Chapter 28 Section five

Another witness with ties to the Kennedy family was Michael Kennedy's babysitter. In 1996, Mike Skaker and Michael Kennedy worked in the Senate campaign office of his uncle Ted Kennedy at the same time. Michael Kennedy had an improper sexual relationship with a babysitter who was less than 20 years old at the time. The woman's parents were deeply concerned.Mike helped them open up and end the relationship. On New Year's Eve 1997, Michael Kennedy died in a skiing accident in Colorado.Word has it that Mike Skackle had spoken to the babysitter about Martha's murder. The defense's witness list has more than 20 names, and the prosecution's list has more than 40 names, including the first two witnesses on the first day of the trial, Doris Mockley and Sina Megall.Other witnesses were Ken Littleton, Tony Skackle, Ruston Skackle, and more.

According to comprehensive reports from various media, during the court debate, the public prosecutor believed that Mike Skakel fell in love with Martha Mockley, but because Martha was more in love with her brother Tony, she had the idea of ​​killing her. There are no witnesses in this case, and there is not enough forensic evidence, such as hair, skin, DNA, etc., to link the defendant with the perpetrator. .So, as far as the prosecution is concerned, the entire case is based almost entirely on witnesses who claim to have heard Mike Skakel confess on various occasions, most of whom were Mike's classmates at the Elan Juvenile Center and some at Martha's. After Mockley's body was found, he was heard to say some suspicious things.An Elan student named Gregory Coleman died of a heroin overdose before the case began, but the court allowed the prosecution to read his testimony at his grand jury arraignment, which referred to Mike S. Kakel told Gregory Coleman more than once: "I killed people but no one dared to do anything to me, because I was a member of the Kennedy family."

Another witness was Lorenz Gercaroli, the driver of the Scarker family.He said that one day shortly after Martha's murder, Mike and his father had a big row at home, and afterward Mr. Scarker sent Lorenz Jacaroli to take Mike to see a psychologist in New York.On the way Mike took out a knife and threatened to kill Lorenz, but Lorenz had no choice but to caress Mike kindly. “Mike told me afterward that he had a disaster and he had to leave the country. He said he had no choice but to kill himself.” Mike had Lorenz Gaccaroli parked on the Tripolo Bridge.Mike jumped out of the car and began climbing the railings of the Tripolo Bridge, threatening to kill himself by jumping into the river.

In addition, the prosecution subpoenaed author Richard Hoffman.This person had planned to write a book about the Skackle family and interviewed Mike Skackle in 1997.In the tapes of the interview played in court, Mike recounted to Richard Hoffman what he did on the night of October 30, 1975, similar to his conversation with the Sutton task force on August 4, 1992.He then said that when he heard from Martha's mother, Mrs Mockley, that Martha was missing the next day, "I thought to myself: 'Oh my God! Did they see me last night?'" Years later, one witness said, Mike Skackle mentioned that he remembered seeing his brother Tony in Martha's backyard that night.Other witnesses told the jury about a feud between brothers Tony and Mike Skakel.The prosecution also showed in court a shoe that Martha was wearing when she was killed, with "Tony" written on it.

The main points of the defense lawyer's defense are that, at the time of the crime inferred by the police, between 9:30 and 10:00, Mike Skakel and his brothers were taking drugs, watching Television, there are several witnesses to this point. Second, the credibility of certain witnesses is questionable, such as Gregory Coleman's heavy drug use, and it is impossible for him to be mentally or even mentally sound.The witnesses for the defense also included some students from the Yilan Juvenile Detention Center. They told the court that the staff of Yilan often verbally abused, physically punished, and even beat the students to force them to say what the school wanted to hear.

As for the interview tape provided by author Richard Hoffman, Mickey Sherman said that just proved Mike Skakel's innocence. It is worth noting that the biggest dispute between the prosecution and the defendant is the time of committing the crime, or the time of death of the victim, Martha Mockley.Mickey Sherman, defense attorney for the defendant, pointed out that in addition to the strange arguing and dog barking reported by the neighbors to the investigators between 9:30 and 10:00, in order to determine the time of Martha's death, Greene Odd police have consulted Dr. Mike Barton, a forensic science expert.The original text of Dr. Patton's conclusion is: "Based on the contents of the deceased's stomach, we believe that the time of death should be between 9:30 and 10 o'clock." According to the report of the coroner Dr. Elio Gross, the public prosecutor said, Extend the crime time from 9:30 to 1:30 in the middle of the night to strengthen the possibility of Mike Skakel committing crimes after 11:30.Moreover, prosecutor Jonathan Benetti pointed out that Tony Skakel's retracted testimony to the Sutton task force on October 7, 1994 proved that Martha Mockley was seen alive at least at 9:50.

John Skakel claimed in a lie detector test passed in 1975 that Mike went with them to Tyrion's house and played there until 11:20.But the court did not allow the defendant to show the experimental records and tapes this time, because John Skakel testified in the grand jury that he could not remember who went to Tyrion's house together. Adding another question mark to Mike's "alibi" was Julie's friend Andia Sharkbill, who was also at Scarker's home on the night of October 30, 1975.She testified for the prosecution that Mike did not go to the Tyrion home. On June 7, 2002, the trial ended.The following is an excerpt from CBS's report that day:

After four days of deliberations, the jury today returned its verdict that Mike Skackle was charged with the murder of Martha Mockley.The Kennedy cousin will likely be sentenced to 10 years in prison to life in prison. ………… The case revealed a world of privilege to the public.Doubts remain as to whether the Skakel family's connection to the White House allowed Mike Skackle to get away with it for a quarter of a century. ………… Mike Skackle sat up straight when he heard the verdict, and his lawyer put an arm around his shoulder.Mike looked at the jury, and then at the public gallery. His face was full of doubts and surprises, and tears were about to come out.

At the same time, there was a sudden murmur in the courtroom, and members of the Mokley and Skakel families in the auditorium sighed heavily, and the judge had to order "Silence!" ………… Two marshals handcuffed and shackled Mike Skakel before leading him out of the courtroom. Martha's mother Doris and brother Jon hugged and congratulated Attorney General Jonathan Benetti with tears in their eyes. "At last," said Jon, "a bitter victory." On July 19, 2002, Mike Skakel was sentenced to 20 years in prison. So far, this case that has spanned two centuries finally has an explanation.But is this the truth in the true sense, the truth revealed to the world?At least the Skakels don't think so. For 27 years, the Skakel family has also paid a huge price for this murder. They have hired Tom Hiridan, a lawyer representing the family, and Manny Maglis, a lawyer representing Tony Skakel, for many years. At most, there were 10 lawyers working on the case for them, plus the special case team of Sutton's private detective firm.Huge legal fees, as well as lingering doubts and rumors around their heads, forced the Scarker family to sell their ancestral properties-the Great Lakes Mining Company and the Belhaven mansion.At the same time, mentally, everyone in the family was oppressed to hold their breath, keep a low profile, and behave with their tails between their legs.When Mike Skakel's verdict was handed down, in addition to shock and anger, Skakel's family members also had a sense of relief and steadiness that they had nothing to lose.As Steven Skackle said: "People's endurance is limited. We have endured it for nearly 30 years." So, several young Skakers either went on TV or were interviewed by reporters, In order to express to the public the grievances that have been hidden in the bottom of my heart for many years.And this time, the youngest of the seven siblings, Steven Skakel, was the leader. He was only 9 years old when Martha's murder happened.

The Skackles Jr. were not alone, as their cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr., son of Robert and Isaac Kennedy, also stepped up.The eldest son of the Kennedy family was a former attorney general and is now a law professor at Pace University.Although the children of the two families were not very close as children, Robert Jr. and Mike Skakel went through alcohol and drug treatment together in 1983 and have been walking around since then. After months of research and evidence collection, Professor Kennedy published an investigative article on the murder of Martha Mockley in the February issue of the legal journal Atlanta Monthly in 2003.The article highlighted the alibi of Mike Skakel, pointing out that his retraction was only because the 15-year-old boy was ashamed to admit masturbation, not to cover up the crime.The article also criticized the two authors, Dominic Dann and Mark Fuhrman, for misleading the public, resulting in the unfair trial of Mike Skakel.

In fact, Robert Kennedy Jr. wrote, the prosecution used the testimony of two of Elan's students to convict Mike.Gregory Coleman testified to the grand jury that he had heard Mike's confession five or six times, and later changed his statement once or twice during the preliminary trial of the case.Asked by defense attorney Mickey Sherman why he changed his testimony, Gregory Coleman said he smoked 25 packets of heroin before going to the grand jury to testify against his nervousness and anxiety.As for the other witness named Jon Hegens, he was a well-known bully at the Yilan Juvenile Center, who often bullied Mike back then. Robert Kennedy Jr. said in the article that the court debate between the prosecution and the defense has always been evenly matched, and the outcome is evenly divided.But Attorney General Jonathan Benetti resorted to a killer trick in his concluding remarks. He took the tapes of Richard Hoffman's interview out of context and changed it to confuse jurors.Jonathan excerpted two passages from Mike from the recording: When I woke up I saw Mrs. Mockley and she said, "Michael, did you see Martha?" I was like, "Oh my God! Did they see me last night?" First of all, these two passages are not connected like this in the original tape, there are other contents in between.Most importantly, from the context of the tape, Mike is actually talking about his masturbation.Jonathan Benetti not only re-edited the tapes and played them in court, but also printed the passage put together in this way on a large piece of cardboard in large letters, next to a large picture of Martha's body. Colorized photos of the scene, shown to the jury in court, gave the false impression that Mike was admitting he had killed Martha. Regarding this point, a reporter later interviewed Jonathan Benetti and said to him: "If I do this like you, I will be fired." Professor Kennedy commented: "Some wily prosecutors send innocent people to prison in this way." In jail." Robert Jr. admitted that the results of his research "neither confirm that Mike Skakel was the perpetrator nor that he was not the perpetrator." So who could be the perpetrator?Professor Kennedy still had his eye on Ken Littleton.He said that the fact that the Martha Mockley murder happened on Ken Littleton's first day in office could hardly be explained by mere coincidence. For Ken Littleton, the most critical thing is that he has an alibi.But after careful analysis, people will find that this so-called "alibi" was actually provided by Ken himself, and the method was very clever. He established an alibi for himself by proving that Tony Scarker was not there. "Alibi".In fact, the first thing Tony told the police was that he went back to the house to do his homework around 9:30, and didn't mention that he was watching the TV show "Live Pursuit" with Ken in the master bedroom on the second floor at 10:03.It was later discovered that Tony had lied to the police, and no one pursued his very subtle inconsistency with Ken Littleton on this point.In fact, Ken Littleton's testimony not only contains many contradictions, but also does not match the testimony of some other witnesses in many details. At the time, Ken Littleton wasn't even at the Scarkel mansion. In addition, like all members of the Skakel family, Robert Kennedy Jr. was very dissatisfied with the behavior of the defense attorney Mickey Sherman in court, thinking that he was at least insensitive if not derelict.Mickey Sherman never questioned some of the obvious loopholes and flaws of the prosecution and its witnesses, not even forcefully questioning the credibility of Elan's student Jon Heggens.When the little Skackles who attended the court pointed it out to him, Mickey said nonchalantly: "Don't worry, we'll see." A large piece of cardboard with a photo of Mike's confession and Martha's dead body printed on it, and the re-edited audio tape was played in court, only to find that his opponent had the upper hand, but it was too late to fight back. Robert Kennedy Jr. also said in an interview with reporters that all he did was for Mike's son George, "I can't see him grow up in an environment where everyone accuses his father of being a murderer." Big. Besides, his father was innocent at all." The appearance of Robert Kennedy Jr. made the Skakers feel more ridiculous and even ironic.It is precisely because of their relationship with the Kennedy family that the media and the public have a special interest in them.And Mike Skackle, according to the young Skackles, fell victim to this interest.If we go back and look at the newspaper articles about this case, the two paragraphs quoted earlier in this article almost without exception have "Kennedy's cousin" in front of the name of Tony or Mike Skakel, or "Isaac Kennedy's nephew," or "a relative of the Kennedy family," etc. Mike Skakel is currently being held at Garner Prison in Newtown, Connecticut.Since his incarceration, Steven Scarker has driven the 60 miles round trip every Saturday from his home in Checil, Connecticut, to Newtown to visit the prison, whether it's wind, rain, heat or cold. "Just to let him know that we have not forgotten him, we are still busy for him." Steven said. The Skackles have hired a new lawyer for Mike to prepare for the appeal.Steven Skakel told reporters: "Mike can never be the murderer. I will fight to the last breath for Mike's freedom and the innocence of the family." let us wait and see. According to the author's writing notes, the above part of this article was completed in early July 2003. In late July, the scandal that the famous Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant may be suspected of rape was disclosed in the newspapers. On September 13, 2003, ABC Morning News reported that relevant parties learned during the investigation of the Kobe Bryant case that Kobe's cousin Tony Bryant had information about the murder of Martha Mokley important clues to the case.CBS sources say that Professor Robert Kennedy Jr. received hundreds of letters from readers after his Atlanta Monthly article was published.One was from Clover Mills, a middle school classmate of Mike Skakel's, saying that another of their classmates "Tony knows who killed Martha". "Tony" refers to Tony Bryant. In the mid-1970s, Tony Bryant was one of the few black students at Brownwick Boys Private High School. He had two good friends living in the Bronx, New York, one black and one white guy.Tony Bryant took the two friends on several visits to Belhaven, and one of them fell in love with Miss Mockley.On the night of Martha's murder, the three young men went to Belhaven together again, and they picked up a golf club on the Scarkel's lawn.Tony Bryant heard two of his friends say they had a plan to hit a girl this evening in a "caveman fashion." Tony Bryant knew that by the girl they meant Martha Mockley. "Caveman" was originally an ape-man who lived in caves in the ancient Stone Age.The so-called "caveman way", Tony explained to Professor Kennedy, is to "take a blow in the head and drag it into the bushes".Tony didn't want to cause any trouble, so he went home alone. When Tony Bryant read the news of Martha Mockley's murder in the newspaper two days later, he immediately thought: They really did. So did the two friends say anything afterward?Tony Bryant said they boasted about it once or twice in a roundabout way, but never explicitly admitted to killing someone. So why hasn't Tony Bryant revealed the secret he's kept for nearly 30 years until now?Tony told Robert Kennedy Jr. that his mother would not let him speak.The Bryants were one of the few black families living in Greenwich, and Tony's parents had always been cautious.Later, Tony had a criminal record himself, and it was even more difficult to do more than to do less. In fact, this is not the first time Tony Bryant has disclosed this secret.In the spring of 2002, just before the Martha Mockley murder trial officially opened, Clover Mills reflected these facts to Jonathan Benetti, the prosecution's attorney general, and Mickey Sherman, the defendant's defense attorney. Condition.But due to various and individual reasons, both sides ignored Clover Mills and Tony Bryant, and Jonathan Benetti even told them to "get out"! Robert Kennedy Jr. later visited those two "friends" in the Bronx, and confirmed some details provided by Tony Bryant from their mouths, such as they were friends 30 years ago, Have been to Belhaven Island many times, etc.But Robert Jr. carefully avoided those sensitive topics about the murder of Martha Mockley, so as not to startle the snake. Immediately after the Sept. 13 announcement, a reporter approached the "two friends" and asked them bluntly if they had killed Martha Mockley in a "caveman fashion," as Tony Bryant claimed. .Reporters got a negative response, which was certainly to be expected. Robert Kennedy Jr. was once again in the media spotlight.He pointed out in an interview with reporters: "Someone has already decided in advance that the Skackle family should go to prison, so they deliberately ignore the evidence pointing to other aspects." Robert Jr. confirmed that the newly hired daughter of the Skackle family Attorney Hope Selee has filmed Tony Bryant for 90 minutes and personally visited two of his Bronx "friends."Hope Sely is currently working on two things, one is to fight for the reopening of Mike Skakel's case, and the other is to continue to investigate the clues provided by Tony Bryant. Asked about the future of the case, Professor Kennedy said: "It's in God's hands." The Mockley family, however, shrugged off the sensational news.Du Lisi, who is over seventy years old, calmly told reporters: "This is not the first time that the Scarker family has looked for a scapegoat for themselves." ………… Therefore, the author wrote this new text based on the new progress of the case, but did not change any words that had been completed before.Because as it stands, no one but the real murderer and Mike Skackle can answer the following question: Did the Skackle family rely on their power and wealth to evade justice for 27 years? For a long time, or because of its power and wealth, it caused unprovoked right and wrong or even disaster?Just like a common saying circulating among Americans that reflects the "hate of the rich": "People like to see high and mighty fall. That's human nature." Still the same sentence: let us wait and see.