All language subtitles for 3hfgbkjsbfksdbfksdbfkd

-Robert Chambers told police
that the victim,

18-year-old Jennifer Levin,
attacked him

during a predawn sexual
encounter in Central Park.

-I didn't mean to hurt her.
I liked her.

-Robert Chambers --
a handsome preppy.

-I just can't see him
doing anything like that.

-There seemed to be advances,

some sexual activity
by Jennifer Levin,

and that led to this tragedy.

-Jack Litman was
extremely dangerous.

He had absolutely no mercy
for Jennifer.

It was all his client
and his client was innocent.

-We needed to get past
the veneer of Robert's face

and change public opinion
about Rob Chambers.

♪♪

♪♪

[Waves crashing]

[Seagull crying]

-That summer, I lived
with my parents in Southampton.

♪♪

I was with Jennifer
Sunday night.

We'd spent the whole weekend
together going to the beach.

She was really excited to go
to Boston to college,

and she was excited, I think,
to have a new chapter.

I do remember her mentioning
Robert that weekend

and thinking he was cute,

and I thought, "Yeah,
but he's kind of"...

I didn't use the word sketchy,
but if that word

was around then,
that's what I would have said.

I thought he was bad news.

I remember her saying,

"I might go
to New York tomorrow,"

and actually mentioning Robert,
that he was going to be there,

and I said, "No, don't.
Stay,"

because it was the end
of the summer.

I was going to college,
she was going to college,

and we're not going
to see each other,

and everything is dramatic
when you're 18.

But she went to New York,

and then I went to sleep.

♪♪

The next morning,
the phone rang.

I answered it,
and a friend said,

literally before
I could say hello,

"Jennifer Levin is dead."

"She was murdered."

And I remember crying.

I was a kid,
and I just remember weeping.

♪♪

Jennifer's murder was almost
like a 9/11 moment.

Everything kind of changed
then.

It really shattered my vision of
the world and life and safety.

♪♪

-If it's true,
then by all accounts,

Robert Chambers was
a proper prep-school boy

raised in an environment of what
some might call an ivory tower,

and on that night
of the strangulation,

two lives ended because,
this evening,

Robert Chambers is sitting
somewhere inside a jail cell

amidst a world that,
up till now,

he'd never known existed.

-After Robert's arraignment,
he was held without bail,

and he was sent
to Rikers Island.

-How is he taking all of this?

-Obviously
with great difficultly,

although he seems
to be bearing up.

He has to be watched
very closed.

It is a very difficult
situation,

and it's all the more difficult,
obviously, when you're in jail.

♪♪

-Robert was kept in without bail

to await
the action of the grand jury.

-The biggest challenge
going into the bail hearing

was that this is
a high-profile homicide case.

-Rob, why did you do it?

-There was blanket media
coverage in the tabloid press,

and there was
tremendous pressure

to not grant bail in the case.

-During that time,
Mike Sheehan and I

were trying to get to know
as much as we could

about Robert Chambers

so we could oppose
the bail application

and show the judge
he was not the choir boy

that Litman painted him to be.

-In the weeks after the arrest,

we started researching
Robert Chambers' background,

building a profile
of who this kid is,

and at some point,
I found out that his father

is a guy that I know --

Bobby Chambers.

He was in my parents' bar
almost every day.

Bob had a decent job, but I knew
he wasn't a millionaire.

He was separated from his wife,
Phyllis Chambers,

who was an Irish immigrant,
just like my dad.

She wouldn't give him a divorce
because she was Irish Catholic.

But the strangest thing was,

he never mentioned anything
about a child.

-We knew so little of the facts
at the time.

These were not public figures,
and we had to write about them.

Very shortly, we learned
that Mrs. Chambers

worked as a private nurse
for prominent families,

the Hammersteins
and the Hearsts.

-We found out that she had
worked for Jackie Kennedy

at one point.

She saw how
the other half lived,

and she wanted her son
to be in that world.

-As Mike Sheehan and I
dug more deeply,

one of the things
that became apparent

was Mrs. Chambers' aspirations
for Robert.

-She wanted to put him
in this environment.

He would get a great job,
marry some wealthy girl,

have beautiful
little rich children,

and, you know,
and she wanted a Kennedy.

This was her vision.

-She wanted to enable
that kind of world for Robert.

Robert was an altar boy
for years,

a member of
the Knickerbocker Greys.

-The Knickerbocker Greys
was a very elite group

from the Upper East Side.

I knew them because
I grew up with them,

and they were all upper-crust,
wealthy kids.

-Phyllis pushed him
into the places

that she thought
would help him succeed,

but he couldn't.

He went to middle school
at Saint David's.

He went to Choate.
He was thrown out of Choate.

Then to the Browning School.

This time, he was thrown out
for stealing a teacher's wallet.

-He kept getting kicked out.

He ended up at York Prep.

I went there, and I spoke
to the headmaster.

They weren't too forthcoming.

♪♪

-We had this letter from 1983
by the headmaster.

"Robert Chambers entered
York Prep in the 10th grade.

He is a tall,
extremely handsome,

and charming young man,"

whatever that had to do
with his credentials.

C minus, D minus, E, E.

He clearly wasn't
keeping up in school.

1984 --
"Robert does not do his work

nor does he deal realistically
with his situation.

There is a possibility,
therefore,

that he will not graduate."

♪♪

Letter after letter
was exactly like this.

♪♪

His mother had put
all of her hopes on this kid,

and it seemed like
every effort she made

to take him higher was wasted,
and he would fail.

This is not the kid
who we thought he was.

He was under a lot of pressure
at home.

That was obvious.
And he certainly wasn't rich.

We had to dig into
what the real story was.

-My main focus was going out

and grabbing people
who had anything to do with him

before, during,
and after the murder,

hoping that he might
have entrusted somebody

to tell them what actually
happened in Central Park.

One of the friends
was Alex Kapp.

-Last night, I was supposed
to meet a girl named Alex Kapp

at Dorrian's at 10:30.

-She was Robert Chambers'
girlfriend that summer,

so I went to interview her.

-Here is my high school
yearbook, Chapin School.

[Chuckles]

There's me.

♪♪

I remember meeting
Detective Sheehan.

♪♪

He came to the door.
He was very polite.

He asked me about Robert.

I was torn.

I didn't want to say too much

because I didn't want
to get him in trouble.

-And I told her, I said,

"I'm asking you to be frank
with me and open with me.

Tell me about your relationship
with this guy."

♪♪

-I remember I was at a party
on the Upper West Side.

It was a girl
who was a year ahead of me.

She'd gone to Choate,

and he was at the party.

And he was just staring at me
all night.

I think I approached him
and said,

"Are you mad at me or something?
You're just staring
at me so intently."

And he said something
to the effect of,

"It's not that I'm mad at you.

It's just that you're so
(inaudible) damn beautiful."

And, you know, I was 16,

and he's this
handsome older guy.

He was 19, and he wasn't,
like, a goofy, you know --

He was, like, a man,
and it was...

And that was it.

He was quiet and respectful.

He put all the focus on me.

I'd never had a boyfriend.
I'd never had any of that.

So it was a little bit like
I was living out a movie.

I remember lying in bed dressed

just having, like, long talks
staring at the ceiling

without feeling disdain
for what we were growing up in,

about what we wanted to be.

We both wanted to be famous.

I knew I wanted to be acting,

but I don't know
what his version of fame was.

I guess he wanted
to make an impact,

but he didn't know
what that looked like.

We talked about feeling like
we didn't belong,

so I felt like
we had this connection,

like he really saw me.

♪♪

I had sex with Robert maybe
the third time we hung out.

It was my first time.

I felt like
this was my first love,

so I wanted to cement that.

♪♪

-We interviewed Alex...

...but I knew she wasn't
going to cooperate in the case.

-I was the opposite of helpful
because I was --

my feelings were so wrapped up
in this guy.

-So we were frustrated.

We had to find out more
about this kid.

Linda and I
put our heads together,

and the greatest advantage
we had

was thanks to Robert himself,

when he brought the Filofax in.

-It was an address book
with the names and numbers

of everyone he knew,

and it became one of
the best tools we had.

-It had all of these
different people

that he had
come in contact with.

-Robert had given us a way
to find out most of his secrets.

What we started to learn
was shocking.

-Robert Chambers had given
the police a small book

with addresses and phone numbers
of his friends.

Sheehan and I tried to talk
to anyone

who would talk to us
from that book,

people who could create
a picture for us,

but we didn't get
much cooperation.

-Most people we came across
were completely baffled

that Robert would do this
to Jennifer,

to any girl,
for that matter.

They were very defensive.

-Startling number of kids
would say,

"That doesn't sound like Rob.
He's such a good guy.

He must have had a bad moment
in the park."

And we tried to talk sense
to these kids,

that this was a homicide,
not an accident.

♪♪

-Linda Fairstein called
and asked if I could come in,

and she was really tough.

♪♪

I think everybody wanted
to believe it was an accident,

but Linda really
pressed me on it.

I remember that.

She was doing her job,
too, right?

-One of his friends
was so defensive of Rob,

I took Jennifer's autopsy
photograph out of my folder,

and I put it down
in front of him,

and I said, "Does this
look like an accident?"

-She showed me the picture
of Jennifer from her neck up,

which was, you know, obviously
very upsetting to see.

♪♪

Clearly, it wasn't
just an accident.

I was like anybody else.
I wanted to know, you know,

how could that possibly happen?

-After a while,
slowly but surely,

we started
to get some traction.

Kids started sharing stories
that this guy was,

you know, no altar boy.

♪♪

-In 10th grade, the parties
at people's houses

started to get bigger,

and they would take place on
Park Ave or Fifth or whatever.

One girl had a party.
I think she went to Spence.

And after the party,
it was discovered

that her mother's jewelry
had been stolen

and her -- and her fur coat.

And then it happened again,

and we kind of started
connecting the dots.

Robert Chambers
and two of his friends

would go into
the parents' bedrooms

and steal fur coats,
pearl necklaces, and jewelry.

♪♪

-I remember, like,
some crazy stories.

He went into a party
of a friend of mine

and scaled the terrace

to go onto somebody else's
apartment downstairs,

steal all of their stuff,

and then walk out
with fur coats.

I think he felt that he was
entitled to their stuff somehow,

on some level.

He didn't come from means
the way a lot of the kids

in private-school circles did,
so he just helped himself.

♪♪

-So now we know, Robert Chambers
was really a sneak thief,

but in a major way,
and all his friends knew it.

-People saw him stealing
from their friends.

Weren't people stepping in
and saying,

"Hey, that's not okay,"
myself included?

I mean, I never saw him
actually steal the jewelry,

but I heard about it.

I knew of it, and I --
we were --

I was still friends with him.

You didn't see me
saying anything to him.

So that's the kind of culture
it was.

It was the glorious '80s,

and nobody wanted
to be responsible.

♪♪

-As the investigation continued,

kids started sharing information
about Robert,

and what started to emerge

is that Robert Chambers
was a major, major drug abuser.

-We learned that Robert
had been addicted to drugs

since he was 14.

He'd been in and out
of rehab programs.

Drugs were a huge part
of Rob's life,

and it was the same story

with so many of the young people
in this group.

-When we were in seventh and
eighth grade, there were drugs,

but it wasn't heavy drugs,
at least not in my zone.

It was, like, pretty mild stuff,
mostly pot.

It wasn't until 9th,
10th, 11th grade

when it sort of
was way more hard-core.

♪♪

-Jessica and I were
really good friends.

She would have crazy parties
at her house

because her parents were always
away at some country house,

and so we'd be in the city,
like, just having fun.

-There was definitely a group
that partied hard,

kids that did cocaine
and harder drugs.

-Cocaine is a serious drug,
you know?

There was a lot of that
going around in high school.

-And then we found out
that Robert Chambers

had a major cocaine habit.

-I definitely remember him
having issues with drugs.

My first boyfriend, Spencer,
and Rob partied a lot together,

and I was partying
with them, also.

You know, but it was sort of
the norm, I guess, at the time.

A lot of people were in and out
of rehab and different places,

and some people got better,
and other people couldn't stop.

♪♪

-He was always
a very kind person,

as long as I've known him.

-But he had had a drug problem?

-In the courthouse this morning,

friends of Chambers said
he had used drugs in the past.

Chambers' mother and father
had nothing to say to reporters

as they left the courthouse
for home this morning.

Their son remains behind bars
at Rikers Island.

♪♪

-He had quite a past.

He was a kid with
a lot of problems,

a very disturbed,
unhealthy person

who needed a lot of help.

Knowing Jen, she probably
felt sorry for him.

♪♪

-About a month
before Jen's death,

I went with her to see her dorm,
took the drive up to Boston,

and she started to tell me
about a guy named Robert

and that he was
kind of a lost soul

and she was trying to help him

and that he really
loved her perspective
and her point of view

and that she really was
helping him,

that he was, you know,
just as involved with her

as she was with him.

She really could
tune into people really well.

She really paid attention
to them,

and so they would come to her
for advice and for support.

I think what she saw in Robert
was what she saw

in, like, you know,
the wounded animal.

She probably thought
that she could fix him

and make him better.

Reflecting back,

I wonder whether
I was not tuned in enough,

but Jen's good nature

trusted somebody that was,
ultimately, very dangerous.

♪♪

-As we continued investigating,

making phone calls to the people
in Chambers' life,

each one of those phone calls
became of some value

to me and to Sheehan
in this investigation,

and things kept escalating.

[Dial tone]

In the middle of September,

I called one of the friends
in Robert's book,

got the mother
of the family home

who said, yes,
she knew Robert Chambers

but was not happy
to talk about it

because he had stolen from them.

Her daughter had met Rob
at a party,

and he asked her out
the following Friday night.

The woman said she got home
from work on Central Park West,

and the doorman said,

"That young man
leaning against the mailbox

is the one waiting
for your daughter."

The woman said to herself,
"My lucky day.

Here is this really handsome guy
waiting to see my daughter."

She took him upstairs.

They talked.
The daughter came home.

Rob went into her daughter's
bedroom to use the restroom,

and the kids left.

The next day, this woman
got a phone call.

It was American Express saying,

"Do you know where
your daughter's card is?

Someone is using the card."

AmEx described the young man.

He's about 6'4", black hair,

and this woman said,

"Oh, my God.
That's Robert Chambers."

-Apparently Robert had called
a friend of his,

Ralph Destino Jr.,

and the two of them
got into a rented limousine,

which they used
the credit card for,

and they went on, like,
a shopping spree.

They didn't go to
any discount shops, trust me.

-They went into
a number of stores.

They got headphones, clothing,
sweatshirts, sports gear,

all charged on the card.

The total amount
was close to $3,000.

♪♪

The mother called Mrs. Chambers
and said,

"Your son stole
my daughter's credit card."

Mrs. Chambers said, "It's not
possible. He's a good boy.

If you come over here tomorrow,
my husband will be here.

Robert will be here.
He'll apologize to you.

He has a drug problem.
That's why this happened."

The mother accepted the apology.

The Chambers' request was that
she not call the police

and that, in exchange, Rob
would be on a plane to rehab.

I said, "Were you ever
paid back the $3,000?"

She said, "I was sent
a cashier's check

for the exact amount."

The name on the cashier's check
was Ralph Destino.

He was then the president
of Cartier.

He was the father
of the other boy.

-Ralph Destino Sr. reimbursed
this woman for the money.

♪♪

-It was such a clear example of
how there was no accountability,

and it made us wonder

what else had been covered up
along the way.

♪♪

We learned that
in April of that year,

Phyllis Chambers did send Robert
to Hazelden for drug rehab.

He was supposed to complete
a six-month treatment program.

Instead, he dropped out,
came home.

-He came back from
LaGuardia Airport,

and he came to my house first.

He had told me he was visiting
his aunt in Boston.

My mom was home, and he said
he was really tired,

and he went up to my room
to lie down for a bit,

for probably
three or four hours.

I finally went up
and checked on him,

and he had sweat through
my entire bedding,

mattress, mattress cover,

and I was like,
"What's wrong with you?"

And he was kind of woozy,
and he said, "I don't know.

Maybe I've got the flu
or something."

And so, I went and got my mom,
and I said, "I think he's sick."

And, you know, she was like...

I think she just had a feeling
that there was something off.

And I couldn't see it.
Nobody saw it.

She saw it,
but I was 16 years old.

You know, what's the worst
he could be?

-It was just typical of him,

going to rehab
and then just walk away.

"Eh, screw it. I'm not going
to waste my time here."

And it was very,
very frustrating for Phyllis.

-We found out from the kids
in Rob's social circle

that his mother, Phyllis,
was so upset

that he dropped out of Hazelden

that she did not let him
live in the house,

and he was actually living
in a basement apartment

helping the super
paint buildings.

We heard over and over again
from the kids

that Robert started using drugs
again back in New York City.

It was clear that in the weeks
leading up to Jennifer's death,

Robert was spiraling downward
in a rapid fashion.

♪♪

-As the investigation continued,
in the days that followed,

weeks and months that followed,

we just kept building a picture
of Robert's last steps

leading up to the murder.

-The night before the murder,
I ran into Robert on the street.

I hadn't seen him in months.

And we just stopped
and talked for a little while.

He told me that his mom had
kicked him out of the house,

and I just said, "Robert,
you need to talk to her,

and you need
to make this better.

You need to move back home."

That was the last time
that I ever saw Robert.

-The night before the murder,
he spent the night.

[Siren wailing]

My parents had gone on vacation.

It was the end of the summer,

and everybody was going to
go back to college.

I was supposed to be staying
with these two friends of mine.

I did not stay with my friends.

I stayed in my own apartment
alone with him.

I felt very grown-up,

but there was also this feeling
that something wasn't right,

and I was trying
to push it away.

And it was 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning,

and he said, "All right.
I'm going to go."

And I said, "Well, wait.
Why are you going?"

And he's, "Oh,
I've got to get back.

Do you have any money
just so I can grab a cab?"

My mom had given me a $50 bill
for the week.

That was my spending money.

And I said, "Sure. There's a $5
and a $50 in my wallet.

Take the $5."

And he left.

And for some reason,
I just thought,

"I'm going to check my wallet."

And there was nothing in it.

Six minutes after he left,
I called him, and I said,

"Hey, I think you took the $50
and the $5 by accident."

And he said,
"I didn't take anything."

He brushed it off.

We hung up the phone, and I
just remember lying there going,

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

He just stole my money
out of my wallet."

And it all just hit me
in a pretty terrifying way.

Like, I was scared.

The betrayal was so huge,
and that's why, the next night,

I asked him to meet me
at Dorrian's,

like, at 8:00,
which was super-early for us.

We would never go
before 10:30, 11:00,
but I asked him to meet me early

because I was
going to confront him.

I wanted to tell him,
like, "This is wrong,

and I know you stole my money."

He said he'd meet me at 8:00,
but he was late.

8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00.

And this girl came up to me.

She said, "I'm Jen."

We were all making these
little macrame bracelets

for each other
at the time, you know,

those things where you take
the string and you make them,

whatever, and you just
give them to everybody.

It just tells you
how young we were.

And she gave me
her bracelet off her wrist,

and she was like,
"We should totally be friends.

This is my friendship bracelet
to you."

And she was sort of
laughing a little,

and I just thought,
"That's weird.

Like, who are you?"
You know, it just was odd.

I felt like I was
being laughed at.

I think about 10:30 or 11:00,
he finally showed up,

and he sort of looked at me
and walked right past me,

and I was just enraged.

And it just all went off
the rails at that point.

I don't know what possessed me.

I had some condoms.

I took the condoms,
and I threw it in his face.

"You just lied to me.
You stole from me."

You know, "Screw you."

[Indistinct conversations]

He was mad.

I embarrassed him.

He did not like that.

♪♪

[Birds chirping]

♪♪

After the murder,
about 50% of the people said,

"If it hadn't been for you,
he wouldn't have snapped."

It was terrible to feel
in some way

like I had some responsibility
for this.

The other 50%
sort of said the opposite.

"You're so lucky because
it could have been you."

And there was a part of me,
my young self,

that said, "But he
wouldn't have killed me."

And then I thought, "Wait,
but he could have killed me

a month before
or two years later

or hours before."

Like, it wasn't
the circumstances

that led him to kill her.

It's nothing she did,
it's nothing about the timing

or what happened that night
or anything that happened
with me.

You don't just kill somebody.

You kill somebody
because you're a killer.

♪♪

♪♪

-Robert Chambers,
who turns 20 on Thursday,

will spend at least
the next two nights

the way he spent the last
three weeks -- locked up.

-Chambers is in
protective custody at Rikers.

Still, there are reports that
he is being taunted
by other inmates.

That's something his attorney
told News 4

that his client
was afraid would happen.

-And notorious cases
produce lots of anxiety,

seem to focus everybody's anger
and frustration

on one individual.

He's a very good-natured
young man,

well-liked, nonaggressive,
nonviolent.

What occurred here is completely
out of character.

-Robert Chambers'
bail application

was at the end of September,

or a month
after the death of Jennifer.

Jack Litman played heavily
on the fact

that this was Robert Chambers'
first arrest,

that he came from a good family,

he had been educated
at a number of good schools.

So there was this image of Rob

that he wanted
to give the judge.

Sheehan and I,
we had reconstructed

the last five years of his life

and could show
that this was a dissolute,

sociopathic drug addict

who cared about no one
but himself.

-We had information
about the burglaries

and about Robert's
drug addiction.

These were huge problems
for him,

and they became
huge problems for us.

How can we ensure
that we would get bail?

The judge, Howard Bell,
was under tremendous pressure

to not grant bail in the case,

so we wanted to bring out
positive facts

that helped
to support our defense.

And one thing that was
extremely helpful

was when the Archbishop
of Newark,

Theodore McCarrick, submitted a
bail letter for Robert Chambers.

-The McCarrick letter
was presented by Jack Litman

as part of the bail application
to get Robert out of jail,

and what it did, in fact,

was throw all the weight of the
Catholic Church behind Robert.

-McCarrick was on the fast track
to be, like,

the number-one cardinal
in the United States,

which he eventually became.

People were deathly afraid
of McCarrick.

He had tremendous clout.

-In the name of the Father
and of the Son...

-At that time, the church
was extremely powerful

in New York
and New York politics,

so I thought it carried
a good deal of weight.

-When we learned
about the letter,

I was like, "How'd that happen?"

-I wanted to know why someone
of McCarrick's stature

was backing this young man.

McCarrick did not return
my phone calls.

I had a detective drive me
to Newark.

When I spoke to McCarrick,

he admitted not knowing
any of the facts of the case,

and he obviously hadn't spent
any one-on-one time with Robert,

which he acknowledged.

I asked McCarrick
over and over again

why he would help Robert
get out of jail,

and he didn't have an answer

other than his faith
would have him do this.

♪♪

But then I learned about
Phyllis Chambers' relationship

with the Catholic Church.

-Phyllis was very religious.

The family had a long,
long history

with the Catholic Church.

-She had cared for Cardinal
Cooke in his final days.

Because of that,
she had endeared herself

to the Archdiocese of New York,

and I guess that's how
they came to know McCarrick.

-It emerged that McCarrick
was the godfather

of young Bobby Chambers.

-This letter from McCarrick
really rattled the judge

and I think confused the judge
that maybe this is a good man.

-Judge Howard Bell granted bail
to Robert Chambers,

so bail was set,

but his family did not have
the means for a large bail

or for a bail bond.

-Robert Chambers' bail
was $150,000.

It was a lot of money
for that family.

-There were certain people
in the church

who gave their own
personal money.

There was one monsignor who
put up his entire life savings

for bail for Robert Chambers.

He said, "I'm just following
Jesus Christ.

I'm helping a person in need."

♪♪

-He was out free,
walking on the streets.

Everything about this
was a shock to us --

unbelievable.

-The day that Chambers
was released,

I remember I finished
my day at work.

I went home.
I had dinner with my fiancé.

And I was ready to go to sleep
when the news came on.

Litman had held
a press conference.

He had
dressed Robert Chambers up

and had prepared a statement
for Robert

which was delivered as cooly

and in the same calculated voice
as the admission.

-I regret
that nothing I can say or do

can undo the terrible tragedy
that has occurred.

I am happy to be out of jail
and very grateful

for the support of my family,
relatives, and friends.

-I was furious.

It was the beginning
of what the PR campaign

was now going to be
with Robert Chambers

no longer in an orange jumpsuit
put out on TV.

He's handsome.
He's charming.

He's the good boy.

-Robert Chambers got out
on bail, and now he's free,

and I really have to give credit
to Judge Howard Bell

because it was
very controversial

to grant bail in the case,
but it was warranted.

-Chambers had been an altar boy,

and family friends
included the Catholic Church.

A priest put up bail money.

-Monsignor Thomas Leonard
had a parish in Inwood

and offered to let Robert stay
in the parish home.

-When the New York Archdiocese
is saying,

"Robert Chambers can go
to one of our churches

and we'll look out for him,"
that carries a lot of weight.

-All of this
was supposed to cloak Rob

in the holiness
of the Catholic Church.

This was a good boy
from a religious family.

"Look,
he's living with the priests.

They're not afraid of him.
Nobody has to be."

A picture appeared
in the tabloids

of Rob
walking out of the rectory

with a black turtleneck
and a Walkman.

I was angry
at the shocking casualness

of this man
awaiting trial for murder.

♪♪

-I don't think it was
a week or two later

that Robert Chambers was in SoHo

walking in and out
of restaurants.

He had absolutely no problem
going right back

not only into society,

but into Jennifer's
neighborhood.

It was horrible.

♪♪

-When Robert got out on bail,
I went up to see him.

I had lied and told my mom
I was going up to the Met

to go see art,
and I ran up to his apartment.

His mom was home, and he said,
"Let's go to my room."

I remember thinking,
"I don't know

that I should go to your room,"

but I did.

I remember we started doing
Mad Libs, which is so weird.

I was probably there
for half an hour.

I'm not even sure
what we talked about.

I just was so excited
to see him, and he looked sad.

You know, he was --
I felt sad for him.

I felt like he had been through
this horrible thing,

and he was isolated,
and he'd been in jail,

and he was in his house.

It's the strangest thing
to look back on,

but I did want to comfort him.

And then I looked
under his desk,

and he had newspapers
stacked all the way up

to the other side of the desk.

I sort of looked
at the newspapers,

and I looked at him, and I said,
"Boy, well, I guess" --

Jokingly, I said, "Well, I guess
you got what you wanted.

You're famous."

And he got this look
on his face,

and it was in this split second,

and I was like, "Oh, my God.
I got to get out of here."

His whole face -- I don't know
how to describe it.

It was like a smile,
like a smirk.

That was the moment
when it turned for me.

He was enjoying it.

He was enjoying the notoriety
and the fame of it,

and that's when I thought,
"Oh, this isn't a good man."

♪♪

And I slowly got up, and I
sort of backed out of his room,

heart racing
but trying to stay super-calm,

and he's like,
"Where are you going?"

And I was like, "Yeah,
I should probably go.

You know, it's late.
I should" --

Still, my heart is still...

And I got to the street,

and I ran as fast
as I've ever run home.

I threw out the letters
he wrote me.

I confessed everything
to my parents.

I vowed that I would never speak
to him again, and I didn't.

♪♪

[Sighing] All right.

[Clears throat]

-A couple of weeks after Rob
had been released on bail,

I got a call from a detective.

And she said,

"I have information about Robert
that you should know,"

and what she told me
had the potential

to radically change the case.