Wasted. The Preppie Murder

285 Pages·2013·2.66 MB·English

by  Linda Wolfe

By Linda Wolfe
WASTED: THE PREPPIE MURDER
THE PROFESSOR & THE PROSTITUTE
AND OTHER TRUE TALES
OF MURDER & MADNESS
PRIVATE PRACTICES
WASTED
The Preppie Murder
Linda Wolfe
Copyright © 1989 by Linda Wolfe
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or part in any form. For information,
address Irene Skolnick Literary Agency, 2095 Broadway, Suite 307, New York, NY 10023.
ebook ISBN: 9780786754700
print ISBN: 9780786754694
Distributed by Argo Navis Author Services
Contents
PROLOGUE: THE END OF SUMMER
PART I: JENNIFER AND ROBERT
Chapter One: New Lives
Chapter Two: Coming of Age
Chapter Three: Valentines
Chapter Four: The Summer of ’86
PART II: WOMAN DOWN
Chapter Five: The Body in the Park
Chapter Six: The Interrogation
Chapter Seven: Rough Sex
PART III: THE PEOPLE v. ROBERT CHAMBERS
Chapter Eight: Hopes and Prayers
Chapter Nine: The Long Wait
Chapter Ten: The Trial
EPILOGUE
AFTERWORD
For my daughter, Jessica
The outlaw of justice always keeps in his heart the sense of
justice outraged—his crimes have an excuse and yet he is
pursued by the Others. The Others have committed worse crimes
and flourish. The world is full of Others who wear the masks of
Success, of a Happy Family. Whatever crime he may be driven to
commit, the child who doesn’t grow up remains the great
champion of justice.
—GRAHAM GREENE, Ways of Escape
PROLOGUE:
THE END OF SUMMER
On an August evening in 1986, eighteen-year-old Jennifer Levin, decked out in a
white camisole, a pink and white miniskirt, and little glass earrings that shone
like diamonds, entered her favorite New York bar and began looking for
nineteen-year-old Robert Chambers, a friend she hoped would be there. But the
chic Upper East Side pub was crowded and she didn’t see him at first. She saw
instead the usual masses of wealthy and sophisticated prep school students and
graduates who had made the bar their home away from home all summer. Some
thronged the old-fashioned jukebox, some sat two-to-a-chair at little gingham-
covered tables, some were calling out their drink orders through a three-deep
crush at the long wooden bar, some were pushing out through the narrow
entranceway to smoke marijuana on the sidewalk. The noise was intense, and the
air was filled with the festive abandon of the end of summer.
Jennifer joined in the spirit of the place. She frolicked with her friends,
eventually found Robert, flirted with him, and late that night left the bar in his
company.
Two hours later, as a warm and brilliant August sun began to rise, she was
found in Central Park by an early morning bicyclist. She had been strangled. Her
face and body were covered with bruises, one of her eyes was swollen, and her
earrings and money, except for a torn dollar bill, had vanished. So had her
underpants. She lay on the ground spread-eagled, her bra and camisole pushed
up around her neck, and her miniskirt bunched up about her waist.