Jenny Was ... Remembered

In the mid-1980s there was a scandal in NYC when a handsome, dissolute young man named Robert Chambers killed a young woman named Jennifer Levin in Central Park (during what, he called, rough sex gone awry). 

It was one of those tabloid sagas -- known as the "Preppy Killer" -- that, decades later, was turned into a multi-part true crime documentary. I won't recount the whole sad tale here -- I blogged about it back in 2007 when Chambers, a mere four years out of prison, was rearrested and eventually sentenced to another heavy prison term for drug running. 

Chambers was released last year and is living somewhere upstate. Lord knows what he's doing but, so long as he stays out of trouble, that's probably the best thing for him.

However, bad people, as we know, can inspire great art. I didn't know until just recently that the "Preppy Killer" case inspired an early song by the band The Killers (no pun intended) called "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine." It's a really great song although it's far darker than I ever realized -- told, frighteningly enough, from the killer's perspective. 

Obviously a great song won't bring back Jennifer Levin or the erase her family's pain but it's a reminder that, sometimes, out of pain and sadness and tragedy something beautiful and meaninful and lasting can be created.