Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty whose life dissolved in a calamity of suspicions over the disappearance of his first wife, the execution-style murder of a long time friend and the killing and dismemberment of an elderly neighbor, died early Monday. He died at 78.
His lawyer confirmed his death at the hospital. Mr. Lewis said that he went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived. Mr. Durst was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Susan Berman.
He was put on a ventilator after he tested positive for Covid-19 after being convicted of the murder. Mr. Lewis said the virus had made many existing medical problems worse.
Mr. Durst, a small, rail-thin man, was a cross-dressing fugitive from justice with $100 million in assets. He became a vagrant while on the run, sometimes pretending to be a woman. He beheaded a man he killed as he sat in a pool of blood, and once wrote a note to the Los Angeles police, telling them where to find a woman who had been shot in the head. He confessed to all the killings on a live recording used in a mini-series about himself.
Mr. Durst was suspected of having killed three people over the course of four decades, including his wife, Kathleen, who vanished in 1982.
The circumstances of each death pointed to Mr. Durst.
There was only one case against him. Mr. Black, a cantankerous former merchant seaman who lived across the hall from him in a rooming house, was killed. Mr. Durst lived there as a woman who was sometimes blind. The two men fought for the gun after Mr. Durst pulled it. Mr. Black was killed when the gun went off and the bullet hit him.
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Mr. Durst's first wife, Kathleen, went missing in 1982. He divorced her eight years later, and she was declared dead even though her body was never found.
The body parts were dumped in the bay. He jumped bail when he was arrested on a murder charge. He was caught stealing a chicken sandwich in a Pennsylvania supermarket. Mr. Black had two guns, $37,000 in cash, and marijuana in his car. He fled in panic at his 2003 trial, fearing that no one would believe his story that he had acted in self-defense. He was found not guilty.
There was no evidence to charge Mr. Durst in the case of his wife's disappearance in 1982. She was months from graduating from medical school when she vanished, her family said she was forced to have an abortion, and she had frequent public fights with her husband. Her body was never found, but she was declared dead after eight years of marriage.
The case of a wealthy man who used many identities was the last true-life crime novel to end.
Ms. Berman had been Mr. Durst's spokeswoman for years and had been his main defender in confrontations with reporters and his wife's family and friends after her disappearance. Mr. Durst was charged with Ms. Berman's murder in 2015, 15 years after she was killed.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Durst had killed Ms. Berman because she was about to tell investigators that his wife had been murdered. The investigators said that Ms. Berman was prepared to confess that she helped him cover up the crime.
Mr. Durst had always denied any involvement in the disappearance or murder of his wife. He was not brought to trial for nearly six years after his arrest in the Berman case. He was held in custody at a medical facility of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and underwent surgeries for cancer and fluid on the brain.
The trial was supposed to start in Los Angeles in early 2020 but was delayed again in March because of the coronaviruses. The trial resumed in May of 2021, and it was strange, with jurors spread across the courtroom gallery, prosecutors occupying the jury box and everyone, including the judge, wearing masks as a precautionary measure against Covid-19.
The brother and friend of Mr. Durst were both witnesses for the prosecution. Mr. Chavin said that Mr. Durst admitted that he had killed Ms. Berman. I had no choice.
The prosecutors called 80 witnesses and introduced nearly 300 exhibits. The most damaging evidence came from Mr. Durst himself, as the jury heard him make a series of recorded acknowledgments, in an interview with John Lewin, a deputy prosecutor, after his arrest in 2015; in hundreds of jailhouse phone calls.
The mini-series was created by Andrew Jarecki, and was called "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst."
Ryan Gosling portrayed a character based on Mr. Durst in a movie called "All Good Things."
The day before the finale aired, Mr. Durst was arrested in Ms. Berman's killing, but he had never cooperated with journalists or filmmakers.
Mr. Jarecki confronted Mr. Durst with two envelopes, one of which was sent to Ms. Berman. The expert said that both were written by one person. There was evidence that he had killed Ms. Berman.
After the interview, Mr. Durst went into a bathroom, unaware that his microphone was still on, and made a confession. Killed them all. His lawyers insisted that the "cadaver note" proved that he knew of the killing, not that he had committed it.
One of the prosecutors said that it was either her or me. I had no choice. That says it all, said Mr. Balian.
The jury deliberated for seven and a half hours before finding Mr. Durst guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
A New York State Police investigator filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Durst, accusing him of murdering his wife. It was the first sign of a break in the mystery that had haunted her family and friends since she vanished.
A criminal complaint often precedes a formal murder charge, and it seemed to presage further developments in a case that, after 40 years without movement, was widely regarded as all but moribund. Mr. Becerra was involved in the investigation of Ms. Durst's disappearance. The case was being pursued by the district attorney.
The murder complaint came as Mr. Durst appeared to be in trouble. He had been in the medical ward of Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles for five years and was put on a ventilator after testing positive for Covid-19.
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Mr. Durst was in court. He was the focus of one of America's longest running true-life crime thrillers, the case of a tycoon who used many aliases in an odyssey that spun off books, films, television dramas and online commentaries.
The oldest of four children of Seymour B. and Bernice (Herstein) Durst was born on April 12, 1943. Robert's father was the head of a Manhattan office and apartment building empire founded in 1927 by his grandfather.
Robert and his siblings, Douglas, Thomas, and Wendy, grew up in the Westchester suburb of Scarsdale, but their comfortable childhood was shattered in 1950 by the death of their mother. Robert, who may have witnessed her plunge, was shattered.
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A high-profile murder. Robert A. Durst, the former heir to a New York real estate empire who was serving a life sentence for the 2000 killing of his friend Susan Berman, died on January 10, 2022. Here is a review of his past.
The decision. The jury found that Mr. Durst shot Ms. Berman because he was afraid that she would tell investigators about the disappearance of his first wife.
The Jinx factor. The most damaging evidence in the Berman case was the interviews Mr. Durst gave to the producers of the series. The documentary led to Mr. Durst's arrest in the same year.
His wife is missing. Kathie and Mr. Durst were married in 1973, but their union was soon marred by emotional and physical violence. On January 31, 1982, Mrs. Durst vanished. She was declared dead. Prosecutors said that Ms. Berman helped Mr. Durst cover up his wife's death.
Another murder. Mr. Durst was accused of murdering Morris Black, a neighbor in Texas. He testified that he carved up Mr. Morris's body. After investigators reopened the case into his wife's disappearance, Mr. Durst fled to Texas, posing as a woman.
He and Douglas were sent for counseling. Robert was a student at the high school. The only picture of him was in the 1961.
He dropped out of postgraduate studies at U.C.L.A., where he met Susan Berman, an aspiring writer and the daughter of a reputed Las Vegas mobster.
Mr. Durst's conduct as a young man was eccentric. He invited Kathleen to move with him to Vermont, where he had opened a health-food store. They lived frugally and drove a Volkswagen Beetle.
His father told him to return to New York and join the family business. Mr. Durst and Ms. McCormack were married in 1973. He was nine years older than her. The couple went to Thailand after partying at the celebrity disco in Manhattan.
The marriage began to break down in 1976. They were arguing about having a child. He did not allow her to have one. She had an abortion according to her family. After studying nursing and medicine at Albert Einstein Medical College in the Bronx, Ms. McCormack sought independence. She hired a divorce lawyer. She was treated at a hospital for injuries she said were inflicted by her husband.
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In 1957, Mr. Durst was 14 with his siblings Tommy, 6; Douglas, 12; and Wendy, 10 in their Scardsale, N.Y., home. They built a model of a skyscraper that their father was building.
The New York Times wrote in 2017: "Mrs. Durst told her sister, her friends and virtually anyone who would listen, 'If anything happens to me, don't let Bob get away with it.'"
After five days, Mr. Durst reported his wife's disappearance to the police, and claimed that he drove her to the train station and that she boarded a train for Manhattan. He said he went back to South Salem, had a drink and reached his wife by phone.
There were no calls from the South Salem home to the penthouse that night. Mr. Durst said he had called from a pay phone. The night was rainy and cold, but the nearest pay phone was several miles away. The neighbors could not remember having a drink with Mr. Durst.
The evidence was not conclusive. The leads dwindled. The case took 16 years to be finished. Mr. Durst left his family business when Douglas took over in 1994. He was drifting around the country for a long time. He married a Manhattan real estate broker in 2000 and called it a platonic marriage of convenience.
In 1998, a tip from a suspect in an unrelated case revived interest in the disappearance of Mrs. Durst. The financial records that Mrs. Durst gave to her friends were stolen. There were questions about Susan Berman's role as a spokeswoman. The 1982 inquiry was revived by the state investigator and the district attorney.
Susan Berman was questioned in 2000. They received an anonymous letter before their interview. The address was cited as acadaver. Ms. Berman was found dead. No one was arrested after Mr. Durst denied involvement.
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In 2016 Mr. Durst was in court in Los Angeles to face charges. He was sentenced in September of 2021.
He cut ties to his family and his stake in 10 Manhattan skyscrapers in order to settle a lawsuit against the Durst family. He had a trust fund that paid him $2 million a year. His legal problems were not over.
Mr. Durst was arrested in Houston for urinating on a rack of candy. He paid the fine and his lawyer said it was an unfortunate medical mistake.
After his arrest in Los Angeles for the murder of Susan Berman, Mr. Durst spent years in custody, fighting medical problems while his legal team developed a defense strategy.
They conceded that Mr. Durst wrote the cadaver note, but said that the person who mailed it was aware that there was a body at the house.
Charles V. Bagli was a contributor.
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