Rushton Skakel Sr.: In-law of Kennedys, father of killer
Posted on 01/05/2003 6:03:28 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Rushton Skakel Sr.: In-law of Kennedys, father of killer
01/05/2003
STAMFORD, Conn. - Rushton Skakel Sr., brother of Ethel Kennedy and father of Michael Skakel - who was convicted last year of killing a teenage neighbor in 1975 - died Thursday at age 79.
Mr. Skakel died in Hobe Sound, Fla., after a long battle with a brain illness, his lawyer, Emanuel Margolis, said Saturday.
Relatives traveled to Florida to make arrangements for a service there Saturday, Mr. Margolis said.
Michael Skakel's trial lawyer, Michael Sherman, said: "In the four years that I've had contact with him, he's always been in failing health, both mentally and physically. It's a very tragic ending."
Rushton Skakel was one of seven children born to George and Ann Skakel. His sister Ethel married Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 1950.
Rushton Skakel took over the family business, Great Lakes Carbon, in the mid-1960s, after the deaths of his parents and brother George Skakel Jr. in separate plane crashes. The company, which manufactured carbon coke, was once one of the largest private companies in the country.
That wealth was on display in the Tudor-style mansion in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich, Conn., where Rushton Skakel and his wife, the late Anne Reynolds Skakel, raised their seven children.
In 1975, a neighbor of the Skakels', 15-year-old Martha Moxley, was beaten to death with a golf club later identified as belonging to a set the Skakel family owned.
Michael Skakel was convicted last year and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Well, at least he died knowing his cherubic son is in prison for murder.
Furman got this one right.
"Before the verdict came in, he hugged Michael. It was almost as if he knew that was the last time he would see him."
Speaking was Rushton's son, Steve Skakel, whose brother is in the Connecticut state prison for the murder of Martha Moxley 28 years ago in Greenwich, Conn.
After a generation had passed, last year a jury convicted Steve's brother, Michael Skakel, in a shotgun case that was more of a protest of the white-breads wanting to bury blaring facts sooner than baring the ugly truth later - i.e., that ugly things don't happen in beautiful neighborhoods.
It was a case of who cares who goes to prison, so long as it doesn't go on and bring down our real estate. Brothers and sisters, did I write it.
The Moxley-Skakel murder trial, news-wise, could've been a nanosecond of a tragedy except for one thing. Rushton's sister was Ethel, as in Kennedy.
Surviving son, Steve Skakel, was commenting on that fact: "Michael obviously has been told. It hit him pretty hard."
Bill Donovan, a former combat pilot and friend of Rushton, said: "We used to call him 'Rookie.' Yes, a millionaire, but generous, brilliant and very, very funny. I knew all the kids, and they were the same. Michael a murderer? Not in my book."
At the trial, Rushton Skakel was in dementia. At the Ash Creek Inn in Norwalk, Conn., he wet his pants in front of me, standing at a bar with no booze in sight.
"When my mother, Ann, died many years ago from a very painful cancer, Dad just went downhill faster every year," said Steve Skakel. "Michael being in jail just made it a bit faster."
Michael Skakel was convicted last year and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Michael Skakel was "convicted". Not "convicted of murder" or "convicted of the Moxley murder" or "the convicted killer of Marth Moxley".
Is it just me or is the AP doing all that it can to distance Skakel from the murder that he did and a jury convicted him of?
Thanks !
SKAKEL DAD'S DEATH ANOTHER TRAGIC KENNEDY ENDING
"When my mother, Ann, died many years ago from a very painful cancer, Dad just went downhill faster every year," said Steve Skakel. "Michael being in jail just made it a bit faster."
I agree !
Yes, Dunleavy has used his pulpit to help some but not many. After all Chuch Schwarz who he defended in his column ( Loumia case) was just returned to jail this week for a 5 year mandatory sentance.
What the article today fails to mention is that the death of Mama Skakel when they were boys opened up the doors for her children to become monsters. R. Skakel did not do a damn thing to raise them properly. Yes, death is tragic, specially when the mother of young children dies, but very few become murderers. Dunleavy's refusal to accept the reality of this case just sickens me.
Musta been hard for Rose to keep track of all the rambunctious Kennedy kids.
Teddy seems to be taking out his long-simmering frustrations on the rest of us by passing free-for-all liberal laws.
Too bad she ever remembered and let him out. When you say the Kennedy's have skeletons in their closet, it could be literally true.
Heheh. Good one.
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