Robert Durst to be subject of Lifetime TV movie

Film to be told from late wife's perspective

RobertDurstCloseup
Robert Durst (credit: HBO)

Robert Durst is about to get the Lifetime treatment.

The network is developing a TV movie centered around the former real estate heir turned accused murderer, Variety reported. The movie would be told from the perspective of Durst’s late wife, Kathleen Durst, who disappeared in 1982 and whose body was never recovered, according to Variety.

Durst, son of the Durst Organization’s late Seymour Durst, was a suspect but never convicted of his wife’s murder. Her family asked a judge last month to declare her dead, so that a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the real estate scion can proceed.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Durst, who is being held in jail on unrelated gun charges, is also facing murder charges in the death of his friend, Susan Berman, in 2000. He was acquitted of the murder of a neighbor, Morris Black, in 2003. Black was dismembered and found in pieces along the Galveston Bay.

Durst’s last television appearance revived speculation about all three murders. During the finale of the HBO docu-drama “The Jinx,” he seemingly mutters what sounds like a confession, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

The Lifetime movie will be based on Matt Birkbeck’s book, “A Deadly Secret: The Bizarre and Chilling Story of Robert Durst.” Other recent true-life Lifetime subjects have included Amanda Knox and JonBenét Ramsey. [Variety] — Kathryn Brenzel