ROBERT DURST was killed in the murder of his best friend Susan Berman months before he died in prison.
The couple have been best friends since the 1960s, when they were studying at UCLA.
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Their relationship, in indictment against thirst and two other murders, were the centerpiece of a 20/20 special report that premiered Friday.
The report includes new interviews with Nick Chavin, a friend of Berman and Durst, and with Los Angeles District Attorney John Lewin, lead attorney in the lawsuit.
The episode also featured the first television interview with Marc Smerling, the producer and cameraman behind documentary series The Jinx.
When Jinx came on HBO in 2015, viewers were shocked when thirst apparently admitted his murders on a live microphone.
The thirst, a New York real estate heir, was picked up and said, “What did I do? I killed them all, of course.”
The shocking revelation was replayed in open court before Thirst, 78, was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Berman at one point.
She was shot in the back of the head at her home in Los Angeles in December 2000, when prosecutors said she was about to tell police how she helped cover up the murder of his wife Kathy Durst.
FOR THAT SUSAN BERMAN
Kathie Durst disappeared from New York in 1982, where she was living with her husband Robert.
He was raised in the city as heir to one of the richest and most powerful real estate dynasties in the country.
Even though Kathie’s family claims that thirst killed her and melted her, Kathie’s body was never found.
Thirst was the last person to see his first wife, an intern pediatrician, alive.
Early in the evening of January 31, 1982, she was having dinner with friends when she got a call from thirst and suddenly had to leave.
No one has ever seen her again. She was 38 years old.
Years later, Thirst was found guilty of dismembering another person, Morris Black; however, he was not found guilty of murder, claiming self-defense.
Thirst lived in hiding at the time of Black’s death and even disguised himself as a woman when police found Black’s body parts floating in the waters of Galveston Bay, Texas.
Thirst claims self-defense and was given five years to destroy evidence to surrender body parts.
He also faced two counts of bail jumping – but he was given credit for time served and was paroleed in 2005.
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WHY SUSAN BERMAN SOLD
Berman was believed to be targeted because of her knowledge of the events surrounding Kathie Durst’s death.
Berman was the daughter of Davie Berman, a Jewish-American organized crime figure who operated for the notorious gangster Meyer Lanksy and the Genovese crime family in Minneapolis and Las Vegas.
In 1981, she wrote East Street, which portrayed her life as a mobster’s daughter and paid $ 350,000 for film rights, even though no film was ever made.
In 1984, she married Christopher Marguiles and was run down by her longtime friend Robert Durst.
Berman met his thirst while studying at UCLA in the late 1960’s and the two started dating as friends.
Berman acted as his unofficial spokesman during the media storm when Cathie went missing.
But some have since claimed that Berman was more than just a friend, acting as an accomplice in Kathie’s disappearance and apparent murder, and offering Thirst his public alibi.
Berman’s murder came just days before she was due to meet with investigators who had recently opened up about the case and Kathie’s disappearance.
Just like with Kathie, there was not enough evidence to blame Durst for Berman’s death, even though he was in the same state as her around the time of her death and sent her thousands of dollars shortly before she was killed.
DETAILS OF THE GRISLY SCENE
Thirst told a courtroom in August 2021 that he entered Susan Berman’s house in December 2000 with a key he had sent him and found her on the floor.
He said: “I made a double-take. I saw Susan on the floor.
“I have ‘Susan!’ cried! a few times, then I hurried to the bedroom where she was. Her eyes were closed. “
Thirst said he checked Berman’s pulse and lifted her off the floor before running to another room to call 911 but found that the telephone line was not working.
He then left and tried to contact the authorities by phone on Sunset Boulevard, which is about two miles away.
When an operator responded, Durst said he started having reservations.
He said: “I decided I did not want to give them my name.
“I was aware that my voice was very recognizable even without a name.”
He said he instead decided to write what became known as a corpse note – a scrap of paper with Berman’s address and the word “corpse” mailed to the Beverly Hills Police Department.
Upon inquiry, Thirst admitted that he had lied about the author of the note over the years, even during an interview for the HBO documentary The Jinx.
“It’s a very hard thing to believe,” Durst said.
“I think I have a hard time believing myself that I would have written the letter if I had not killed Susan Berman.”
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DURST INSIST ON SHOCK
Thirst was found guilty in the fall of 2021 of Berman’s murder, despite Thirst’s repeated claims of innocence.
“Did you kill Susan Berman?” Thirst’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, immediately questioned the weak property heirs in the courtroom.
“No,” thirst replied.
“Do you know who did it?” DeGuerin then quenched thirst.
“No, I do not,” thirst replied.
During the trial, Thirst claimed he knew Berman was cooperating with a new police investigation into Kathie’s disappearance but she did not blackmail him.
He said: “One has to have a reason, a motive, no matter what, to kill Susan Berman. I had no reason to kill Susan Berman.
Also in 2021, the thirst in 1982 was charged against his wife Kathie.
Investigators said a warrant for Thirst’s arrest in the New York case before his death was issued.
A California court has posthumously dismissed his conviction for Berman’s murder on what some officials have described as technical.
In February 2022, LA Supreme Court Judge Kathryn Solorzano announced that all proceedings in his thirst case would be “permanently abolished.”
Under California law, the conviction was dropped because the high court did not get the chance to confirm Durst’s conviction before his death on January 10.
However, District Attorney John Lewin said the thirst “killed three people” and “was held responsible for his horrific crimes.”
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