The rich and sulphurous American heir Robert Durst, recently sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his best friend following years of twists and turns, died on Monday in custody at the age of 78, announced one of the his lawyers.
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The multi-millionaire died “of natural causes linked to the long list of medical problems that we have repeatedly raised in court over the past two years,” said lawyer Chip Lewis.
Robert Durst was convicted in September by a Los Angeles court of killing his friend Susan Berman with a bullet to the head at the latter’s home in 2000, in Beverly Hills.
The prosecution alleges that he sought to conceal his role in the murder of his wife, Kathleen, by killing Mme Berman to prevent him from responding to the New York police officers who were investigating his wife’s disappearance in 1982.
Mr. Durst, who has always denied outright, was formally charged in New York last October shortly following his life sentence in California.
A black sheep from one of New York’s biggest real estate families, Robert Durst was arrested in March 2015 on the eve of the airing of the last episode of a six-part HBO biographical documentary, The Jinx.
The series revisited another bloody episode in Robert Durst’s life: the murder of a neighbor, which he then dismembered and thrown into the sea.
He had been acquitted of this crime by an army of prestigious lawyers who had pleaded guilty to a mixture of self-defense, accidental shooting and acts of alcohol.
In The JinxMr. Durst seemed to be making an involuntary admission, whispering to himself as he was in the bathroom and his wireless microphone was not turned off, “What have I done?” I killed them all, of course. ”
During an interview with prosecutors following his arrest, Mr. Durst defended himself by claiming that he was under the influence of drugs during the filming of the documentary and that these words therefore meant nothing in particular.
