‘He’d like to murder me,’ Durst brother testifies
LOS ANGELES — The estranged brother of Robert Durst, the real estate heir on trial in his best friend’s slaying, reluctantly testified Monday that the two never got along and he feared his oldest sibling would kill him.
“He’d like to murder me,” Douglas Durst bluntly told jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Douglas Durst, head of one of New York’s largest commercial real estate firms, said his brother was angry and bitter over an acrimonious inheritance settlement for tens of millions of dollars. He had not seen his brother in 20 years but worries because of threats he has made.
The chairman of the Durst Organization, which owns some of Manhattan’s premier skyscrapers and 2,500 apartments, said he and his brother have fought since childhood.
“He treated me miserably,” Douglas Durst said. “He would fight with me at every chance. He would embarrass me.”
Despite the bad blood, Douglas Durst said he did not want to testify against his brother, who is on trial on charges of fatally shooting Susan Berman in 2000 at her Los Angeles home. He said he cooperated with prosecutors under threat of subpoena.
“There are other places I’d much rather be,” he said.
Prosecutors say Berman provided an alibi for Robert Durst after he killed his first wife, Kathie, in 1982 and that he silenced his friend after she decided to tell police what she knew about the disappearance. Robert Durst has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Kathie Durst had told Douglas Durst she planned to seek a divorce from his brother, he testified.
Douglas Durst said his brother told him Kathie Durst vanished three days after he put her on a train to New York City from their lakeside house in Westchester County. Robert Durst said that was the last time he saw his wife.
“His tone was very neutral,” Douglas Durst said. “There was no great anxiety in his tone. It seemed a little strange.”
Kathie Durst has never been found but wasalso declared dead. Robert Durst has long been considered a suspect in her death but has denied any involvement and has never been charged with a crime related to her disappearance.
Durst said the last time he spoke with his brother was in 1999 and he had last seen him in Texas at a nephew’s wedding in 2001.
About two weeks after the wedding, Robert Durst fatally shot neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, where he had gone to hide out from New York authorities after they reopened the investigation into Kathie Durst’s disappearance.
Robert Durst was acquitted of murder after testifying that he killed Black in self-defense. He served jail time for chopping up Black’s body and tossing it out to sea and for jumping bail.