"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."
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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."