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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 18 February 2020

Eccentric millionaire Durst faces trial in friend's killing

By BRIAN MELLEY er, has pleaded not guilty.
Associated Press Said to be worth $100 mil-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — There lion, and having jumped
is almost no physical evi- bail before, Durst has been
dence connecting New awaiting trial in a California
York real estate heir Robert jail.
Durst to the slaying of his Suspicion has dogged
best friend in Los Angeles Durst since his wife van-
20 years ago. ished in a New York sub-
What does link him to the urb in 1982, a mystery that
killing of Susan Berman, brought not only attention
though, is a cryptic note from the city's tabloids, but
sent to police with her ad- The New York Times. Ber-
dress and one word: "CA- man was Durst's unofficial
DAVER." spokeswoman at the time
The slip of paper intended and prosecutors said she
to lead authorities to her helped him cover his tracks.
lifeless body in December No has ever been charged
2000 was penned by Durst. in the wife's disappearance
His lawyers have admitted and presumed killing.
as much. Durst himself has Durst was back in the news
said more than once that following his arrest in Oc-
only the killer or someone tober 2001 on charges he
involved in the shooting murdered his elderly neigh-
could have written it. bor in a $300-a-month
Prosecutors intend to use rooming house Galveston,
the note and a web of cir- Texas. Prosecutors say he In this Dec. 21, 2016 file photo, Robert Durst sits in a courtroom in Los Angeles.
cumstantial evidence to fled New York and dis- Associated Press
put Durst behind bars for guised himself as a mute
three killings he's suspected woman to elude possible ried out a diabolical plan of Robert Durst" documen- as they were editing the
of committing over nearly arrest in his wife's suspected to cover up the killing of tary on HBO. The finale film that they captured au-
four decades. They will be killing. his wife which ultimately contained a made-for-TV dio of him in the bathroom.
up against a legal team While Durst is only charged cost two other people their gotcha when filmmakers The film ends with Durst's
that won Durst's acquittal in with one count of murder lives.'' confronted Durst with a let- voice: "You're caught!
one of those deaths. in Berman's killing, pros- Kathleen Durst's body was ter they unearthed that he What the hell did I do?
"Our defense is, one, he ecutors plan to show he never found, though she's had once written to Ber- Killed them all, of course."
didn't do it, and, two, they knocked her off Dec. 23, officially been declared man that contained nearly But what sounds like a con-
can't prove beyond a rea- 2000, to keep her from tell- dead. Black's dismem- identical block-letter writ- fession was actually a re-
sonable doubt that he did ing police what she knew bered remains were cast ing as the so-called cadav- sult of editing. Durst said all
it," defense lawyer David about the disappearance out to sea in garbage bags er note. Beverly Hills was three of those sentences,
Chesnoff said. "It is a highly of Kathleen "Kathie" Durst. by Durst, who was cleared misspelled the same way in but not in that order and
circumstantial case and we They will introduce evi- in the killing after testifying both: "BEVERLEY." interspersed with seem-
will have strong responses dence that he killed and he shot the man in self- Durst had denied penning ingly unintelligible or unre-
to explain the circumstanc- dismembered Morris Black defense. Berman, 55, the the cadaver note, which lated remarks, according
es." in Galveston because the daughter of a Las Vegas he acknowledged "only to court records. Placed
Jury selection begins elderly neighbor had dis- mobster, was found face the killer could have writ- in their proper context,
Wednesday in a case built covered his true identity down in her Los Angeles ten," but couldn't distin- as jurors are likely to hear,
around a story so sensa- and Durst feared he would home in a pool of blood. guish between the two. will make them less of the
tional it inspired a feature inform police of his where- She had been shot point- He blinked, burped and put bombshell that struck view-
film starring Ryan Gosling as abouts. blank in the back of the his head in his hands before ers.
Durst and a six-part docu- "Kathie's death was the im- head. denying being the killer. Af- Defense lawyers have said
mentary on his life that petus for all of the tragic Durst's arrest in Berman's kill- ter the interview, he went the filmmakers deceived
helped lead to his arrest. events that happened af- ing came five years ago in to use a toilet unaware he Durst and were acting as
Durst, 76, the eccentric son terward,'' prosecutors said New Orleans on the eve of was still wearing a micro- government agents, pro-
of a late prominent New in court papers. They said the final installment of "The phone. Filmmakers didn't viding evidence they un-
York real estate develop- Durst "devised and car- Jinx: The Life and Deaths realize until two years later earthed to police.q