Where did we leave off with the case?
The Big Picture
- Andrew Jarecki’s documentary
The Jinx
looks at the complex life of Robert Durst, a key suspect in unsolved crimes. - Durst faced accusations of three murders, including that of his first wife and a close friend who threatened to expose him.
- The final interview in
The Jinx
captures a hot mic confession, with
Part Two
continuing with Durst’s arrest and trial.
It’s hard to believe that it has been close to a decade since the stunning conclusion of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst left us all picking our jaws off the floor during the final episode of the six-part docuseries. Director Andrew Jarecki crafted what turned out to be one of the best and most memorable documentaries that has ever aired on HBO. With The Jinx — Part Two soon premiering, it’s time to refresh our memories on everything that happened in the first installment. The final interview and accidental confession caught on a hot mic ended things with a bang, but what is the sequel primed to address, and where will the story pick up?
The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst (2015)
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate icon Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes.
- Release Date
- February 18, 2015
- Cast
- Andrew Jarecki , Robert Durst
- Main Genre
- Documentary
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Andrew Jarecki , Marc Smerling , Zac Stuart-Pontier
- Streaming Service(s)
- HBO Max
- Directors
- Andrew Jarecki
How Did Andrew Jarecki and Robert Durst Get Together for ‘The Jinx’?
In 2010, Jarecki directed All Good Things, a mystery crime drama about a man named David Marks, inspired by Durst’s life and starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. When Durst saw the film, he contacted Jarecki and offered himself to be interviewed despite not having previously cooperated with requests from other journalists. The two conducted a series of interviews together, totaling more than 20 hours, over a span of several years, resulting in 2015’s The Jinx.
Over the course of the docuseries’ six episodes, Jarecki and Durst revisit the three crimes that the real estate heir has been linked to — the unsolved disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathie Durst, the murder of Durst’s friend Susan Berman, and the murder and dismemberment of Durst’s neighbor Morris Black. Durst, for whatever reason, opens himself to a line of questioning about the events surrounding three deaths that he was widely suspected to be involved in, though, at the time of the interviews, had only confessed to the third, claiming that Black’s death was the result of self-defense.
Who Was Robert Durst Suspected of Killing?
After a rocky and tumultuous seven-year marriage, Kathleen McCormack, Durst’s first wife, vanished in 1982. Although suspicion held that Durst was involved in some way, there was never enough evidence to charge him. Almost two decades later, in 2003, after Durst had moved to Galveston, Texas, and began living as a mute woman under an assumed name to escape his notoriety in the New York area, he was charged with the murder and dismemberment of his then-neighbor, Morris Black. After jumping bail twice, Durst was caught and returned to Texas for trial in 2003. Bankrolled by an enormous family trust, Durst was able to hire the top defense lawyers and was acquitted of Black’s murder in 2003. In 2004, Durst pled guilty to bail jumping and evidence tampering, for which he did little prison time.
How Did ‘The Jinx’ Help Prove Robert Durst Killed Susan Berman?
Over the course of making The Jinx, Jarecki obtained two crucial envelopes that allowed for an implicating handwriting match. One of the letters, which was written to Berman in 1999, was uncovered by her stepson and provided to Jarecki during the filming of the docuseries. The incriminating part of the letter is that the word “BEVERLEY” (in the Beverly Hills address on the envelope) is misspelled in all capital and block letters.
At the time of Berman’s death, the Beverly Hills Police Department had also received an anonymous letter, which came to be known as “the cadaver note,” written in the exact same block letters and including a misspelling of “Beverley,” informing them of the “cadaver” they would find at Berman’s home. Multiple times during The Jinx, Durst asserts that only the killer could have written that note to the BHPD before the fateful episode when Jarecki shows him the handwriting examples side by side. When confronted with this seemingly incontrovertible proof, Durst appears visibly flustered, and the two end the interview. At this point, Durst requests to use the restroom, still wearing a hot mic. As he is in the bathroom, he begins mumbling to himself, unaware that he can still be heard, and blurts out what sounds startingly close to a confession: “Killed them all, of course.”
Shortly before the shocking finale of The Jinx aired, Durst was arrested in 2015 at the Canal Street Marriott in New Orleans after Jarecki and Jinx producers submitted their evidence to the LA County District Attorney’s office, which connected him to the 2000 execution-style murder of Susan Berman. The trial began in 2020, though Durst’s poor physical condition and the COVID-19 pandemic led to several delays before he was ultimately convicted of Berman’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2021. He died while still in prison on January 10, 2022, at the age of 78. The Jinx — Part Two will pick up right as Durst is picked up by the police and taken to jail, as well as chronicle his courtroom battle as he stands trial for Berman’s murder.
The Jinx — Part Two will premiere on HBO and Max on April 21 in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com