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The Jinx: Robert Durst · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:13
  Discretion is advised. This is ten minuted murder. When Robert Durst was a
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  young child, his mother climbed to the roof of their family home and jumped
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  to her death. Years later, Robert would claim that he had seen the
• 0:45
  entire thing, which his younger brother Douglas denied was true. It wasn't out
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  of the ordinary for the two brothers to disagree during their childhood. They were
• 0:56
  even sent to a counselor in an attempt to help the boys work through their
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  extreme sibling rivalry. The Durst children had been born into a real estate empire,
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  but it didn't matter to Robert. He spent his entire childhood and teenage
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  years as a loner, getting into fights and alienating himself from his family.
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  In nineteen seventy one, Robert started dating a woman named Kathleen McCormick. He
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  was smitten and the relationship moved quickly. After only a handful of dates,
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  he asked Kathleen to move in with him, which she agreed to. They
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  got married in nineteen seventy three and lived an uneventful life together until Kathleen vanished
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  in early nineteen eighty two. Kathleen was just a few months away from finishing
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  her degree and becoming a pediatrician. She was last seen at a dinner party
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  with friends, where multiple people noticed her strange behavior. Kathleen showed up at
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  the party out of the blue, dressed extremely casually in a pair of sweatpants,
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  and then excused herself after she received a phone call from Robert. She
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  had plans to meet a friend at a pub in Manhattan, but never arrived.
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  Her friend was concerned enough to call the police several times, but Robert
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  didn't seem to share those concerns. He only reported Kathleen missing after she had
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  been gone for several days. Initially, Robert claimed that he and Kathleen had
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  fought that evening, so he had taken her to the train station, where
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  she boarded a train to New York City before going back home and having a
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  drink with one of his neighbors. Later, he admitted that he had made
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  all that up. It was a lie. He'd actually gone straight home and
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  gone straight to sleep. There was plenty of reason for Robert to be the
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  prime suspect in the case. He and Kathleen had a history of fighting,
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  including times where Kathleen required medical treatment for bruising on her body. According to
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  Kathleen's family, at one stage, Kathleen became pregnant and Robert had forced her
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  to abort the baby. But despite all the suspicious circumstances surround Robert Durst,
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  investigators were unable to find any strong evidence that he had harmed Kathleen. After
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  eight years with no sign of his missing wife, Robert filed for divorce,
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  claiming that she had abandoned him. Kathleen's family felt differently. In their eyes,
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  there was no doubt that she had died. Shortly after her disappearance,
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  her mother, Anne McCormick, tried to sue Robert for her daughter's death,
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  claiming that he had killed Kathleen and deprived her family of the right to bury
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  her remains. Years later, one of Kathleen's sisters attempted defile a wrongful death
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  lawsuit against Robert. Once again, the suit was dismissed. One of Robert's
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  most trusted friends was a journalist named Susan Berman, who had tried to help
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  him create an alibi for the night of Kathleen's disappearance. For years, Susan
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  was Robert's most loyal defender. She had given statements to the press denying that
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  Robert had anything to do with Kathleen's disappearance, regardless what the missing woman's family
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  believed. However, the enduring friendship between Robert and Susan came to a sudden
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  end when Susan was found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She had
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  been killed execution style, with a door left open, allowing one of her
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  dogs to escape and attract the attention of her neighbors. The Beverly Hills Police
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  Department received a letter that they believed was connected to the case, which correctly
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  listed Susan's address and seemed to be the killer's way of telling the copse where
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  to find her body. Once again, Robert Durst appeared to be the killer,
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  and once again he was not arrested. Instead, he lay low,
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  moving to Texas and disguising himself as a deaf mute woman named Dorothy I wish
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  I was making that up. By two thousand and one, a collection of
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  human body parts were found floating in the waters of Galveston Bay. They belonged
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  to seventy one year old Morris Black, Robert Durst's neighbor. Morris was a
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  difficult man who He had been a merchant seaman before his retirement, and he
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  was prone to arguing with Robert, whose Dorothy disguise he may or may not
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  have fallen for. Robert was arrested in connection with Morris's murder shortly afterwards,
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  and confessed that he had been there when the man died, but he had
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  not killed him on purpose. According to Robert, he had gotten into another
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  argument with his neighbor and ended up pulling a gun on the elderly man.
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  During a scuffle for the weapon, they fell to the floor together and the
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  gun was accidentally fired, causing Morris to be shot in the face. After
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  realizing that Morris was dead, Robert dismembered his body in order to dispose of
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  it, placing the pieces in plastic bags. He was then released on bail.
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  Quick backtrack, he confessed to shooting a man in the face, chopping
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  up his body, putting it in plastic bags, and he was released on
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  bail. After that, he skipped out on his court hearings and went on
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  the run. He was apprehended on the thirtieth of November after he was caught
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  tempting to steal the chicken salad sandwich from a supermarket, but because of his
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  claims that he killed Morris in self defense, he was acquitted. Several members
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  of Robert's family ended up getting restraining orders against him, claiming that they were
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  afraid that he would harm them. Robert continued to show up outside their homes
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  despite those restraining orders, resulting in trespassing charges. Although he harassed the rest
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  of the family members, his main target was his childhood rival, his younger
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  brother Douglas. In twenty fourteen, Robert was arrested yet again after he unzipped
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  his pants and peed on a shelf in a CVS drug store in Houston.
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  After urinating and exposing his genitals to the customers and staff, he calmly walked
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  out of the store. He was only fined five hundred dollars for the incident,
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  which his lawyer simply described as an unfortunate medical mishap. After the investigation
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  into Susan Berman's death was reopened, Robert was charged with her murder. The
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  trial was delayed for several years while Robert was treated for esophageal cancer. Finally,
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  in twenty twenty, he was well enough to stand trial, just in
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  time for the COVID nineteen pandemic to delay things further. The trial began in
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  mid twenty twenty one, more than two decades after Susan was killed. The
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  prosecution argued that Robert had a clear motive for shooting Susan she knew too much
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  about Kathleen's disappearance. They asserted that Susan had told Robert that she would go
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  to the authorities and tell them that he murdered Kathleen, and in a state
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  of desperation, Robert had shot her to prevent her from talking. Robert's brother
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  Douglas, acted as a witness for the prosecution. So did Robert's trusted friend,
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  Nick Chaven, who told the court that Robert had confessed to the murder.
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  According to Nick, during a conversation in New York, Robert had said
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  that he had no choice but to murder Susan, saying it was her or
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  me. Out of the eighty witnesses who testified, the most damaging one was
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  Robert Durst himself. In twenty fifteen, he had been the subject of an
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  HBO series about his alleged crimes called The Jinks The Life and Deaths of Robert
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  Durst. Although Robert had a history of refusing to cooperate with the media.
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  He had warmed up to Andrew Joureki, who directed the series. During the
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  filming of The Jinks, Robert had taken part in more than twenty hours of
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  interviews with Andrew. In the final one, Andrew had shown Robert two envelopes.
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  One of them was a letter that Robert had sent to Susan Berman a
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  year before her death. The other was the letter that had been sent to
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  the LAPD indicating where Susan's body could be found. Andrew told Roberts that a
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  handwriting expert had concluded that both letters had the same author. Although Robert still
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  didn't admit to the killings, he was visibly shaken up. He went to
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  the bathroom after the interview finished, forgetting that his microphone was clipped to his
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  clothing and it had not been turned off, and he muttered to himself.
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  His final statement was, what the hell did I do? Killed them all?
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  Of course, or maybe this is the you're a right there, It
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  is your court right, of course, but can't imagine first murm more?
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  Of course. After deliberating for almost eight hours, the jury found Robert guilty
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  of Susan's murder. He received a life sentence without parole, and two days
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  later a New York State Police investigator filed a complaint against him. This time,
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  the complaint accused Robert of another murder, his missing wife, Kathleen.
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  Finally, forty years after Kathleen vanished, her killer was charged with her murder,
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  but Kathleen's family never received the closure. They spent decades searching for.
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  At seventy eight years old, Robert Durst died of natural causes. To this
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  day, Kathleen's remains have never been found. That's ten Minute Murder for today
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