Robert Durst, Subject Of HBO Series, Arrested In Connection With Los Angeles Murder Probe
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York real estate heir and confessed killer Robert Durst has been arrested in New Orleans in connection with a California murder investigation.
Durst, who is the subject of the HBO documentary series "The Jinx," was arrested Saturday on a warrant issued in a homicide investigation by Los Angeles County.
Durst briefly appeared in court on Sunday and has another hearing set for Monday morning. He is being held without bond, The New York Times reported.
His lawyer, Chip Lewis, said Durst will agree to be taken to Los Angeles to face the first-degree murder charge.
Durst, 71, has been suspected in three killings, but has never been convicted. He was never charged in the disappearance of his wife, Kathie, in 1982.
He once went on the the lam disguised as a woman living in Galveston, Texas. He confessed to killing and dismembering his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, there in 2001, but he was acquitted after arguing that the killing was in self-defense.
The Los Angeles case involved Susan Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas casino owner.
Prosecutors believe Berman may have had more information in Kathie's disappearance. They were set to question Berman when she was found dead, CBS2's Valerie Castro reported.
The case was never officially closed, but potential new evidence has surfaced. The Los Angeles Times reported that his arrest is directly tied to that case.
Berman's body was discovered in her home on Christmas Eve 2000 with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
Police were alerted to the murder by an anonymous letter addressed to the "Beverley Hills Police Department" with Berman's address and the word "cadaver," authorities said.
Berman's stepson revealed on "The Jinx" a different letter written by Durst and sent to Berman months before she died that had similarities with the "cadaver" note, including the handwriting and misspelling of "Beverley."
In the finale that aired Sunday night, 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.
Durst was recorded saying -- 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 family is thanking authorities for tracking him down.
His brother, Douglas Durst, said "We are relieved and also grateful to everyone who assisted in the arrest of Robert Durst. We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done.''
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki told The Associated Press that Durst is a strange but smart man who's 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."
On Sunday, HBO released a statement, saying "We simply cannot say enough about the brilliant job that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling did in producing 'The Jinx.' Years in the making, their thorough research and dogged reporting reignited interest in Robert Durst's story with the public and law enforcement."
In December, Durst was acquitted of trespassing outside the Manhattan homes of his relatives, who had orders of protection against him.
Durst is an heir to the Durst Organization, one of the city's wealthiest families and owners of one of New York's biggest real estate firms.
Among the skyscrapers it operates are One World Trade Center, the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, and the Conde Nast building at Four Times Square.
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