Otto Penzler has a terrific idea: Draft French journalists to cover significant crimes in American history. Crime writing is, by definition, sociology; by looking at a murder, a journalist is looking at a society and its perversions. It's possible that an "outsider" is clearer and sharper than Katie Couric or Rachel Maddow.
Chandra Levy disappeared shortly before 9/11. She was working as an intern in Washington, DC, and she was having an affair with the congressman Gary Condit. Condit lied--many times--about the affair, so he began to look like a murderer. (It doesn't matter that there is at least sometimes a difference between being a liar and being a murderer. Americans tend to jump to conclusions.) After the Chandra Levy affair ruined his life, Condit became the owner of a Baskin Robbins outpost; eventually, Baskin Robbins asked to be removed from all of Condit's merch, signage, and paperwork. But Condit continued to call himself the owner of a local "Baskin Robbins." (Once a liar....)
Back to 2001. One morning, Levy, who rarely left her home without ID, chose to leave her home without ID. She (apparently?) went to a park she'd never expressed any interest in; the park had a reputation for being unsafe. She wore leggings--news stories suggested she wanted to go for a run, but some journalists wonder if leggings were a plausible choice in this scenario. After she disappeared, various DC cops were almost amazingly incompetent. Levy's body was overlooked for months because of a misinterpretation of a simple search command. Once the body was located, the tibia and the femur were somehow bypassed--an amateur later had to re-alert the police. ("Your search was pretty bad.") A police representative initially said, "The femur is likely just a bone from an animal." But this was wrong. The bone belonged to Chandra Levy.
The new book--"The Chandra Levy Case"--highlights at least three phenomena that pop up quite often in American stories:
*Victim blaming. A rabbi from Texas made these remarks. "Monica and Chandra are examples of the spiritual deterioration marring the Jewish community....Both families seem to have lost their moral compass. What about the embarrassment and shame that Chandra has brought to the American Jewish community?" In the Wash Post, Levy was described as "the dynamo with a size-2 body and a size-12 ego who sometimes spoke of becoming a model."
*Missing white woman syndrome. At the time Levy was killed, someone was murdered in DC every single night (with few exceptions). A murder might not attract much attention. But Levy's mother, Susan Levy, hastily chose a "glamour shot" for the press. She did not think that the Chandra Levy photo would become a subject of fascination; she did not think that the "posed" torso would appear in news coverage. (Susan Levy thought that journalists would focus on the face.) The photo became a source of water-cooler chatter all over the country. Chandra's whiteness is now a major part of any new attempts at Levy/Condit historiography.
*NIMBY panic. A man was actually sent to jail for years--because of a fabricated confession. The man had immigrated without papers. It was easy and convenient to decide that he was Levy's murderer--though there was no actual evidence. Chandra Levy's mother was an eager participant in the tarring of Ingmar Guandique--and the new book does not help Susan Levy's reputation because it does not report on any post-Guandique soul searching. (It's possible that Susan Levy regrets some of her choices, but if this is the case, the book makes a bizarre omission.)
This case is obviously an obsession of mine--and I'm grateful for the new book.
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