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"Private Trove" Of Robert Durst Materials Taken From Upstate NY Home
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 22, 2015
Modified Mar 22, 2015
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 22, 2015
Modified Mar 22, 2015
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A week after his "confession" aired on HBO, real estate heir Robert Durst's involvement in the disappearance of his first wife Kathleen and the murder of his friend Susan Berman has gained renewed attention. The NY Times reports, "The authorities moved swiftly to search the home of Robert A. Durst in Houston as well as a hotel room in New Orleans after his arrest on first-degree murder charges there a week ago. But the police found the biggest cache of Durst materials concerning his enigmatic life in the cellar of a friend’s house 60 miles north of New York City, in the Hudson Valley, a rural spot Mr. Durst visited occasionally when he wanted some serenity."
Durst was arrested on Saturday, March 14, for Berman's murder. Berman and Durst had been friends, and she was found dead in her Los Angeles home, shot in the head execution-style, while she had apparently agreed to testify for Westchester County authorities who have been trying to prosecute Durst for his first wife's 1982 disappearance.
Only hours before the conclusion of an HBO documentary about Mr. Durst and the murders last Sunday, a State Police investigator, Joseph Becerra, arrived at the home of Susan T. Giordano in Campbell Hall, N.Y., to seize a trove of Mr. Durst’s private papers stored there.
Ms. Giordano said Mr. Becerra told her that she could release the material to him or he would obtain a search warrant and return. Ms. Giordano said she decided to let him have the documents.
The authorities ultimately hauled away about 60 file boxes, Ms. Giordano said, including phone records, bills, family-trust documents, photographs, video depositions from a lawsuit he filed against his brother and transcripts from his 2003 murder trial in Texas, where he was found not guilty of murdering his neighbor.
Ms. Giordano defended Mr. Durst against the latest charge.
“He didn’t do this,” said Ms. Giordano, who first met Mr. Durst through mutual friends about 30 years ago. “I’m such a strong believer in him. There’s probably some explanation. I don’t know what it is. I’m still waiting to hear from him.”
Apparently the files are the same ones that producers of The Jinx looked at. Durst notably reached out to director Andrew Jarecki (whose fictional 2010 movie All Good Things was based on Kathleen Durst's disappearance) and agree to be interviewed for the documentary series. Last week, on the final episode of HBO's documentary series, The Jinx, real estate heir Robert Durst seemed to confess to killing three people (the third murder was in 2001, in Texas; Durst was acquitted after claiming he killed his neighbor in self defense). Without removing his wireless microphone used in interviews, he goes into a bathroom, muttering, "There it is. You’re caught. What a disaster," and "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
At the time of Durst's recent arrest in New Orleans, authorities believe he may have been trying to flee to Cuba. He was reportedly found with a latex mask and fake ID. Now, he's being investigated for other unsolved murders as other disturbing claims are being made—a judge says that Durst sent her a severed cat head.
Kathleen Durst's brother told the Journal News, "He's a sociopathic narcissist, contemptuous of civility and criminally cunning. He'll answer the question ... by walking around the direct answer. He is complicit. He's done a great deal of harm to our family."
Tagged
Kathleen Durst
murder
robert durst
susan berman
the jinx
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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