Len Levitt, reporter who dug into Moxley case, dies

NEW YORK — Leonard Levitt, a longtime New York City crime reporter known for his incisive writing on the inner workings of policing and dogged coverage that helped re-open the investigation into the Connecticut killing of Martha Moxley, has died at 79.

Levitt died Monday at his Stamford home of lung cancer complications, said his daughter, Jennifer. Friends, colleagues and even some of Levitt’s targets remembered him as a one-of-a-kind journalist who brought integrity and depth to his reporting — and zero tolerance for people who hid the truth.

“He was a thorn in the side of authority,” said Richard Esposito, the police department’s chief spokesman, who reported alongside Levitt at Newsday in the 1980s.

Former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was so frustrated with Levitt’s critical coverage, Levitt said he went to Newsday’s Long Island newsroom in 2003 to complain. A few years later, Levitt was effectively banned from police headquarters when the NYPD declined to renew his press credentials, prompting Levitt to sue to get them restored.”

John Miller, a former reporter who is the NYPD’s top counterterrorism official, said Levitt had a “passive contempt for power.”

Aside from his coverage of the police department, Levitt is perhaps best known for his work digging into Moxley’s death. His reporting on the 1976 killing of the Greenwich teenager led authorities to revisit the case and charge Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel with murder.

Levitt wrote about the Moxley case in “Conviction,” one of six books he authored. The others include: “An African Season: The Long Way Round,” about his time in Tanzania, “The Healer,” “The Brothers of Attica,” and “NYPD Confidential.”

Levitt and his wife, Susan, were married for 46 years. In addition to Jennifer, they had a son, Michael, and a granddaughter, Amaia — all of whom were by his side as he died.