Well it’s been quite a day. I managed to break off a part of the lid on my washing machine and – believe it or not – the piece fell down between the what do you call it..the one that spins around and the actual..never mind, this is not my first language and I can’t explain. I might do a little “Repairing washing machine” Youtube video tomorrow. Something tells me not to be a fool, though. I am not a handyman although I actually enjoy when stuff breaks. I like having a screwdriver in my hand. Don’t read stuff into that.
By the way, the machine on the image is not mine. I wish! Mine is the type that opens on top. I really really encourage you to stay away from those. The lid breaks way too easily.
Anyway. Quite a day. Besides from having seen I believe seven episodes of Criminal Minds today, it’s been quite an emotional day. A rollercoaster sort of day. Landslide. Volcano. Ashes. Ups and downs. You know what I mean. At this time of night I always get struck by a calm, though. It’s right now past midnight here in Denmark and I so enjoy the silence and the darkness. My mind is tired and relaxed. It’s my favorite time of day.
Speaking of Criminal Minds, I am almost through with season one and I hear that Agent Gideon is not in the next ones? I know I am hopelessly behind.. Kurt says there are 6-7 seasons!? I don’t know if I will survive not seeing Gideon. What an awesome guy. I know he’s not real..duh..but still, he’s charming, articulate, a deep thinker and highly intelligent. My kinda guy. The guy inside of Gideon is Mandy Patinkin, a Shakespearean actor. I hadn’t really heard of him until I discovered him on this show but Kurt says he’s been around for ages and is a great guy. So I might just look up more stuff with him. He’s definitely great in Criminal Minds.
I better call it a night. My eyes are starting to struggle..
Gosh, I almost made it through the day without realizing that today is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day the world over. Bubble wrap turns 50 today!
It’s mainly used for wrapping and protecting breakable items for shipping but it’s also used for many people’s entertainment.
I am sure many poor souls have been saved from the corridors of mental institutions because of bubble wrap. If we can pop a bubble and listen to that wonderful sound it makes when the plastic breaks, we are saved from going nuts. I’ve also taught my son the pleasure of bubble wrap and he can now pass it on to future generations.
Drugs. A feeling of not belonging, not having a future like his friends. A girlfriend who was angry because of the interest that Jennifer Levin paid him that night. The knowledge that he would probably amount to nothing. Those were the feelings and thoughts inside Robert Chambers‘ mind on that night when he walked with Jennifer Levin into Central Park and strangled her.
They had originally gone to the park to have a sexual encounter. Chambers’ girlfriend had actually broken up with him on the same night because Levin kept pursuing him (maybe for other reasons also) and Robert Chambers was angry, probably on drugs and content to have sex with someone rather than just go home. So they went together into the park and something happened there.
Jennifer Levin’s body was found behind the Museum of Metropolitan Art in the early morning of August 26 1986, half naked and strangulated. Her underwear was found 50 yards away, making the police believe that a sexual encounter has been started on the spot where the underwear was found, then Jennifer had tried to run away from Chambers and he had caught up with her.
The press called it “The Preppie Murder“. Actually Robert Chambers was far from the upper class, well educated handsome young man the press made him out to be. He was raised by his mother who had emigrated from Ireland to New York and he attended the preppie schools on scholarship because his mother could not afford to pay for it. His friends were in fact much better off economically than him and he soon took to stealing and doing drugs.
On that fatal night, Robert was with his friends at the bar Dorrian’s Red Hand and they were all excited about their futures and the prospects that lay ahead. Jennifer Levin was attracted to Robert but he paid her little interest. He picked Jennifer to go to Central Park with because he thought it would be an easy way to get sex and she probably was excited to go with him, thinking she finally stood a chance with him.
Jennifer Levin was a beautiful young girl, full of life and living with her dad and his new wife. Her home life was, however, not idyllic. She often fought with her father, not getting along with her step mom she would phone friends and ask to spend the night.
Plenty of witnesses had seen Robert and Jennifer leave together that night so he became the main suspect very quickly. When the police came knocking on his door, he appeared with a scratched face and his explanation was that his cat had scratched him.
At the police station, he kept altering his story, first claiming that Jennifer had gone into a store to buy cigarettes and they had parted shortly after but one of the officers had discovered that Jennifer didn’t smoke so they knew Chambers was lying.
He then claimed they had parted on another street. They had maybe walked a little further, maybe they had actually gone into the park together..and then came the story that he stuck to throughout the trial: Jennifer had wanted to engage in wild sex in Central Park and she had tied him with her panties. When he tried to get her off him, he accidentally knocked her over and she died.
An attorney said something to the effect of “You’re the first man ever to have been raped in Central Park”. When Chambers was asked to lift his shirt, the police saw that his torso was also full of scratches.
The press ran with the story that Chambers had been an altar boy, had attended the finest schools in the country and it was hard to believe that such a promising young man could be such a monster. The story sounded a lot similar to that of Ted Bundy who went to law school, was involved in politics and murdered over 30 young women across The United States.
But Robert Chambers was not what the press made him out to be. Unambitious, going nowhere, addicted to drugs, a liar and a thief – that was the picture of the real Chambers.
When the case got to trial, the jury deadlocked for nine days and then returned a verdict of manslaughter in the first degree. Chambers was sentenced to 5-15 years for the murder of Jennifer Levin.
In jail Robert Chambers didn’t fair too well. He kept getting into trouble and was cited for weapon and drugs infractions. He wasn’t released until 2003, having served all of his sentence. His freedom didn’t last long, though. In 2004 he was stopped in his car with a suspended license and in possession of heroin and cocaine. He pleaded guilty and got 10 days.
Then once more, a short bout of freedom ensued. In 2007 Chambers was once more arrested, this time for selling drugs and resisting arrest when he struggled with an officer and broke the man’s thumb.
In August 2008 Robert Chambers was sentenced to 19 years.
All true crime stories make an impact on me but this one in particular because there is such a big lesson to be learned here. We must be extremely careful of who we put our trust in. Young beautiful Jennifer Levin put her trust in Robert Chambers on that night, maybe knowing he was drugged but thinking that if he only loved her, she could help him. His troubles ran so much deeper than she knew. Another case comes to mind: That of Alex Kelly who offered to drive a young girl home from a party and then savagely raped her in the back of his car and ran from justice for years until police caught up with him in Sweden. The girl probably thought “He’s a friend of my friend so he must be okay”.
The victim is never to blame and that’s not what I am trying to do here. I am merely saying, don’t let the death of Jennifer Levin be in vain. Let us listen to the lesson and let us remember to be careful with our trust.
More about this case can be found following these links:
Image via Wikipedia![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
Gorzelak Vlogs 