Robert Durst, the subject of HBO’s 2015 docu-series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, has been arraigned in Los Angeles, charged with the 2000 murder of friend Susan Berman. Durst allegedly shot her to keep her from talking to authorities regarding the whereabouts of Durst’s wife, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances back in 1982.
The real estate heir, now 73-years-old, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday, looking frail in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace. When asked a procedural question by the judge, Durst replied “I am not guilty. I did not kill Susan Berman.” Prosecution and defense will meet again on February 15, 2017 to set a date for a preliminary hearing. The state will not seek the death penalty against Durst.
Real estate heir Robert Durst pleads not guilty to murder https://t.co/jCRvnXFg9x
— TIME (@TIME) November 7, 2016
There are so many twists and turns in this story, that it’s no surprise that the HBO series was a hit, and probably contributed to the success of Netflix’s true crime docu-series Making A Murderer. The 6-episode series, directed by Andrew Jarecki, investigated the disappearance of Durts’s first wife, Kathleen, in 1982, as well as the shooting murder and dismemberment of Durst’s neighbor, Morris Black (of which he was acquitted in 2003) and the murder of Susan Berman.
During the last episode of the series, Durst went into a bathroom, still wearing a live microphone, and was overheard mumbling, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” Soon after the episode aired in March of 2015, the FBI, who had their eyes on him before the documentary aired, arrested Durst in New Orleans. In February of this year, he plead guilty to possession of a firearm, illegal for a convicted felon, and was sentenced to 85 months in federal prison.
So, now a trial is on the way, but the question has been raised about using the audio from the documentary against Durst. Voice recordings are often a slippery slope, especially because, as some legal experts feel, audio recorded in a bathroom isn’t admissible because there is an expectation of privacy there. The admissibility of the audio was questioned in March of last year. The New York Times spoke to Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Columbia University Law School, who said the statements could be admitted in court “so long as it can be shown that the tape wasn’t tampered with.”
Durst has avoided a murder rap in the past. Despite confessing he dismembered his former neighbor and threw his body parts into the bay, he was acquitted of his murder. (He did maintain the shooting was an act of defense, but who dismembers a body, presumably to hide it, after an accidental shooting?) Can an HBO series finally bring about a guilty verdict for Durst? Most importantly, when am I going to find the time to watch this series now?
Photo credit: Getty Images, HBO
I don’t get why the expectation of privacy in a bathroom is brought up in this case. It’s not like they secretly hid recording devices in there, the man willingly had one on his person and made a mistake. He could have just as easily stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and done the same thing, and that wouldn’t be a problem.
Find time to watch it. It’s great.
I second this. Find the time. This is a great documentary and Durst is a truly compelling subject.
Durst’s ‘confession’ right at the end of the documentary is a completely chilling ‘shivers down the spine’ moment; like an unexpected plot twist right at the end of a novel that you thought couldn’t possibly get any better. Andrew Jarecki said that Durst was aware that he was still miked when he made the confession, so make of that what you will.
Um, spoiler alert
@Polkasox
I hate hate hate spoilers with passion… but you did click on a story that had a BIG spoiler in the headline and then proceeded to scroll down to the comments, so….
The series is really good. I do think he 100% killed his wife AND other people (not just the neighbour, there were other deaths around him) but I almost don’t care whether he goes to jail or not. He seems miserable enough to me as it is…I really doubt this man has ever known joy, love, or any positive state of mind for that matter. His eyes are black and empty, just like his soul. His childhood f@@ked him up. He’s dead inside imo, and my gues is even the killing(s) did not make him feel good- to me, he kills people like flies when they annoy him or get in the way because he doesn’t see OR FEEL anything wrong with that, not for the act of killing. It probably has the same emotional impact on him as taking out trash.
Wait Corey, did you not watch the whole series and just read about it? Or are you talking about the next HBO segment that will undoubtedly air after this trial? Either way, this is a must watch, a well made docuseries, true crime at its worst, showing how money can buy your freedom, plus a first hand account of a sociopath/psychopath ( what more could one want for Christmas?? eye roll…but me, I want it) . At the end when he was miked without realizing it and basically admitted to everything, I fell out of my chair (WAIT WHAT immediate rewind) – love when TV does that.
I thought it was disgusting he got away with killing his wife, just because he was rich. Anybody else caught out oh his alibi lies would have been arrested and sent to prison and other people’s lives would not have been put at risk.
Do I think he’s guilty? Yes. My problem with this whole situation has more to do with the filmmakers, notably Andrew Jarecki, than with Durst himself. Without spoiling it, there’s a moment in the series where a key piece of evidence is unearthed in the second alleged murder case. Instead of taking it to the police, the film uses it as a plot tool. It becomes the giant neon elephant pink elephant in the room leading up to the final interview with the infamous bathroom scene. If their objective was to help the victims’ families as they claimed, they would have at the very least turned the evidence over to the authorities, Funnily enough, after this and the adjustments made to the timeline to fit the film’s narrative were brought up in several interviews, the rest of the promo tour was cancelled because the filmmakers didn’t want to “endanger” the ongoing investigation into Durst. I came away feeling a little sick because it seemed as though the series was designed to make him look guilty instead of presenting the facts, and it seemed like many people bought into it. It’s much bigger than Durst because this could have been any one of us.
I was obsessed with this documentary! He’s so creepy and not very smart but somehow keeps getting away with murder.
He has eyes like a great white, black and soulless. I think it’s time to watch The Jinx for a second time this winter!