Dec. 28, 2025

12 Crimes of Christmas - "THE JINX: ROBERT DURST'S BATHROOM CONFESSION & THE VERDICT 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING - PART 2"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter concludes the Robert Durst saga with the murder that should have ended everything - and the confession that finally did. September 2001: Durst killed his 71-year-old neighbor Morris Black, dismembered his body with surgical precision, and dumped the pieces in Galveston Bay. Acquitted after claiming self-defense. 2015: HBO's The Jinx caught Durst on a hot mic whispering "killed them all, of course." Arrested the night before the finale aired. September 2021: Finally convicted of murdering Susan Berman. Sentenced to life. January 2022: Dead at 78, taking Kathie's location to his grave.

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Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Sunday, December

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twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. Yesterday we covered Robert Durst's

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first two victims, His wife Kathy, who disappeared in nineteen

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eighty two. His best friend Susan Berman, shot execution style

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on Christmas Eve two thousand. Today the murder he admitted to,

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the acquittal that shocked America, the documentary that caught him confessing,

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and the forty year reckoning. September thirtieth, two thousand and one,

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Galveston Bay, Texas, a thirteen year old boy was fishing

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with his father, normal day, quiet water. Then something floated

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into view, a human torso, limbless, headless, wrapped in black

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garbage bags. Police divers searched the bay, found more bags,

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two arms, two legs severed with surgical precision, wrapped individually.

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Waited to sink, but they didn't sink deep enough. The

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head was never found. Medical examiner determined the victim died

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from a gunshot wound. Dismemberment happened after death. The killer

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had taken time, used the right tools, knew what they

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were doing. A piece of newspaper was stuck to one

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of the garbage bags had a delivery address label led

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police to a fourplex on Avenue K for residents. One

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of them was Dorothy Seiner, a mute woman who communicated

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through handwritten notes. Except Dorothy Sinner wasn't a woman at all.

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She was Robert Durst, hiding from the investigation into his

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missing wife, living under a dead classmate's name, wearing dresses

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and wigs. The victim was his neighbor, seventy one year

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old Marris Black, dismembered and dumped in the bay by

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a billionaire in disguise. Durst was arrested, posted three hundred

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thousand dollars bail, then jumped bail and disappeared. Spent six

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weeks on the run, finally caught in Pennsylvania shop lifting

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a chicken sandwich, had thirty seven thousand dollars cash in

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his pocket, two handguns in his car a butcher saw.

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At trial, Durst took the stand, admitted killing Morris Black,

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admitted dismembering his body, admitted dumping the pieces in Galveston Bay,

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and the jury found him not guilty. I'm reed, Carter.

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This is Celebrity Trials Today, Part two. How Robert Durst

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admitted to killing and dismembering a man and walked free.

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How a documentary caught him confessing to everything, and how

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justice finally caught up forty years too late. This is

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the story of money buying freedom until it couldn't anymore.

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Let me paint you the picture of how Robert Durst

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was living in two thousand and one. He owned homes

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in Manhattan, Connecticut, San Francisco, and Northern Cams, California. He

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had a luxury three thousand, eight hundred dollars a month

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apartment in Dallas. He had a small apartment in New Orleans.

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He was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And he

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was living in a three hundred dollars a month apartment

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in Galveston, Texas, dressed as a mute woman using the

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name of a high school classmate he hadn't seen in

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forty years, communicating with his landlord through handwritten notes. Why

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because investigators in New York were asking questions about his

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missing wife, because Susan Berman had just been murdered. Because

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the walls were closing in Morris Black was seventy one

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years old, lived across the hall from Dorothy Kinner in

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the Galveston Forplex. A loner, Cantankeros had his own problems,

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but he became friendly with his strange neighbor. At some point,

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Durst dropped the female disguise around Black. They became friends.

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Durst later testified they'd sit together talk share meals. Two

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outcasts in a Rundown building. On September twenty eighth, two

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two thousand and one, according to Durst, he came home

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and found Morris Black in his apartment, sitting on his couch,

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watching television and holding Durst's gun. Durst claimed Black pointed

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the gun at him, they struggled, the gun went off.

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Black was shot in the head. Accident, self defense, not murder.

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But here's what happened next, and this is undisputed. Durst

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admitted to all of it. Morris Black's body was lying

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on the floor of Durst's apartment, blood everywhere, a dead

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man in his living room. Durst's first instinct wasn't to

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call nine one one, wasn't to get help, wasn't to

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report the accident, he claimed it was. His first instinct

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was to make the body disappear. Durst went to Black's

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apartment across the hall found tools, saws and acts, brought

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them back, and he dismembered Morris Black's body. Cut off

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the head first, then the arms, then the legs. Worked

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in the bathtub to contain the mess, each piece in

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black garbage bags, meticulously, carefully, like he'd done it before.

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The dismemberment was done with what prosecutors called surgical precision.

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Not the work of someone panicking, not the work of

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someone who just accidentally killed his friend, the work of

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someone methodical, experienced cold. Durst loaded the garbage bags into

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his car, drove to Galveston Bay, dumped them in the water,

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then realized he'd made a mistake. The head could identify

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the victim, so he went back for it, took the head,

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disposed of it separately. It was never found. Then Durst

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cleaned up, scrubbed his apartment, got rid of evidence, and

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when police came asking about Dorothy Seener, he was gone.

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October ninth, two thousand and one, police arrested Robert Durst

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and charged him with murder. He posted three hundred thousand

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dollars bail, pocket change for a man worth hundreds of millions,

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and walked out of jail. Shorts scheduled a hearing Durst

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was supposed to appear. He didn't show. Robert Durst had

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jumped bail, disappeared again for six weeks he was a fugitive,

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changed his appearance, shaved his head, used yet another alias.

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This time he took the name of the man he'd killed,

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called himself Morris Black. November thirtieth, two thousand and one,

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Durst was finally caught, not through brilliant detective work, not

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through a tip. He was arrested in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for shoplifting.

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What did Robert Durst air to a billion dollar real

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estate empire steel a chicken sandwich from a supermarket while

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he had thirty seven thousand dollars cash in his pocket.

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Police searched his car, found two handguns, a butcher's saw, maps, cash,

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everything a fugitive needs. He was extradited to Texas to

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face murder charges, this time no bail. He sat in

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jail until trial, and Robert Durst hired the best lawyer's

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money could buy. August two thousand and three, Galveston County Courthouse,

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Robert Durst went on trial for the murder of Morris Black.

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His defense team included Dick de Geren, one of the

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most famous criminal defense attorneys in Texas, the kind of

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lawyer only the wealthy can afford, the kind of lawyer

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who wins cases that seem unwinnable. The prosecution's case seemed

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air tight. Durst admitted killing Black, admitted dismembering him, admitted

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dumping his body parts in Galveston Bay, admitted fleeing, admitted

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using fake identities. The physical evidence was overwhelming. District Attorney

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Curt Cistrunk laid it out for the jury. Durst cut

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up Black's body without hesitation, meticulously cleaned the crime scene,

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reserved a flight to leave the area, dumped the body,

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but returned for the head because it could identify the victim.

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Is it well planned and calcul related? You bet it is,

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Sistrunk told the jury. But de Geron had a strategy,

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a brilliant, cynical, effective strategy. He told the jury they

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should only consider what happened the moment the gun went off,

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not what happened after the dismemberment irrelevant to the murder charge.

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The cover up irrelevant, the flight irrelevant. Whatever Durst did

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after Morris Black was dead cannot change how Morris Black died.

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Degaron argued, you can't convict Bob Durst simply because of that.

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The defense painted Morris Black as unstable, aggressive, dangerous. Testified

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that Black had pointed the gun at Durst first, that

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Durst feared for his life, that the shooting was self

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defense or accident, and because Black's head was never found,

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prosecutors couldn't prove exactly how he was shot front of

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the head, back of the head, point blank execution or

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struggle over a gun without the head. They couldn't say

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for certain. Robert Durst took the stand in his own defense,

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testified for nearly four days, admitted everything he'd done after

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the killing, said he panicked, said he was afraid no

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one would believe him. The police would immediately look into

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who am I, Robert Durst, who happened to rent this

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apartment as Dorothy Sinner and find out that I am

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this wealthy guy who rented the apartment well below his means,

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and there is all this media attention on him back

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in New York. I just didn't think I would be

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believed he was right about one thing. Nobody believed his story,

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But belief isn't the standard proof beyond a reasonable doubt

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is November thirteenth, two thousand and three, after twenty six

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hours of deliberation over five days, the jury returned a

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verdict not guilty. Robert Durst walked out of that courtroom

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a free man. He'd admitted killing someone, admitted dismembering the body,

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admitted dumping it in the bay, and he walked free.

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Justice isn't black or white, it's green, Durst's own defense

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attorney Chip Lewis later said, and he had the green.

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One juror explained it years later. They didn't know if

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he was shot in the back of the head or

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if they struggled, but we do know that Morris Black

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was crazy because that was proven to us. The defense

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had successfully made the victim the villain, made the billionaire

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who cut up a body seem like the reasonable one,

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made twelve people believe that what happened after the killing

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didn't matter. Some jurors later regretted their decision, said they

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felt played, said they wished they'd voted differently, but it

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was too late. Double jeopardy attached. Robert Durst could never

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be tried again for Morris Black's murder. He pleaded guilty

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to lesser charges, tampering with evidence, jumping bail, served time,

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but walked out of prison in two thousand and five.

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Three deaths connected to Robert Durst his wife Kathy missing

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since nineteen eighty two, Susan Berman murdered Christmas Eve two thousand,

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Morris Black killed and dismembered in two thousand and one,

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and Durst had never been convicted of any of it.

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Your tax dollars at work will be right back with

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the Jinks, the documentary that caught Robert Durst confessing on

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a hot microphone and the forty year reckoning that followed.

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Twenty ten, director Andrew Jureki released a film called All

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Good Things. Ryan Gosling played a character based on Robert Durst.

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Kirsten Dunst played Kathy. The title reference to the health

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food store Durst and Kathy opened in Vermont before Everything

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went wrong. Shortly after the film came out, Robert Durst

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reached out to Jareki, said he liked it, wanted to talk.

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Against the advice of his lawyers and friends, Dursty agreed

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to extensive interviews. Those interviews became the Jinx The Life

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and Deaths of Robert Durst, a six episode HBO documentary

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series True Crime that felt like fiction, except every horrifying

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detail was real. Jareki interviewed Durst for hours over several

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years on camera in depth. Durst was charming, evasive, occasionally candid,

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often unsettling. He spoke about Cathy, about Susan, about Morris Black,

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denied killing anyone except Black, which he called self defense.

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But during the production, Jareki's team discovered something. Susan Berman's

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step son was going through her belongings. Found a letter

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Robert Durst had written to Susan in nineteen ninety nine,

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a letter with her address on the envelope. The address

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was written in block letters, and it contained a spelling

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error Beverly Hills, same misspelling as the anonymous cadaver letter

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sent to police after Susan's murder, same handwriting, same error.

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Robert Durst wrote both letters. The production team realized they

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had evidence connecting Durst to Susan Berman's murder. They turned

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the letter over to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.

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A new investigation began March fourteenth, twenty fifteen, the night

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before the final episode of the Jinx was scheduled to air.

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FBI agents arrested Robert Durst at a hotel in New Orleans.

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He was charged with the first degree murder of Susan Berman.

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In his hotel room, agents found a latex mask that

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covered his head and shoulders, multiple fake IDs cash. He

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was ready to run again, but the most damaging evidence

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came from the documentary itself. In the final interview, Jareki

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confronted Durst with the two letters, the matching handwriting the

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matching misspelling, asked him directly if he'd written the cadaver note.

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Durst was flustered, made excuses, said he didn't remember writing it,

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then asked to use the bathroom. He walked into the bathroom,

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closed the door, but his microphone was still on, still recording,

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and in that bathroom, believing he was alone, Robert Durst

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talked to himself, there it is. You're caught a pause.

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What the hell did I do? Another pause? Killed them all?

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Of course, killed them all, of course. The audio was choppy,

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edited slightly for the broadcast. The production later confirmed some

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portions were rearranged for dramatic effect, but the words were real.

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Robert Durst, in a moment he thought was private, admitted

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to killing them all. Kathy, Susan Morris them all. The

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finale of The Jinks aired. The next night, millions watched

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The Bathroom Confession played, and Robert Durst finally was facing

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murder charges he couldn't escape. March twenty twenty, Robert Durst's

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trial for the murder of Susan Berman began in Los Angeles.

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After just two days of testimony, COVID nineteen shut everything down.

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The trial paused for fourteen months. May twenty twenty one,

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the trial resumed. Durst was now seventy eight years old,

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in a wheelchair, reading questions from a tablet because his

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hearing had deteriorated. Frail but still defiant, prosecutors presented their

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case over four months, more than seventy witnesses. They connected

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the dots between all three deaths, argued that Durst killed

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Kathy in nineteen eighty two, that Susan Berman helped cover

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it up, that when investigators reopened Cathy's case in two thousand,

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Durst killed Susan to keep her quiet. The cadaver letter,

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the matching handwriting, the misspelling, the timing, the bathroom confession.

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Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told the jury Bob Durst

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has been around a lot of years, and he's been

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able to commit a lot of horrific crimes. He's a

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narcissistic psychopath. He killed his wife and then he had

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to keep killing to cover it up. Durst testified in

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his own defense again for days, denied killing Susan, denied

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killing Kathy. Admitted writing the cadaver letter, but claimed he

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only stumbled upon Susan's body and didn't know who actually

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shot her. Nobody believed him. September seventeenth, twenty twenty one,

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the jury, deliberated for less than a day, came back

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with a verdict guilty first degree murder. The jury also

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found Durst guilty of special circumstances. He was lying in

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wait he killed Berman to eliminate a witness to another crime,

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Kathy's murder. October fourteenth, twenty twenty one, Robert Durst was

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sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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He sat in his wheelchair, said nothing showed, no emotion

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was in Berman's stepson Sarab Kaufman addressed the court. I

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should have been working for a career. I could be

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proud of finding love, getting married and having children. Instead,

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I was forced to pay for memorials and bills that

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were not mine. He asked Durst to reveal where Kathy's

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body was to give her family closure after forty years.

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Durst said nothing. Two days after sentencing, Durst tested positive

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for COVID nineteen was hospitalized eight days later. October twenty second,

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twenty twenty one, he was charged with second degree murder

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in New York for the death of Kathy Durst, finally

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forty years after she disappeared, but there would be no trial.

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January tenth, twenty twenty two, Robert Durst died in a

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California prison hospital. He was seventy eight years old, natural causes,

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his lawyer said, the litany of medical issues they'd been

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reporting for years. He died unrepentant. Deputy D. A. John

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Lewin said it plainly to the end. He was hostile, unrepentant,

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and unremorseful. Because Durst's appeal was still pending when he died,

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his murder conviction was automatically vacated under California law. Technically, legally,

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Robert Durst died an unconvicted man, but we know what

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he did. He told us himself killed them all, of course,

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Kathy McCormick Durst never found. Her mother died at one

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hundred and two, not knowing what happened to her daughter.

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Her brother Jim spent decades fighting for justice. Susan Berman

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shot in the back of the head, killed to keep

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Durst's secrets. Her family robbed of a priceless person. Marris

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Black seventy one years old, dismembered, dumped in a bay,

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his head never recovered. Three victims, forty years, billions of

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dollars spent on lawyers, and in the end, what caught

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Robert Durst wasn't the police, wasn't the prosecutors. It was

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a documentary filmmaker and a hot microphone in a bathroom.

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Kill them all, of course, that's part two of our

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Robert Durst Special. Kathy McCormick Durst twenty nine years old,

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three months from becoming a doctor, vanished January thirty first,

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nineteen eighty two. Never found. Susan Berman, fifty five years old,

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crime writer, shot execution style December twenty third, two thousand,

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the day before Christmas Eve. Morris Black, seventy one years old,

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killed and dismembered September two thousand and one, dumped in

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Galveston Bay, Robert Durst, billionaire air dressed as a mute

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woman to hide, admitted dismembering a man and walked free.

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Caught confessing on a hot mic, convicted at seventy eight,

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dead three months later. For forty years, Robert Durst's money

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protected him best lawyers, best investigation, best experts, every advantage

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wealth can buy. His defense attorney said it himself. Justice

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isn't black or white, it's green, and he had the green.

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But in the end, justice came, not fast enough, not

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completely enough. Kathy's family never got to see him tried

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for her murder. Susan's family never got full closure. Marris

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Black's family watched his killer walk free. The system failed,

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failed for decades, failed, the victims, failed their families, but eventually,

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finally justice came. Robert Durst is dead, his conviction vacated

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on a technicality, His secrets buried with him. But we

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remember Kathy McCormick, Durst, Susan Berman, Morris Black, their names,

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their lives, what was stolen from them? Make it make sense?

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You can't. A billionaire killed three people and spent most

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of his life free. That's not justice, that's America. I'm

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read Carter tomorrow, continuing our Twelve Crimes of Christmas, the

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story of Jody Arius Rest in Peace, Kathy, Rest in peace, Susan,

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Rest in peace, Morris. Someone has to say your names.

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This is celebrity Trials.