Let’s Get Back on The Jinx’s Timeline Going Into Part Two
When The Jinx aired its first six episodes on HBO in 2015, it did something that very few true-crime shows had done up to that point or since: It captured a murderer, Robert Durst, seemingly confessing to his crimes on a hot mic. If you forgot what he said in the much-discussed finale — “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course” was the gist — the first episode of The Jinx: Part Two, which airs Sunday night on HBO, will remind you. The follow-up picks up exactly where the first Jinx left off, with the arrest of Durst that was prompted by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki’s investigative series, and focuses on the court case that unfolded when Durst was finally charged with killing his friend Susan Berman in 2000.
Since the outcome of that murder case — and Durst’s own life — is established history at this point, Part Two is a bit of an exercise in mental time travel; it’s far more engaging if you’re able to forget about its foregone conclusion and transport yourself back to when Durst’s fate was a (slightly) more open question. With its focus on Durst’s trial in the Berman case, Part Two puts us back in that place, revisiting many of the details covered by the first Jinx. But because almost a decade has passed since then, viewers’ recall of some of those details may be a bit hazy, so let’s get ourselves back in a 2015 mind-set and review the evidence that was laid out in Part One.
1. Kathie Durst, the first wife of Robert Durst, mysteriously disappeared in 1982 and was never seen again.
Durst, the son of prominent New York real-estate tycoon Seymour Durst, was a suspect in three high-profile murder cases, the first being the disappearance of his wife Kathie in 1982. Durst has always said that he drove Kathie to a train station near their Westchester County home on the night of January 31, 1982, so she could head to their New York City apartment and attend class at medical school the following day. Kathie reportedly called in sick to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine on that Monday, although in both parts one and two of The Jinx, it’s suggested that Durst’s friend Susan Berman made the call, posing as Kathie.
Kathie Durst was never seen nor heard from again and her body was never found. Her friends and family members have long believed that Robert Durst killed her, disposed of the body in an unknown location, and covered up the murder. While Part Two centers mostly on Berman’s murder, Kathie’s case is central to that, since Durst allegedly was concerned that Berman might implicate him in Kathie’s death.
2. Susan Berman was murdered and Durst swears he didn’t do it.
Berman was a close friend of Durst’s from college who was shot in the head and killed in her Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, home on December 23, 2000. This was weeks after law enforcement authorities in New York indicated plans to reopen the Kathie Durst investigation; close friends of Kathie’s specifically told Jeanine Pirro — then the district attorney in Westchester County before her days as a Fox News host and public defender of Donald Trump — that she should talk to Susan Berman.
Durst was arrested in connection with Berman’s death in March 2015, the day before The Jinx finale aired.
3. Robert Durst killed and dismembered a man and got away with it.
Durst decided to change his identity and move to Galveston, Texas, in 2001, where he rented a modest apartment and posed as a mute woman named Dorothy Ciner — actually the name of one of Durst’s high-school classmates — so he would not be recognized. He became acquaintances with a neighbor, Morris Black, whom he eventually shot and killed. Durst also dismembered Black’s body, put the various parts in trash bags, and tossed them in Galveston Bay. He was arrested and charged with Black’s murder, only after he attempted to flee Galveston and wound up being apprehended at a Wegmans in Pennsylvania where he attempted to steal a $6 chicken-salad sandwich. (Criminal mastermind Robert Durst, folks!)
During the ensuing trial, which was covered in The Jinx, Durst admitted to dismembering Black’s body but said he killed him in an act of self-defense. A jury acquitted him — even though, again, they knew all about the dismemberment — in 2003. This is less of a focus in Part Two, but the case certainly is mentioned.
4. The “cadaver letter” remains extremely important.
The day that Susan Berman’s body was discovered in December of 2000, the Beverly Hills Police Department received a letter that stated Berman’s address alongside the word cadaver. In the first Jinx, Berman’s stepson finds an old letter that Durst had written to Berman with almost identical handwriting and a similar misspelling of the word “Beverly” in Beverly Hills — Beverley. Durst’s hot-mic confession in the finale came right after Jarecki presented him with the two letters and noted their similarities. It also became a key piece of evidence when Durst was on trial for Berman’s murder, a major focus of The Jinx: Part Two.
5. So does Durst’s 2000 trip to California.
In The Jinx, police noted that they could not definitively place Durst in Los Angeles on the night of Berman’s murder, even though he was in California at the time. He flew to San Francisco four days before she was killed, then flew back to New York out of San Francisco on a late-night flight the same day she was murdered. Durst’s whereabouts during that period become a significant issue in The Jinx: Part Two.
6. Remember the name Chris Lovell.
Lovell was one of the jurors in the Galveston trial who was extremely confident that Durst did not kill Morris Black intentionally. “I know that he is innocent of the charges in Galveston,” Lovell told Jarecki in the first Jinx. You will see him again in episode one of The Jinx: Part Two.
7. It’s also worth remembering what Durst took with him when he fled Galveston.
One of the most remarkable things about Durst’s story is that he got away with murder for so long while frequently doing incredibly stupid things. The guy made mistakes, and sometimes he tried to make the same mistakes again. When Durst was apprehended at the Wegmans after jumping bail in the Morris Black case, police searched his rental car and found a pair of loaded guns, some marijuana, $38,000 in cash, and Morris Black’s ID. (One cop wonders why someone would try to shoplift a sandwich from a Wegmans when they have $38,000 in their trunk, which is an excellent question!) When you watch The Jinx: Part 2 and see the details involved in his plan to evade arrest in the Susan Berman case, well, let’s just say you’ll experience a bit of déjà vu.
8. Durst had a seemingly unconventional relationship with his second wife, Debrah Lee Charatan.
Charatan, whom Durst wed in the year 2000, weeks before Berman’s murder, appeared in the first Jinx via footage from interviews with police and recorded phone conversations between her and Durst while he was in prison during the Galveston trial. She plays a slightly larger role in The Jinx: Part Two, as we witness conversations between her and Durst in prison during his trial for Berman’s murder and also hear some strange things about the way she conducts business. Because she has spousal privilege, she is not legally required to disclose anything Durst may have confided in her. But as was the case in the first part of this docuseries, it definitely seems like she knows some potentially revelatory things about her husband that she’s keeping to herself.
The filmmakers and others imply that this may have been more of a marriage of convenience than a true marriage, as the two spent significant amounts of time living apart. When Durst died in 2022, he left all his money and possessions to Charatan.
9. Yeah, of course Durst’s confession will come up.
For understandable reasons, the part of Durst’s hot-mic confession that people tend to remember best is: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” But prior to that, he rambled further while talking to/incriminating himself, saying: “There it is. You’re caught. You’re right, of course. But you can’t imagine. Arrest him. I don’t know what’s in the house. Oh, I want this. What a disaster. He was right. I was wrong. And the burping. I’m having difficulty with the question.” Because Durst voluntarily agreed to the interview and to being mic’d, it can be used as evidence, along with other things found during the course of making The Jinx. During the proceedings in the Berman case, Jarecki and his fellow filmmakers acknowledged that the audio of the confession was edited; in the four of the six Jinx: Part 2 episodes HBO made available in advance, this editing does not come up. Given how much emphasis is placed on the pivotal role the docuseries played in getting Durst in police custody, it will be interesting to see if it’s mentioned in the last two episodes.
One of the many notable things about Durst’s confession is that in a previous episode of The Jinx, he is caught talking to himself on a hot mic. His lawyer notices and warns him not to do that. Again: another dumb mistake he made more than once.
10. Keep in mind this quote from Charles Bagli.
Bagli is a long-time writer for the New York Times who has covered Durst for many years and appears in both parts of The Jinx. In the first part, he says something that functions as a running theme in both sections of the series: “This is a guy,” Bagli says of Durst, “who thinks he can walk through life and do whatever he wants. And most of the time he could.”
Even though Durst is finally forced to face some consequences in The Jinx: Part Two, it’s still astonishing how many friends and associates are willing to do anything to help this man, even after everything he’s done. Money buys a lot of things, and one of them is people who are willing to aid and abet someone who is obviously a criminal. Bagli’s comment also explains why Durst’s story, in both parts of The Jinx, is so compelling to so many. Because most of us can’t walk through life and do whatever we want, and we’re both fascinated and disgusted by those (usually rich and white men) who can.