The True Crime Stories You See on TV Are Leaving Out Something Big

"In 2018, a letter landed on Robert Chambers' cell bars in a New York prison. It was from Ricki Stern, someone he knew from his prep school years on the Upper East Side. She was now a filmmaker and writing to ask if he'd participate in a docuseries she was making about the 1980s. He never replied. In 1986, at 19, Chambers had strangled 18-year-old Jennifer Levin, an occasional lover, under an oak tree in Central Park."

"In early 2020, The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park, a limited series, aired on A&E for three nights, and men congregated in the common area of the block to watch each episode. The series explored if the press would have covered the case so salaciously in the post-#MeToo era. It also suggested that Chambers may have been sexually abused by Theodore McCarrick, a cardinal who was defrocked for molesting altar boys around the time Chambers was one."

"During commercial breaks, guys stood at his cell and asked if certain things were true. Eventually, he hung a sheet across his bars, which meant "Do not disturb." Chambers recounted all this to me when I landed in his cell block that summer. I told him I had watched the series about him and that my case had also been rehashed on a true crime show. He told me he hated the whole genre."

Ricki Stern sent a letter in 2018 to Robert Chambers in a New York prison asking about participating in a docuseries about the 1980s, but he did not reply. Chambers had strangled 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986 and acquired the tabloid label Preppy Killer. A 2020 limited series about the case aired on A&E and inmates watched the episodes in a prison common area. The series probed post-#MeToo coverage and suggested Chambers may have been sexually abused by Theodore McCarrick. Chambers experienced discomfort and intrusion from fellow inmates. A 24-year-old drug dealer shot and killed a friend turned rival in Brooklyn in 2001 and received a 28-year sentence; his case was also rehashed on a true crime show.

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