Robert Alan Durst, better known as Robert Durst, was a serial killer and real-estate heir in the United States. He was the focus of HBO’s “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” and he initially came to public attention in the 1980s when his wife vanished. When he was wanted for murder in the 2000s, he emerged in the media. In 2001, Robert was also accused of murdering his elderly neighbor Morris Black and dismembering his body, and dumping it in Galveston Bay. When he claimed that he inadvertently murdered Black while defending himself, he was cleared of the murder allegation. Robert was charged with Susan Berman’s murder and arrested in 2015, based on fresh evidence. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the experiment was discontinued in March 2020. Durst’s life has spawned a film starring Ryan Gosling and an HBO drama. On the 10th of January 2022, we tragically lost him.
Robert Durst died at the age of 78.
On the 10th of January 2022, Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate family whose life was shattered in a tragedy of suspicions about the unsolved disappearance of his first wife, died as a prisoner in Stockton, California. He was 78 years old at the time. Mr. Durst’s death was confirmed by his lawyer, Chip Lewis, at the San Joaquin General Hospital, where he had been brought for testing. Mr. Lewis stated he then slipped into cardiac arrest and was unable to be resuscitated. Mr. Durst had been serving a life sentence for the murder of his longtime confidante Susan Berman at the California Health Care Facility. Robert was still in the custody of the California Department of Corrections at the time of his death.
Known For
Being a murderer, serial killer, and real-estate heir in the United States.
Kathleen, his wife, has been missing since he last saw her.
What part of the world did Robert Durst come from?
Robert Durst was born on April 12, 1943, in New York City, New York, under the name Robert Alan Durst. He was of American nationality and ethnicity, and he was white. Similarly, he was a devout follower of the Jewish faith and a white man. Robert had his 78th birthday in 2021, and his star sign was Aries, according to his birthdate. He was the son of Seymour Durst (father) and Bernice Herstein, a real estate entrepreneur (mother) Douglas, Tommy, and Wendy Durst were his siblings. Durst’s mother died when he was seven years old after falling from the family’s Scarsdale home’s roof; he later claimed that seconds before she died, his father took him to a window where he could see her standing on the roof. Robert attended Scarsdale High School, where he was considered a recluse by his classmates. In 1965, he graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Later that year, Durst began a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Timeline of Robert Durst’s Career
Kathleen McCormack, Robert Durst’s wife, was last seen by someone other than Durst on the evening of January 31, 1982, when she showed up unexpectedly at a dinner party held by her friend Gilberte Najamy in Newtown, Connecticut. The couple clashed and argued that evening, while McCormack and Najamy were meant to meet at The Lion’s Gate in Manhattan after McCormack had left Najamy’s place. When she didn’t show up, Najamy became anxious and phoned the cops multiple times over the course of several days. Durst also filed a missing person’s report later that week. Three weeks prior to her disappearance, McCormack had been treated for facial bruising at a Bronx hospital. She told a friend that Durst had beaten her, but she did not press charges. The New York City Police Department stated after McCormack’s disappearance that Robert claimed to have last spoken to her when she called him at the Riverside Drive residence.
Durst divorced McCormack eight years after she vanished, alleging spousal abandonment, and the McCormack family requested that Kathleen be proclaimed legally dead in 2016, which was granted the following year.
In 1999, the New York State Police secretly revived the criminal investigation into Kathleen McCormack’s disappearance as her mother, Ann McCormack, attempted to sue Durst for $100 million, saying that he killed McCormack and denied her family the chance to bury her. McCormack’s parents had passed away. Mary McCormack Hughes, her younger sister, also believes Durst murdered her. In November of 2000, the investigation was made public. During Robert’s trial for the murder of Susan Berman on May 17, 2021, Mimi Rocah, the Westchester County District Attorney, said that McCormack’s disappearance had been reclassified as murder and will be investigated. The Westchester County, New York District Attorney’s office announced shortly after Durst’s first-degree conviction for the murder of Susan Berman in October 2021 that they would appoint a Grand Jury to investigate charges against Durst in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. He was charged with her death on October 22, 2021.
Susan Berman, a long-time friend of Durst’s who had helped him establish a public alibi after McCormack’s disappearance, was found murdered execution-style in her home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California, on December 24, 2000, after her neighbors reported her door was open and one of her fox terriers was loose.
Robert was last seen in northern California a few days before Berman was murdered, and he flew from San Francisco to New York the night before Berman’s body was discovered. Berman called Robert shortly before her death, saying the LAPD wanted to talk to her about McCormack’s disappearance, according to a 2005 deposition.
Cathy Scott, a biographer of Berman, claims that Durst murdered her because she knew too much about his wife’s disappearance. Durst was apprehended on the 9th of October 2001 in Galveston, Texas, after body parts belonging to his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, were discovered floating in Galveston Bay. He was released on $250,000 bail but failed to appear in court on October 16, prompting the issuance of a warrant for his arrest on a charge of bail jumping.
Durst was also tried for the murder of Black in 2003. He stated that Black, a grumpy and combative loner, snatched his.22 caliber target pistol and threatened him with it. The pistol was discharged during the battle for the pistol, shooting Black in the face. Prosecutors were unable to offer enough forensic evidence to refute Durst’s account of the battle because Black’s head was never recovered. Durst was acquitted of murder on November 11, 2003, due to a lack of forensic evidence. On March 1, 2006, he was released from jail once more. In early 2015, HBO aired a six-part documentary called “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which detailed circumstantial evidence linking Durst to the death of Berman, who was suspected of knowing about McCormack’s disappearance. On the 14th of March 2015, just days after a Los Angeles judge signed a first-degree murder warrant in connection with the Berman death, Robert was detained by FBI agents at the Canal Street Marriott in New Orleans, where he had registered under the fictitious identity “Everette Ward.”Durst was charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun and possessing a firearm with a controlled substance by Louisiana State Police in March 2015, delaying his return to California. Robert (BOP Number 45101-079) was initially detained in USP Terre Haute but was later transported to a Los Angeles County Jail pending his trial. Furthermore, on May 13, 2021, Durst’s lawyers filed a motion with the court claiming that Durst had developed bladder cancer, but the motion was denied by the court, and the trial resumed on May 17th, with Windham questioning jurors about their ability to remain neutral in the case after a fourteen-month break. Durst was taken to the hospital after being discovered “down and not in his wheelchair” on June 10, 2021. He was unable to dress and appeared in court in his wheelchair, jail uniform, catheter bag, and blanket. On the 28th of June 2021, his brother Douglas testified as a prosecution witness as the case progressed.
Robert was scheduled to testify on his own defense on August 5, 2021, however, the court was deferred until August 9, 2021, due to a positive COVID-19 test of a relative of Durst’s legal team who had been present at the trial.
Judge Mark Windham charged the jury with reaching a verdict on September 14, 2021, and the jury convicted Durst for the first-degree murder of Susan Berman on September 17, 2021. Durst’s attorneys submitted a motion with Judge Mark Windham on September 24, 2021, requesting a new trial. On October 14, 2021, Robert was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release for Berman’s murder. Durst’s motion for a new trial was granted by the court due to the overwhelming evidence supporting his guilt for the crime. Durst was also named in the Pandora Papers, which exposed the offshore hiding of financial assets by hundreds of politicians, business leaders, and celebrities in 2021.
Robert Durst’s Wife: Who Was She?
Robert Durst was a husband and father. In 1978, he met Kathleen McCormack, a dental hygienist, and the two married and founded a health food store in Vermont. In 1973, he married Kathleen. In his marriage, he was said to be abusive and dominating. She was last seen at a friend’s party in Connecticut on January 31, 1982, where she appeared agitated and left for her house in South Salem after getting a phone call from Durst. Durst claimed they had a large disagreement after which he dropped her off at the Katonah train station and later called her. Lee Charatan on December 11, 2000, just before the Berman assassination. He didn’t have any children. He was straight in terms of sexual orientation.
Robert Durst’s net worth was unknown.
At the time of his death in 2022, Robert Durst had a net worth of $110 million, but his specific salary had not been revealed. Robert had not yet done any brand endorsement work. He bought a $1.75 million mansion on Lenox Avenue in Harlem in 2011. Durst also owned three condos in a Houston multistory building. The Durst family’s real estate holdings are expected to be worth more than $8 billion by 2022. Robert’s primary source of income was as a real estate heir.
What was Robert Durst’s highest point?
Robert Durst had a perfect height of 1.68 m and a healthy weight of 70 kg. His hair was short and grey, and his eyes were dark brown. Furthermore, his body type was average. Durst was diagnosed with COVID-19 and placed on a ventilator on October 16, 2021.
What If I Told You…
He earned an economics degree from Lehigh University, where he also played varsity lacrosse.
In March of 2015, he was arrested again on a first-degree murder warrant.
In the 2010 film All Good Things, Ryan Gosling plays a fictionalized version of Durst.
When his wife vanished in the 1980s, he became a media sensation.
At the age of 78, he died of heart arrest at the San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockton, California.