Case 01: The Gossip Girl Murder

The case takes place in New York, exactly in the upper East side of
the city.

Everything starts when Patt Riley, a woman riding her bike through
Central Park one day during the 80s, as we should know that during
the 80s crime was not common in Central Park and if it happened it
would be towards people who were doing bad things or not so good
things.

During this period, it was very rarely when murder was categorized
as random or something that would affect a normal citizen or their
life, it was always seen as something that happens in bad communities
with awful people and an action that never takes place in Central
Park or the upper East side for that matter.

So, as Patt Riley was riding her bike through Central Park during the
early hours of the morning when she looks near a bush and she sees a
dead body, she immediately stops her bike, she approaches to get a
glimpse of the body when she’s simultaneously trying to be careful,
she notices that the body has one leg and one arm up and is not
moving at all and that is not a normal way to sleep, take a nap or to
pass out after taking a few drinks.

Patt freaks out, gets closer to the body and realizes that it is a
deceased body, it is indeed not a person who is going to wake up, not
a person who is sleeping off the day, she proceeds to call the police.

The police do rush to the crime scene, it’s vital to note that the police
did an immaculate job on trying to damage control this case, they
shut down all the entrances and exists to Central Park and all of
Manhattan.

It is not sure how helpful this procedure was going to be effective to

the case because of the number of the people who live in New York
City and how is the police going to determine who is the culprit.
They find out immediately after their arrival to the scene that the
victim is dead, she has bruises all over her face and body, her face
was extremely bruised to the point that one of her eyes was
completely swollen shut, if she was alive and she wanted to, she would
not be able to open her eye.

Her bra was lifted up her chest and her skirt was hiked up all the way
and the police could see that she was not wearing any underwear, it
was obvious that she was very much likely assaulted before she died.

All of her jewelry was missing, this is an information that the police
found out later during the investigation after recognizing that the
victim wore certain pieces of jewelry on daily basis, on top of that,
money was missing from the victim’s purse.

The police’s main concern at this point was to find out the identity of
the victim, who turns out to be eighteen years old Jennifer Levin.

Jennifer Levin is an eighteen years old girl, she goes to a private

school in New York and her friend group is formed of the richest
teenagers of New York City, their parents are millionaires, some of
their parents are billionaires and they all go to the same school as
Jennifer Levin.

However, Jennifer was not one of those rich families, as she lived in
Soho while all of her friends resided on the upper East side, knowing
that all of New York City is expensive, Soho is said to be nothing
compared to the upper East side, where people come from old money
and reside in Beverly Hills.

Jennifer’s parents were wealthy but they were not astronomically

rich compared to her peers.

In order to understand the case, we have to begin by understanding

the lifestyle of Jennifer’s peers, the friends she surrounded herself
with were not the one to worry about their marks, their
extracurriculars or even prom and dating.
These high school students were full grown adults at the age of
seventeen and eighteen, their parents would leave them in their 20
million dollars penthouse and leave to Paris, leaving them with a
credit card and all the free time they would like and ask them to be
safe.

So, what does seventeen years old with this freedom? They use their
financial resources to buy alcohol and drugs and throw massive
parties with all of their other high school friends and they get away
with it because of their social status.

Jennifer was in the middle of this circle, she was indeed partying with
them, doing drugs and underage drinking, but it is also important to
note that it does not really say anything about her character as a
person.

She was described to be someone so full of life, because why would

they invite someone like Jennifer, who lived in Sogo? But everyone
really liked Jennifer, she was always fresh faced, spontaneous, she
was never jaded compared to some of her peers who would be
described as jaded with having the whole world at their feet at the age
of 17 while she was a fresh breath of air that people really loved.

She would attend the parties, and was popular at school.

Once the police find out this information, this instantly becomes a
high-profile case, Jennifer Levin was a caucasian female, she was not
a minority and a lot of privileged families were involved which was a
motivation for the police to solve it as soon as possible even with the
hardships it did bring along, the police had to interview and
investigate underage millionaires.

The police started investigating all of Jennifer’s Levin closest friends

since the crime was front page in the newspapers. They had to find
out her entire schedule, who she was hanging out with and what were
her plans for the weekend, they go in and search for information
from all of her friends and find out that she went to The Hamptons
that weekend and she hung out with a man with the name of Peter,
who is one of her closest best friends.
They hung out and then she decided that she would go back to the
city and would probably sleep at Alex Kapp’s house, who is another
one of her closest friends.

After interviewing Alex, she informed the police that the girls went to
a place called Dorian’s Bar, this place is popular in their private
school because they never check of ID before serving alcohol, she
explained that they went there, they hung out, and Jennifer decided
to walk home and to not stay at Alex’s place.

The police do make a visit to this bar and start asking the employees,
the students, and the people that frequent the place and the one name
that came coming up from everyone’s mouth was of a guy by the
name of Robert Chambers who is 19 years old.

They decide to pay Robert Chambers a visit and knock on his door,
as soon as he opens up the door, he was not looking good already, he
had fresh scratch marks on his face and his neck, he had a hand
injury that he could not explain, after taking a close look at his
hand’s injury, they could identify that it looks like Robert punched
something or someone and accidentally hit the wrong joint.

They proceeded to inform his that his friend, Jennifer Levin is

deceased, he agreed to come along with them to the precinct to get
questioned.

They sit Robert down and ask him how he knows Jennifer Levin, to
let him start telling his story from the beginning.

He informs the police that he met Jennifer for the first time at one of
their friend’s birthday party, it was a champagne birthday party
during Valentine’s day, he also informed them that they were
sexually involved, but it was only once or twice, nothing serious.

He was asked about all of the scratch marks around his face and neck
since he does not have a laborious job which he giggled at and
responded to by: My face? He lifted up his shirt where all of his chest
were different scratches and he says: You know how cats are, my cat
loves to scratch me.
He was also questioned about the night that Jennifer Levin was found
dead in the park and he said that he was too at Dorian’s Bar, he was
also underage drinking, but then he was in front of the bar talking to
Jennifer, waved to her and they went separate ways, he hasn’t seen
her since until he was informed that she was deceased.

He was asked about his school, and at this point it has been a few
hours which at this point, Robert started switching his story and says
that he forgot to tell them something, he says that he did not actually
say goodbye to her at the front of Dorian’s Bar, they both walked
towards 86 Street, towards Central Park.

During all of this, even though he had drastically changed his

storyline, he was acting like he did not have time, he was getting
extremely impatient, and then one moment he said: Oh, I was with
her when she died.

The police had to leave the interrogation room and comeback in

order to call the Assistant District Office and they ask to record the
conversation with Robert because he cannot be accused to murder
without having factual evidence.

He was asked again about what happened that night and this was his
new story, they left Dorian’s Bar and started walking towards
Central Park to which he did not even want to go, he just wanted to
go home but Jennifer begged him to go with her, she decided to use a
public restroom there and when she got out, she started making
moves on him, pouncing on him, and she even tied up his hands with
her underwear after taking them off in the restroom, she said: You
look cuter with your hands tied.

She proceeded to throw him onto the ground, laying on his back with
his hands behind his back and sat backwards on his chest, and
immediately started pulling down his pants, scratching him and
assaulted him.

The police did not believe his story, since back in the 80s, there was
no such a thing of a woman assaulting a man, it just did not happen.
The police officers were also confused by some of details of this story,
and one of the main details was the fact that the underwear was just
fabric and Robert Chambers is 200 pounds and over 6 feet while
Jennifer Levin is a really petite girl which did not make sense.

He continued the story, he said he managed to free one of his hands

from the underwear, and pushed Jennifer off of him to the ground,
she fell on the ground next to him and the body did not move,
something they had to not, he said the body did not move and not
Jennifer did not move.

All of his claims did not match up with the autopsy, Jennifer has been
strangled, she had bruises and cuts everywhere, it looked like she had
asphyxiation.

Also, he did not call the police, he did not go get help, he did not go
home but he waited at the park until he heard the police sirens and
watched the police get involved and then walked home.

Robert Chambers had been arrested, and the press went insane,
Robert was young, white, privileged, rich and hangs out amongst the
richest people in New York City, adding the factor of drugs, sex and
murder, and the press did not only about this, everyone kept talking
about how handsome Robert Chambers was.

Robert’s mom ends up hiring one of the most high-profile defense

attorneys of New York City back at the time.

Jack had no interest in the crime, he just cared about getting his
client off even if they were a raging murderer, he did not really care.

Robert’s attorney starts making the PR strategy in which he kept

implying that Jennifer is this sexually deviant crazy wild child who
does drugs, while Robert is this innocent man who fell in love with the
wrong girl and tried to change her to not be so sexually easy.

And everyone would think that Robert Chambers was rich, but in
fact, he was not, his mother, an Irish immigrant, is a private nurse for
rich families with that money, she sent her son to one of the best
schools.
Going back to Jack and the PR strategy he chose, he paid the press to
keep talking about how tall and handsome Robert is, about how he
was raised catholic and he was an alter boy when he was young. They
started to imply in trial that Jennifer was asking for it, that it is
natural for girls to be attracted to a man like Robert, he’s intelligent
and kind and there would be no reason for him to rape a girl when he
could get all the girls he wanted.

Not only Jennifer Levin died that day, but also her character died,
there was no paper back in the time where her name was not
associated with rough sexual activities, as Robert’s attorney kept
saying that all of this could have been avoided if she did not ask for it
to be like that.

Jennifer’s family and the prosecutors were getting upset and they
started digging into Robert’s past, knowing that he left his phone
book by mistake at the police station after the interrogation, the
prosecutors started calling every single person on that phone book
and they would ask how do these people feel about Robert, to which
everyone from his phone book defended him and said that it was
probably just a tragic accident, but something was there to not, it is,
that whenever Robert was invited to specific parties, things would
just go missing, like fur coats and jewelleries from the houses.

Robert’s ex girlfriend was interviewed and she also confirmed that

when they were dating, she wouldn’t find her credit cards but she
would receive charges.

After digging even deeper, they find out that Robert had a cocaine
addiction since he was in middle school, he went to rehab multiple
times, but it just seemed like he would not get rid of his addiction
since then.

The bail hearing comes around, Roberts asks the judge if he could go
home to his family before the trial, can he not just wait in prison,
when everyone was sure that this was already a closed case, Robert’s
attorney informed everyone that he has a letter for the judge, it was a
letter from the Archbishop, one of the most higherup members of the
catholic church in Europe.
It was said that when the judge was told the letter was from who, he
had shifted a little in his seat.

The letter implied that Robert went to his church when he young, he
liked him and that he is a good person, the judge agreed and let him
out on a 150.000 dollars bail. The mother did not have the money so
the people from the upper east side decided to donate and pay for it.
Even the owner of Dorian’s Bar, Jack, had put his penthouse as
collateral for Robert, it had to do with the mentality of protecting
their own.

The prosecution had to investigate this intervention from the

archbishop and why he chose that timing, it is something to note that
religious figures would intervene when someone would be acquired
the death sentence but it was too early of a political move, when he
was asked, he would answer by saying that Robert was a faithful
student, but after more investigation, they discover that Theodore,
the archbishop of the catholic church is Robert’s Godfather.

After Robert received bail, he disappeared into a parish, after being

released, he starts circulating again around Soho, upper east side and
upper west side, partying with his friends, which caused New York
City to divide, on one hand, a bunch of activists and feminists would
say that there was no proof that Jennifer was sexually deviant and
that he is a murderer and on the other hand, the middle class was
complaining about why would he be out, everyone in New York City
had felt like the catholic church had chosen a side, it had become
political, religious, social and economic.

Later, the prosecutor would receive a tip, that last year a 70.000
dollars worth of jewellery and fur was stolen from someone’s
penthouse and they think it might be Robert Chambers since they
found his ID on the fireplace, they tracked him and asked him why
would his ID would be there, he responded by saying that someone
had mugged him and stole his ID and he was never questioned again
and his fingerprints were also a match.
They also find Robert’s associate, his name was David, and it is
important to note that he is a black man in order to explain how they
robbed penthouses and apartments, he was in jail at the time for
trying to rape a Columbian university student and since he was in
prison, he confessed to everything.

Because he was a black man, he would not be able to enter these

luxurious apartments, but Robert could walk into multi-million
dollars establishments, he would go into the elevators, press random
buttons, he would try to find any open doors and yell to get David
from the window and throw the goods and he would exit the
establishment from the front door.

There is an accomplice, fingerprints, and he would be linked to 40

different burglaries, and his picture of a good boy was completely
damaged after being arrested for a felony, his attorney Jack, landed
him on the cover of NYC magazine as a PR move, he was wearing a
perfectly tailored suit, he was clean, well shaved, he looked like the
American dream, a JFK junior. He looked like what power would
look like, they said.

After, Jack had told the press that they had found Jennifer’s sex
diary while it was just her school planner, however, it was just
another move to damage Jennifer’s character.

People started getting angry with Alex and she was being bullied, she
had walked to Jennifer and Robert, she had made fun of him in front
of his friends, everyone blamed her because she somehow made him
snap and provoked him to kill Jennifer, it was basically everyone
making cartwheels to blame anyone but the murderer.

Jennifer was seen wearing a jean jacket that night, it was used a
murder weapon since the jacket contained blood and saliva and it was
a match for Jennifer, she was smothered with it but the judge said it
was not admissible in church because it is not reliable as evidence.

He had admitted to doing it but never to why, his defense was that he
was a heavy drug user, and a thing that is known about male drug
users is that they’re violent, and flew into a state of rage.
There is a theory that when she went out of the restroom, she had
seen him stealing from her purse and she went telling all of their
friends about it and that he wouldn’t be invited to their parties so he
ended up murdering her.

The trial started January 1988, they had a hard time to find a jury
that was not biased, Robert was seen everyday hand in hand with his
girlfriend Shawn Kovell, and he had brought along medical experts,
the jury deliberated after four days, in which multiple jurors got into
fistfights with each other, one juror faked having a heart attack.

Robert was offered a plea deal after Jack counselled with Jennifer’s
family, and he was admitted under manslaughter and jailtime from 5
to 15 years, everyone was enraged and eventually forgot about it until
the tabloids got their hands on a leaked video tape, where Robert was
out on bail, he was seen partying with 4 girls while they were wearing
only underwear, they were doing drugs, he picked up a barbie doll,
shacked it and said he would strangle it and kill it, he squeezed the
doll until the head popped off, this had made everyone in NYC just
hate him.

He ended up serving 15 years after causing multiple fights in prison

and was released in 2003, Shawn was also in the video and he was
arrested for drug usage and in 2007 he was arrested again for drugs
possession and intent to sell with his girlfriend Shawn and he was
sentenced to 19 years in prison.

In 2018, the archbishop resigned because of assaulting adult

congregation members and children, in particular, alter boys.