HBO Plans Documentary on Robert Durst - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Zoneboy · 12-02-2014, 02:36 AM

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The life of Robert A. Durst could be the stuff of legend.

The shrewd, enigmatic scion of a prominent New York real estate family, Mr. Durst has come to be known not for his deal-making prowess, but for the cloud of suspicion he has lived under for more than 30 years.

He was investigated, but never charged, in the mysterious disappearance of his young, beautiful first wife and the mob-like execution of a close friend in Los Angeles. He beheaded a cantankerous neighbor in Texas in what he described as an act of self-defense, cross-dressed to conceal his identity and then escaped the police, whose nationwide manhunt took them to Northern California, then New Orleans and, finally, Bethlehem, Pa., where Mr. Durst had gone to college.

But other than a few cryptic asides to reporters, Mr. Durst, 71, has kept his own counsel.

Until now.

HBO is announcing this week that it plans to broadcast a six-part documentary called “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” Made with Mr. Durst’s cooperation, HBO says, the documentary, to air this February, will unravel the disappearance of Mr. Durst’s wife, Kathie, in one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in New York history, and expose long-buried information about the man suspected in that and other unsolved crimes.

It is based on nearly 10 years of research by the filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, who made the 2010 film “All Good Things,” a lightly fictionalized account of Mr. Durst’s life. The filmmakers say they reviewed thousands of court documents and interviewed more than 100 friends, investigators, prosecutors, journalists (including this reporter), defense lawyers and relatives of Kathie Durst and Mr. Durst’s friend Susan Berman.

But the core of the documentary is more than 25 hours of interviews with Mr. Durst, who in his slow-paced, gravelly voice talks about his privileged upbringing as a member of a family that owns 10 Manhattan skyscrapers and numerous apartment buildings and became a force in New York City politics.

He describes a tangled relationship with his powerful father, Seymour, and the betrayal he felt when his younger brother, Douglas, was tapped to take the reins of the family business.

The documentary’s producers declined to detail the topics Mr. Durst discussed, but they seem likely to include his mother’s suicide when he was 7; his wife’s disappearance in 1982; the killing of Ms. Berman, his confidante, in 2000; and the dismemberment of his neighbor in a $300-a-month rooming house in Galveston, Tex., in 2001.

“Certainly the things he’s been accused of are tabloid-worthy,” Mr. Jarecki said. “But what’s clear about Bob, if you spend five minutes with him, is that he’s a deeply complicated person who cannot be summarized in a simple way.”

But why, after 32 years of silence, did Mr. Durst decide to talk now?

“I think he felt understandably frustrated by the fact that he has not been able to speak for himself,” Mr. Jarecki said.

Mr. Durst has long been estranged from his family, and 13 of his relatives have obtained orders of protection against him. The Dursts did not cooperate with the documentary and once threatened to sue Mr. Jarecki over “All Good Things,” which they said unfairly characterized their family.

Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization, called the documentary “a self-indulgent work of fiction.”

“Given that Robert is likely underwriting the film, it should rival the great works of propaganda,” he said.

The filmmakers said that as a matter of journalistic independence, they do not accept funding from the subject of a film.

Michael Lombardo, president for programming at HBO, said it would air the series on Sunday nights alongside its premier programming. “It’s emotional, riveting storytelling that happens to be told in a documentary format,” he said.

Mr. Durst severed connections to his father and family in the mid-1990s, roughly a decade after the disappearance of Kathie Durst, five months before she would have graduated from medical school. By most accounts, their marriage had descended into violent confrontations.

The case lay dormant for 18 years, until a New York State Police investigator began tracking new leads in 2000, setting off a bizarre series of events. Mr. Durst fled New York, renting an apartment in Galveston, disguised as a mute woman.

His friend Ms. Berman, who had been his spokeswoman after Kathie Durst’s disappearance, was found dead in her Los Angeles home on Christmas Eve, shot in the back of the head. No one has been charged in that case.

Mr. Durst was then charged with murdering and dismembering a former merchant seaman who lived across the hall from him in Galveston. A jury acquitted him of murder, accepting his account of an accidental shooting that occurred as he tried to defend himself. Mr. Durst did spend more than three years in prison for bail jumping and other crimes.

Mr. Jarecki picked up Mr. Durst’s story after finishing the 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary “Capturing the Friedmans,” the story of the disintegration of a Long Island family amid charges of child molesting.

Mr. Jarecki said he could relate on some level with Mr. Durst, since his own childhood had been marked by a distant, overbearing father. “There’s an intrinsic truth — a deep rift in that family — that I can understand,” he said.

Mr. Jarecki and Mr. Smerling were unable to reach Mr. Durst during the five years they spent on “All Good Things.” But shortly before the premiere of the film, which starred Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, Mr. Durst called the film’s distributor, Magnolia Pictures.

Mr. Jarecki and Mr. Smerling met with Mr. Durst and arranged a viewing of the film, which he liked so much that he agreed to be interviewed.

Today, Mr. Durst lives in Texas and owns a townhouse in Harlem. In 2006, he gained $65 million in settling a lawsuit against Douglas Durst over his share of the family fortune.

And he is still making headlines of sorts. He was arrested this summer in Houston and accused of urinating on a candy rack in a pharmacy.

He is also due in court in New York on Dec. 10 on charges of trespassing onto Durst family property on West 43rd Street.

Perhaps the most focused viewers of the documentary series will be the family of Kathie Durst, which has long waited for developments that would help solve her disappearance. Kathie’s brother, James McCormack, who was interviewed for the documentary, said he hoped to see in it an “epiphany of conscience.”

tarheelslim · 03-12-2015, 01:25 PM

Has anybody else been watching this?

Really good short series on a single subject (I find it far more fascinating than Serial, the popularity of which was a bit puzzling to me) with multiple cases involved... it is really odd seeing Durst interviewed so much, he's looking about as deranged as he must actually be these days. His eyes look black (it is surprising to me every time, I can't remember ever seeing anyone look like this before) and he has odd facial tics. The show was clearly not created or bankrolled by him because it makes clear that it would be extremely unlikely that his wife's disappearance was due to anything other than Bob killing her.

The fact that he has killed at least 2 (possibly 3, I can't decide on Berman) people and is a free man (an extremely wealthy and an extremely bizarre man as well) is just astonishing.

WishfulDreamer · 03-15-2015, 02:16 PM

Good news! He's just been arrested. They seem to have enough evidence now to tie him to Berman's murder.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...rged/24806525/

wiseguy182 · 03-17-2015, 08:44 AM

Wow. Apparently he confessed to killing them all during the filming of the documentary. He thought it was over, but his microphone was still on. This is pretty big news. Hopefully he'll stay behind bars now.

nohwheregirl · 03-18-2015, 05:00 PM

I've been watching this series all along and didn't realize there was a thread on it. Honestly, it didn't get really interesting (at least for those of us already familiar with his story) until the final 2 episodes when the letter was found and then the director confronted him with the letter and Durst accidentally confessed on a hot mic while he was going to the bathroom!

This kicker is that this documentary was basically all his idea. He wanted to be interviewed so he could tell his side of the story.

Just like BTK, he is a sociopathic narcissist who just couldn't help himself. While I'm not sure the hot mic confession will hold up in court, the letter is certainly very damning. It's a shame that it wasn't found and brought to the police years ago. I felt to awful for Susan Berman's stepson who found the letter. He had naively believed Durst wouldn't do that to Susan, and was clearly very shaken when he realized what the letter meant.

LooksLikeCRicci · 03-18-2015, 05:03 PM

There's a joke circulating the Internet that the end of The Jinx gave the viewer everything they had wanted with the last season of Serial.

LooksLikeCRicci · 03-18-2015, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nohwheregirl

I've been watching this series all along and didn't realize there was a thread on it. Honestly, it didn't get really interesting (at least for those of us already familiar with his story) until the final 2 episodes when the letter was found and then the director confronted him with the letter and Durst accidentally confessed on a hot mic while he was going to the bathroom!

This kicker is that this documentary was basically all his idea. He wanted to be interviewed so he could tell his side of the story.

Just like BTK, he is a sociopathic narcissist who just couldn't help himself. While I'm not sure the hot mic confession will hold up in court, the letter is certainly very damning. It's a shame that it wasn't found and brought to the police years ago. I felt to awful for Susan Berman's stepson who found the letter. He had naively believed Durst wouldn't do that to Susan, and was clearly very shaken when he realized what the letter meant.

Without having heard the confession, I'm in no place to judge. However, as the former defense attorney, I can tell you I would IMMEDIATELY argue his comments were 1) sarcasm, 2) taken out of context, and 3) possibly a violation of his Miranda rights.

The obvious rebuttal is that he consented to being miked and should have known that he did not have an expectation of privacy while he left the mike on his person....

nohwheregirl · 03-18-2015, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

There's a joke circulating the Internet that the end of The Jinx gave the viewer everything they had wanted with the last season of Serial.

I felt the same way! It was definitely the antidote to Serial. Although there was never any doubt in my mind that Durst was guilty. However, it does negate the theory that Adnan would never agree to be interviewed so extensively if he knew he was guilty. Hmmm...

nohwheregirl · 03-18-2015, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

Without having heard the confession, I'm in no place to judge. However, as the former defense attorney, I can tell you I would IMMEDIATELY argue his comments were 1) sarcasm, 2) taken out of context, and 3) possibly a violation of his Miranda rights.

The obvious rebuttal is that he consented to being miked and should have known that he did not have an expectation of privacy while he left the mike on his person....

Yeah, the camera was not actually on him when it happened. And it was sort of rambling...so taken out of context, there's potential for people to read it in many different ways.

The LAPD is saying his arrest has nothing to do with the documentary, and I find that hard to believe. The DA will surely use the letter and the confession in court, right? Plus, they clearly timed the arrest mere hours before they aired the final episode with the confession...I'm guessing so that Durst wouldn't either leave the country or commit suicide upon seeing it.

12-02-2014, 02:36 AM	#1
Zoneboy RIP, I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU :( Moderator Forum Superstar Join Date: Jul 13, 2003 Location: AT HOME WISHING ALL THIS WAS JUST A DREAM AND THAT I'LL WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE. Posts: 34,434	HBO Plans Documentary on Robert Durst Link The life of Robert A. Durst could be the stuff of legend. The shrewd, enigmatic scion of a prominent New York real estate family, Mr. Durst has come to be known not for his deal-making prowess, but for the cloud of suspicion he has lived under for more than 30 years. He was investigated, but never charged, in the mysterious disappearance of his young, beautiful first wife and the mob-like execution of a close friend in Los Angeles. He beheaded a cantankerous neighbor in Texas in what he described as an act of self-defense, cross-dressed to conceal his identity and then escaped the police, whose nationwide manhunt took them to Northern California, then New Orleans and, finally, Bethlehem, Pa., where Mr. Durst had gone to college. But other than a few cryptic asides to reporters, Mr. Durst, 71, has kept his own counsel. Until now. HBO is announcing this week that it plans to broadcast a six-part documentary called “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” Made with Mr. Durst’s cooperation, HBO says, the documentary, to air this February, will unravel the disappearance of Mr. Durst’s wife, Kathie, in one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in New York history, and expose long-buried information about the man suspected in that and other unsolved crimes. It is based on nearly 10 years of research by the filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, who made the 2010 film “All Good Things,” a lightly fictionalized account of Mr. Durst’s life. The filmmakers say they reviewed thousands of court documents and interviewed more than 100 friends, investigators, prosecutors, journalists (including this reporter), defense lawyers and relatives of Kathie Durst and Mr. Durst’s friend Susan Berman. But the core of the documentary is more than 25 hours of interviews with Mr. Durst, who in his slow-paced, gravelly voice talks about his privileged upbringing as a member of a family that owns 10 Manhattan skyscrapers and numerous apartment buildings and became a force in New York City politics. He describes a tangled relationship with his powerful father, Seymour, and the betrayal he felt when his younger brother, Douglas, was tapped to take the reins of the family business. The documentary’s producers declined to detail the topics Mr. Durst discussed, but they seem likely to include his mother’s suicide when he was 7; his wife’s disappearance in 1982; the killing of Ms. Berman, his confidante, in 2000; and the dismemberment of his neighbor in a $300-a-month rooming house in Galveston, Tex., in 2001. “Certainly the things he’s been accused of are tabloid-worthy,” Mr. Jarecki said. “But what’s clear about Bob, if you spend five minutes with him, is that he’s a deeply complicated person who cannot be summarized in a simple way.” But why, after 32 years of silence, did Mr. Durst decide to talk now? “I think he felt understandably frustrated by the fact that he has not been able to speak for himself,” Mr. Jarecki said. Mr. Durst has long been estranged from his family, and 13 of his relatives have obtained orders of protection against him. The Dursts did not cooperate with the documentary and once threatened to sue Mr. Jarecki over “All Good Things,” which they said unfairly characterized their family. Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization, called the documentary “a self-indulgent work of fiction.” “Given that Robert is likely underwriting the film, it should rival the great works of propaganda,” he said. The filmmakers said that as a matter of journalistic independence, they do not accept funding from the subject of a film. Michael Lombardo, president for programming at HBO, said it would air the series on Sunday nights alongside its premier programming. “It’s emotional, riveting storytelling that happens to be told in a documentary format,” he said. Mr. Durst severed connections to his father and family in the mid-1990s, roughly a decade after the disappearance of Kathie Durst, five months before she would have graduated from medical school. By most accounts, their marriage had descended into violent confrontations. The case lay dormant for 18 years, until a New York State Police investigator began tracking new leads in 2000, setting off a bizarre series of events. Mr. Durst fled New York, renting an apartment in Galveston, disguised as a mute woman. His friend Ms. Berman, who had been his spokeswoman after Kathie Durst’s disappearance, was found dead in her Los Angeles home on Christmas Eve, shot in the back of the head. No one has been charged in that case. Mr. Durst was then charged with murdering and dismembering a former merchant seaman who lived across the hall from him in Galveston. A jury acquitted him of murder, accepting his account of an accidental shooting that occurred as he tried to defend himself. Mr. Durst did spend more than three years in prison for bail jumping and other crimes. Mr. Jarecki picked up Mr. Durst’s story after finishing the 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary “Capturing the Friedmans,” the story of the disintegration of a Long Island family amid charges of child molesting. Mr. Jarecki said he could relate on some level with Mr. Durst, since his own childhood had been marked by a distant, overbearing father. “There’s an intrinsic truth — a deep rift in that family — that I can understand,” he said. Mr. Jarecki and Mr. Smerling were unable to reach Mr. Durst during the five years they spent on “All Good Things.” But shortly before the premiere of the film, which starred Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, Mr. Durst called the film’s distributor, Magnolia Pictures. Mr. Jarecki and Mr. Smerling met with Mr. Durst and arranged a viewing of the film, which he liked so much that he agreed to be interviewed. Today, Mr. Durst lives in Texas and owns a townhouse in Harlem. In 2006, he gained $65 million in settling a lawsuit against Douglas Durst over his share of the family fortune. And he is still making headlines of sorts. He was arrested this summer in Houston and accused of urinating on a candy rack in a pharmacy. He is also due in court in New York on Dec. 10 on charges of trespassing onto Durst family property on West 43rd Street. Perhaps the most focused viewers of the documentary series will be the family of Kathie Durst, which has long waited for developments that would help solve her disappearance. Kathie’s brother, James McCormack, who was interviewed for the documentary, said he hoped to see in it an “epiphany of conscience.”
	__________________ 'Twas The Night Before Christmas And All Through The Full House Not A Creature Was Stirring, Not Even Mighty Mouse. All My Children We're Nestled All Snug In Their Beds While Visions Of Sugarbakers Danced In Their Heads.

03-12-2015, 01:25 PM	#2
tarheelslim Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 16, 2014 Posts: 275	Has anybody else been watching this? Really good short series on a single subject (I find it far more fascinating than Serial, the popularity of which was a bit puzzling to me) with multiple cases involved... it is really odd seeing Durst interviewed so much, he's looking about as deranged as he must actually be these days. His eyes look black (it is surprising to me every time, I can't remember ever seeing anyone look like this before) and he has odd facial tics. The show was clearly not created or bankrolled by him because it makes clear that it would be extremely unlikely that his wife's disappearance was due to anything other than Bob killing her. The fact that he has killed at least 2 (possibly 3, I can't decide on Berman) people and is a free man (an extremely wealthy and an extremely bizarre man as well) is just astonishing.

03-15-2015, 02:16 PM	#3
WishfulDreamer Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 01, 2009 Location: L.A. Posts: 3,868	Good news! He's just been arrested. They seem to have enough evidence now to tie him to Berman's murder. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...rged/24806525/

03-17-2015, 08:44 AM	#4
wiseguy182 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 11, 2006 Location: Wendy's salad bar Posts: 7,030	Wow. Apparently he confessed to killing them all during the filming of the documentary. He thought it was over, but his microphone was still on. This is pretty big news. Hopefully he'll stay behind bars now.

03-18-2015, 05:00 PM	#5
nohwheregirl THE Mystery Machine Senior Member Join Date: Apr 23, 2004 Posts: 1,057	I've been watching this series all along and didn't realize there was a thread on it. Honestly, it didn't get really interesting (at least for those of us already familiar with his story) until the final 2 episodes when the letter was found and then the director confronted him with the letter and Durst accidentally confessed on a hot mic while he was going to the bathroom! This kicker is that this documentary was basically all his idea. He wanted to be interviewed so he could tell his side of the story. Just like BTK, he is a sociopathic narcissist who just couldn't help himself. While I'm not sure the hot mic confession will hold up in court, the letter is certainly very damning. It's a shame that it wasn't found and brought to the police years ago. I felt to awful for Susan Berman's stepson who found the letter. He had naively believed Durst wouldn't do that to Susan, and was clearly very shaken when he realized what the letter meant.

03-18-2015, 05:03 PM	#6
LooksLikeCRicci Likes to live in a clean house Moderator Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 4,050	There's a joke circulating the Internet that the end of The Jinx gave the viewer everything they had wanted with the last season of Serial.