Durst dies a convict
MURDEROUS REAL-ESTATE HEIR WAS 78
Robert Durst, the New York realestate scion and long-suspected serial killer recently convicted in the 2000 murder of his close friend, has died. He was 78.
Durst was sentenced to life in prison in October for the executionstyle killing of longtime confidant Susan Berman, and a month later he was indicted for the 1982 murder of his first wife, Kathleen Durst. Officials with the California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation confirmed Durst died of natural causes at 6:44 a.m. on Monday while he was being treated at an outside hospital. Durst was last housed at a state prison facility in Stockton that provided longterm medical care for inmates. The San Joaquin County Coroner will determine his cause of death.
His health had been failing for some time. Soon after his October sentencing, he was placed on a ventilator after testing positive for COVID-19. He also had bladder cancer.
The Westchester native was born into one of New York’s wealthiest families — but became best known for his ties to headline-grabbing crimes, including the disappearance of his wife and the murders of his best friend and a neighbor in Texas. Following years of dodging responsibility for the trail of blood and eyebrow-raising incidents that he appeared to be behind, Durst was found guilty in September of murdering Berman.
Durst was accused of gunning down Berman in her Los Angeles apartment in December 2000 to cover up another suspected slaying — that of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, who vanished on Feb. 1, 1982, in New York.
He gained national attention in 2001, when he was the subject of a multistate manhunt after body parts belonging to his neighbor Morris Black were found floating in Galveston Bay, Texas.
At the time, Durst had been hiding out in the Gulf Coast city — disguising himself as an elderly mute woman named Dorothy Ciner. He was acquitted of Black’s murder on the grounds of self-defense.
The disturbing events surrounding Durst were chronicled in a 2015 HBO documentary series, “The Jinx,” which unearthed new evidence leading prosecutors to file charges in Berman’s killing. The show’s most shocking moment came when Durst appeared to confess on a hot mic to killing people.
“What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course,” Durst is recorded muttering in the series’ final episode.
Born on April 12, 1943, to real-estate tycoon Seymour Durst and his socialite wife, Bernice Herstein, Robert grew up in Scarsdale with his three younger siblings, Douglas, Tommy and Wendy.
Robert Durst’s life was put under the microscope following the disappearance of his wife. By the 1990s, supplanted as the head of the family business by Douglas, he cut off communication with his family, including his father. Speculation and notoriety continued to follow him.
“After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst’s family,” Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah, who was prosecuting Durst in his wife’s 1982 disappearance and death, said in a statement Monday.
Robert Abrams, the lawyer representing Kathleen Durst’s family, said authorities would continue to pursue the dead mogul’s alleged accomplices.
“In the interim, please say a prayer for Kathie and his other victims,” Abrams said.