Tutor’s ‘Confession’ at Issue in Skakel Trial

Prosecutors at the murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel sought Tuesday to show that a family tutor once considered a suspect in Martha Moxley’s death never confessed to the crime.

Skakel and Moxley were both 15 when she was beaten to death with a golf club and stabbed through the neck with the broken shaft. The slaying happened Oct. 30, 1975, the night after tutor Kenneth Littleton moved into the Skakel household.

On the stand Monday, Littleton made conflicting statements. Asked about a drunken conversation he allegedly had in 1984, he said he once told his former wife that he had stabbed Moxley. But he also testified he didn’t kill the girl.

On Tuesday, the ex-wife, Mary Baker, testified that Littleton never confessed to the crime. She said she was working with investigators when she falsely told Littleton he had confessed during a blackout and had graphically described the murder. At the time, Littleton was a suspect in Moxley’s murder and police were hoping he might make incriminating statements if prompted.

Baker also read a lengthy transcript of a secretly recorded conversation she had with her former husband in 1992 at the behest of investigators.

In that conversation, Littleton repeatedly denied having anything to do with the killing.

“I never ever hurt a woman or child in my life,” he said, according to the transcript. Skakel’s attorney, Michael Sherman, estimated Baker had taped about 300 conversations. “Why would you do that? This is the father of your children,” he said. “They have no evidence against him.”

Baker said she had hoped the tapes would exonerate Littleton.