's conclusion is that Tony's nerves have been damaged, and it is very likely that he lost control of his rage and killed him.But there is no mention of the so-called amnesia.