NY property heir arrested for murder says he ‘killed them’ on HBO show

Robert Durst, a wealthy and eccentric heir to a New York real estate fortune, was arrested Saturday for murder the day before the airing of the finale of a six-part HBO documentary about his links to two killings and the disappearance of his wife.

In the final episode, Durst was asked about similarities in handwriting in a letter he wrote and another linked to one of the killings. Later, filmmakers said Durst wore his microphone into the bathroom.

What followed was a bizarre rambling in which Durst said, apparently to himself, "There it is. You're caught" and "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."

The show ended, and it wasn't clear whether producers confronted Durst about the secretly recorded words or what Durst meant by them.

Durst's defense lawyer said Sunday that the FBI arrested his client on Saturday at a Marriott hotel in New Orleans on a Los Angeles warrant for the murder of Susan Berman 15 years ago.

It is unclear whether the recording of Durst's comments could be used in court, according to legal experts, wrote Charles V. Bagli And Vivian Yee in The New York Times, "since they were made in a bathroom when he was alone and had an expectation of privacy."

Durst, 71, has never been charged in connection with the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen Durst, or in the unsolved 2000 murder of Berman, in Beverly Hills, California. He was acquitted in the 2001 death and dismemberment of his Galveston, Texas, neighbor Morris Black because he said the killing was in self-defense.

Durst has always denied involvement in his wife's disappearance and Berman's murder.

Defense lawyer Chip Lewis, who defended Durst in the case of Black's death, said he will waive extradition and be transported to Los Angeles to face the charges.

The arrest came on the eve the last episode of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki.

Jarecki told The Associated Press that Durst is a strange but smart man who has long feuded with his wealthy family. "The story is so operatic," Jarecki said. "That's what's so fascinating to me — seeing someone who is born to such privilege and years later is living in a $300-a-month rooming house in Galveston, Texas, disguised as a mute woman."

Jarecki told a Hollywood version of Durst's story in a 2010 film starring Ryan Gosling, "All Good Things." A week before the release of that film, Durst called Jarecki, saying he wanted to see it, and he eventually agreed to be interviewed. That footage led to the documentary series.

Jarecki said the six episodes left him with a "firm conclusion" about Durst's guilt or innocence.

HBO distributed the first two episodes in advance, making news with Durst's admission that he lied to investigators about what he did on the night of his wife's disappearance. Jarecki had kept the last four episodes under wraps to maintain suspense.

The Associated Press