Greentown: Murder and Mystery in Greenwich, America's Wealthiest Commuinity

The first edition of Greentown helped reopen one of America’s most shameful unsolved murder cases, the savage slaying of fifteen-year-old Martha Moxley in an exclusive enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, the night before Halloween 1975. Soon after Martha’s body was discovered, attention focused on members of the Skakel family, who lived across the street from the Moxleys. Ethel Skakel and Robert Kennedy had married in Greenwich, and the two families were close. Thomas Skakel, Ethel’s nephew, was the last known person to see Martha alive. The murder weapon, a ladies’ golf club, came from the Skakel household. When the Greenwich police tried to pursue its investigation, however, the community closed in upon itself. Lawyers were summoned, walls went up, information was suppressed, and no one was charged. And yet, continuing to haunt Greenwich, the case refused to go away—until, twenty-three years later, following the publication of this book, a grand jury was convened, and two years after that a man—Thomas’s brother Michael—was finally indicted for the crime.

This revised edition now brings the Martha Moxley murder case to a close. Updated to include the indictment, trial, and conviction of the murderer, Greentown offers the suspenseful and chilling account of a terrible crime. More than that, while relating a tale of seductive power, it uses the murder to tell the heartrending story of a family and a community responding to the unthinkable.

 

“Dumas brings an unusual sensitivity and clarity to this disturbing tale.”—Publishers Weekly

Greenwich, Connecticut, also known as "Greentown," has never recovered from the savage murder of fifteen-year-old Martha Moxley, whose battered body was discovered on the grounds of her home in the privileged enclave of Belle Haven on Halloween night in 1975. The immediate suspects were Thomas and Michael Skakel, nephews of Ethel Kennedy, who lived across the street. Until recently, no one was ever charged in the murder, and it went down as one of the legendary unsolved crimes of recent history.  

Dominick Dunne, who used the murder as the basis for his bestselling novel A Season in Purgatory, encouraged Tim to write Greentown, which, like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, uses a searing crime to probe the heart of a community looking for its soul. In Greenwich, heart and soul are corrupted by money and what it can buy--not just unimaginable material comforts, but protection from the law.   

This book, and Tim Dumas's dogged investigation, were instrumental in reviving the case, which led to the current indictment of Michael Skakel in the crime. Powerful, haunting, and beautifully written, with new material that covers Skakel's conviction and the long-term aftermath of the crime, Greentown is a story about wealth in America and the nether side of the American dream.

Timothy Dumas was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was for many years the managing editor of Greenwich News. He has written extensively on the Moxley case for a number of magazines and newspapers. He and his wife Maria now live in Stamford, Connecticut.