Next Episode of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst is
not planed. TV Show was canceled.
From Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling (the Oscar® nominees behind Capturing the Friedmans), comes The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, a six-part examination of the reclusive millionaire at the heart of three killings spanning four decades. Robert Durst, the scion of a New York real estate empire, has long been a suspect in the notorious 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathie. Further suspicion was raised with the unsolved killing of his confidante, Susan Berman, thought to be a key witness in the investigation into Kathie's disappearance in 2000, as well as the subsequent killing and dismemberment of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas. Durst has consistently maintained his innocence and remains a free man today.
A six-part profile of Robert Durst, the scion of a wealthy New York real-estate family who has been accused of three murders over three decades, but never convicted, begins with the discovery of a dismembered body in Texas in 2001 and its possible connection to Durst. In 2012, Durst contacts director Andrew Jarecki about an interview.
2013: Durst's interview with Jarecki begins with his childhood, when he witnessed his mother's suicide. His father, Seymour – distant and cold, obsessed with building the Durst Organization into a real-estate behemoth and leaving his mark on the Manhattan skyline – pressures young Robert to join the family business. Durst describes his disinterest in following in his father's footsteps, and recalls meeting Kathie McCormack, a beautiful girl from a modest background. The couple fall in love and move to Vermont, where they lead a simple life and run a health-food store called All Good Things. But not long after, Seymour prevails and Robert returns to New York to take his place at the powerful Durst Organization. 1982: Robert and Kathie have been married for nearly 10 years, during which they have moved from their idyllic life in Vermont back to New York City. They divide their time between a penthouse apartment on Riverside Drive, and an upstate house on picturesque Lake Truesdale, 50 miles north of Manhattan. After a weekend at the lake house, Durst walks into the 20th Precinct and tells desk sergeant Michael Struk that he hasn't seen his wife in five days. He says that when he last saw her, he was putting her on a train in Katonah to return to NYC for medical school classes. The details of their last weekend together are a subject of much controversy by those who know the couple. Believing Robert knows more about Kathie's fate than he is letting on, her family and friends embark on a hunt for the truth.
2000: Susan Berman was the daughter of a famous Las Vegas mobster, Davey "The Jew" Berman, who was a partner with "Bugsy" Siegel in the Flamingo Hotel. Robert Durst's closest friend since they attended UCLA together, she had a mobster's mentality and matching code of ethics; people said she would do anything for a friend. Since Kathie Durst's disappearance two decades earlier, Robert Durst had been the subject of media and public scrutiny, and she had become his spokesperson to the media. Some say that Robert and Susan kept each other's secrets, and that if anyone knew what happened to Kathie, it would be Susan. When a random tip leads ambitious Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro to re-open the investigation into the disappearance of Kathie Durst, her investigators focus on Susan Berman, a witness the police had overlooked back in 1982.
2003. With Robert Durst on trial in Galveston, TX for the 2001 murder of Morris Black, many of those involved in earlier investigations – including Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro and Kathie Durst friends Gilberta Najamy and Eleanore Schwank – are convinced that a conviction is all but assured. Instead, Durst's attorneys, led by ace lead counsel Dick DeGuerin, surprises the court with an unlikely first witness and a brilliant self-defense strategy. Dramatic footage from the trial, combined with revealing recent interviews with Robert Durst, punctuate the courtroom drama that led to a starting verdict.
Present Day: In the 33 years since Kathie Durst disappeared, no progress has been made in finding out what happened to her, or finding her body. Without answers, her family and friends continue to hunt for the truth.
Present Day: Nearly a decade has passed since the filmmakers began investigating Robert Durst and his alleged crimes. They have spoken to more than 100 participants in Robert's story, including family, friends, police, lawyers, jurors and journalists in an attempt to get at the truth.
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