On a cold and rainy evening on the Upper East Side, inside Dorrian’s Red Hand, the bar that was the real-life backdrop to the infamous 1980s “Preppy Murder,” the writer Cynthia Weiner is sitting before a platter of french fries, recalling her misspent youth. Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” is playing on the sound system, hearkening back to an era that seemed innocent until, all of a sudden, it didn’t.
At 4:30 a.m. on August 26, 1986, the smolderingly handsome 19-year-old Robert Chambers exited the bar with the wealthy 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in tow and the pair went into Central Park. Less than two hours later, Levin’s half-naked, bruised body was found behind the Metropolitan Museum by an early-morning jogger. Chambers pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served 15 years in prison. “The story always stayed with me,” Weiner says.
