Robert Durst, known from the TV documentary “The Jinx”, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Susan Berman 21 years ago.
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– What the hell was I doing? Killed them all, of course.
These two short sentences came from real estate millionaire Robert Durst at the end of the last episode of the HBO documentary series «The Jinx», which became a viewer success in 2015.
In retrospect, Durst has claimed that he was intoxicated when he said this.
In the trial against him in California, where he was charged with the murder of Susan Berman, his defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin claimed that the statement was a result of cynical clipping from the filmmakers.
Last month, however, Durst was found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend in 2000. The sentencing came on Friday night: Life without the possibility of release.
Disappeared in 1982
Berman was found murdered in his home in Los Angeles in 2000. This happened 18 years after Robert Durst’s wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, mysteriously disappeared.
She disappeared after the couple had an argument during a dinner party in Connecticut.
Robert Durst claims that he drove her to the train station and later spoke to her over the phone when she arrived at their apartment in New York.
While police investigated the disappearance, Susan Berman acted as a spokesperson for Durst in the media. He was at this time a well-known real estate figure in New York, as heir after Seymour Durst.
In the TV documentary, he admits that he did not talk to his wife on the phone after the quarrel. However, she is never found.
Parted next door
In 2001, the third person associated with Durst was found dead – his neighbor Morris Black. This time in Texas, where Durst lived in disguise dressed as a woman.
Black was found parted in Galveston Bay.
Durst was charged with this murder, however acquitted because the jury thought he did it in self-defense.
He was instead convicted of tampering with evidence, because he dismembered the body.
Durst denies any involvement in the killings of Susan Berman and Kathleen McCormick Durst.
Police had reopened the investigation into the murder of Kathleen McCormick Durst when Berman was executed in Los Angeles.
The jury believes Durst killed Berman because she could have him convicted of the murder of his wife in 1982, according to the Los Angeles Times.
DeGuerin has already made it clear that Durst will appeal the question of guilt.
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