UPDATED, 2:20 a.m., March 16: After simmering for more than three decades of investigations, conspiracy theories, false identities, legal gymnastics and a devil-may-care attitude to being a scion of one of America’s mightiest real estate families, Robert Durst’s goose may finally be cooked. As the explosive series finale of “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” winds to a close, Durst can be heard muttering: “There it is. You’re caught.”
Durst utters the potentially incriminating words after he’s confronted by series creator Andrew Jarecki about the letter that was sent to police shortly after his friend Susan Berman’s death. The letter informs police about a “cadaver” in Beverly Hills, and in it, the words “Beverly Hills” were misspelled as “Beverley Hills”- the same mistake that was made in a letter Durst sent Susan Berman years earlier.
Jarecki shows Durst the letters and asks Durst if he wrote them both. Durst maintains he wrote the initial letter to Berman, but categorically denies writing the letter to the police. The interview then ends and Durst goes to the bathroom. His microphone is still live, however, and sounding rather distressed, he mutters the following:
“There it is, you’re caught.”
“You’re right of course.”
“But, you can’t imagine.”
“Arrest him.”
“I don’t know whats 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.”
“What the hell did I do?”
“Killed them all, of course.”
Durst was arrested Saturday night in New Orleans on murder charges related to Berman’s death. In a statement Sunday, representatives for HBO said: “We simply cannot say enough about the brilliant job that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling did in producing The Jinx. Years in the making, their thorough research and dogged reporting reignited interest in Robert Durst’s story with the public and law enforcement.”
Durst was acquitted on charges of murdering Morris Black in Texas, though he admitted that he “did dismember him.” He was never arrested in connection with the disappearance of his wife Kathleen Durst in 1982, and until Saturday, was never arrested in connection with Berman’s death.
Douglas Durst, chairman of the Durst Organization and brother to Robert, said in a statement after the arrest that the Durst family “is relieved and also grateful to everyone who assisted in the arrest of Robert Durst. We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done.”