Rushton Walter Skakel was the brother of Ethel Kennedy, wife of Robert F Kennedy, Former United States Attorney General. Rushton Walter Skakel belonged from an affluent family as his father was a successful industrialist.
Rushton Walter Skakel’s Family
Rushton Walter Skakel was born to George Skakel, an American industrialist who founded the SGL Carbon subsidiary Great Lakes Carbon Corporation. Rushton’s father married his former secretary Ann Brannack. George was a protestant whereas Rushton’s mother was a devoted catholic. Rushton’s father and mother had total seven children together, Georgeann Skakel Dowdle-Terrien, James Curtis Skakel III, George Skakel Jr, Rushton Walter Skakel, Patricia Sistine Skakel, Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Ann Skakel McCooey. Ruston Walter was the fourth child of George and Ann, born in 1923.
Rushton’s younger sister Ethel married United States Attorney General Robert F Kennedy in 1950 in Greenwich, Connecticut. During a skiing trip to Quebec, Canada’s Mount Tremblant Resort in 1945, 17-year-old Ethel met Robert F. Kennedy (Bobby). Bobby was dating Patricia Skakel, the sister of Ethel, at the time. Eventually, that union fell apart, and Robert and Ethel began dating Ethel completed her college thesis on John F. Kennedy’s book Why England Slept and worked as a campaigner for him during his 1946 run for the US Congress.
Bobby and Ethel were engaged in February 1950, and they married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenwich on June 17, 1950. They had 11 children together. Ruston’s parents George and Ann died on October 3, 1955, when the private jet they were in crashed close to Union City, Oklahoma. Rushton had seven children, the fifth of the seven, Michael Skakel was sentenced for murdering his 15-year-old classmate.
Rushton Walter Skakel’s Son
Rushton had seven children, the fifth of the seven, Michael Skakel was sentenced for murdering his 15-year-old classmate. In 2002, Michael Skakel—also 15 at the time of murder was found guilty of killing Moxley and received a 20-year jail term. Skakel was released on $1.2 million bond after a Connecticut court granted him a new trial in 2013 after finding that his legal representation had been insufficient.
The Connecticut Supreme Court decided 4-3 to uphold Skakel’s conviction on December 30, 2016. On May 4, 2018, the Connecticut Supreme Court made a U-turn and mandated a fresh trial. The state of Connecticut declared it would not retrial Skakel for Moxley’s murder on October 30, 2020, the 45th anniversary of Moxley’s death. Skakel is the nephew of U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, hence the case gained international attention.
