Robert Durst

Robert Alan Durst (born April 12, 1943) is a son of New York City real estate mogul Seymour Durst, and brother of commercial developer Douglas Durst. He came to media attention in the 1980s when his wife disappeared, and again in the early 2000s when he was the subject of a multi-state manhunt and acquittal of murder.

On March 14, 2015, Durst was rearrested in New Orleans on a first-degree murder warrant issued by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Early life

One of four children, Durst grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He is the son of real estate investor Seymour Durst and his wife Bernice Herstein. His siblings are Douglas, Thomas and Wendy. Durst's paternal grandfather, Joseph Durst, a penniless Jewish immigrant tailor from Austria-Hungary, eventually became a very successful real estate manager and developer, founding the Durst Organization in 1927. His father, Seymour, became head of the family business in 1974 upon Joseph's death. Durst claimed that at the age of seven his father walked him to a window where he saw his mother on a roof prior to her death. In the HBO documentary, his brother Douglas denies this. As children, Durst and his brother Douglas underwent counseling for sibling rivalry. He 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 Brown and White student newspaper. He enrolled in a doctoral program at UCLA later that year, but eventually withdrew from the school and returned to New York in 1969. Durst went on to become a real estate developer in his father's business; however, it was his brother Douglas who was later appointed to run the family business. The appointment in the 1990s caused a rift between Robert and his family, and he became estranged from them.

§Linked crimes

§Disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst

In 1973, Durst married Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack, a dental hygienist. They moved to Vermont where they opened a health food store. However, Durst's father Seymour pressured him to move back to New York to work in the family real estate business.[10] Kathie Durst was last seen alive on January 31, 1982. At the time she went missing, Robert Durst was dating Prudence Farrow and living in a separate apartment. In 2000, New York State Police re-opened the criminal investigation into Kathie Durst's disappearance.

§Death of Susan Berman

On December 24, 2000, Durst's longtime friend, Susan Berman, who was believed to have knowledge of Kathie's disappearance, was found murdered execution-style in her Benedict Canyon house in California. Durst was questioned in both cases but not charged.[9] According to prosecutors, Durst moved to Galveston, Texas, in 2000, lived in a boarding house and began posing as a mute woman to avoid questioning concerning Kathie's disappearance.

§Morris Black death and dismemberment

On October 9, 2001, Durst was arrested in Galveston shortly after body parts of his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, were found floating in Galveston Bay, but was released on $300,000 bail the next day. Durst missed a court hearing on October 16 and was declared the first billion-dollar fugitive in the US.[citation needed] On November 30, 2001, he was caught in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at a Wegmans Supermarket, after trying to shoplift a chicken sandwich, Band-Aids, and a newspaper, even though he had $500 cash in his pocket.[14] A police search of his rented car yielded $37,000 in cash, two guns, marijuana, and Black's driver's license.[15]

§Trial

In 2003, Durst went on trial for the murder of Morris Black. He hired defense attorney Dick DeGuerin and claimed self-defense. During cross-examination, Durst admitted to using a paring knife, two saws and an axe to dismember Black's body before dumping his remains in Galveston Bay.[16] He was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which the defense argued explained his behavior.[17] Durst claimed he and Black, a cranky and confrontational loner, struggled for control of Durst's .22-caliber target pistol after Black threatened him with it and the pistol discharged, shooting Black in the face. The jury acquitted him of murder.[18]

In 2004, Durst pleaded guilty to two counts of bond jumping and one count of evidence tampering. As part of a plea bargain, he received a sentence of five years and was given credit for time served, requiring him to serve about three years in prison.[19]

Durst was paroled in 2005. The rules of his release required him to stay near his home; permission was required to travel.[citation needed]

In December 2005, 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 the presiding judge from his murder trial, Susan Criss. Due to this incident, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles determined that Durst had violated the terms of his parole, and he was returned to jail.[20] He was released again from custody on March 1, 2006.[21]

§Documentary 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 2000 slaying of Susan Berman, who was believed to have knowledge of Kathie Durst's 1982 disappearance.[22][23] The documentary detailed the disappearance of Kathie, Berman's subsequent death, and the killing of Durst's neighbor Morris Black.

§Arrest for Berman murder After a first-degree murder warrant was issued by the Los Angeles Police Department, 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 "Everett Ward". Durst, who was observed wandering aimlessly in the lobby and mumbling to himself, was thought to have driven to New Orleans from Houston four days before.[22][24][25]

Douglas Durst said he was "relieved" and "grateful" in a statement shortly after his brother's arrest. He added, "We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done."[24]

On March 16, 2015, attorney Dick DeGuerin, who also represented Durst during his 2003 trial for the killing of Morris Black, advised court authorities in New Orleans that his client waived extradition and would voluntarily return to California "to get it on".[26] Late the 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, which could delay his return to California.[27]

§Personal life In 1973, Durst married Kathleen McCormack. He divorced her in 1990, eight years after her disappearance.[28] In 2000, Durst married Debrah Lee Charatan.[29][30]

The media has variously reported his financial status as "real estate baron",[31] "rich scion",[31] "millionaire",[18] "multimillionaire"[32] and "billionaire".[20] The Durst family's real estate holdings are worth more than $4 billion dollars, however his brother Douglas was in control of the company beginning in 1994, after their father's death.[31] From about 1994 to 2006, Durst waged a legal campaign to gain greater control of the trust and family fortune. During that time he received $2 million a year from the family trust. In 2006 the case was settled, with Robert Durst giving up any interest in the Durst family properties and trusts in exchange for a one-time payment of about $65 million.[33] It is unknown how much of that went to legal fees and taxes.[31] Durst was still active in real estate; he reportedly sold two properties in 2014 for $21.15 million after purchasing them in 2011 for $8.65 million.[34]

In 2011, Durst purchased a $1.75 million townhouse in Harlem, and his family confirmed that he was living there at least some of the time.[35][31]

§Other legal issues In 2012 and 2013, his family members had restraining orders taken out against him, claiming they were afraid of him. Durst was charged with trespassing in New York for walking in front of townhouses owned by his brother Douglas and other family members. He went on trial and was acquitted in December 2014. The judge also vacated the thirteen orders of protection his family members had taken out on him.[36][37][38]

In July 2014, Durst was arrested after turning himself in to police following an incident at a Houston CVS drugstore in which he allegedly exposed himself without provocation and urinated on a rack of candy. He then left the store and casually walked down the street. Durst was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief.[39][40] In December 2014, he pleaded "no contest" and was fined $500. His lawyer described the incident as an "unfortunate medical mishap".[41][42]

§In popular culture Investigative journalist Matt Birkbeck's coverage of Durst for People magazine and Reader's Digest led to his 2002 book A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst. The events surrounding Durst inspired the 2010 film All Good Things, the title of which is a reference to a health store of the same name set up by Durst and his wife in the 1970s.[43][44] Two Law & Order episodes gave different takes on the murders: season 14, episode 17 of Law & Order, "Hands Free"; and season 1, episode 19 of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, "Maledictus".

• Reference: Wikipedia

Robert Alan Durst (April 12, 1943 – January 10, 2022) was an American convicted murderer, suspected serial killer, and real-estate heir.[2] 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. Robert Durst gained notoriety after the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst; the 2000 murder of his long-time friend Susan Berman, for which he was convicted in September 2021; and the 2001 killing of his neighbor Morris Black, in Galveston, Texas, for which he was acquitted in 2003, although he was convicted of tampering with evidence for dismembering Black and dumping his body parts in Galveston Bay. Durst died while in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's California Health Care Facility.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 10 2022, 20:17:28 UTC

Robert Durst was a real-estate heir who was convicted of murder Andis a suspected serial killer. He was convicted of killing a friend and suspected of killing his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst after her disappearance in 2000.

He died of COVID.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 10 2022, 20:18:52 UTC