Norwalk, Conn. ? Life was thrilling for Martha Moxley as she came of age amid the mansions and celebrities of Greenwich in the mid-1970s.

The blond teen whose murder would long haunt the affluent New York City suburb was an instant hit as she swept in from California with her family and settled in the gated community of Belle Haven.

Martha Moxley is shown in this 1974 file photo. Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club on Oct. 30, 1975, in Belle Haven, a gated shoreline community in Greenwich, Conn. Michael Skakel, a nephew of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, has been charged in connection with Moxley's death.

The Skakel family, relatives of the Kennedys, were among her neighbors.

In her diary released as testimony began last week in the murder trial Michael Skakel, the 41-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow who is accused of killing the girl Moxley writes that she is amazed by the houses as she and a friend walk to a private club.

“We walked along Field Point Road and I showed her Victor Borge’s house,” Moxley writes on Oct. 12, 1974. “How exciting can you get?”

Moxley’s diaries show a teen having the time of her life playing tennis, pool hopping and shopping in the ritzy stores of downtown Greenwich. Her braces were off and the boys were swarming.

“Dear diary, today is the last day of ’74,” Moxley wrote on the last New Year’s Eve she would see. “Boo Hoo. ’74 has been one of the best years of my life. The parties and people were soooo fun. Well hope ’75 is as good.”

Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club on Oct. 30, 1975 “Mischief Night” after celebrating the night before Halloween with other teens.

She was 15 at the time. So was Michael Skakel.

Excerpts from the girl’s diary were read during the first week of trial testimony to show her relationship with Michael Skakel and his older brother, Thomas.

Michael Skakel, who could face life in prison if convicted, has denied killing her. His lawyers maintain that a former Skakel tutor who was an early suspect in the case incriminated himself years later. That tutor, Kenneth Littleton, has denied any role and was expected to return to the stand when the trial resumes today.

Meeting the Skakels

One of Moxley’s first references to the Skakels comes in August 1975, when she writes about being thrown into their pool by friends. By early September, Moxley is pool hopping with Michael, Thomas and other neighborhood teens.

That apparently lands her in trouble with her mother, who forbids her to see an Allman Brothers concert. “BUMMER!” Moxley writes in block capitals.

Soon Moxley is hanging out at the Skakel estate, where adult supervision is largely limited to a nanny, a cook and other family help. She writes that Thomas, an early suspect in Moxley’s murder because he was the last person seen with her, makes a pass at her during a wild ride in his car.

“I drove a little, then I was practically sitting on Tom’s lap ’cause I was only steering,” Moxley writes on Sept. 13. “He kept putting his hand on me knee.”

Michael is in the car as well and treats her to a double scoop of ice cream. “I only wanted a single, so I threw the top scoop out the window,” Moxley writes.

On Sept. 17, Moxley writes, Michael repeatedly complains to her that she is leading Thomas on when she doesn’t like him.

“Michael was so totally out of it that he was being a real (expletive) in his actions and words,” the diary entry says.

Moxley writes that Michael acted like a “he-man” and nearly got into a fist fight with Thomas and another brother.

“I really have to stop going over there,” she writes.

Timothy Dumas, who wrote a book on the murder, called that excerpt a “strong statement.”

“Something must have struck her in order to say, ‘I have to stop going over there,”‘ Dumas said. “She obviously had some intuition that it wasn’t a healthy thing to do.”

Popular teen

But a friend testified last week that Moxley’s interaction with the Skakel brothers did not suggest anything horrible was about to happen.

Moxley does see the Skakels again. In one of her last diary entries, she calls Thomas Skakel an “ass” because he kept putting his arms around her at a dance.

He was not alone in competing for Moxley’s attention.

“When we walked in, some guy asked me to dance, then some other guy asked me,” Moxley wrote. “It turned out to be a slow dance. It was ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ At the fast part, he wouldn’t even let go!”