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Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice
 
 
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Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice [Hardcover]

Leonard Levitt (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 12, 2004
On October 30, 1975, fifteen-year-old Martha Moxley headed home from Halloween Eve antics with her Greenwich, Connecticut, neighbors Tommy and Michael Skakel. She never made it. Her brutal murder with a golf club in her own backyard made national headlines. But for years no one was arrested, despite troubling clues pointing to the Skakels, a rich and powerful family related to the Kennedys. After the police department's first unsuccessful attempts to catch the killer, the case lay dormant, and the culprit remained free.

Enter Leonard Levitt. In 1982, the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time newspapers asked investigative reporter Levitt to look into the murder and the undying rumors of a cover-up. Levitt soon uncovered groundbreaking information about how the police had bungled the investigation, and he learned that Tommy and Michael had lied about their activities on the night of the murder. But Levitt's articles about his findings -- and the haunting questions they raised -- almost never saw the light of day. For years, Levitt's superiors mysteriously refused to publish the stories. Convinced that the Moxley family deserved the peace and closure they had so long been denied, Levitt fought desperately to keep his discoveries alive. Finally, after Levitt's first article appeared, the case was reopened.

Enter Frank Garr. As the newly appointed investigator on the Moxley case, the seasoned Greenwich detective doggedly pursued unexplored leads and became increasingly convinced that for over a decade, his colleagues had been pursuing the wrong suspects. At first mistrustful of one another, as reporters and detectives often are, Levitt and Garr became friends, encouraging each other in their quest for the truth as the obstacles against them piled up.

In 2002, more than twenty-five years after Moxley's death, a shocked world watched as Michael Skakel was convicted of the murder, thanks largely to the evidence Garr alone had marshaled against him. Now, for the first time, Leonard Levitt tells the amazing true story of Garr's fight to solve the case and of how their friendship with each other, and with Martha Moxley's mother, Dorthy, sustained them over the years. A riveting, suspenseful drama that unfolds like a mystery novel, this incredible memoir also reveals how a police officer and a reporter refused to give up, and how they helped justice to prevail, against all odds.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran Newsday police reporter Levitt offers his personal perspective on the long trail from the 1975 murder of teenager Martha Moxley to the 2002 conviction of Michael Skakel, but fails to make his presentation compelling. Levitt's tale includes his struggle with his editor to get his stories published and his bond with Martha's mother, Dorthy, and detective Frank Garr, whom he credits with solving the case. Although his point of view differs from those of others who have written on the crime, such as Mark Fuhrman and Timothy Dumas, Levitt treads over familiar ground. Aside from his bias against the whole Skakel family, perhaps the book's greatest deficiency is Levitt's failure to seriously confront and refute the logical arguments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Skakel's cousin, in a 2003 Atlantic Monthly essay, which contends that the evidence at trial was insufficient and notes that other suspects, including the Skakel family tutor, were more likely to have committed the vicious slaying. One such suspect, the Skakel gardener, who had boasted of a history of sexual assaults, is not even mentioned here. While Levitt deserves credit for his dogged pursuit of the truth, which led to a reopening of the moribund investigation in 1991, he has fallen short of his goal to tell the complete story. B&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“It’s the true-to-life whodunit about a reporter who wouldn’t let go.” (New York Post )

“A bombshell new book.” (Sunday Mirror )

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 305 pages
  • Publisher: Regan Books (Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers); 1st edition (October 12, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060544309
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060544300
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Levitt versus Kennedy, October 14, 2004
By 
This review is from: Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice (Hardcover)
The murder of Martha Moxley and its aftermath constitute one of the most disturbing crime stories of the last thirty years. Of the four books that deal with the case (one of them mine) only Leonard Levitt's was written after the 2002 conviction of Michael Skakel. There had been especially high hopes for Mr. Levitt's book, since he'd been reporting on the case longer and more effectively than anyone else. Now he has delivered on those hopes. This is a brisk, hard-nosed, highly engrossing account with much new information. It also performs the service of showing how Frank Garr, who doggedly pursued the case when his colleagues had abandoned hope, ended up solving it.

Given Mr. Levitt's command of his subject, I am struck by the Publisher's Weekly review printed above. The reviewer cites Mr. Levitt's "failure to seriously confront and refute the logical arguments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr." in the Atlantic Monthly last year. Mr. Kennedy's essay was well-structured and nicely written, which must have fooled the reviewer into believing that it was also "logical."

The essay is in fact a breathtaking exercise in distortion. Mr. Kennedy smears inconvenient witnesses, ignores inconvenient facts, and molds other facts to suit his purposes. (Examples overflow; I'll mention just two: He implies that Ken Littleton, the Skakel tutor, was "inflamed and in an alcoholic stupor" on the night of the murder, an idea that no witness -- not even a Skakel -- has supported. And he writes that one of the case's original investigators, Steve Carroll, was "convinced" of Mr. Littleton's guilt when Mr. Carroll was actually convinced of his innocence.)

Whatever one's feelings about the quality of evidence presented at trial, there is no reason Mr. Levitt should have stooped to answer Mr. Kennedy's feat of misdirection.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, October 28, 2004
By 
Jason Crowe (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice (Hardcover)
I read this book in four days; it was truly an amazing piece of work. Once again Len Levitt offers an insight that only he can. Frank Garr's input complimented the story with amazing details that where previously unknown. I have prided myself in the past with thinking I had a full grasp on the case, but after reading the first four chapters of this book it was quickly apparent that I did not. Although the book does contain the general information of the case it does far more to enlighten the reader as to the aspects of the crime and the participants of the story; there is much to be learned by this book. I felt that the review by the critics of Publisher Weekly was unfair in saying 'perhaps the book's greatest deficiency is Levitt's failure to seriously confront and refute the logical arguments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.', this is simply untrue, there are several references in the book that address the question of Mr. Kennedy's essay, Len Levitt simply does not waste time going into great detail on the explanation of the Kennedy/Skakel propaganda machine, that asks more questions than it ever attempts to answer. I highly recommend this book to others, it does not disappoint. My hats off to Len and Frank for all their hard work over the years, their team work is the REAL reason this case was solved. Unlike others who jumped on the media bandwagon when it was time to bask in the limelight, this dynamic duo deserves the true credit and recognition for solving the murder of Martha Moxley.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, October 14, 2004
By 
This review is from: Conviction: Solving the Moxley Murder: A Reporter and a Detective's Twenty-Year Search for Justice (Hardcover)
I picked up Mr. Levitt's book "Conviction" on a Saturday morning and couldn't put it down until I finished it the next evening. More than just a look at the investigation into the murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley and the conviction of Kennedy-cousin Micheal Skakel, the book tells the compelling story of how Mr. Levitt and Frank Garr fought tooth and nail to overcome their respective bureaucracies. Long after the case had gone cold, Mr. Levitt, an investigative reporter, tried to jump start the investigation only to find the newspaper he worked for was too timid to buck the Greenwich establishment and print his story. Mr. Garr, a detective with the Greenwich police who inherited the case, had to overcome years of missteps by his fellow cops who feared his investigation might uncover their own ineptitude.
It's a tremendous read. I recommend it to everyone.

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I never thought Michael would be convicted. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
police library
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Martha Moxley, Belle Haven, Michael Skakel, David Moxley, Long Island, Frank Garr, Rushton Skakel, Andrea Shakespeare, Greenwich Time, Jack Solomon, Jimmy Terrien, Andy Pugh, Big Ann, Bobby Kennedy, Dominick Dunne, Ken Littleton, Sutton Associates, Walsh Lane, Mark Fuhrman, John Higgins, Tom Sheridan, Tommy Skakel, Anne Skakel, Donald Browne
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