Jason Rearick / AP

Michael Skakel attacked the lawyer who represented him at his original trial for murder when he testified at an appeal hearing on Thursday.

VERNON, Conn. -- Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel on Thursday slammed the attorney who represented him at his murder trial, portraying an overly confident lawyer basking in the limelight while making fundamental mistakes.

In his latest appeal, Skakel argued trial attorney Michael Sherman failed to competently defend him when he was convicted in 2002 of killing his Greenwich neighbor in 1975 when they were both 15.

Skakel blamed Sherman for making poor jury picks and failing to track down and call witnesses, including singer Michael Bolton and actor Harrison Ford.

Skakel, the 52-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, is serving 20 years to life for the golf club bludgeoning of Martha Moxley.

Skakel, who did not testify at his trial, seemed eager to unload as he took the witness stand.

Skakel said Sherman told him that he would never go to trial, saying, "you'll never see the inside of a courtroom."

When he did, he said, Sherman put a police officer and a woman whose friend's mother knew the victim's mother on the jury despite his objections.

Skakel said Sherman took photos of the judge and jury with a pen camera and had him sign an autograph.

"I was flabbergasted at the nonchalant attitude," he said.

He said Sherman did not give him a chance to review evidence in the case. When Sherman visited Skakel at his Florida home, they would mostly talk about money and golf, Skakel said.

"He wanted a war chest. He said we needed $5 million bucks," he said.

Skakel's current attorney argues that Sherman had significant financial troubles at the time and didn't devote enough money to defend the case.

Sherman says he did all he could to prevent Skakel's conviction. Sherman sat with his arms crossed as Skakel testified and is due to take the stand Friday to respond to Skakel's claims.

Hatfields and McCoys
Skakel said he was adamant that Sherman track down other former classmates to challenge a claim that he confessed to the crime while attending a reform school in Maine in the late 1970s, but Sherman failed to find them.

One classmate, Gregory Coleman, testified that Skakel confessed to killing Moxley and said he would get away with murder because "I'm a Kennedy."

Skakel said Sherman failed to use an argument that a Skakel would never brag about being a Kennedy "because the Kennedys and the Skakels are much like the Hatfields and the McCoys."

Skakel said he demanded Sherman hire an expert to highlight brutal conditions at the reform school but Sherman didn't.

"It was imperative because there's no logical way a person who has never been there could possibly comprehend the magnitude of the insanity that went on in such a place," Skakel said. "It was a mad house."

Skakel said that Sherman had visited him in prison after his conviction and admitted messing up his jury picks.

Sherman told him about a dinner he had with a former classmate from the reform school, which had been attended by Ford and Bolton. Sherman said the classmate admitted that Skakel never confessed while at the reform school, Skalel said.

He said Sherman could have called Ford and Bolton to testify.

Skakel's defense also argues that Sherman ignored a claim by a former classmate of Skakel's that implicated two other men in the killing.

Dorthy Moxley, the victim's mother, has attended the trial every day and takes notes while listening with the aid of a hearing device.

"I don't think you can believe much of what he says," she said.

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Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel denied parole in 1975 murder

Jason Rearick / AP

Michael Skakel listens to the testimony of attorney Michael Fitzpatrick at State Superior Court in Vernon, Conn., on Wednesday. Skakel's attorneys are challenging his 2002 murder conviction, saying his trial attorney should have called an expert to rebut the testimony.

Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel launched a barrage of criticism Thursday against the attorney who represented him at his murder trial, saying he failed to track down key witnesses while having fun and basking in the limelight.

Skakel was convicted in 2002 of killing his Greenwich neighbor in 1975 after a trial in which he did not testify. He testified Thursday in his latest appeal, arguing that trial attorney Michael Sherman failed to competently defend him.

Skakel's current attorney says Sherman got caught up in the limelight of the case and failed to prepare. Sherman rejects that claim and says he did all he could to prevent Skakel's conviction.

Skakel said Sherman referred to himself as a "media whore" and spent time with writers Skakel considered his enemies. He says Sherman failed to track down a witness who supported his alibi and others who could rebut a claim he confessed to the crime.

Skakel said he was adamant that Sherman track down other former classmates to challenge a claim that he confessed to the crime while attending a reform school in Maine in the late 1970s, but Sherman failed to find them. One classmate, Gregory Coleman, testified that Skakel confessed to killing Martha Moxley and said he would get away with murder because "I'm a Kennedy."

Skakel called Coleman's claim "laughable" and said Sherman failed to use an argument that a Skakel would never brag about being a Kennedy "because the Kennedys and the Skakels are much like the Hatfields and the McCoys."

Skakel, the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, is serving 20 years to life for the 1975 golf club bludgeoning of Moxley.

Skakel also says Sherman told him he would never get arrested and that he would never go to trial.

He said Sherman did not give him a chance to review evidence in the case. When Sherman visited Skakel at his Florida home, Skakel said they would mostly talk about money and golf.

"He wanted a war chest. He said we needed $5 million bucks," Skakel said.

Skakel said Sherman took photos of the judge and jury with a pen camera and had him sign an autograph. "I was flabbergasted at the nonchalant attitude," he said.

Sherman told him about a dinner he had with a former classmate from the reform school that was attended by actor Harrison Ford and singer Michael Bolton in which the classmate said in front of them that Skakel never confessed while at the reform school, Skalel said. He said Sherman could have called Ford and Bolton to testify.

Skakel's defense also argues that Sherman ignored a claim by a former classmate of Skakel's that implicated two other men in the killing. Skakel said he did hang out with that classmate in Greenwich in 1975.

A judge has rejected the claim as not credible.

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, said that he didn't believe a lone gunman killed President John F. Kennedy in an interview with journalist Charlie Rose, right, and Rory Kennedy, center, in front of an audience at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas Friday.

DALLAS -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn't solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."

Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about their family Friday night while being interviewed in front of an audience by Charlie Rose at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. The event comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the president's death.

Their uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later, their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California Democratic presidential primary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother's death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others "trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing."

He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship." He said that he, too, questioned the report.

"The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman," he said, but he didn't say what he believed may have happened.

Rose asked if he believed his father, the U.S. attorney general at the time of his brother's death, felt "some sense of guilt because he thought there might have been a link between his very aggressive efforts against organized crime."

Kennedy replied: "I think that's true. He talked about that. He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but privately he was dismissive of it."

Oswald's mafia links
He said his father had investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the president's assassination, "were like an inventory" of mafia leaders the government had been investigating.

Slideshow: Kennedy’s legacy

Henry Burroughs / AP

John F. Kennedy was the youngest man ever to serve as U.S. president. Click on the gallery for photos detailing key moments in his campaign for the White House, his brief time in office, and his untimely death.

Launch slideshow

He said his father, later elected U.S. senator in New York, was "fairly convinced" that others were involved.

The attorney and well-known environmentalist also told the audience light-hearted stories Friday about memories of his uncle. As a young child with an interest in the environment, he said, he made an appointment with his uncle to speak with him in the Oval Office about pollution.

He'd even caught a salamander to present to the president, which unfortunately died before the meeting.

"He kept saying to me, 'It doesn't look well,'" he recalled.

Rory Kennedy, a documentary filmmaker whose recent film "Ethel" looks at the life of her mother, also focused on the happier memories. She said she and her siblings grew up in a culture where it was important to give back.

"In all of the tragedy and challenge, when you try to make sense of it and understand it, it's very difficult to fully make sense of it," she said. "But I do feel that in everything that I've experienced that has been difficult and that has been hard and that has been loss, that I've gained something in it."

"We were kind of lucky because we lost our members of our family when they were involved in a great endeavor," her brother added. "And that endeavor is to make this country live up to her ideals."

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