NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A millionaire from one of America’s wealthiest families agreed Monday to return to Los Angeles to face a 15-year-old murder charge after muttering that he “killed them all” in a documentary about his links to three sensational killings.
Robert Durst, 71, appeared before a judge in New Orleans on Monday after FBI agents arrested him before HBO’s broadcast of Sunday’s final episode of the documentary.
He is charged in the shooting death of Susan Berman, a mobster’s daughter who acted as his spokeswoman. He has also long been suspected in the death of his wife, Kathleen Durst, and was acquitted years ago in the death of an elderly neighbour.
In finale of the documentary that authorities hope will finally lead to a conviction, he muttered that “killed them all, of course”.
He shuffled into the courtroom with his hands shackled at his waist, wearing sandals and an orange jumpsuit. He turned to the gallery and smiled, then appeared to fall asleep just before the hearing started. Later, he answered “yes” to questions from the judge about whether he was waiving extradition from Louisiana state to California.
But one of his lawyers, Dick DeGuerin, said the trip may be delayed because New Orleans prosecutors are considering other unspecified charges. He wouldn’t elaborate, and spokesman Christopher Bowman said the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office won’t comment.
A police report said Durst was in possession of a revolver when he was arrested. In Louisiana, a person needs a permit to carry a concealed weapon, and it was not immediately clear if Durst had a permit.
A former prosecutor who reopened one of the cold cases against Durst years ago, Jeanine Pirro, said Monday that his own words, recorded during and after a lengthy interview he gave to the filmmaker, are enough to convict him.
In the finale of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, Durst acknowledges similarities in the handwriting of a letter he wrote and another one sent anonymously to Beverly Hills Police alerting them to his friend’s “cadaver”. Then he went to the bathroom, still wearing his live microphone.
What followed was 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”.
Jarecki and his co-writer and cinematographer Marc Smerling answered some of the many questions raised by Durst’s audiotaped comments in a New York Times interview published Monday.
They said they never confronted Durst about what he said in the bathroom, but that they did share what they found with authorities last year as they were preparing the film to be aired.
Durst’s longtime lawyer, Chip Lewis, smelled a setup, calling Jarecki “duplicitous” for not making it clear to Durst that he would be sharing information with police.
Lewis also suspects the timing of Durst’s arrest was coordinated between the authorities and HBO for maximum impact.
Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Kirk Albanese scoffed at that.
“The HBO series had nothing to do with his arrest,” Albanese told The AP on Monday.
