Attention is back on the so-called “Preppy Killer” Robert Chambers, with a new documentary exploring the case on AMC. Chambers was convicted of strangling Jennifer Levin to death in a sensational New York case that generated tabloid headlines in the 1980s.
According to Daily Mail, Chambers was released in July 2023 after serving time on a second sentence relating to drug and assault charges.
AMC has been running a five-part documentary called “The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park.” The case sparked lurid tabloid headlines at the time because of claims of rough sex, Chambers’ handsome looks, and his prep school background.
That has a lot of people wondering more about Chambers’ background. In particular, one biographical angle that interests people: Chambers’ parents. Here’s what you need to know about Robert Chambers’ father and mother:
Robert Chambers Was the Son of an Irish Nurse & Father Who Worked in the Record Industry
According to Women’s Health, Chambers was the only child born to Phyllis Chambers and Robert Chambers Sr. (His mom is pictured in the photo above with her son.)
Phyllis was an immigrant who was born in Ireland. Robert Sr. “worked for MCA Records and later in videocassette distribution,” Women’s Health reported, adding that the family lived in Manhattan and before that in Queens in a working class area. New York Magazine reported that, although the family was not wealthy, his mother in particular was determined that her son would be part of New York elite circles.
Throughout his life, Chambers Jr. struggled with drug addiction.
In 2007, Chambers Sr. gave an interview to The New York Post. “He is sick. He has a disease, an addiction,” he said of his son. He added, “Of course, I know he could have been a movie star.” The Post reported that the father was devastated by Levin’s death and told the newspaper, “Oh yes, he looked arrogant, that’s true. But when you’re into addiction, you have low self-esteem and you are scared, and you cover it by looking arrogant.”
According to the Independent, Chambers’ mom was a trained nurse who “had moved from Co Leitrim to New York in the late 1950s, in search of a better life.” She found a job working at a hospital and even nursed John F. Kennedy Jr. The Independent reported that, in contrast to Phyllis’s immigrant story, Robert Chambers Sr. had a more privileged upbringing.
He was from a “well-to-do Irish-English family. He had attended Mitchell College in Connecticut and the American University in Washington DC. His family also had money,” the site reports. The family had more than one home. The parents married in 1965. A year later they had Robert. Although Robert Sr. struggled himself with substance abuse himself for a time, the parents managed to enroll Jr. in prep schools. He was even an altar boy. His addictions to substance abuse and corresponding problems started in his teens. The parents separated two years before Levin’s murder.
Today, Chambers Is Serving a Prison Sentence in an Unrelated Drug Case
New York prison records for Robert Chambers.
Chambers is behind bars still, but it’s not for Levin’s death, and he’s due to be released from prison in 2024, according to New York prison records.
Chambers’ earliest possible release date from prison is January 25, 2024, New York prison records show.
What happened to Jennifer Levin was horrific.
According to the Associated Press, Jennifer Levin died from “from pressure applied to her throat for at least 20 seconds.” Her body bore the signs of bruises and bite marks. Chambers had been seen leaving an establishment with Levin. In a confession, Chambers told police, according to Oxygen: “I couldn’t take it anymore and I managed to get my left hand free, so I kind of sat up a little and just grabbed at her. I just grabbed her neck as hard as I could and she just flipped over me and landed right next to the tree, and then she didn’t move.”
What Happened To Robert Chambers, The Man Behind ‘The Preppy Murder’? t.co/u6EnWgssEw
Today Chambers is 53 years old. He’s incarcerated in the New York prison system for a drug offense and assault conviction. He’s housed in a male maximum security prison called Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York.
In February 2003, The New York Times reported that Chambers was being released from prison for his conviction in Levin’s murder after serving the maximum prison term under the sentence he received. That was 16 years after Levin, 18, died at Chambers’ hand after a night of drinking and, as The Times put it, a “tryst in Central Park” with Chambers. Levin was strangled to death in the park, according to Reuters.
A year after his release, Chambers was accused of misdemeanor heroin possession and unlicensed driving, charges for which he received a 100-day jail term.
In 2007, The Associated Press reported, Chambers’ girlfriend, a woman named Shawn Kovell, admitted she and Chambers sold drugs to an undercover cop. Chambers was 41 years old at the time.
The following year, Chambers entered a plea deal for which he received 19 years and four months in prison for the drug accusations as well as assault, Reuters reported, adding that the latter charge involved an assault on a police officer during his arrest.
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