Honi anhoni old doordarshan serial killer. It’s been more than 30 years since the so-called “Preppy Murder” dominated conversation and headlines in New York City. The tantalizing story was a tabloid blockbuster: wealth, privilege, alcohol, sex, and—in the end—a handsome young man, Roberts Chambers, murdered a beautiful young woman, Jennifer Levin, in Central Park. But the true story behind the infamous “Preppy Murder” is anything but glamorous.
Robert Chambers upon his release from Auburn Correctional Facility New York Daily News Archive Getty Images. He also said the video with the Barbie was inappropriate, but that he was not reenacting a crime. “If I was thinking, I would never have been there. I was stupid and arrogant,” he told 48 Hours.
A new AMC five-part true-crime docuseries promises to take viewers through evidence that couldn’t be revealed at trial to reexamine the 1986 murder of Jennifer Levin, the woman at the center of the case. The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park will also look at the life of Robert Chambers, who pleaded guilty to killing the 18-year-old after running into her in a nearby bar in 1986. The five episodes will be played over three nights, starting November 13 at 9 p.m. on SundanceTV and AMC.
- The home video shows Chambers, 21, frolicking at a slumber party with four scantily clad young women, including his girlfriend, 19-year-old Shawn Kovell. On the tape, he acts out two.
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Hold up: Who is Robert Chambers?
Robert Chambers, who was 19 at the time of Jennifer Levin’s murder and is now 53, is the only child of Phyllis Chambers, an Irish-born nurse, and Robert Chambers, Sr., who worked for MCA Records and later in videocassette distribution. The family lived in Jackson Heights—a working-class neighborhood in Queens—before moving to Manhattan.
Chambers spent his teenage years living in a five-story brownstone on the Upper East Side, which sat beside the former Andrew Carnegie mansion. His parents separated in the late 1980s, according to media reports from the time.
Classmates remembered Chambers as having a magnetic, movie-star quality with his piercing blue eyes and traditional good looks. He was a cadet in the Knickerbocker Greys, a drill team for kids from prominent families, according to a New York Times article from 1986.
He attended the best private schools, like Choate and Browning, but was kicked out for bad behavior and grades. He attended Boston University for one semester but was also dismissed, an adviser told New York Magazine. He was treated for cocaine addiction at a drug-rehabilitation program in Minnesota the spring before the murder, according to the magazine.
But nevertheless, when he returned to his elite New York City circle, Robert maintained his popularity and “had girls throw themselves at his feet,” a friend told the publication. Jack Dorrian, whose wife and daughter owned Dorrian’s Red Hand where Chambers was last seen with Levin, called the 6’3″, 220-pound boy “a lollipop,” per New York Magazine.
Okay… so who was Jennifer Levin?
Jennifer Levin was a popular, bubbly, 18-year-old girl, days away from leaving for her first year at Chamberlayne Junior College in Boston, when she walked into Dorrian’s Red Hand, a New York City bar, that August. She was voted the best-looking in her class at the Baldwin School, another elite institution in New York City, according to reporting from New York Magazine. The teen was living with her father and stepmother in SoHo after moving out of her mother’s home in Long Island earlier that year, per the publication.
![Barbie Barbie](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119736797/371278259.jpg)
“Jennifer was a great kid, responsible, loyal, loving, and kind,” her mother Ellen Levin would later tell The New York Times. “She had a gift of making people smile by walking in the room. She was filled with life and zest and brightness. She touched everyone she knew—even some she didn’t know.”
In an interview with 48 Hours, Chambers recalled meeting Levin at a party. She had a “pretty face, funny laugh” and was “smart and compassionate,” he told a reporter.
The police found Levin’s dead body in the park, while Chambers watched from nearby.
On August 26, Levin and Chambers ran into each other at Dorrian’s. They had met before, through mutual friends, and went on two or three dates, according to reports from the time. The bar “catered to the sons and daughters of the rich,” according to the 48 Hours special on the murder.
Levin was celebrating her upcoming move to Boston with friends when she saw Chambers. They began talking and, at about 3:45 a.m., walked toward Central Park—which was about five blocks away, according to New York Magazine.
A cyclist found Levin’s body at about 6:15 a.m.,but she is estimated to have died around 5:30 a.m. Police soon taped off the crime scene where Levin’s body was twisted and laying half-naked in the park. She was badly bruised and had cuts on her face. Her white tank top blouse was tied around her neck like a noose, a medical examiner would testify at Chambers’ trial, according to The New York Times.
New York Daily News ArchiveGetty Images
Chambers would later tell police that he stayed behind and hid in a bush while the NYPD investigated.
Chambers was arrested after police found him—with cuts on his face.
Linda Fairstein, who was head of the sex-crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office at the time, told 48 Hours that Chambers returned home at some point. They initially were looking for his help because he was Levin’s friend, according to Fairstein.
That changed when the detectives saw deep, fresh, bloody scratches on both sides of his face. He told police his cat scratched him, but officers remained unconvinced and arrested the teenager. Police later found more scratches on his chest and a hand injury.
Burberry serial number. While he was being walked out of his home in handcuffs, Chambers turned to his father and said: “That f*cking b*tch, why didn’t she leave me alone?” according to Linda Wolfe, who wrote about the case in her book, Wasted: The Preppie Murder.
Robert Chambers Barbie Doll Video
The “rough sex” defense arose at trial.
In videos taken at the police station, Chambers told officers that he and Levin got into an argument while walking 0n Fifth Avenue. Gta 5 iso file for ppsspp download. He said he told Levin he didn’t want to be in a serious relationship, and she reacted violently, scratching his face. They continued walking, eventually into the park, where they began “fooling around,” Chambers said. He said Levin tied his hands behind his back with her underwear.
“She’s having her way with me in the park without my consent with my hands behind my back…hurting me,” he told the police. “She reached down and grabbed my testicles for a couple of seconds. She squeezed, and possibly the nails, it hurt.” Chambers also told police that he was shocked by the aggressive move and sat up and swung his arm, hitting Levin in the throat.
“I would have to say [I hit her] hard I made her fall to the side,” Chambers said in the interview with 48 Hours. He explained that he didn’t realize she was dead until he stood up and asked her to leave.
“She didn’t move, her eyes were open,” Chambers said in the interview. “I knew something was wrong.”
Despite that, he didn’t call the police, listen for a heartbeat, or attempt CPR, Chambers said.
Fairstein said this defense didn’t make sense. “Everything he said in that statement about how she died is absolutely untrue,” Fairstein told 48 Hours. “She died not from rough sex, but a violent struggle in the park.”
Chambers’ trial began on January 4, 1988.
Facing a second-degree murder charge, Chambers’ trial spanned 13 weeks. He and his modelesque good looks made for compelling cover stories (not unlike infamous serial killer Ted Bundy a decade prior).
Levin didn’t fare as well. Painted as a dominatrix in the press, she was slut-shamed and accused of keeping a “sex diary.” (She had a book with dates and times she was meeting friends, but there was no evidence it had anything to do with her sex life.)
After nine days, the jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Chambers made a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a first-degree manslaughter charge that carried a five- to 15-year sentence. He was also required to admit that he intended to hurt Levin, enough so to cause her death.
“It breaks my heart to have to say that,” he said in court. “The Levin family has gone through hell because of my actions, and I am sorry.”
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison that April.
A video surfaced, showing another, darker side of Chambers.
Though his court statement might’ve seemed convincing, a video captured in December—months before the trial began—surfaced in May and seemed to show a more callous side of the 21-year-old Chambers.
Robert Chambers Barbie Doll Video Current Affair
In it, he was surrounded by scantily dressed women, including his then-girlfriend, 19-year-old Shawn Kovell, while twisting the neck of a Barbie doll, mocking a strangulation. In a falsetto voice, he said, “My name is …,” while twisting the doll’s head, according to United Press International.
While smiling and facing the camera, he said: “Oops, I think I killed her.”
Chambers was released from prison in 2003…for a while.
After he was released, Chambers granted one interview to 48 Hours before attempting to live a quiet life. In that interview, he maintained that he did not try to hurt Levin and expressed remorse.
He also said the video with the Barbie was inappropriate, but that he was not reenacting a crime. “If I was thinking, I would never have been there. I was stupid and arrogant,” he told 48 Hours.
“How could you be that dumb?” the reporter asked him.
“It seems to be a theme in a lot of what I do,” Chambers said.
Drug charges landed Chambers back in jail.
By November 2004, Chambers was in trouble again. Police found traces of heroin and cocaine in a car he was driving with a suspended license. He was sentenced to 100 days in prison, according to The New York Times.
In August 2008—more than 20 years after he was charged with killing Levin—Chambers pleaded guilty to selling cocaine out of a midtown Manhattan apartment. He was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months, and five years probation, according to the Times.
The earliest Chambers will be released is 2024.
![Robert Chambers Barbie Doll Video Robert Chambers Barbie Doll Video](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119736797/223725994.jpg)
Fairstein told the Times ahead of Chambers’ most recent sentencing that she hoped for a harsher sentence. “I think he’s somebody who should never walk among us again,” she said. “He’s been given chance after chance after chance. He took the life of a friend—an 18-year-old girl—with his bare hands.”
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