Robert Durst, Real Estate Heir And Convicted Killer, Dies At 78
New York real estate scion and convicted murderer Robert Durst died in prison Monday after a bout with Covid-19 aggravated past medical issues, The New York Times first reported.
Durst was convicted in September of killing his longtime spokeswoman and confidante, Susan Berman. He was serving a life sentence at the California Health Care Facility at the time of his death, the Times reports.
Durst killed Berman in his Beverly Hills, California, home in 2000. Prosecutors alleged Durst killed Berman to prevent her from revealing that he murdered his wife, Kathie McCormack Durst, in 1982. Durst hadn't been convicted in that case.
Durst was also acquitted in a 2003 murder case in which the remains of Durst's neighbor, Morris Black, were discovered in Galveston Bay. The deaths of Black and Durst's ex-wife were the focus of the popular HBO documentary series The Jinx, which brought national attention to the cases.
Durst was the eldest son of Seymour Durst, a New York City real estate tycoon who left his sons a sizable fortune. Robert's brother, Douglas, runs The Durst Organization, which is worth an estimated $8B, according to Forbes, and owns several prominent Manhattan properties, including a stake in One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Douglas Durst testified against his older brother at the trial over the summer.
