Durst discussed the cases and made several damning statements including a stunning confession during an unguarded moment in the six-part HBO documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
The show made his name known to a new generation and brought renewed scrutiny and suspicion from authorities. He was arrested in Berman’s killing the night before the final episode, which closed with him mumbling to himself in a bathroom while still wearing a hot mic saying: “You’re caught! What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
The quotes were later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic effect but the production—done with Durst’s cooperation against the advice from his lawyer and friends—dredged up new evidence including an envelope that connected Durst to the scene of Berman’s killing as well as incriminating statements he made.
Police had received a note directing them to Berman’s home with only the word “CADAVER” written in block letters.
In interviews given between 2010 and 2015, Durst told the makers of the The Jinx that he didn’t write the note, but whoever did had killed her.
“You’re writing a note to the police that only the killer could have written,” Durst said.
His defense lawyers conceded in the run-up to trial that Durst had written the note, and prosecutors said it amounted to a confession.
How the trial unfolded
Clips from The Jinx, and from the 2010 movie All Good Things in which Ryan Gosling played a fictionalized version of Durst, had starring roles at trial.
As did Durst himself. His attorneys again took the risk of putting him on the stand for what turned out to be about three weeks of testimony. It didn’t work as it had in Texas.
Under devastating cross-examination by prosecutor John Lewin, Durst admitted he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to get out of trouble.
“‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical,” Durst said from the stand. “I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.”
The jury promptly returned a guilty verdict.
It long appeared he would avoid any such convictions.
Durst went on the run in late 2000 after New York authorities reopened an investigation into his wife’s disappearance, renting a modest apartment in Galveston and disguising himself as a mute woman.
In 2001, the body parts of a neighbor, Morris Black, began washing up in Galveston Bay.