Editor’s note

Stuart Elliott
Stuart Elliott

LOS ANGELES – Happy April Fool’s Day! The trial of Robert Durst just ended in an L.A. County courthouse. The New York real estate scion walked free, yet again.

Durst, a suspect in a string of suspicious deaths over the years and the subject of the HBO’s documentary “The Jinx,” is likely popping a bottle of bubbly as we recap his future (and, yes, fictitious) acquittal in the murder of his close friend, Susan Berman. 

Despite being secretly recorded muttering he “killed them all” in the finale of “The Jinx,” prosecutors somehow were not able to convince a jury that they had their man.

L.A. is known for over-the-top celebrity trials, but this one made the O.J. Simpson proceedings look like a tax appeal hearing.

It began with a bombshell: revelations of more accidental off-camera confessions by Durst into his microphone while in the bathroom. They included a detailed outline of how he murdered Berman, his Texas neighbor Morris Black and his “missing” wife Kathleen Durst, including a monologue spelling out where he put the bodies. 

Subsequently dubbed “The Bathroom Tapes,” they were admitted into evidence in the closing days of the trial, after first being featured in a follow-up documentary by director Andrew Jarecki, “The Jinx 2.”

While the prosecution saw an open-and-shut case, Durst’s attorney Dick DeGuerin (who opened by thanking his client for his repeat business) successfully argued that Durst could have been referring to anything when he used the word “them.” 

“He could have been talking about any number of pets he had over the years, or how he really ‘killed’ it during all the interviews with Jarecki,” DeGuerin told the jury.

The cowboy-hat wearing DeGuerin achieved celebrity in legal circles for getting Durst off in the 2003 killing of Black in Galveston, with Durst claiming he shot Black in self-defense, but admitting he chopped up the body afterwards. But when that case came up during cross examination in the L.A. trial, Durst suddenly changed his story, claiming there was a “second shooter,” outside the apartment, who fired at the same time Durst’s gun went off. The stray bullet, Durst said, is the one that killed Black.

On the stand, Durst also said Berman leapt in front of a bullet meant as a warning shot that he fired, after getting frightened because she was walking aggressively toward him with a copy of her new book manuscript to proofread. 

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The trial then took a bizarre turn when Durst escaped from custody. A day later, photos of him at Disneyland appeared on his Instagram feed. Sitting beside him at the park’s famed Tea Cup ride were three large bags that appeared to contain bodies. Jurisdictional issues between Orange and Los Angeles counties, however, prevented the photos from being submitted as evidence.

Following cross-examination, Durst again forgot to take off his microphone during a bathroom break, and was heard asking himself, “What does a guy have to do to get convicted of murder around here?”

During closing arguments, Durst appeared in the courtroom with a large cooler, containing the gun he said he used to shoot Berman and Black’s head, which police had failed to recover earlier.

One juror explained the “not guilty” verdict just as a Galveston juror had:  “What a bad stroke of luck this guy has had, seeing so many people close to him die,” the juror said. “He seems like a nice guy. I felt like he was talking from the heart.”

Since the trial, Durst has received several offers to host his own daytime talk show.

For more on the real-life Durst case and all its fascinating weirdness — I promise they’ll be no more April Fool’s ploys — see page 56.

This issue is also filled with a lot of other fascinating stories.

Don’t miss our cover package on NYC’s next class of rising real estate stars, starting on page 42. We also examine how this real estate boom compares to past booms; look at developers holding “roadshows” to woo investors in China; survey holdout owners in the Hudson Yards area; and reveal how the Hamptons market is shaping up as we inch — very slowly — toward summer.

Finally, speaking of warmer weather, along with this magazine you’ll find our 106-page South Florida Market Report. It’s chock-full of data and trends about the Sunshine State’s booming development market, courtesy of our South Florida bureau, led by former Miami Herald reporter Ina Cordle. We are also holding a big showcase and forum in Florida on April 23. For more info see TheRealDeal.com/SoFlaForum.

Enjoy the issue.