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On Aug. 26, 1986, Jennifer Levin, a graduate of the Baldwin School, was found sexually abused and strangled behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Robert Chambers, a 19-year-old who had attended Manhattan private schools, was arrested in her slaying. Tabloid media called him the “Preppy killer” and never let up in their sensational coverage of the trial of Chambers, who claimed the killing happened accidentally during rough sex.
During jury deliberations, Chambers agreed to a plea bargain and was released in 2003 after serving 15 years in prison.
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Photo Credit: Newsday / Tom Kitts -
Anyone who lived in New York during the 1970s remembers the terror during the months when a serial killer named David Berkowitz began targeting single women and couples.
When his murder spree was finished, six people were dead and several other were injured. The “Son of Sam” killings, as they came to be known, began on July 29, 1976, and ended with his arrest on Aug. 10, 1977. He is incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
From prison, Berkowitz has become a Christian and even maintains an official blog where he has posted an apology for his crimes.
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Photo Credit: Newsday
There’s nothing like a shocking murder to focus the attention of New Yorkers.
Extreme, bizarre, outrageous killings send the tabloids and blogs into a frenzy of sordid headlines and each new revelation in a murder case is scrutinized like plot points in a living crime novel.
Of course, a murder in New York City couldn’t ask for a better backdrop, and themes of race, class and sex often tinge the most ferociously operatic murders the metropolis has witnessed.
Here are 13 murder cases that have riveted the attention of New Yorkers over the years, from the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz to the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X.
