Real estate heir Robert Durst gained popularity after HBO’s documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst aired in 2015. The docuseries came forward with horrifying truths about his life. However, one of the shocking aspects of the series was the disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack, and the death of Susan Berman.
McCormack, who married Durst in 1973, had an abusive marriage and told her friends about it. On January 31, 1982, she was attending a friend’s party when she received a call from Robert Durst. Before returning home, she told her friend that she was afraid of what Durst would do to her.
According to Vulture, Durst had become controlling and abusive and also forced Kathleen to have an abortion. Sadly, January 31, 1982, turned out to be the last time anyone heard from Kathleen McCormack. Durst filed a missing report on February 5, and when the media questioned him frequently, he appointed Susan Berman as his unofficial spokesperson. However, in December 2000, Berman was discovered dead due to a gunshot wound on her head.
The authorities discovered an anonymous letter in her house addressed to Beverly Hills police, but it was misspelled as “Beverley Hills.” For several years, police couldn’t catch her killer. But when HBO featured that note in the series, it helped the authorities to arrest Durst for Berman’s murder.
In March 2020, the trial of Susan Berman’s murder began, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial went on hiatus for 14 months. In September 2021, the jury found Robert Durst guilty of Berman’s slaying and sentenced him to life in prison. However, in January 2022, Robert Durst died due to a heart attack at San Joaquin General Hospital in California. He was 78.
Robert Durst murder case explored
As mentioned above, Robert Durst stopped talking to the media in 1982. He appointed Susan Berman as his unofficial spokesperson. Durst and Berman became friends in the 1960s when they were studying at the University of California, Los Angeles, according to Oxygen (via Yahoo News).
Vulture reported that Durst also helped her financially and gave him two checks of $25,000 when she experienced difficulties. However, in December 2000, Berman’s death shocked everyone. The authorities didn’t find any sign of forced entry, but they found an anonymous letter addressed to Beverly Hills police. This letter would later turn out to be crucial in Durst’s conviction.
In 2015, HBO presented the aforementioned note in the documentary series The Jinx. According to the Los Angeles Times, the writer had misspelled the city’s name as “Beverley Hills” in the note. The outlet also mentioned that the cinematographer of the series received a letter with the same spelling mistake and “style of lettering.” This piece of evidence turned out to be significant in convicting Robert Durst.
Durst found guilty of Berman’s murder and sent to life in prison
During the trial, the prosecution team kept on talking about the narcissistic behavior shown by Durst. As per The Guardian, the prosecutors painted a picture in which Durst believed that the laws didn’t apply to him. The prosecution team intertwined evidence of Berman’s murder with the suspected death of Kathleen McCormack and Morris Black, Durst’s neighbor.
Despite admitting that he wrote the anonymous letter, Robert Durst kept on saying that he didn’t kill Susan Berman. However, according to The New York Times, the jury found him guilty and also noted that Durst had been “lying in wait” for Berman, and he had been “killing a witness” due to the fear that she would disclose information about his wife’s disappearance.
Robert Durst was sentenced to life in prison. In October 2021, the New York state police charged him with the murder of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack. However, in January 2022, he died at a hospital in California.
