The subject of HBO's doc 'The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst' was arrested in New Orleans over a first-degree murder warrant ahead of the show's finale.
- Mar 16, 2015
AceShowbiz - Robert A. Durst, who was arrested on Saturday, March 14 in New Orleans on a first-degree murder warrant, made a shocking confession in the final episode of HBO's documentary "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" airing on Sunday evening. The 71-year-old is a son of New York real estate mogul Seymour Durst.
Durst has been suspected of killing his friend Susan Berman, who is a mobster's daughter, in 2000, and his first wife, medical student Kathleen McCormack, who disappeared in 1982 after he dropped her off at a train station near their home north of New York City in Westchester County. He also went on a trial for the murder of neighbor Morris Black, whom Durst admitted to dismembering, but he was acquitted based on self-defense claim.
Police previously couldn't find evidence that proved Durst was in Los Angeles the day Berman was killed. However, in the fifth episode of the six-part doc, Berman's stepson called the doc's producer Marc Smerling and told him that he discovered a 1999 letter from Durst to Berman. The handwriting on the envelope seemed to match the handwriting on an anonymous letter alerting Beverly Hills police to a "cadaver" in Berman's home postmarked the day Berman was believed to be killed. Both documents also featured the word "Beverly" mispelled as "Beverley".
When "The Jinx" director Andrew Jarecki asked him in the doc's finale about the similarity of the handwriting in the two documents, Durst admitted to writing the first one, but not the second letter. After the interview, he went to the bathroom with the microphone still on.
He was recorded talking to himself, "There is it. You're caught. You're right, of course. But, you can't imagine. Arrest him. I don't know what's in the house. Oh, I want this. What a disaster." He continued rambling, "He was right. I was wrong... I'm having difficulty with the question. What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
Following Durst's arrest, HBO released a statement which read, "We simply cannot say enough about the brilliant job that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling did in producing 'The Jinx'. Years in the making, their thorough research and dogged reporting reignited interest in Robert Durst's story with the public and law enforcement."
Robert's brother Douglas Durst also said in a statement to the Associated Press, "We are relieved and also grateful to everyone who assisted in the arrest of Robert Durst. We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done."
