Douglas Durst on Robert: He’d kill me given the chance

In anticipation of a new six-part HBO series about the life of Robert Durst — a Shakespearean tale of real estate, estranged brothers and murder — Durst Organization chair Douglas Durst has spoken up about his sibling for the first time. Douglas, who was named as the head of the company in 1994 instead of his brother Robert, told the New York Times that he is worried about how his family — especially his father, the late Seymour Durst — will be portrayed in the upcoming documentary.

Douglas Durst, 70, refused to be interviewed for the series. “Bob is incapable of telling the truth,” Douglas Durst told the newspaper. “He is a true psychopath, beyond any emotions. That’s why he does things, so he can experience the emotions that other people have vicariously. Because he has absolutely none of his own.”

Robert Durst was accused of — but never charged with — murdering his first wife and, a few years later, a friend. Douglas, in the interview with the New York Times, said that during that time, multiple of Robert’s dogs mysteriously died and disappeared.

“Before the disappearance of my sister-in-law, Bob had a series of Alaskan Malamutes, which is like a husky,” Douglas Durst said in the interview. “He had seven of them, and they all died, mysteriously, of different things, within six months of his owning them. All of them named Igor. We don’t know how they died, and what happened to their bodies.”

In retrospect, Douglas Durst said, “I now believe he was practicing killing and disposing his wife with those dogs.”

In 2000 Robert Durst was acquitted of the murder of a Galveston, Texas, neighbor. While he admitted to dismembering the man’s body and disposing of it in the Bay, he was acquitted based on self-defense.

About his own troubled relationship with his brother, Douglas Durst said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that if he had the opportunity to kill me, he would.” But at least, the real estate scion told the newspaper, “I am pretty certain that until the series is over, he is not going to kill me.” [NYT] — Claire Moses