http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/nyregion/24chambers.html is a story about Robert E. Chambers, the “preppy killer” who murdered Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986. He is back in the news for a new brush with the law. What struck me most was the line “Shawn Kovell, 39, who fell in love with him shortly before his trial for the Levin killing”. The guy was convicted of murdering a teenage girl and served 15 years in prison, yet apparently is so charming that he was able to hang onto a girlfriend the whole time.
6 thoughts on “Guys with a lot of charm…”
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Ah yes, what a mystery! The accompanying photograph is interesting and would probably reward psychological forensic scrutiny. A Google search on “women who fall in love with killers” yields a full page of listings with more behind it. So — I can safely leave the analysis to those authors and experts and get on with my work.
“charm”… or an ample supply line of cocaine and money.
Some people find people with issues compelling.
Show me a girl who falls in love with an imprisoned killer, and I’ll show you a girl who struggles with intimacy.
Phil,
Your theory could also be reversed:
Maybe girls find him charming since in this day and age of 24/7 news and celeb-hunting TV people, he’s viewed by some as a quasi celeb BECAUSE he’s a murderer.
We human beings are notorious sympathizers.
Regards,
Mark
A girl who grew up close to where I lived and went to HS with was “in love” with a local thug who was in and out of jail. She enjoyed the excitement of that life, of not knowing when he would be caught for one of his various crimes, and she said they had a very hot relationship. Certainly it seemed she had no struggle with intimacy (at least not when he was out).
As with Chambers, drugs were involved and I am sure having a bully thug as a boyfriend who could supply her with whatever her current adiction made her crave had a good part to do with the attraction.
Believe it. If there are women who are marrying guys on death row that they met “after” their crimes, then shacking up with a killer out of jail would probably only rank a small affair on their radars. Only in America.