RFK Jr. plans article defending Skakel

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By Associated Press, 11/12/2002 14:19

NORWALK, Conn. (AP) The Atlantic Monthly plans to run an article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proclaiming the innocence of his cousin, Michael Skakel, who was convicted in June of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley.

Kennedy's article is expected to be published in the magazine's January/February edition.

''We think it's a compelling, important article,'' said Michael Kelly, editor at large of the publication, adding that Kennedy raises questions about the case.

When reached by The Associated Press Monday, Kennedy would not disclose details of what he planned to write.

Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was convicted in June of beating Martha to death with a golf club in 1975 when they were 15-year-old neighbors in wealthy Greenwich. Skakel, 42, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Kennedy attended the trial briefly and wrote a letter of support to the judge who sentenced Skakel.

In another development, Skakel has been transferred from Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown to Cheshire Correctional Institution, said Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. Both are high-security prisons, Garnett said. Garnett said such transfers are routine.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2002

Answers

FK Jr. has plenty of material for magazine gig

by Howie Carr Wednesday, November 13, 2002

So Bobby Kennedy Jr. is going to become a celebrity magazine writer, and his first assignment is a 14,000-word defense of his cousin, tubby alcoholic layabout and now convicted murderer Michael Skakel.

Can't wait to read it. After all, Bobby's a very distinguished lawyer. He passed the bar exam on his third try - that's seven fewer times than it took the Kennedy family's handpicked candidate for Barnstable County district attorney last week.

Now Bobby sues pig farms, he endorses Hillary, he's against the Navy shelling of Vieques, not to mention he's a regular on the Kennedy-trial circuit, appearing whenever and wherever a Kennedy finds himself on trial for allegedly raping or murdering ``some girl,'' as his Uncle Ted once put it.

So this magazine gig is a good career move, combining vocation and avocation, family and business.

But this . . . this could be much bigger. Talk about a new genre just waiting to be exploited. Bobby is 48 years old. He could spend the rest of his working life writing real-life whodunits about how his family members were framed.

His uncles, his brothers, his cousins, his grand-dad, even his late father - all have been accused of various sundry high crimes and misdemeanors. Surely Bobby Jr. could pound out a quick 10,000 words for Vanity Fair proving beyond a reasonable doubt that his father did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Marilyn Monroe.

Albert Brooks made a movie, Defending Your Life. Bobby Kennedy Jr. can make a career, Defending His Family's Life. Of course, high society already has one celebrity crime chronicler. His name is Dominick Dunne, and isn't it fascinating that Bobby Jr.'s upcoming Skakel piece is going to try to take the old man down?

There's a new kid in town.

But wouldn't Bobby Jr. make a worthy successor to Dunne? In his younger days, Dominick was a drunk. Bobby Jr. was a junkie - remember how he got caught on the flight over South Dakota with heroin? Both have lost family members to violence. Both are on a first-name basis with Larry King. Dominick's a shameless name-dropper, Kennedy is a shameless name.

For all these years hacks have made millions off what was once called, without giggles, ``the first family of America.'' So why shouldn't the Kennedys themselves start to cash in on their own scandal machine? Having squandered most of the money Old Man Joe left them, even the Kennedys need to make a living, and when it comes to politics, it's not 1960 anymore.

If you've ever read any of these Kennedy family tomes, you know that by now most of them are clip jobs anyway. Just ask Doris Kearns Goodwin. So if Bobby Jr. starts grinding out a book a year, the next time one of the non-Kennedys decides to lift some material, they'll at least be plagiarizing directly from the horse's mouth, rather than stealing it second-hand.

So many books for Bobby to write. The obvious first one is ``The True Story of Chappaquiddick.'' Who really drove Mary Jo off the Dike Bridge, Bobby? It was Nixon, wasn't it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Moving ahead, who really raped your brother Michael's babysitter? And why did that woman in Palm Beach try to frame your cousin Willie?

Then there's brother Joe. How do we know he was driving that dark day when somebody turned over his Jeep on Nantucket and crippled the Kelley girl? Was it a plot of some sort? Maybe Gore Vidal can write a foreword, wrapping it together with his pensees on the 9/11 ``conspiracy'' and the ``murder'' of Paul Wellstone.

Another book: why Joe couldn't possibly have set his young son on fire with those illegal fireworks. And what's the story behind the story on the death of poor David Kennedy? Suggested book title for that one: ``Murder at the Brazilian Court.''

Of course, there's only one problem with writing books. It involves something few Kennedys know anything about - namely, work. But there is a way around that, especially if you're a celebrity. It's called ghostwriting. Is Ted Sorensen still alive?

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2002


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