Robert Durst obit

Robert Durst, Wealthy Killer At The Heart Of HBO's 'The Jinx,' Dead At 78

 

He was not on the list.

Robert Durst, the onetime New York real estate scion convicted of one murder and suspected of others, died Monday at age 78.

Durst died in Stockton, California, where he was serving a life sentence. His lawyer, Chip Lewis, told The New York Times Durst went into cardiac arrest at a hospital near the prison and was unable to be revived.

He’d contracted COVID-19 and was briefly placed on a ventilator last year, contributing to his preexisting health problems.

“Mr. Durst passed away early this morning while in the custody of California’s Department of Corrections,” Lewis said in a statement. “We understand that his death was due to natural causes associated with a litany of medical issues we had repeatedly reported to the court over the last couple of years.”

Durst, who has been incarcerated since his 2015 arrest, is estranged from his family, which operates some of the most prestigious real estate in New York City.

His trial was delayed due to the pandemic, but Durst was ultimately convicted in September of shooting his friend Susan Berman in the back of the head in 2000 out of fear, prosecutors alleged, that she would give up information about his connection to the death of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack. He was sentenced to life in prison in October.

McCormack vanished in February 1982 after allegedly telling a friend she was afraid of Durst. She is presumed dead, although her remains have never been found.

Berman had served as a spokeswoman for her college pal Durst in the wake of McCormack’s disappearance, but she later fell on hard times.

Durst was dramatically arrested in New Orleans ― with a latex face-and-shoulders mask and over $40,000 in cash ― for the shooting just hours before the final episode of a documentary about him, “The Jinx,” aired on HBO.

He was held without bail, having attempted to flee a murder charge in Texas more than a decade prior.

In 2003, Durst was tried for the murder of a neighbor, Morris Black. He claimed that Black’s gun had gone off while Durst was trying to defend himself, and admitted to dismembering the body out of supposed concern authorities would not believe him. He was ultimately acquitted.

Durst had been under increasing scrutiny for McCormack’s disappearance, with a New York prosecutor reportedly seeking his indictment. In their victim impact statements, several of Berman’s friends and family members implored Durst to tell McCormack’s family what he allegedly did with her body.

He was the son of New York City real-estate magnate Seymour Durst and the elder brother of Douglas Durst, head of the Durst Organization.

Durst attended Scarsdale High School, where classmates described him as a loner.[8] 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.[10][11] 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 US$65 million in 2006.

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. 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.