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The case of Robert Durst, the notorious real-estate scion accused of eluding justice for decades in the mysterious deaths of three people, exploded nine years ago in what appeared to be a rambling confession during the finale of an HBO documentary series about his life, where he infamously muttered: “Killed them all, of course.”
Durst was arrested on the eve of the the finale of HBO docuseries “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst’’ in 2015 and was subsequently put on trial and convicted for the death of a confidante and indicted separately in the death and disappearance of his first wife.
The real-estate heir died while serving a life sentence in 2022, but in the years since the original series, director Andrew Jarecki continued chronicling the story for a second season, “The Jinx Part Two,” that premiered on April 21 on HBO. The new season reveals the events leading up to Durst’s arrest, as well as his bombshell trial in Beverly Hills for the killing of his friend and eventual conviction.
With renewed attention on the saga of Robert Durst, below is a recap of what led to “The Jinx Part Two.”
Who was Robert Durst?
Robert Durst was born on April 12, 1943, the oldest son of New York real estate magnate Seymour Durst, whose family Durst Organization is connected to some of New York City’s most iconic buildings.
Today, the Durst Organization owns and manages some “13 million square feet of premiere Manhattan office towers and over three million square feet of residential rental properties with 3,400 rental apartments built, and over 3,500 in the pipeline,” according to the organization’s website. The family fortune is estimated by Forbes to be more than $8 billion.
Robert Durst was raised in Scarsdale, New York, in Westchester County. His mother, Bernice, died after falling from the roof of the family home in 1950 and while reports at the time said Bernice died by accident, according to the New York Times, family members acknowledge privately that she died by suicide.
In the “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” the man at the center of the docuseries claimed he witnessed his mother’s death, a claim that his younger brother, real estate developer Douglas Durst, has denied.
In the 1990s, Durst became estranged from his family after his father entrusted Douglas Durst to take charge of the family business. He then sued the family until he took a $65 million payout in 2006.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that if he had the opportunity to kill me, he would,” Douglas Durst told the New York Times in 2015.
Durst’s life was surrounded by the mysterious 1982 disappearance of his first wife Kathleen McCormack Durst, the execution-style murder of Susan Berman in 2000 and the 2001 death an elderly Texas neighbor, Morris Black, whose body he admitted dismembering and dumping in Galveston Bay.
Durst’s fall came after he was arrested in 2015 for Berman’s killing, after he had been long suspected of being responsible in all three cases, with critics believing his money and status shielded him from justice for decades.
The disappearance of Kathie Durst
In 1973, Durst married Kathie McCormack on his 30th birthday, two years after meeting her in Vermont in 1971.
Kathie Durst was 29-years-old and three months away from finishing medical school when she disappeared in 1982. Durst told police he had dropped her off at a train station because she had classes the following day in Manhattan and never saw her again. Her body has never been found.
But friends and family have long believed Durst was responsible for his first wife’s disappearance and death. Her brother, Jim McCormack, previously told “Dateline” that Durst was physically and mentally abusive towards Kathie.
Her disappearance once again caught public and police interest following the airing of “The Jinx,” where inconsistencies in Durst’s stories were coming to light.
Who was Susan Berman?
Durst met Susan Berman, a life-long friend until her death who was known as the daughter of a mob boss, in the 1960s while pursuing a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, before dropping out and returning to New York.
He even walked Berman down the aisle during her wedding in 1984, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Berman, a writer who had struggled on and off financially, had also previously borrowed money from Durst.
She was found shot at point-blank in the back of the head, dead in her home in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in December 2000.
Her killing was just over a month after word got out that the New York State Police were reopening its investigation into the disappearance of Kathie. Prosecutors have said Berman helped Durst cover up Kathie’s disappearance and death and that Durst killed his confidante as she was preparing to potentially confess her role to law enforcement.
What happened to Morris Black?
After Berman’s murder, Durst moved to Galveston, Texas, and sought to conceal his name and identity. There, he assumed the name Dorothy Ciner and was disguising himself as a woman.
He was arrested in October 2001 after garbage bags containing the dismembered body parts of Durst’s elderly neighbor, Morris Black, were found in the Galveston Bay.
Durst posted $250,000 bail, and went on the run until he was arrested again in Pennsylvania after being caught trying to shoplift.
Put on trial in Texas, Durst claimed that he killed Black in self-defense and was acquitted in November 2003.
‘The Jinx’ and the aftermath
The first season of “The Jinx” became a true-crime sensation that captivated millions, featuring long interviews with Durst himself and including new inconsistencies, key friends, family and police as well as reenactments of his past and in the final episodes, bombshell evidence tying Durst to Berman’s killing.
Durst was arrested in New Orleans in 2015, the night before the finale of “The Jinx” was slated to air.
In the final scene, following an interview where he was confronted with evidence, Durst can be heard in the bathroom wearing a hot microphone, in a rambling speech where says to himself: “There it is, you’re caught,” as well as “I’m having difficulty with the questions. What the hell did I do?” and the now infamous, “Killed them all, of course.”
Durst pleaded not guilty to killing Berman, but after a dramatic trial, he was sentenced to life in prison for her murder in 2021.
That same year, he was indicted for the 1982 murder of Kathie Durst.
“Those of us in law enforcement who are always seeking to do better by victims can and should look at how this case was handled and what if anything we can learn about the early stages of criminal investigations, especially those where individuals with status, wealth and power are implicated,” Mimi Rocah, the Westchester District Attorney, said a year later in 2022.
By then, Durst, 78, had already died in January 2022, in a California hospital while serving life in prison for Berman’s murder.
