The multimillionaire died “of natural causes”, according to one of his lawyers.
The rich and sulphurous American heir Robert Durst, recently sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his ex-best friend after years of twisting proceedings, died on Monday in custody at the age of 78, the report said. one of his lawyers.
The multi-millionaire died “of natural causes linked to the long list of medical issues 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.
Daughter of a Las Vegas mobster and author of detective novels, Susan Berman had improvised spokesperson for Robert Durst when he appeared as the number one suspect in the disappearance of his wife Kathleen in 1982. The accusation believes that he ended up killing Susan Berman for fear that she would incriminate him by answering questions from the New York police officers investigating this disappearance. The couple were in turmoil when Kathleen Durst had passed out in the wild.
An investigation relaunched after the broadcast of a series
The wealthy heir had told police that she had taken a train to the couple’s accommodation in Manhattan but had given no sign of life. The next morning, a woman calling herself Kathleen Durst called the medical school where she was attending classes to say she was ill but the prosecution believes it was actually Susan Berman.
The investigation into this disappearance was relaunched in 2000 with “The Jinx”, HBO documentary series devoted to Robert Durst.
The police had contacted Susan Berman, and she was later found lying in blood at her California home. Robert Durst claimed during his trial to have found the body of his friend while visiting her but maintains that he did not kill her.
He was formally charged with the murder of his wife in New York last October shortly after his life sentence in California. Black sheep of one of the biggest families of New York real estate, Robert Durst was arrested in March 2015 on the eve of the broadcast of “The Jinx”.
An involuntary confession
The series revisited another bloody episode in Robert Durst’s life: the murder of a neighbor, which he then dismembered with an ax and a saw, then thrown into the sea.
The sulphurous millionaire had taken refuge in Texas at the time, where he lived disguised as a woman and pretended to be mute, in a sordid little apartment. 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.
During his trial in Texas, Robert Durst admitted having dismembered his neighbor in an attempt to make him disappear, fearing that no one believed in the thesis of self-defense. In “The Jinx”, Robert Durst seemed to make an involuntary admission to his responsibility for these murders, whispering to himself as he was in the bathroom and his wireless microphone was not turned off: “What- what I did? I killed them all, obviously. “
During an interview with prosecutors after his arrest, Robert Durst defended himself by asserting that he was under the influence of drugs during the filming of the documentary and that these words therefore meant nothing in particular.