Robert Alan Durst (April 12, 1943 – January 10, 2022) was an American real estate heir. The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he gained attention as a suspect in the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife Kathleen McCormack, the 2000 murder of his long-time friend Susan Berman, and the 2001 killing of his neighbor Morris Black. Acquitted of murdering Black in 2003, Durst did not face significant further legal action until his participation in the 2015 documentary miniseries The Jinx led to him being charged with Berman's murder. Durst was convicted of the murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was charged with McCormack's disappearance shortly after his sentencing, but died in 2022 before a trial could begin.
Early life
The eldest of four children, Robert Durst was born in Manhattan on April 12, 1943, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He was the son of real-estate magnate Seymour Durst and his wife Bernice Herstein. His siblings were Douglas, Tommy, and Wendy Durst. Durst's paternal grandfather, Joseph Durst, who was a tailor when he emigrated from Austria-Hungary in 1902, eventually became a successful real-estate manager and developer, founding the Durst Organization in 1927.
When Robert was seven, his mother committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the family's Scarsdale home; he later claimed that, moments before her death, his father walked him to a window from which he could see her standing on the roof. In a March 2015 New York Times interview, though, his brother Douglas denied that Robert had witnessed her death. As children, Robert and Douglas underwent counseling for sibling rivalry; a 1953 psychiatrist's report on ten-year-old Robert mentioned "personality decomposition and possibly even schizophrenia".
Durst attended Scarsdale High School, where classmates described him as a loner. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1965 from Lehigh University, where he was a member of the varsity lacrosse team and the business manager of the student newspaper, The Brown and White. Durst enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) later that year, where he met Susan Berman, but eventually withdrew from the school and returned to New York in 1969.
Durst had no interest in working for his father at the Durst Organization, instead preferring to open a small health-food store, All Good Things, in Vermont in the early 1970s. Durst closed All Good Things in 1973, when his father convinced him to return to New York and the Durst Organization. Due to Robert Durst's inappropriate conduct, however, Seymour Durst broke tradition and appointed Durst's brother, Douglas, to take over the Durst Organization in 1992. Durst, who felt he was entitled to inherit the company despite his disdain for it, accused and blamed his brother Douglas for stealing what he believed he was owed, which caused a rift between Robert and the rest of the Durst family. Robert eventually sued for his share of the family fortune and was bought out of the family trust for $65,000,000 in 2006.
Capital crimes for which Durst has been investigated
Police directly questioned Durst, and sometimes conducted searches, in connection to the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack, and the homicides of Susan Berman and Morris Black. He was tried and acquitted of murder in the Black case, but was later convicted in the Berman case.
Disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst
In the fall of 1971, Durst met dental hygienist Kathleen McCormack. After two dates, he invited McCormack to share his home in Vermont, where he had opened a health-food store; she moved there in January 1972. However, Durst's father pressured him to resettle in New York City to work in the Durst Organization. The couple returned to Manhattan, where they married on April 12, 1973, Durst's 30th birthday.
At the time of her disappearance, McCormack was a student in her fourth and final year at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, studying to be a pediatrician; she was only a few months short of earning her degree. McCormack was last seen by someone other than Durst on the evening of January 31, 1982, when she appeared unexpectedly at a dinner party thrown by her friend Gilberte Najamy in Newtown, Connecticut. Najamy noticed that McCormack was upset and was wearing red sweatpants, which Najamy found odd; McCormack never dressed so casually in public. McCormack later left for her marital home in South Salem, New York, after a phone call from her husband.
Although the couple are known to have argued and fought that evening, Durst maintained that he placed his wife on a commuter train to New York City at Katonah station, had a drink with a neighbor, and spoke to his wife at their Manhattan apartment by telephone later that evening. Durst later admitted he just went home and went to bed. "That's what I told police," Durst later told documentary filmmakers of The Jinx. "I was hoping that would just make everything go away."
After McCormack had left Najamy's house, the two women were supposed to meet at a pub called The Lion's Gate in Manhattan. When she failed to appear, Najamy became concerned and repeatedly called the police for several days. Later that week, Durst filed a missing person's report, as well. Both a doorman and the building superintendent at the couple's apartment on Riverside Drive claimed to have seen McCormack there on February 1, the day after she was last indisputably seen, but the doorman also said that he had seen her only from behind and from half a block away and could not be certain that it was her. A private investigator, hired by Durst's own criminal lawyer, later reported that the doorman said he had not seen McCormack arrive at all, and may not have been working the night she disappeared. Only three weeks after Durst reported McCormack missing, the superintendent at the Riverside Drive apartment found her possessions in the building's trash compactor.
McCormack had been treated at a Bronx hospital for facial bruises three weeks before her disappearance. She told a friend that Durst beat her, but did not press charges over the incident. McCormack asked Durst for a $250,000 divorce settlement. Instead, Durst canceled his wife's credit card, removed her name from a joint bank account, and refused to pay her medical school tuition. When McCormack disappeared, Durst had been dating Prudence Farrow for three years and was living in a separate apartment. Durst initially offered $100,000 for his wife's return, then reduced the reward to $15,000. When one of McCormack's friends and her sister found out that she had been reported missing, they broke into her cottage, hoping to find her. Instead, they found the cottage ransacked, McCormack's mail left unopened, and her belongings in the trash.
Investigation and aftermath
After McCormack's disappearance, the New York City Police Department said that Durst had claimed to have last spoken to her when she called him at the Riverside Drive apartment. He claimed that the last time he had seen her was at Katonah station, where she was planning to board a 9:15 P.M. train to Manhattan. He also claimed that on February 4, the supervisor at McCormack's medical school called him and said that she had called in sick on February 1 and was absent from class for the entire week. If it was indeed McCormack who made the call is uncertain. The day after Durst received the call from McCormack's medical school, he reported her as missing. The police found his stories to be full of contradictions.
Eight years after McCormack disappeared, Durst divorced her, claiming spousal abandonment. In 2016, the McCormack family asked to have Kathleen declared legally dead, a request that was granted the following year. Kathleen's mother, Ann McCormack, attempted to sue Durst for $100,000,000, alleging that he killed McCormack and deprived them of the right to bury her. McCormack's parents are now deceased. Her younger sister, Mary McCormack Hughes, also believes that Durst murdered her. The New York State Police quietly reopened the criminal investigation into the disappearance in 1999, searching Durst's former South Salem residence for the first time. The investigation became public in November 2000.
In August 2019, a wrongful death lawsuit against Durst filed by another of McCormack's sisters, Carol Bamonte, was dismissed on the grounds that she had waited too long to file the suit. In 2018, U.S. Court of Appeals had already revised the exact date of McCormack's death to match the day she actually disappeared in January 1982. On May 17, 2021, during Durst's trial for the murder of Susan Berman, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah announced that McCormack's disappearance had been reclassified as a murder and would be re-investigated. In October 2021, shortly after Durst's first-degree conviction for the murder of Susan Berman, the Westchester County, New York, District Attorney's office announced they would empanel a Grand Jury to explore charges against Durst in the disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Durst was officially charged October 22, 2021, in her death.
Murder of Susan Berman
Susan Berman, a long-time friend of Durst's who had facilitated his public alibi after McCormack's disappearance, was the daughter of David Berman, a reputed gangster who in the late 1940s operated the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On December 24, 2000, Berman was found murdered execution-style in her home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California, after her neighbors called the police to report that her door was open and one of her fox terriers was loose.
A few days later, a letter addressed to the Beverly Hills Police Department, postmarked December 23, contained Berman's address and the word "cadaver". On the envelope "Beverly" was misspelled as "Beverley". Durst is known to have been in northern California days before Berman was killed, and to have flown from San Francisco to New York the night before Berman's body was discovered. Berman had recently received $50,000 from Durst in two payments. Although Durst confirmed to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that he had sent Berman $25,000, and faxed investigators a copy of her 1982 deposition regarding his missing wife, he declined to be further questioned about the murder.
Durst stated in a 2005 deposition that Berman called him shortly before her death to say that the LAPD wanted to talk to her about McCormack's disappearance. A study of case notes by The Guardian cast doubt on whether the LAPD had made such a call, or whether then-Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro had scheduled an interview with Berman at all. On October 31, 2000, after being tipped off by his sister Wendy that the McCormack investigation had been reopened, Durst went into hiding and moved to Galveston, Texas, disguising himself as a mute woman to avoid police inquiries. Berman biographer Cathy Scott has asserted that Durst killed her because she knew too much about his wife's disappearance.
Killing and dismemberment of Morris Black
On October 9, 2001, Durst was arrested in Galveston shortly after body parts belonging to his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, were found floating in Galveston Bay. He was released on $250,000 bail, missed a court hearing on October 16, and a warrant was issued for his arrest on a charge of bail jumping.[50] On November 30, he was caught inside a Wegmans supermarket in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after trying to shoplift Band-Aids, a newspaper, and a chicken salad sandwich, though he had $500 cash in his pocket. A police search of his rental car yielded $37,000 in cash, two guns, marijuana, Black's driver's license, and directions to Gilberte Najamy's home in Connecticut. Durst also used his time on the run to stalk his brother Douglas, visiting the driveway of his home in Katonah, New York, while armed. Durst employed defense attorney John Waldron while he was held on charges in Pennsylvania. He was eventually extradited to Texas for trial.
2003 trial
In 2003, Durst was tried for the murder of Black. On the death of Black, the prosecution presented the jury with only a premeditated first degree murder and no lesser murder or manslaughter charges. He employed defense attorney Dick DeGuerin and claimed self-defense; DeGuerin conducted two mock trials in preparation for the case. Durst's defense team found communicating with him difficult and hired psychiatrist Milton Altschuler to investigate. Altschuler spent over 70 hours examining Durst and diagnosed him with Asperger syndrome, saying, "His whole life's history is so compatible with a diagnosis of Asperger's disorder." His defense team argued at trial that the diagnosis explained his behavior.
Durst claimed Black, a cranky and confrontational loner, grabbed his .22 caliber target pistol from its hiding place and threatened him with it. During the struggle for the pistol, the pistol discharged, shooting Black in the face. During cross-examination, Durst admitted to using a paring knife, two saws, and an axe to dismember Black's body before bagging and dumping his remains in Galveston Bay. Black's head was never recovered, so prosecutors were unable to present sufficient forensic evidence to dispute Durst's account of the struggle. As a result of lack of forensics, the jury acquitted Durst of murder on November 11, 2003.
On December 21, 2004, Durst pleaded guilty to two counts of bail jumping and one count of evidence tampering (for his dismemberment of Black's body). As part of a plea bargain, he received a sentence of five years and was given credit for time served, requiring him to serve three years in prison. Durst was paroled on July 15, 2005. The rules of his release required him to stay near his home; permission was required to travel.[60] That December, Durst made an unauthorized trip to the boarding house where Black had been killed and to a nearby shopping mall. At the mall, he ran into former Galveston trial judge Susan Criss, who had presided over his trial. Due to this incident, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles determined that Durst had violated the terms of his parole and returned him to jail. He was released again from custody on March 1, 2006.
Asked in March 2015 whether she believed Durst murdered Black, Criss commented: "You could see that this person knew what they were doing and that it was not a first time. The body was cut perfectly like a surgeon who knew how to use this tool on this bone and a certain kind of tool on that muscle. It looked like not a first-time job. That was pretty scary."
All Good Things film and The Jinx TV documentary
The events surrounding Durst inspired the 2010 film All Good Things, the title of which is a reference to a health-food store of the same name set up by Durst and his wife in the 1970s. David Marks, the character based on Durst, was portrayed by Ryan Gosling, and his wife Kathie was portrayed by Kirsten Dunst. Shortly after its theatrical release, Robert Durst saw the film and contacted director Andrew Jarecki, expressing admiration for the film, which evolved into discussions between the two of them being included on the DVD video release, and eventually resulting in Jarecki co-writing, co-producing, directing, and appearing in the 2015 HBO six-part documentary series about Durst titled The Jinx.
In early 2015, a six-part HBO documentary titled The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst described circumstantial evidence linking Durst to the murder of Berman, who was believed to have knowledge of McCormack's disappearance. The documentary detailed the disappearance of McCormack, Berman's subsequent death, and the killing of Black. Against the advice of his lawyers and his wife, Debrah Lee Charatan, Durst gave multiple interviews and allowed unrestricted access to his personal records to the filmmakers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Durst in New Orleans on the same day as the final episode was broadcast.
The documentary ends with Durst moving into a bathroom, where his microphone records him seemingly saying to himself: "There it is. 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 was right. I was wrong. And the burping ... I'm having difficulty with the question ... What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." It later became known in 2019 the filmmakers altered the sequence of Durst's comments, increasing the apparent severity of his musings in the bathroom.
The Associated Press reported that a March 1999 letter from Durst to Berman, discovered by her stepson and turned over to the filmmakers during their research, provided "key new evidence" leading to the filing of murder charges against Durst.
During the production of The Jinx, producers Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zac Stuart-Pontier realized the information and interviews with Durst uncovered potential criminal evidence and they felt obligated to deliver it to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. The new information led to Durst's indictment for the first degree murder of Susan Berman.
Berman trial
2015 arrest
A few days after a first-degree murder warrant was signed by a Los Angeles judge in relation to the Berman killing, Durst was arrested by FBI agents on March 14, 2015, at the Canal Street Marriott in New Orleans, where he had registered under the false name "Everette Ward". Durst, who had been tracked to the hotel after making two calls to check his voicemail, was observed wandering aimlessly in the lobby and mumbling to himself, having driven to New Orleans from Houston four days before.
In addition to a .38 caliber revolver loaded with four live rounds and one spent shell casing, police recovered five ounces of marijuana, Durst's birth certificate and passport, maps of Louisiana, Florida, and Cuba, a "flesh-toned" latex mask, the fake Texas I.D. card used to check into the hotel, a new cell phone, and cash totaling $42,631. Police discovered a UPS tracking number, which led to an additional $117,000 cash and a pair of shoes in a package sent to Durst by a friend in New York, which was seized after his arrest. Bank statements found in one of Durst's Houston condominia revealed cash withdrawals of $315,000 in little more than a month. Durst is believed to have planned to flee to Cuba after the HBO documentary aired, since the U.S. and Cuba have no extradition treaty.
On March 15, 2015, New York State Police investigator Joseph Becerra, long involved with the McCormack case and said to have been working closely with the FBI and Los Angeles detectives, removed some 60 file boxes of Durst's personal papers and effects from the home of Durst's friend, Susan T. Giordano, in Campbell Hall, New York. All of these items had been sent to Giordano for safekeeping three years prior by Durst's then-wife, Debrah Lee Charatan. Also stored at Giordano's residence were videotaped depositions of Durst, his brother Douglas; and Charatan, all of which were related to the Black case.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, in charge of prosecuting Durst, immediately flew to New Orleans after Durst's arrest. With Durst's permission, Lewin interviewed him for three hours without a lawyer present. The recorded questioning was later introduced as evidence in the Berman murder trial. In regards to the investigation, Lewin claimed to have found information uncovered by the filmmakers in the HBO documentary The Jinx to be compelling, and repeatedly flew to New York to interview witnesses, including friends of Durst and Berman's.
Firearm charge
On March 16, 2015, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin advised court authorities in New Orleans that his client waived extradition and would voluntarily return to California. Later that same day, Louisiana State Police filed charges against Durst for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possession of a firearm with a controlled substance, forestalling his immediate return to California. Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro commented, in light of prior convictions that could influence Durst's sentencing, "[j]ust for those gun charges here in Louisiana, [Durst] could face up to life in prison".
On March 23, Durst was denied bail by a Louisiana judge after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk. In an effort to hasten his extradition to California and avoid a protracted Louisiana court battle, DeGuerin raised questions about the validity of the New Orleans arrest and hotel room search, observing a local judge did not issue a warrant until hours after his client was detained. While communicating with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and conducting an inventory of Durst's hotel room possessions, "[t]he FBI ... held him there, incommunicado, for almost eight hours". According to DeGuerin, Durst was questioned extensively by a Los Angeles prosecutor and detective, without a lawyer present, on the morning after his arrest.
In failing to produce the arresting officers subpoenaed for a probable cause hearing, Durst's attorneys charged that Louisiana prosecutors engaged in a "misguided attempt to conceal the facts from the court, the defendant, and the public". Peter Mansfield, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, said that his office instructed the two FBI agents and arresting officer not to appear, arguing that DeGuerin's subpoenas were issued in an attempt to conduct "actions against them in their official capacities for the purpose of obtaining testimony, information and material maintained under color of their official duties".
On April 8, a day after the U.S. Attorney filed an independent federal weapons charge, Durst was formally indicted by a Louisiana grand jury for carrying a weapon with a controlled substance and for the illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. Later that month, Durst's lawyers requested that more than $193,000 seized by authorities during their searches be returned, saying the cash "is not needed as evidence, is not contraband, and is not subject to forfeiture".
After negotiations with Durst's defense team, Louisiana authorities ultimately dropped weapons charges against Durst on April 23, 2015. Durst's trial on the federal weapons charge was scheduled for September 21, 2015. DeGuerin confirmed rumors that Durst was in poor health, stating that he has hydrocephalus and had a stent put into his skull two years before, as well as spinal surgery and a cancerous mass removed from his esophagus.
Durst's attorneys requested a later date for the federal weapons-charge trial, saying they would need more time to prepare after rulings on pending motions. U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan later rescheduled the trial to January 11, 2016. On November 16, 2015, a New Orleans federal judge ordered Durst re-arraigned on the weapons charges and scheduled a hearing for December 17. When asked, Durst's attorney said only that Durst did not kill Berman, and that he wanted to resolve the other charges to expedite Durst's extradition to Los Angeles to face that charge.
On December 16, 2015, prosecutors and defense attorneys told Berrigan in a joint motion that scheduling conflicts ruled out all dates before a January 11 trial date. Berrigan ultimately rescheduled the trial for February 3, 2016, and Durst changed his plea to guilty to the federal gun charge and received an 85-month prison sentence.
Incarceration
Durst (BOP Number 45101-079) was originally placed in USP Terre Haute, but was later transferred to a Los Angeles County Jail while awaiting trial.
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