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The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst is a six-part HBO documentary, which premiered in February 2015. This true crime documentary is produced by Marc Smerling, Jason Blum, and Andrew Jarecki.
The series chronicles the life of Robert Durst, a New York real estate scion linked to three murders: his neighbor Morris Black in 2001, his wife Kathie in 1982, and his friend Susan Berman in 2000.
The documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst gives access to nearly 20 hours of interviews with Durst himself, and a dramatic "hot mic" moment in the finale where he says:
"What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
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Durst was sentenced for the murder of Berman in 2021 after he was arrested the evening before the premiere of the finale, and he died behind bars in 2022.
Viewers can stream the documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst on Max.
The story behind The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst is a six-part HBO documentary series that explores the life of Robert Durst, a New York real estate scion worth millions of dollars who was connected to three homicides.
The series, directed by Andrew Jareck, shows three cases of Robert Durst. The first case is about the disappearance of Durst's wife in 1982. The second case was about the murder of Robert's friend, Susan Berman, in 2000, and the last case was the beheading of his Texas neighbor, Morris Black.
Durst was the oldest son of real estate mogul Seymour Durst. Even with his privileged background, Robert's life was troubled early on.
He is said to have seen his mother die and had a poor relationship with his family, as per The Los Angeles Times. In Morris Black's case, Durst confessed to murdering and dismembering the body but said it was in defense of himself. He was acquitted in 2003.
In the meantime, Susan Berman's murder and Kathie's long-standing disappearance continued to be open cases, eventually revived by the documentary, as per CBS News.
The making and impact of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
The documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst was notable because it gives access to Durst's interviews, which are nearly 20 hours long. Jarecki had previously directed All Good Things (2010), a dramatized account of Durst's life. Having seen the show, Durst approached the filmmakers to give his account of events, as per Vanity Fair.
The largest moment of epiphany was in the final installment, when Durst, unaware that his microphone remained live, entered the bathroom and whispered at the point of barely audible speech, "Killed them all, of course." The recording, although edited for intelligibility, went public and was noticed by law enforcement.
The other significant piece of evidence put forth in the series was a handwritten letter. This was penned by Durst to Susan Berman, and it matched an anonymous letter sent to police about her killing, with the identical misspelling of "Beverley Hills", as per CBS News.
These findings resulted in Durst's 2015 arrest, the day before the season finale was set to be broadcast. His case is an example of a documentary affecting a criminal case directly.
What happened to Robert Durst?
Durst was charged with Susan Berman’s murder and stood trial in Los Angeles. In September 2021, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, as reported by AP News. At the time, he was also formally charged in the case of his wife Kathie’s 1982 disappearance, but that trial never took place.
On January 10, 2022, Durst was in custody when he died at the age of 78 due to cardiac arrest at a prison hospital in Stockton, California. Because his appeal was pending at the time of his death, his murder conviction in Berman’s case was legally vacated, as per the Los Angeles Times.
Nonetheless, Kathie’s family continued to pursue justice through a civil lawsuit against Durst’s estate. Even after his death, Durst remains a central figure in modern true crime discussions, largely due to the exposure brought by The Jinx.
Watch The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst available to stream on HBO.
