NORWALK, Conn. — Michael Wiggins' mother packed his bags and shipped him off to a "boarding school" in the backwoods of Maine in 1976. He was told that the Elan facility would be a fun place where he would get to go hiking, camping and fishing.

But Wiggins, who was 17 years old at the time, encountered something when he arrived in Poland Springs, Maine, that was far from fun. He says he endured paddling so severe they left scars. When he ran away from Elan and went home to Illinois, the school sent burly men to drag him back and face a "general meeting."

For Elan residents, the term was synonymous with fear. The facility's founder, Joe Ricci, used general meetings to respond to violations of Elan's "cardinal sins" — sex, violence, substance abuse and running away.

Wiggins, who now lives in South Carolina, testified recently in the trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, that he was called a "chicken" for running away from Elan. Fellow residents got in his face for 12 hours at a general meeting as soon he returned to the center and he was forced to sit in a corner of a room alone for 14 days, wearing a chicken costume, until he finally admitted that he was, in fact, a chicken.

The story would be too incredible to believe if there weren't more like it. There are Web sites run by self-described "Elan survivors" and a few like Wiggins contacted Michael Skakel's defense team when they learned that Skakel was arrested for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley based on statements he allegedly made while at Elan.

In an ill-fated book proposal which jurors have heard about, Skakel described being physically carried off to Elan on his father's orders after he got drunk at age 17 and led police in Windham, N.Y., on a car chase that ended in a crash.

Sarah Petersen of Florida testified May 22 that she had not seen Skakel in more than 20 years but called his lawyers when she heard he was in trouble because of things he said at Elan. After running away from her mother and family problems in Maryland in 1979, Petersen was sent by the juvenile courts to Elan.

Petersen said she was at Elan for just hours when she learned about an 18-year-old resident named Michael Skakel who had been "shotdown." The term — one of the many phrases used at Elan to describe residents' behavior, status or punishment — meant that Skakel had no standing at Elan and fewer rights and privileges than when he arrived.

Petersen testified that she attended one of several general meetings where Skakel was confronted about the 1975 beating death of Martha Moxley back in his hometown of Greenwich, Conn., but that she never heard him confess. Petersen, who was 15 years old then, had her own problems.

"The entire Elan experience is a disturbing scene," Petersen told jurors. "They confronted me on being a slut when I was a virgin."

"They made you confess to being a slut?" defense lawyer Mickey Sherman asked. "Were you a slut?"

"No sir," Petersen answered.

Donna Kavanah of Stamford, Conn., testified that she was sent to Elan at age 15 by Connecticut child welfare officials because she ran away from home.

"I was given a general meeting because they said I was acting black," said Kavanah, who is white. She said after two hours of being spanked, Kavanah admitted that she was acting black.

"I don't understand it to this day," she testified.

Defense lawyers called the former Elan residents to tell their stories and what they observed about the confrontational tactics used by residents and staff on Michael Skakel. Wiggins, for example, testified that he remembers the general meeting where Skakel was confronted about running away from the school and the murder of Martha Moxley.

With Skakel out of the room but within earshot, Elan staff members got residents charged up for the confrontation to come. "Michael! Michael! Michael!" the residents shouted as they stomped their feet, Wiggins testified. "They asked him why he ran away and then Joe [Ricci] asked him why did he kill Martha Moxley."

When Skakel insisted he did not commit the murder, he was ordered to put on old boxing gloves and headgear and enter a ring of residents who clasped their hands together, Wiggins said. Six or seven of the larger Elan residents then began pummeling Skakel, one at a time for about three minutes each.

Wiggins said the crowd chanted, "Hit him harder, hit him harder!"

Wiggins said the "match" stopped when Skakel finally said, "I don't remember."

Angela McFillin, who attended Elan from 1978 to 1980, testified that Ricci went out of his way to try to humiliate Skakel after he ran away and confronting him about the murder was part of it. "It was an awful, terrible place," said McFillin, who now lives near Baltimore. "It was like a prison camp. It was worse than a boot camp. It was terrible. It was the worst experience of my life."

Prosecutors contend that just because the methods were confrontational, it does not mean that Skakel was not telling truth when he told several people that he either killed Martha or could have killed her, but wasn't sure, because he was drunk and blacked out on the night of Oct. 30, 1975. Not all of the statements were made during general meetings or group therapy sessions when Skakel was being confronted, prosecutors stressed.

Although Elan is not on trial, the 32-year-old facility's tactics, at least during the 1970s, may become a central issue when jurors deliberate Skakel's fate. Jurors will have to decide whether Skakel admitted killing Martha Moxley and whether the statements were reliable and truthful.

The Web site for Elan School describes the modern-day facility as "a carefully conceptualized, caringly administered residential community, designed to help adolescents permanently change attitudes and life patterns, teaching them to live effectively in the mainstream of life."

The site features a photo album of smiling residents fishing, sailing and frolicking in the waves of a Maine shoreline.

Testimony in the Skakel trial continues Tuesday.