Murder in Greenwich by Mark Fuhrman

"Are there two systems of justice in this country - one for the rich, and another for the rest of us?" - Mark Fuhrman

If you like reading about real-life homicide investigations with a huge focus on the investigation of clues, analysis of evidence, no-nonsense details and an expertly researched piece of work, ex-cop Mark Fuhrman is the author to look out for.

This case is unique in the sense that it involved a very prominent family, the Skakels, who had lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, for nearly fifty years.  The Skakels were among the wealthiest and high-powered families in town and had family connections with the Kennedys.  Could wealth, privilege and power buy a ticket out of jail and cover up pertinent facts in a murder case?  Well, more than likely it could but the truth will out.    

Even after a tough beginning where Fuhrman was stonewalled by the police in every sense of the word when he set out to get this book project started, I am glad he persevered and pushed on until his dedication and hard work paid off in the publication of Murder in Greenwich (1998), solely for the justice of Martha Moxley, a fifteen-year-old girl on the cusp of adulthood, who did not deserve such a tragic end.  Hats off to you, Mark Fuhrman.

I must mention the fact that Fuhrman's book was written before the conviction of Michael Skakel of the murder of Martha Moxley, thirty seven years after the murder, in 2002.  Briefly, by 1982, the Moxley murder investigation basically petered out.  The police did not determine the suspect was a Skakel until the reinvestigation of the case began in 1991 with a survey of the evidence, new revelations and new rounds of DNA testing.  As a matter of fact, Fuhrman's investigations in the writing of this book set the ball rolling in naming Skakel as the killer.  In the end, Skakel was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison and to this day, remains inside.  If you are looking for a book written after the conviction of Skakel, then the only one written about it is Len Levitt and Leonard Levitt's Conviction:  Solving the Moxley Murder:  A Reporter and A Detective's Twenty Year Search for Justice (2004).

Martha Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club on the grounds of her family's exclusive Greenwich, Connecticut, estate on 30 October 1975.

Mark Fuhrman is the controversial former LAPD homicide detective and author of the national bestseller Murder in Brentwood (1997) about the O J Simpson trial.

I do not rate non-fiction books.

An overview of the murder with police/victim's family/author interviews: